Youth Tour 2010 Competition Begins
Cuivre River Electric Cooperative invites high school Juniors to compete in its 42nd annual contest to choose delegates to the National 2010 Youth Tour to Washington, D. C. The Tour takes place June 11—17, 2010; the competition begins this month.
The competition gets underway with a student application and 500-1,000 word composition on the topic, "Cooperative Values at Work in a New Decade." The deadline for compositions and applications is March 19. Entries may be delivered to Cuivre River offices in Troy and Lake Saint Louis by mail or in person.
Students may enter independently or through their schools. Youth Tour applications and contest rules are available at www.cuivre.com and at participating high schools. "We're very grateful for the support of local teachers who invite us to speak to their students about cooperatives and the opportunity to visit our Capitol," says Communications Specialist Lonnie Tucker.
Finalists who submit the top 12 compositions will be chosen to make oral presentations before a panel of judges and take a quiz about cooperatives. The final competition is Wednesday, April 14. During the final stage of the contest, six delegates will be chosen to travel to Washington, D.C.; remaining finalists will receive $250 scholarships to the colleges of their choice. Preliminary judging is anonymous and is conducted by Cuivre River. Oral presentations are judged by local community leaders and cooperative professionals.
The contest is open to students who live and attend school in Cuivre River's general service area, or who have Cuivre River service in their homes. Immediate family members of Cuivre River employees and directors are not eligible. Cuivre River Electric Cooperative fully funds the participation of its delegates.
The Youth Tour to Washington, D.C. was organized by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association in the early 1960s. The program has allowed more than 41,000 students from cities and towns all over America to visit many of the historic sites in the Washington, D.C. area, meet their legislators, meet other young leaders like themselves from around the country and learn about cooperatives.
For more information and to schedule a classroom program call 800.392.3709, 636.528.8261 or 636.695.4700, ext. 230 or 234, or e-mail: ltucker@cuivre.com.
Cuivre River Electric Cooperative's 2009 Youth Tour Delegates, shown here while visiting Capitol Hill, will pass the torch of leadership to a new group of high school juniors this spring. Cuivre River's annual Youth Tour competition begins this month. (See details inside back cover.) Current delegates shown above, now high school seniors, include (L-R) Morgan Barton, Sterling Coffey, Austin Gibbs, Andrea Glenville, Katie Robertson and Deveron Tillotson.
Contest Scoring
Cuivre River Electric Cooperative has two stages for scoring the Youth Tour compositions submitted by the high school students. Total scores are cumulative. The Preliminary Stage and Final Stage scores are combined to determine contest winners.
Youth Tour compositions are mixed prior to registration to provide an adequate random sample, and then each composition is assigned a special numerical code. Judges view and grade each composition without knowledge of the authors’ name, high school or county. Preliminary Stage judges are employees of Cuivre River Electric Cooperative.
Each Youth Tour composition receives a score of up to 100 points from each of three Preliminary State judges. The lowest of these three scores will be dropped, with the two highest scores added together for a possible 200 point Preliminary Stage score.
Based on Preliminary Stage scores, a maximum of 12 students advance to the Final Stage. Finalists, their parents and their teachers are invited to the Final Competition and Awards Banquet held at the Cuivre River Electric Cooperative Headquarters in Troy.
Preliminary Stage 200 points possible: 100 points x 2 judges
Final Stage 200 points possible: 50 points possible for quiz + 150 points possible for oral presentation (3 judges x 50 points each)
Possible Total = 400 points
Finalists with the highest combined preliminary and final scores will become the six Cuivre River Electric Cooperative Youth Tour Delegates and travel to Washington, D.C.
The six runners-up will receive a $250.00 scholarship to the college or university of their choice.