What I couldn’t leave behind was a quiet conviction that had been growing in me the entire time… that this community deserves to be truly seen, and that the thing I cared about most, real human connection, was slipping further out of reach with every passing year.

Stand anywhere in Dearborn, Ohio, Switzerland, Ripley, or Franklin County and you are standing on a piece of ground with an identity crisis for the ages. There is a wedge of land here, bounded by the Ohio River, three state lines, and an old treaty boundary, that the history books nicknamed “The Gore.”

11 students from local high schools are participating in the initiative, which aims to give young people interested in legal careers direct exposure to how the criminal justice system actually works.