YOUNGSTOWN — Liam Hetzel grew up with parents who felt strongly about people’s obligation to vote in all elections, so in a little more than three months, he will be blackening lots of ovals.

“I saw my parents who valued voting, so as a kid growing up, I learned the value of voting,” Hetzel, 17, a 2024 Boardman High School graduate, said.

Hetzel, who will turn 18 on Sept. 4 and enter Youngstown State University as a freshman, has every intention of visiting his polling place to cast his votes in the Nov. 5 general election – and not just for president. He also will make his voice heard via down-ballot voting, he added.

Beforehand, though, Hetzel and a team of three fellow YSU students, Molly O’Brien, Kaziah Boudrey and James McGlone, worked on a community project earlier this summer to explore barriers to equal access to the polls as well as recommendations to remedy the problem.

Theirs was one of four eight-week projects for which 13 students presented their findings, recommendations and solutions during Wednesday morning’s Civic Innovation Transforming Youngstown summer internship program results at YSU’s Williamson College of Business Administration.

The other nine participants who had formed teams of three or four for their two-month projects were Nikechi Onunwor, Shrijan Aryal, Cara Zawrotuk, Mykell Tynes, Alexandrea Lundborg, Samir Jirel, Jenna Witmer, Kariyae Johnson and Malena Whitfield.

Hetzel, who plans to major in biochemistry and pursue a career to further develop medicines, said he also had tried to bring greater awareness “of the whole ballot” to other Boardman High students.

“We thought this issue needed help, especially to align with the presidential election,” McGlone, a mechanical engineering major, said.

In addition, the four students’ project was to emphasize the importance of casting votes in local elections and the effects their results have on people’s day-to-day lives, said O’Brien, who’s majoring in language arts education.

For her part, Boudrey’s major is civil engineering.

The CITY program, with funding from a four-year National Science Foundation grant, allowed the interns to collaborate with community mentors from the city of Youngstown, the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley, the Youngstown Water Department and the Healthy Community Partnership to develop the projects aimed at improving the city and surrounding areas. The teams of students worked to identify community challenges, then propose solutions for solving them.

The program’s value also lies in its ability to provide students with opportunities to see ways they can help solve city and community problems, Gianna Marinucci, a site supervisor, noted.

In addition, the CITY effort is a collaboration between the university and the Economic Action Group.

Along the way, the 13 students also toured an array of well-known sites such as Mill Creek Park, the Youngstown Flea, Penguin City Brewing Co., Youngstown City School District high schools, Westside Bowl, the Youngstown Business Incubator, Lanterman’s Mill, the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor and the DOPE Cider House & Winery, Venus Cataldo, a site coordinator, noted.

Hazel Marie, a YSU engineering professor, said she’s seen “a shift in engineering students wanting to make a difference in their world.” The 13 students faced challenges associated with forging their projects and directions to take, she said.

Wednesday’s program also included final results from the students’ other three projects: walkability in the Youngstown area, the Crab Creek corridor and risk assessments regarding water systems in Crab Creek.

The walkability effort included examining then rating sidewalks and crosswalks, the inverse relationship between foot traffic and air pollution and how walking facilitates better social interactions, along with improved physical and mental health.

One of the students provided a history of Crab Creek on the East Side that included a study earlier this year on ways to revitalize the long-neglected area. Ideas proposed were restoring it to a healthy, thriving ecosystem, as well as possibly working with high school students to clean up that area.

The risk assessment project looked at the effects of pesticides, chemicals, heavy metals, oil and bacteria on local water pollution. The group tested water samples for dissolved oxygen and pH levels at six locations, as well as for E. coli around Crab Creek.

A proposed suggestion they discussed Wednesday was to partner with YSU’s chemical and biology departments for additional work on the problem.

The CITY intern project was initiated 10 years ago at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana, and was replicated three years ago at YSU. Also, the University of Louisville in Kentucky has adopted it.

The local effort has grown in its three years from seven students initially to 13 this year.

Forming the program’s basis was the Community Engaged Educational Ecosystem Model, which works to unite people in the educational, governmental and community sectors to address wide-ranging community issues.

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