The benefits of a program designed to establish young stewards of Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River are being realized, just a year into Cuyahoga County’s Fresh Water Institute.

The institute works with students and young adults through fellowships, internships and community programs to promote water safety and support emerging environmental professionals.

The county connected with more than 10,000 residents through the institute this year, Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne said, but its relationship with youth has been a highlight.

“We’ve brought some young adults into the program as resident interns to learn about everything from our agencies that steward the Great Lakes to those that are in the economic development space about the Great Lakes,” Ronayne said. “It’s all about this generation coming upin terms of understanding what they have and creating jobs in the future.”

In addition to three internships offered this year, the Freshwater Institute hosted 28 students from 17 public and private school high schools in the county for a seven-month fellowship program.

Students spent the winter months discussing the history of the Great Lakes, Lake Erie’s ecosystem, the blue economy and environmental injustice.

By the summer, the cohort was able to get out on the water throughout Northeast Ohio to see the real-world implications of the lessons they were learning.

“At our Freshwater Institute anniversary forum, it was a student who said, ‘To love it, I have to be in it, and I have to be near it,'” Ronayne said. “That’s the point. To be a steward, you’ve got to have access to it.”

The institute will host its second cohort of high school fellows in January.

The institute partnered with a variety of local organizations to connect with Cuyahoga County residents, Freshwater Institute Program Director Emily Bacha said, including SYATT, AquaMissions, Teaching Cleveland and others.

The hope for the next year is to see students and young adults continue their environmental education in the coming year, Ronayne said.

To do that, the Fresh Water Institute will be expanding its network of community partners, Bacha said.

“We’re excited to start to implement some of those priority actions that we identify as part of the shared agenda. And then I think the other large thing that I’m excited about is thinking about how to showcase some of the water work happening locally.”

The Fresh Water Institute will invest additional funds directly into its internships, fellowships and water safety programs in 2026, Bacha said.