Annually, rural electric cooperatives each choose two high school juniors to represent our awesome state at Oklahoma Youth Tour in Washington, D.C. They join more than 2,000 student leaders representing cooperatives across the nation on a weeklong, all-expenses-paid trip to visit national landmarks, meet with their congressional representatives and learn what it means to be an actively involved citizen.

The students enter by writing a speech and creating a short video about rural electric cooperatives. Then, each co-op’s finalists give their presentation to judges.

IEC hosted a lunch reception on March 2 for its finalists chosen from 53 high school juniors representing three high schools in our service area. The four finalists spoke on the given topic: “Nuclear power has long been a source of generation for many electric cooperatives. Why is nuclear power important to the future? How or why should cooperatives work toward exploring the possibility of expanding or building new nuclear plants?”

We are excited to announce the co-op and the state will be represented in D.C. June 14-20 by Pawnee High School’s Kate Sherrill and Cleveland High School’s Cierah Ramirez.

Sherrill and Ramirez received the highest scores from judges during their Feb. 29 nuclear energy presentations, but it was a close contest. The runners-up, Emma Vance (Pawnee) and Zayhona Smith (Cleveland) were not far behind in scoring. Vance and Smith received an all-expenses-paid trip to leadership camp in Steamboat Springs, Colo., July 12-18 for their efforts. On both trips, the young IEC ambassadors will be representing Oklahoma’s electric cooperatives, making new friends and becoming better leaders and citizens as they enter their final year of high school.

IEC’s 2024 Youth Tour judging panel included Jay C. Byers Librarian Michelle Miller, retired educator Suzanne Miller and John Burns, a local photographer whose work often appears in area newspapers.

Judges scored students on poise/confidence, content/information, organization/delivery and effectiveness. They were awarded up to 10 extra points for an accompanying video which detailed three ways IEC powers their life.

IEC would like to thank the educators who advocate for Youth Tour and annually encourage bright, young students to participate. A special thanks this year to teachers of the finalists – Cleveland’s Lana Ingalls, herself a former Youth Tour winner, and Pawnee’s Myra McCurry.