|
----------
November 12, 2008
2009 SWRE
Youth Tour Contest
Open to Texoma 11th Grade Students
Southwest
Rural Electric Cooperative will provide two area high school juniors with the
trip of a lifetime this summer. Top prize in SWRE’s annual youth tour contest
for one Oklahoma student and one Texas student will be an all-expense-paid trip to
Washington, D.C. for a close-up look at our nation’s
government in action.
All
other contest finalists will receive a cash prize of
$250.
The
contest is open to all 11th grade students who attend a high school
in the SWRE service area. Eligibility is not limited only to students whose
families purchase electricity from SWRE. Any student may
enter.
In
Texas, SWRE area schools include Chillicothe, Crowell, Electra, Harrold, Northside, and Vernon.
Oklahoma schools in the SWRE area are Altus, Blair, Davidson, Frederick, Navajo, Snyder, and Tipton.
To
enter the contest, 11th grade students must write a 500-750 word
essay on a specified topic that relates to the importance of electricity in
rural America. Essays must be received at
the SWRE office in Tipton,
Oklahoma, by Wednesday, February
25, 2009.
Based
on the essays, eight students will be invited to SWRE’s Tipton headquarters in
late March to meet with contest judges and present the information from their
essays. At that time winners of the Washington, D.C. trips will be named and cash prizes will
be awarded to the finalists.
The
winning Texas student and Oklahoma student will travel to Washington, D.C. in mid-June with state delegations of
youth tour winners. In the nation’s capital they will tour the U.S. Capitol,
meet with elected officials, and visit important monuments and locations,
including the White House and Mount
Vernon.
Complete
information resource packets for entering the contest have been provided to
11th grade English teachers in schools throughout the SWRE service
area.
The
contest packets may also be obtained by calling Southwest Rural Electric at
1-800-256-7973. In addition, the entry material may be downloaded from this web site (see below).
“Service
to the youth of our area has been a Southwest Rural Electric tradition since the
cooperative was established in 1937,” said Mike Hagy, SWRE CEO. “For more than
40 years our cooperative has sponsored the annual youth tour contest and sent
two students each year to our nation’s capital. For many of those young people,
the trip has been incredibly positive, life-changing experience. I encourage all
11th grade students in area schools to participate in the 2009
contest. Their reward may be great.”
PDF of the 2009 Youth Tour Contest Booklet and Application
2007 Youth Tour winners...
Click on photo for larger image
Finalists in SWRE’s 2007 Youth Tour
Contest were (l to r) Jurie duToit, Frederick High School; Brittany
Sammons, Tipton High School; Autumn Roberts, Blair High School;
Jade Terbush (Oklahoma winner), Navajo High School; Nick Lehman
(Texas winner), Vernon High School; Kelsey Brightbill, Harrold High
School; Corey Samson, Northside High School; Stevie Rodriguez, Chillicothe
High School.
------------
|
