Pawnee High School student Leah Brown and Cushing home-school student Ethan McBride were selected to represent Central Electric Cooperative and the state of Oklahoma on an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., as part of the electric cooperative Youth Tour. Three $250 post-secondary education scholarships were also announced at the Dec. 3 banquet.

Central’s Youth Tour is a two-part competition open to all service area high school juniors. Students submitted essays or videos on the topic, “Briefly describe the seven cooperative principles. Which do you think is the most important and why?” Out of 42 submissions, a panel of judges selected the top five students to compete in the final portion of the competition. The finalists presented their ideas to a panel of judges and a room of parents, teachers, principals, and Central board members and employees.

“We are proud to support Youth Tour and the experiences it has to offer,” said Hunter Robinson, CEO of Central. “It is an opportunity for us, as a cooperative, to hear what our future member-consumers value.” 

Brown and McBride were selected for the Youth Tour trip this summer. Recipients of the $250 scholarships are Janelle Pickering and Dakotah Allen of Cushing High School, and Grant Myers of Perkins-Tyron High School.

Brown and McBride will join 69 other students from across Oklahoma and more than 1,000 students from more than 40 states in Washington, D.C., June 19-25, 2020, in the annual Youth Tour. The itinerary for the Oklahoma students includes touring Smithsonian museums; national monuments, like the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials; the United States Capitol; the Supreme Court; and the Arlington National Cemetery. The students will also meet with Oklahoma’s congressional delegation.