High School Juniors Win Cooperative Youth Leadership Trip

Five high school juniors were awarded 2017 youth trips by TCEC on February 6. Three students won the Gold award and a trip to Washington, D.C., and two students won the Silver award and a trip to Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

TCEC’s three Gold Award recipients will join 1,500 students from across the United States in Washington, D.C., to attend the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) Youth Tour June 9-15.  During this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the students will meet their elected U.S. representatives, visit national monuments and forge new friendships. The Gold Award delegates TCEC will send to the Youth Tour are:

Two Silver Award recipients will join 100 other students on a trip to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, to attend Cooperative Youth Leadership Camp July 14-20. The leadership camp is filled with activities such as whitewater rafting, fishing and sessions in developing leadership skills. The Silver Award delegates TCEC will send to the Cooperative Youth Leadership Camp are:

Abiding by the Sixth Cooperative Principle of “Cooperation Among Cooperatives,” TCEC invited two judges from other cooperatives to independently judge the competition. The judges were Jill Bramlet with North Plains Electric Cooperative in Perryton, Texas and Rae Gorman with Pioneer Electric Cooperative in Ulysses, Kansas.

“The youth trips not only offer our youth an experience of a lifetime,” said Chris Purdy, vice president of Member Solutions, at TCEC, “but an opportunity to be a leader.”

Winners of the Energy Camp trip for eighth graders will be announced after February 15. Silver Award recipient Ruby Venzor Cadena attended Energy Camp as a TCEC delegate three years ago.

Anyone interested in learning more about TCEC youth trips can visit www.tcec.coop.