Three students from the Medina Electric Cooperative service area will join 1,500 others from across the country on the “trip of a lifetime” June 16-23 as part of the Government-in-Action Youth Tour.  Kendall Cooper of Castroville, Hope Smith of Batesville and Natalee Alvarez of Santa Elena won the 2024 Youth Tour contest. In addition to their trip, the contest winners will each receive a $1,000 scholarship for secondary education after they graduate high school.

The kids will travel to Austin and then head to Washington, D.C. where they will visit major landmarks, meet their elected officials, and learn about the United States and electric cooperative history.

Each year, the cooperative offers the Youth Tour contest to students who are sophomores or juniors and whose parents or legal guardians are members of the cooperative. The applicants had to write a 300–500-word essay on the topic, “What would life be like without electricity? How does it add value to our lives?”

The Youth Tour has a long record of educating young people about our government. Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson inspired the Youth Tour when he addressed the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) Annual Meeting in Chicago in 1957. The Senator declared, “If one thing goes out of this meeting, it will be sending youngsters to the national capital where they can actually see what the flag stands for and represents.”

Since then, more than 50,000 students from across America have participated in this educational program. Medina EC has sent 45 students on the trip since 2007. Medina EC strongly supports the program and is fully dedicated to giving younger generations the opportunity to learn about our history and government in a hands-on, dynamic environment.  More information about Medina EC’s Youth Tour program can be found at MedinaEC.org/YouthTour.