Students at Hobart and William Smith Colleges are using artificial intelligence to better understand how local government works and how public voices get heard.
Students in a Public Speaking course recently partnered with the City of Geneva to evaluate Heywire.ai, an AI platform the city is piloting to make City Council meetings more accessible. The course is taught by Katie Flowers, executive director of the Centennial Center and Center for Community Engagement.
The platform creates searchable transcripts of City Council meetings and identifies speakers, topics, and areas of public concern. City officials said the tool helps residents follow discussions and better understand local decision-making.
“Leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance civic participation within today’s rapidly evolving landscape of learning is an initiative I was proud to advance in partnership with HWS,” said Geneva City Manager Amie Hendrix, who also served as a guest speaker for the class.
For their final assignment, students used the platform to observe recent City Council meetings. Each student selected a speaker and topic, then analyzed how effectively the message was delivered using principles of ethos, pathos, and logos. The project also asked students to reflect on how public discourse connects to issues they care about and may advocate for in the future.
Student Spencer Pinque ’26 said the assignment tied directly to his interest in literacy education. He said his work with the HWS Tutor Corps and the Geneva Boys and Girls Club has shown him how critical reading support can be for children.
Other students said the platform helped them discover community issues they hadn’t previously followed. Elizabeth Whitney ’27 searched meeting transcripts for references to food insecurity and learned about local agencies and resident concerns related to food access.
Geneva City Council member Chris Lavin ’81, L.H.D. ’21, along with local educators and community leaders, attended student presentations. Heywire.ai Head of Research Kareem Elzein also joined the class to hear feedback and discuss future features, including fact-checking tools.
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