COLUMBUS — A team of two Ohio high school students took first place in the 2020 Ohio Youth Capital Challenge finals for their policy proposal about creating a statewide database of verified volunteers. Preble County’s Jared Dunn participated on one of the top-four teams.

Sponsored by Ohio Farm Bureau, Ohio 4-H and Ohio FFA, the challenge brings together youths ages 14 to 18 from around the state to discuss community concerns and then work together to propose policies and programs to solve the issues.

The 2020 winning team members are Evan Stuart of Richland County and Halle Miller of Wayne County. The challenge started in the spring when groups met to learn about public policy issues and began planning their proposals. Nine teams presented their proposals in the finals in June, and the top four teams received scholarships.

The teams were judged on their public policy proposals dealing with a specific issue or problem. In the final competition, the teams described the steps necessary to have their public policy proposal adopted by the appropriate government authorities.

Virginia Porter and Allison Riley from Delaware County, Dana Clinedinst from Morrow County and Brady Corbitt from Union County. They proposed evaluating Morrow County road conditions.

Jacob Zajkowski from Lucas County, Carter Manz from Paulding County, Taylor Lawhorn from Seneca County and Lenore Kohn from Wyandot County. Agriculture education in elementary classrooms was their chosen topic.

Emma Bambauer from Auglaize County, Meghan Orr from Logan County and Dunn discussed a school-based mental health literacy program.

A total of $2,000 was awarded to this year’s team finalists.