Youth Tour 2012

Eight Juniors to Go to Washington For Free

Experience our nation’s capital first hand with your peers.

In June of 2012, Central Electric will sponsor up to eight high school junior students to go to Washington D.C., to participate in the Rural Electric Youth Tour. South Dakota’s students will team up with more than 1,400 teens from around the country.

Each year, high school students learn first hand what it is like to be involved in politics, community development and today’s social issues.

Past participants have described this as “a once-in-a-lifetime” experience.

Why does Central Electric offer this experience to our area youth? Because we realize it is more vital than ever that today’s young people understand and support the rural electrification program, for they are tomorrow’s leaders and consumers.

The tour is funded by all the rural electric cooperatives that sponsor students in the week long event. The funding provides for each participants transportation, room and board, entertainment, and sight seeing events. Students are asked to provide their own personal spending money for items such as snacks and souvenirs.

Among the sites that are part of the tour are the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Nation Cathedral, the White House, Air and Space Museum, Washington Monument, U.S. Capitol, Ford’s Theater, the Kennedy Center, Arlington National Cemetery, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the FDR memorial, the Smithsonian, Iwo Jima Statue, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean war Memorial, Mount Vernon and the National Archives.

Students will also have the opportunity to ride the Metro – the city subway system – and take a boat cruise on the Potomac River.

Also included on the tour is a breakfast briefing with South Dakota’s Congressional Delegation and an opportunity to job shadow in the delegation’s offices.

The week long trip will be held on June 15-21, 2012. A commercial bus will be used for transportation while in D.C.

How to Apply

To be eligible, you must be a high school junior who permanently resides within Aurora, Brule, Buffalo, Jerauld, Sanborn, Miner, Davison, or Hanson counties of South Dakota or the dependent of a Central Electric member.

To apply you must submit an essay not to exceed 1,000 words on the subject, “The Real Benefit of Cooperatives in My Community”. All essays must be typed and include a cover sheet that states the title of the essay, the entrant’s name, email address, mailing address, their parents names, email address, and phone numbers and the school they attend. All winners will be required to submit a digital photo of themselves for use in the cooperatives newsletter. 

To enter the contest you must mail your essay to “Washington Youth Tour Contest”, Central Electric Cooperative, PO Box 850, Mitchell SD 57301. The deadline to enter is March 1, 2012. All essays will remain the property of Central Electric Cooperative.

One student from each county or director district will be awarded a trip to Washington D.C. for up to eight students.

Download Youth Tour 2012 Brochure