CAMPBELL — When Nick Maillis embarked on a recent two-hour trip to Sandusky, he probably thought little of the main route he had taken.

He likely will now see it in a new light, however.

“I worked on an idea to contrast a modern day photo to a past day photo to represent its history and how it’s changed over time,” Nick, a Northeast Ohio IMPACT Academy senior, said.

He was referring to a poster he created that captures part of how the Ohio Turnpike looked near its debut in the mid-1950s and the way it looks today. For his project, Nick created a split contrast between two photographs he pasted to a poster board to form a circle, then he complemented it with surrounding text.

For his effort, Nick was among five students in the IMPACT Academy’s digital innovations class who produced winning posters to recognize the 241-mile road, which connects Ohio with Pennsylvania and Indiana, for its 70th anniversary.

The five were honored during a special program Monday afternoon at the Community Literacy Workforce and Cultural Center, 436 Struthers-Coitsville Road. During the gathering, all five students made brief remarks about their posters for the contest.

The turnpike opened Oct. 1, 1955, to traffic and over the last seven decades, it has continued to evolve to offer an array of benefits to travelers that include a safe, efficient and convenient means of travel across northern Ohio, 14 modern service plazas, E-ZPass for toll savings and open road tolling for nonstop travel, Charles Cyril, the turnpike’s marketing and communications director, noted.

A large open-road toll plaza that covers the east and westbound lanes was established last year at mile marker 211 near the Lordstown exit.

In addition, the road has helped create thousands of jobs across the region, Cyril said.

The students’ works also will be on display for countless travelers to see when they stop for meals or gasoline, or to take a break from driving.

“Your posters will be displayed on our social media channels, and we are working with our ad agency to produce the winning posters that will be displayed at our 14 service plazas,” Cyril said in his remarks Monday.

Nevertheless, Nick won’t need to use the Ohio Turnpike to reach the college of his choice, because he hopes to major in biology at Youngstown State University, he said.

“I used a bunch of images of the Ohio Turnpike. I used black and white to show the years the turnpike is celebrating,” Ciara Clark, a Northeast Ohio IMPACT Academy freshman, said about the inspiration for her winning poster.

Ciara didn’t stop there, however. She also added bold text for a message related to the 70th anniversary celebration, along with a cardinal and a carnation, which are Ohio’s state bird and flower, respectively.

Hannah McKinney, the digital innovations teacher, said turnpike officials contacted her regarding the poster competition, which she made available to her 25 students in grades nine through 12. All 25 of them submitted ideas and designs, she added.

Even though only 20% of the posters were selected, she is equally proud of all of her students and their efforts, McKinney said.

“This is their first time in this class, and they all did a fabulous job; they were all creative and they were all original,” she added.

The other two northern Ohio schools that participated in the poster contest were the Penta Career Center in Perrysburg and the Cuyahoga Valley Career Center in Brecksville, Cyril noted.

“We hope our 70th anniversary poster design contest has inspired all of you, as it has inspired us, to explore your creative potential and to continue making a difference through your art,” he added.