Ed and Erika Rosenberger were impressed with the UNC students who interviewed them recently. You've got to be impressed with the idealism of youth.

For the past few months, five students from UNC's School of Public Health have been doing a community assessment of the Brentwood and Mini City areas of northeast Raleigh. They've been going around asking people what improvements the neighborhoods need.

Basically, they've been trying to make the world a better place, starting with Brentwood and Mini City.

Admirable for anybody, especially young folks with no connection to those areas. They hail from as far away as California, said Kathleen MacGuire, one of the students.

"We're trying to get an idea about what people are thinking about their lives in the community," MacGuire said. Their goal is "community-based action that moves forward on some of the issues that we've been talking about since November."

In other words, it's ultimately up to the community to put all this information into action. But the students are giving everyone a nice jump start.

The work is being done at the direction of county health officials and is part of their master's degree program.

Brentwood and Mini City were chosen partly because of the high degree of transients in those areas, MacGuire said.

The other students on the team are Amma Agyemang, Chloe Katz, Jessica Kadis and Kevin Wu.

On Saturday, April 19, the students -- along with community leaders, including City Council member Rodger Koopman and Northeast Community Advisory Council Chairman Paul Brant -- will gather to discuss the community assessment and work on a plan. It will be from noon to 2 p.m. at the Green Road Community Center, 4201 Green Road.

It's free and open to the public, though it's aimed at those who consider themselves residents of Brentwood or Mini City.

You can help improve your community, and there will be food and entertainment to boot.

And you might find the students' attitudes "very positive and very delightful," as Ed Rosenberger did.