Five students were selected to represent NOVEC’s service area during the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association 2010 Youth Tour Conference in Washington, D.C.: Tyler Gass, Battlefield High School; Gladys Ibanez-Alers, Freedom High School; Matthew Munson, Seton High School; Taylor Owens, Osbourn Park High School; Krista Shaw, Pope John Paul the Great High School.

Youth Tour provides the opportunity for high school students to learn about cooperatives and government on the national level, and gives them a chance to visit important monuments and sites of the nation’s capital. The students also meet other students from around the country who are members of other electric cooperatives.

On June 13-17 this year students toured Arlington National Cemetery, visited the Newseum, Crime and Punishment Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the nation ‘s Capitol and the White House. The NOVEC Youth Tour students learned about national issues and discussed some of them with their congressional representatives.

Your Tour has been a joint effort of local electric co-ops, statewide co-op associations, such as the Virginia, Maryland and Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives, and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association for more than 45 years. Since its inception in 1964, more than 40,000 high school students have participated in Youth Tour. This year there was a record of more than 1,480 YT representatives in attendance.

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