Youth Leadership Program Winners Announced

4 Rivers Electric is committed to the communities we serve, which includes investing in our youth and providing opportunities that build leadership, teamwork and civic engagement. Each year, our cooperative continues this tradition by sponsoring four high school juniors for an all-expenses-paid leadership experience. Two students will attend the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour, and two students will attend the Cooperative Youth Leadership Camp. 

During the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour, June 13-19, the Kansas student delegation will travel to Washington, D.C., together with students from Hawaii and Maine, where they will explore monuments and museums, meet with political representatives, cruise down the Potomac River, and make lifelong friends with students from 43 other states. This trip of a lifetime offers leadership lessons rooted in our nation’s history and the cooperative principles that continue to guide electric cooperatives today. 

The Cooperative Youth Leadership Camp is July 11-17, at Glen Eden resort near Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Students from electric cooperative communities in Kansas and Oklahoma will join participants from Colorado and Wyoming for a week of leadership development and outdoor adventure. Campers will form a candy cooperative, hear from dynamic speakers, tour a coal-fired power plant and raft down the Colorado River. 

Last year, Cooper Springer, Neodesha, represented 4 Rivers at Cooperative Youth Leadership Camp and was selected by his fellow campers and camp counselors to return this summer as one of three camp ambassadors serving as a junior counselor and helping guide the next group of campers through the program. 

“Leadership Camp taught me that it’s not just the things you know, but the people you know and the connections you create,” Springer said. 

We congratulate the four students selected to represent 4 Rivers Electric this summer: 

Katie Hester, Cherryvale High School, and Jule Rolf, Burlington High School will attend Electric Cooperative Youth Tour.

Isaac Arnold, Olpe High School, and Ella Ervin, Burlington High School, will attend Cooperative Youth Leadership Camp.

4 Rivers is proud to have such an exceptional group of student leaders representing us this summer. Investing in youth leadership today helps cultivate the strong community leaders of tomorrow. Students interested in next year’s Youth Tour or Leadership Camp are encouraged to watch for application details from 4 Rivers early next year.

(Originally printed in our April KCL Centerspread)