The Youth Tour Contest is a national program that Callaway Electric Cooperative has been participating in for more than 40 years.  It started to help educated America's youth about our nation's capital, Washington, D.C., and about the Rural Electric Cooperative system.  Students from across the United States are invited by Rural Electric Cooperatives to come and learn about Washington, D.C.  In 2008, over 80 high school juniors from Missouri will meet up with nearly 2000 other students to see sights such as:  the Washington Monument, the Smithsonian Museums, the Lincoln, Korean, Vietnam and Jefferson Memorial, Mt. Vernon and the US Capitol!

Learn more at www.youthtour.org, or www.amec.org/youth.html

2007 Callaway Electric Youth Tour Contest Winners

from left to right: John Atkinson, North Callaway High School;

Lindsey DeForest, North Callaway High School; and 

Dakota Dillon, South Callaway High School

Who is eligible to enter?

The Youth Tour Contest is open to all high school juniors living in or attending school in Callaway Electric  Cooperative's service area.  Entrants need not be a Cooperative member.  The immediate family members of employees or directors of Callaway Electric Cooperative are ineligible.

What is required?

To compete in the contest, you must write an essay.  Upon entering, you will receive a research packet that outlines the information you will be writing about.  We provide the topic and the research.  The basic goal is to educate you about not only electric cooperatives, but also the cooperative business structure.

How are winners selected?

The essays will be judged and the top six will be chosen for final competition.  This consists of a written test and interview with three impartial judges.  Your combined essay, written test and interview score will be totaled and the three finalists with the top scores will be selected for the Youth Tour to Washington, D.C.  The three runners-up will be awarded tuition to a 3-day leadership conference to be held in Jefferson City in July.  The conference will be sponsored by Missouri's Electric Cooperatives.

All contestants are placed according to their final score:
100 points from the essay, 100 from the written test, and a final 100 points from the interview