For 17-year-olds Savannah Edgar and Joy Schwarte, the National Youth Tour in Washington, D.C., was a chance to visit national monuments, historic locations, and museums. They learned about history and themselves.
The students represented South Alabama Electric Cooperative (SAEC) during the National Youth Tour from June 17 through 23, joining 1,600 high school students from 44 states.
Hosted by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, the annual tour brings high school students to Washington, D.C., for a week-long learning experience. Students also select 1 youth to represent their state on NRECA’s Youth Leadership Council, whose members spend the next year working with cooperatives in their state and the national association.
Schwarte, a senior this year at Pike Liberal Arts School, was 1 of 3 students from Alabama in the running to represent the state on the National Youth Leadership Council. She and the other finalists gave speeches before their Alabama peers, who then voted. While another student was chosen, Schwarte says being a finalist was an honor.
“It was such a great opportunity,” Schwarte says. “I definitely learned more about public speaking and making friends and connecting with people. I feel so much more prepared for the next time that I have an opportunity to run for a leadership role. I’m thankful that I got to experience that with such great friends and with such great kids my age who were so open to learning more about each other and making deeper relationships.”
Edgar, who is entering her senior year at Highland Home High School, had intended to study graphic design. However, after the tour, she is now considering a career in communications, especially after talking with D.C. interns and learning that many of them majored in communications.
“I’ve kind of always known what I wanted to do,” Edgar says. “I’ve always been like, ‘Yes, I’m going to do this.’ But, coming up here has given me the option to actually explore options and see what all is out there, what all I can do in the future.”
Edgar says a career in communications appeals to her. She enjoys building relationships with people and she says she loved meeting different people during the National Youth Tour and learning about their lives.
“I just feel like that it is a career path that would kind of be a little more suited to me because it has everything I’ve always wanted to do in like 1 area,” Edgar says.
The goal of the National Youth Tour is to educate youth about how government works, help them become leaders, and give students a better understanding of cooperative principles and the value of rural electrification.
The National Youth Tour was inspired by a 1957 speech from then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson during the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s annual meeting. The future president suggested sending youth to the nation’s capital so they can see for themselves what the American ag represents. The idea grew each year with cooperatives from different states sending youth to the nation’s capital. In 1964, the NRECA organized joint activities between states. 400 students from 12 states attended the first coordinated youth tour.
Sites visited this year included the Smithsonian Institution, Mount Vernon, the Lincoln Memorial, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, and Ford’s Theatre, the site of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. A visit to the Capitol was also a popular stop.
As 1 of Alabama’s finalists for the Youth Leadership Council, Schwarte participated in a wreath-laying ceremony during a visit to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. The visit to Arlington was eye-opening, and she says she is more grateful now for those who have lost their lives defending America and its ideals.
“It was an opportunity for me to just stop and be thankful for everybody who died for our country,” Schwarte says.
Other sites Schwarte found inspiring included the Lincoln Memorial and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Both Schwarte and Edgar loved the visit to the Capitol building and were in awe of the architecture, as well as the magnitude of effort it takes to run the nation’s government.
“There’s so much detail that goes into any of the architecture up there,” Edgar says. “There’s a new detail every single place you look. I feel like every single building up there tells a story, and you really just want to learn more about it.”
Schwarte encourages local students to apply for the Youth Tour program, and, if chosen, to use the experience to learn as much as they can.
“Don’t let any moment pass by where you don’t learn something,” she says. “There’s so much more than history to learn. Go in with the attitude of I want to learn more from the people that I talk to and the places that I see and the speakers that speak to us. You get so much more out of it when you’re really intent on learning something.”