From left: Heaven Gabrielsen, Viviana Petelin and Sydney Parcell are the Kansas State School for the Blind's Dream Makers who won the season 9 national Make48 competition in November. (Make48 website)

Fueled with coffee, adrenaline and little sleep, three Kansas State School for the Blind (KSSB) students can call themselves national champions of the ninth season of Make48, a competition television series on the This Old House Makers Roku Channel. 

“It felt so rewarding because we finished with like 10 seconds left,” said Viviana Petelin, a KSSB student from Olathe, who described the end of the timed competition they won. “We wanted to win, and we wanted to make history as the first blind team to win nationals.” 

The Make48 season finale was recorded in mid-November in Fishers, Indiana, which included the KSSB Dream Makers and regular education students from across the Midwest. The competition gives teams 48 hours to come up with an idea, build a working prototype, and then make a pitch to a panel of judges.  

Due to intellectual property issues, the Dream Makers’ winning project can’t be described in detail until the Make48 series finale airs later in 2026. There’s also a possibility the Dream Makers will also seek a patent for their idea. According to information posted on the Make48 website, the teams had to come up with a solution that was part of the "Food Forward" challenge presented by Corteva Agriscience. This company wanted the students to “design bold, practical solutions to make food more accessible, nutritious, and respectful for everyone, while helping organizations serve their communities more effectively.” 

The Dream Makers team, made up of Petelin, Sydney Parcell, a KSSB student from Derby and Heaven Gabrielsen, a KSSB student from Topeka, were brought together and coached by Lydia Moreno, KSSB’s makerspace and mobile STEM coordinator.  

“It was really about who could be available and who could be a good fit,” Moreno said about forming the KSSB team. “But they brought the magic.” 

At the beginning of the Make48 nationals, the students must answer an agilities survey, a series of 70 questions that determine their strengths. 

“They’re learning about themselves in how they work together,” Moreno said. “Make48 does a good job of making this part of the competition.” 

The Dream Makers were the first blind team to win the regional Kansas City Art Institute’s Women in STEM competition in July, a win that propelled them to the Make48 finals in November where they were also the first blind team to win. The Kansas School for the Blind has had a history of working with the Make48 production staff since the school in Kansas City, Kansas, has hosted the show’s competitions in the past. Moreno said the school is also participating in the show’s project-based classroom curriculum. 

As far as what each student brought to the team, Parcell said she was primarily the organizer and worked on the sales sheet that determined what items they needed to get from the hardware store to create their prototype. Gabrielsen said she made sure to write down the important points the team would need to make during their pitch to the judges and Petelin said she worked on the logo and marketing video. 

Throughout the competition, Moreno said she was proud of the way the Dream Makers “had endurance” and were “always really good at hyping each other up.” 

Petelin added: “I think the other teams underestimated us.” 

The message the Dream Makers want others to know from their Make48 national win is to believe in yourself, no matter the odds. 

“Don’t be afraid of anything, even if you have a physical disability,” Parcell said. “You can do it. Have confidence.”