Program Goals
The Cooperative Youth Leaders program provides an opportunity for students across Mississippi to learn, grow, and experience.
Objectives
Learn
Students learn the value of the cooperative business model, specifically the impact that electric cooperatives have on their lives and communities.
Grow
Students grow in their leadership qualities through team-building exercises as well as expanding their communication skills, confidence, and courage in decision making.
Experience
Students experience the democratic process at state and federal levels by visiting the Mississippi and U.S. capital cities.
Cooperative Youth Leaders Program
High school juniors experience the program through three events.
Learn at Cooperative University or interviews, which is held locally and hosted by your local electric cooperative.
Grow at the Cooperatives Leaders Workshop held in Jackson in the spring of each year.
Experience the all-expense-paid Youth Tour of Washington, D.C., in June of each year.
How to Apply
The leadership program is open to high school juniors who live within a cooperative’s service area.
Please check with your school’s guidance counselor about how to apply for this program.
Youth Tour of Washington, D.C.
Mississippi’s student delegation joins high school juniors from across the nation at the Youth Tour of Washington, D.C coordinated by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA).
During the week-long trip, students:
Visit numerous monuments and memorials
Tour the Smithsonian Museums
Witness the changing of the guard at Arlington National Cemetery’s Tomb of the Unknowns
Meet Mississippi’s two senators and their respective representative at the U.S. Capitol
Attend an inspirational youth rally
Attend other exciting activities and events
Photo Gallery
