A group of Pittsburgh-area high school students challenged each other Friday to think about the future of artificial intelligence.
Students from 25 area high schools — from Belle Vernon Area to Aliquippa — discussed issues ranging from academic integrity to human loneliness and whether AI should replace human employees.
“It’s important as someone who’s going to live in a world with AI, that young people and students know what’s going on,” said August Wiegman, a junior at City of Bridges High School in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield neighborhood.
“I think about all the stuff with AI all the time, but people say things I didn’t consider. As we go into the future, it’s important to put all our ideas together.”
The discussion was part of the seventh-annual Woodland Hills Student Summit, held Friday at Penn State Greater Allegheny’s campus near McKeesport.
More than 350 students participated in the event. Topics, handpicked by students, included teenage mental health, artificial intelligence, social media influence, grief and loss, leadership and relationships.
“Students get the voice,” said Erin Wall, an English teacher at Woodland Hills and summit coordinator. “They get the opportunity to speak their minds on topics important to them.”
Aubrie Moon, a Woodland Hills senior, said the summit has grown throughout the four years she’s been involved. Moon helped lead the mental health group — “mental health has such a stigma nowadays,” she said.
“I hope people understand there’s a safe space for this,” said Moon, 17. “These topics are so important. It’s important for youth to know it’s OK to speak out and use their voice.”
Students were represented from rural, suburban and urban high schools. That made the discussions more meaningful, said Hannah Billing, a junior at North Hills High School.
Billing, 16, said she enjoyed learning about community leadership.
“A lot of schools go through the same issues,” Billing said. “It’s the same city, but on different sides of the bridge, or river. It’s cool to share ideas.
“Everyone can take away a sense of community and belonging. We’re all at different schools, ethnicities and backgrounds, but in this city, everyone belongs.”
Inari Ormes-Strong, a City of Bridges sophomore, worked with peers to create an activity on animal and environmental considerations. Representatives from the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium brought in a pancake turtle and an armadillo.
Topics like poaching, animal endangerment, pesticides and climate change are something Ormes-Strong is passionate about sharing with others.
“This project is a good way to educate others,” said Ormes-Strong, 15. “The summit gave me a good opportunity to research this. Everyone brings something different to the table. It makes the group feel like there’s so many angles looking at it.”
At the AI discussion, Lilyan Ezeddin said she believed the technology is harmful, through the mistakes it makes in outputs and its misuse. Ezeddin, a sophomore at City Charter High School in Downtown Pittsburgh, said she has researched the topic extensively.
“I want it to improve to where it’s actually usable, but right now, it’s not at that point,” said Ezeddin, 15. “It shouldn’t be open to the public.”
Nonetheless, she enjoyed listening to her peers’ opinions.
“It’s nice listening to other people’s perspective, their ideas and how they think about it,” Ezeddin said. “I’m very glad we had a discussion on this.”
Kenyce Lawson, a Woodland Hills senior, and Luciano Lopez, a freshman at PennWest California, created a mural design for the summit.
Lawson, 17, said she wanted her peers to understand her work and used real-life scenarios in it — for example, a barricaded classroom signaling active shooter training; images related to teen social media use.
“The experience was mindful,” Lawson said of the summit. “It’s insightful to see what other people are going to say and the social things happening right now.”
Lopez, a 2025 Belle Vernon Area graduate, said he hopes students take away a sense of unity from the summit and his artwork.
“Being able to lead and participate, it shows me that we all want a better future for us,” Lopez said. “All we need to do is talk through everything, work things out and find better ways to adapt.”