A summer to remember

Youth Summit students pictured in front of the SC State House
The vis­it to the State House was one of the high­lights of the Coop­er­a­tive Youth Sum­mit for (from left) Natalia Salas, Trevor Cas­tro, Andy Goss, and Lan­don Davis. Pho­to by Erin Pow­ell.

It was quite a sum­mer for four local high school stu­dents, thanks to York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive. Natalia Salas, Trevor Cas­tro, Andy Goss, and Lan­don Davis took part in the Coop­er­a­tive Youth Sum­mit, a four-day jour­ney of their state’s cap­i­tal and the sur­round­ing area that went beyond the tra­di­tion­al field trip.

Salas, Cas­tro, Goss, and Davis joined 33 oth­er high school stu­dents spon­sored by South Car­oli­na elec­tric coop­er­a­tives on the unique expe­ri­ence. The stu­dents start­ed their own coop­er­a­tive, pro­duced their own pod­casts, and learned how gov­ern­ment works.

The stu­dents vis­it­ed River­banks Zoo & Gar­den, explored elec­tric vehi­cles, and toured the State House, cul­mi­nat­ing with a vis­it inside the Governor’s office. The stu­dents also learned about leg­isla­tive advo­ca­cy from S.C. state Rep. Kirk­man Fin­lay and John Frick, vice pres­i­dent of gov­ern­ment affairs for The Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tives of South Car­oli­na. Frick, ref­er­enc­ing a quote from Ben­jamin Franklin, remind­ed the stu­dents that it will be up to them to “keep the repub­lic.”

“That real­ly helped put into per­spec­tive that we have to do some­thing,” says Salas, a stu­dent at West­min­ster Cataw­ba Chris­t­ian School. “If we want things to change, we can’t just rely on the adults.”

The stu­dents also vis­it­ed New­ber­ry Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, where they heard sto­ries of out­ages and saw the dan­gers of elec­tric­i­ty. They were also lift­ed in the buck­et of a boom truck.

“Pro­vid­ing elec­tric­i­ty is dif­fi­cult,” says Davis, a stu­dent at Fort Mill High School. “A lot of things can go wrong, but they have it under con­trol.”

Coop­er­a­tive Youth Sum­mit stu­dents also had the unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to pro­duce pod­casts address­ing the ques­tion, “Giv­en the tur­bu­lence in our nation and around the globe, how can young peo­ple impact their local com­mu­ni­ties?” The stu­dents’ pod­casts are avail­able to lis­ten to on our web­site.