Local high schoolers address community issues with social media campaigns

Yahoo

10-03-2025

NILES, Ohio (WKBN) – A local high school is using a class project to help those less fortunate in the area.
The class at Niles McKinley High School is called 'Communications in Social Media.' It's a college class offered through Youngstown State University.
To get credit, the students need to complete a service project. That means finding solutions to problems that exist in the community.
The students must also create a social media campaign for the project like Instagram, SnapChat and Facebook.
One group is asking for donations for the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley.
For one student, the research opened her eyes to the problem of homelessness.
'I learned that not everyone is as fortunate as other people. People have harder events that they have to go through and struggle through, and I learned that I may be more fortunate than other people, and it's very sad to see that, and it took a long time to see that personally, and I'm fully OK to admitting that,' said junior Emma Merlo.
Their teacher said the project provides an invaluable lesson.
'I mean, sometimes I don't think we educate the students on social media as well as we should. This is a positive force of social media that shows there there's other things to social media besides hanging out with their friends. It's also a way to bring about social change,' said teacher Chad Ries.
For those who want to help, donation boxes will be at the Niles City Building and the Niles and Weathersfield police departments through March 13.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.