SitemapLiam 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.
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