"When we map our communities' assets, from beloved restaurants to beautiful parks to exemplary schools, we discover an alternate approach to community development," writes the executive director of the Nebraska Community Foundation in a blog post.
That's what 21 college students in the state did this summer as part of the foundation's Hometown Internships program, where they returned to their hometowns for the summer to work on projects determined by the community and student interest and talent, the Omaha World-Herald reports.
The interns were asked to identify and share their findings from exploring their community and interviewing residents.
They then used those findings to inform their plans for their town's future.
"They saw it as the gift it was," the foundation writes.
"They shared that with their neighbors who may have forgotten that.
One intern said she would never be able to look at a small town again without trying to discover its assets."
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Caroline Diehl is a serial social entrepreneur in the impact media space. She is Executive Chair and Founder of the UK’s only charitable and co-operatively owned national broadcast television channel Together TV, the leading broadcaster for social change runs a national TV channel in the UK and digital platform which helps people find inspiration to do good in their lives and communities.