2008 Talquin Electric Youth Tour

Front row l to r:  Amanda McCullers (Wakulla High), Seleste Cooper (Rickards), Courtney Jones (FAMU High), Brittany Tharp (NFCS), Callie Bateman (Maclay), Melissa White(Lincoln) Second row l to r:  Mustafaa Rahman ( Tallavana),  Marcus Gurley (West Gadsden), Will Nimmons (Chiles), Michael Dobson (Leon) and Brian Juszczyk (Florida High)

 

 

TEC CELEBRATES TWENTY FIRST YOUTH TOUR

Talquin Electric Cooperative held its annual Youth Tour program on April 9 and 10. Eleven high school juniors representing schools throughout Talquin’s four county service areas assembled in Tallahassee for competition.  Each student was selected by his or her respective school administration.

The late President Lyndon B. Johnson inspired the Youth Tour.  As a senator from Texas he addressed the Annual Meeting of the National Rural Electric Cooperatives Association (NRECA) in 1957.  If one thing goes out of the meeting, Johnson said, he hoped it would be sending youngsters to the national capital where they can see actually what the flag stands for and represents.  Beginning that year, some Texas cooperatives sent groups of young people to Washington to work in Senator Johnson’s office for the purpose of learning about government.

Iowa and Illinois cooperatives followed suit and by 1959, Youth Tour had grown to 130 students.  The Youth Tour now has over 1,500 students participating each year.

Our group of young adults gathered on the morning of April 9 at our Bradfordville Office.  General Manager John Hewa enthusiastically greeted our students and gave them an overview of the role cooperatives play.  After speaking and talking with the 2008 Youth Tour, it became very apparent that this year’s group has a bright future.

After the judging, our students joined students from seven other electric cooperatives.  Two representatives from our national organization (NRECA) in D.C. conducted a congressional insight workshop for the students.  Our students found out first hand that being elected involves a lot more than just packing up and moving to the nation capital to be come a member of the 113th Congress. The group was divided into teams, each representing a newly elected member of Congress.  Each team is given a specific biography, district description and political party/staff information.  Teams select staff, choose party leaders, and deal with issues of public policy.  Policy issues are discussed and each team has to reach a consensus to solve the problem in a given period of time.

This fast paced, political challenge immersed these students in a real world experience of legislative process and allowed them the chance to develop an understanding of a day in the life of a United Stated Congressperson. 

With increasingly tight deadlines, team members had to decide which bills to support, which committee posts to seek, how much time to devote to fund raising and what tradeoffs to make amidst constituents, party, lobbyists, etc.

There were 11 rounds of decision- making.   The final round is managing a campaign budget for re-election.  The Congressional Insight Program computer simulation gave the teams instant feedback.  Within seconds, the teams learned how their decisions helped or hurt their chances for re-election.  The feedback came in the form of poll results, memoranda and district media coverage.  Just like real life!

In Tallahassee the group visited the Florida Supreme Court.  The court was in session and the Florida Electric Cooperative’s Youth Tour students were recognized and welcomed to the Supreme Court by Chief Justice Lewis.  Our Youth Tour groups have traditionally visited and toured the Supreme Court, however this was the first time in twenty-one years that the students had the opportunity to watch our high court in session.  It was very impressive.  We next visited the visitor’s gallery of the House of Representatives and got to watch our representative’s vote on several bills.  We observed debating, lobbying, discussing and alas, voting.  We heard some very lively debates and interesting perspectives on several issues.  We next saw a movie at the Challenger Learning Center’s Imax Theater.

We include an article about our Youth Tour program annually in The Current so that our membership can be informed about this outstanding program.  The caliber of the students has remained consistently high.  As students that have participated in past Youth Tour programs rise to different levels of success, and their success is brought to our attention, it warms our hearts to know that our paths once crossed.  There has been a plethora of folks that have had a hand in the chapters of each life and we are proud to have been a page.

We appreciate all of our students represent themselves and their schools in such an outstanding manner. Their participation makes Talquin sponsorship a pleasure.  Special thank you to all the participating schools for their help in making our program a success.

The four students competitively selected to attend the Washington D.C. conference in June are Amanda McCullers from Wakulla High, Melanie White from Lincoln High, Michael Dobson from Leon High and Brian Juszcyk from Florida High.  Seleste Cooper from Rickards High was selected as the alternate.