Holy Family students' vision of Youngstown's future garners state recognition

POLAND

The year is 2172.

Youngstown has evolved into a thriving, productive city, with many of the same landmarks we see around town today, as well as many new ones.

The city has become self-sustaining with two locally produced food sources: crickets and kale.

Robotic nurses, advanced GPS devices, hydroelectric energy from wastewater plants and a high-speed highway powered by wind energy are just a few other characteristics of this low-crime, education-oriented city.

This version of the city’s future, as envisioned by a group of about 25 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade Holy Family School students, won honors at the state Future City Competition earlier this month.

The national competition — this year featuring the theme “Feeding Future Cities” — asks students to design and build models of cities of the future to introduce them to the basics of engineering. Students design virtual cities using SimCity software, research and write an engineering solution to a social need, build scale models of their city using recycled materials, write a narrative and then present their ideas before judges.

Holy Family’s second-place win this year in a pool of 19 Ohio schools was the furthest the school has ever gone in its 14 years in the competition — and, it was the first time students chose their hometown as the city they would model.

The Holy Family students’ project focused on what they see as a bright future for their hometown.

Read more of their vision in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.