Catching up with electric co-op Youth Tour and NRECA Youth Council alumni
Of the countless opportunities, lessons, and experiences that form life’s journey, some stand out as especially impactful. The Washington D.C. Youth Tour is one of those events. It’s an unforgettable week often described by participants as life changing.
Now in college, two outstanding young leaders from Colorado continue to feel the influence of the experiences and skills they gained through their high school involvement in Youth Tour and national electric co-op youth programs.
Elizabeth Clement participated in Youth Tour in 2022 through Brighton-based United Power and was Colorado’s youth representative at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s 2023 PowerXchange conference in Nashville. She graduated from Stargate Charter School in 2024 and is now in her sophomore year at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.
“Youth Tour definitely helped me build my confidence as a leader,” Elizabeth said. “Knowing how a co-op works has been really powerful because it shows that a group of people together can make something that’s successful and give back, and it’s what I want to do with my entire life.”
As a French horn player majoring in music business and recording arts, Elizabeth says her path continues to be affected by her co-op’s youth program experiences. She hopes to be an inspiration for others to follow a path of what they truly want to do in life, as she is doing with music. As a freshman at UNC, it didn’t take long for Elizabeth’s leadership skills to get noticed; she was often asked to join groups related to her major and beyond. She is a member of the university’s orchestra, wind ensemble, concert band, and wind quintet, and was also encouraged to get involved with UNC’s growing student government association. She’s considering running for an officer position in the future.
“I feel like there’s a pretty obvious connection between co-ops and the music world,” she said. “I’m just one small portion of what makes the ensemble sound, but it takes all the musicians coming together to make the greater picture. It is literally what a co-op is — bringing everyone together to make something.”
Ethan McGuinness, a 2024 Durango High School graduate and already a junior at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, took part in Youth Tour in 2023 through La Plata Electric Association. He was also Colorado’s Youth Leadership Council representative at the 2024 NRECA PowerXchange in San Antonio. He says the experiences changed his life and set him on a path to study political science — something he hadn’t considered previously.
“Youth Tour really opened my eyes to the world of politics and the change that is needed throughout the world,” Ethan said. “I wanted to do what I could to try to make the world a little bit better of a place.”
During his first year at CSU, Ethan served as a Democracy Fellow through the Straayer Center for Public Service. In that role, Ethan organized and led a session titled “Code vs. Consequence, the Tech and Policy Debate on Social Media and Misinformation,” as part of the annual university-wide democracy summit last spring.
“A big lesson that I drew from my experience in Youth Tour is that democracy and politics is not a spectator sport. You need to be the change.”
This past June, Ethan again headed back to Washington, D.C., for Youth Tour, this time working as a “blue shirt” staff assistant. Elizabeth worked as the summer camp administrator at the Mile High Youth Theatre in Denver where she again found herself leveraging all she learned during her co-op youth program experiences.
Wherever their very bright futures take them, both Ethan and Elizabeth hope to stay connected to Colorado and involved with a local electric cooperative.
“It’s going to depend a lot on where work finds me, but I’m hoping to find a good place to settle and hopefully a co-op because I love my good electric co-op,” Elizabeth said.
“I love Colorado. I grew up in a rural community, and I think increasingly now in politics rural communities are underrepresented, and I’m going to do what I can to try and bring that voice back up for rural communities,” Ethan said.
Mary Peck is a freelance writer based in Northern Colorado and enjoys sharing stories of rural communities.
