Eleven area students participated in the co-op’s Youth Tour essay contest that took place in March at the co-op’s offices.

The prompt for this year’s contest was: “It’s 2024, from your perspective as a junior in high school, what do you believe America’s greatest challenges will be in the next 10 years?” This prompt gave the students the opportunity to write about topics from artificial intelligence and mental health, to economics and current events.

Students were able to discuss a challenge important to them as well as coming up with a solution to the problem.

“These were some of the best presentations we have ever had in the Youth Tour contest,” said General Manager/CEO Roger Kloeppel. “Educating tomorrow’s co-op members and community leaders is important to the board of directors.”

This year’s trip to Washington, D.C., will take place June 14 through June 20. TREC’s delegates will join more than 100 students from the state of Missouri and 1,400 students from all over the nation for a week of touring, education and making new friends.

The delegates include Anna Rakestraw, Lily Gregory and Ben Luebbert from Fatima High school; Sienna Heckemeyer from St. Elizabeth High School; Maria Brown from Russellville High School; and Alexis Kramer from Belle High School.

Five students who were runners-up in the contest each received a $200 gift card. They are Sophia Binkholder from Hermann High School; Carissa Mushi and Maggie Dickneite from Fatima High School; Bailey Storz from Belle High School; and Aleesha Struemph of St. Elizabeth High School.

The students who participated in the finals had the top essays out of the 115 submitted this year. On the night of the finals, the students took a 50 question True-False quiz and presented their essays before judges and guests. Judges were Connie Warden, managing editor of The Unterrified Democrat in Linn; Dr. Donald Claycomb, TREC member and former president of State Technical College, Linn; and Chris Massman, TREC member and vice president of member services at the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives in Jefferson City.

The Youth Tour program would not be successful without the assistance of the teachers who encourage the students to write essays. Teachers who participated this year were Kari Leurquin, St. Elizabeth; Denise Crider, Russellville; Danyelle Steinkamp, Belle; Tracy Vedder, Hermann; and Matt Baker, Fatima.