THINC Academy students took part in a class project this semester that could end up playing a large role part in the future of LaGrange.

Students in Aiden Blackwell’s class at THINC participated in a campaign entitled “City Inspired” this fall, with the point to get youth more involved in the future of LaGrange.

Students were tasked with creating a video, interviewing at least three community leaders. Judges from local media outlets picked the two best videos and overall presentations. One winning group was Matthew Freeman, Alex Holloway, Courtney Foster and Ethan White. The other was Ahmad Copeland, Wayne McKeithan, Jery Chadwick, Connor Ferrante and Amaya Barnette.

“This competition has been invaluable for the City of LaGrange because we were able to ask the students what we can do to better communicate with them,” said Katie Mercer Van Schoor, the city of LaGrange’s marketing and communications manager.

“Some of the feedback we received include creating a City of LaGrange Snapchat filter to producing a video to be shown in the schools’ communications. A huge thank you goes out to Aidan Blackwell. These students were incredibly impressive, and we hope to continue our collaboration with them.”

The top two videos will be posted on the City of LaGrange’s Facebook page, where a voting contest will take place. The winners will be featured on a billboard in LaGrange.

“These kids learned so much about LaGrange. A lot of them still don’t know what The Thread is, and that’s so weird because it’s everywhere,” Blackwell said before the presentations. “They aren’t looking for it, or they aren’t looking for it in the places we are presenting it to them.”

It was clear from listening to the students present that they learned a lot throughout the process. Many of the groups talked about new discoveries, such as The Thread, the Biblical History Center, Wild Leap Brew Co. and Great Wolf Lodge Resort. Many discussed wanting to come back to LaGrange for careers and the large amount of job growth the city is currently experiencing.

“These students were incredibly impressive and we hope to continue our collaboration with them,” Van Schoor said.