Rural Electric Youth Tour is the Opportunity of a Lifetime!
For the 34th year, Escambia River Electric Cooperative will award area young people an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C. To be eligible, you must be a high school junior, and your parent or guardian must be a member of EREC.
The Washington Youth Tour is an annual weeklong event in June. About 1,600 high school juniors from across the country convene in Washington to learn more about government, cooperatives and rural electrification.
The trip is coordinated by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association – the Arlington, Virginia-based national service organization of the nation’s rural electric systems. The tour is sponsored by NRECA, local cooperatives and statewide organizations.
As participants in the Youth Tour, local contest winners will fly to Washington to spend one week seeing historic sites and visiting members of Congress. Students follow state-planned itineraries, which include a day on Capitol Hill observing the House and Senate in session and visiting with members of Congress. Delegates also participate in educational seminars and fun events, such as a dinner dance on Youth Day.
Many program applicants will be invited to attend the Youth Tour in Tallahassee in February. Attendees will learn about state government as they visit the state capital, Supreme Court, Public Service Commission and other places of interest. During the overnight trip, students have an opportunity to meet with state representatives and senators.
Interested students need to complete an application form, which can be obtained on this website under the Community heading and then the Youth Tour subheading. A panel of judges from other cooperatives will interview the finalists and select the winners.
