Georgia Magazine - June 2017 - 14

NEWS FROM GEORGIA'S ELECTRIC CO-OPS COMPILED BY AMY SCHNEIDER

Youth Tour delegate selected for another
prestigious D.C. experience

JAKUB MOSUR PHOTOGRAPHY

acob Timothy Cone of Thomasville, one of Cairobased Grady Electric Membership Corp.'s (EMC)
three delegates to the Washington Youth Tour in summer 2016, was one of two Georgia high school students
selected as delegates to the 55th annual United States
Senate Youth Program (USSYP) March 4-11 in Washington, D.C.
Cone and Alvin M. Winston II of Atlanta were among
104 student delegates at the program's Washington Week.
Cone says the Senate Youth Program's Washington
Week was an experience he never will forget.
"The best part of the week is the intense political
discussion that we got into. Everyone on this trip knows
politics and loves politics, and I can report we had civil
discourse, and it was incredible," he says. "If not for the
Washington Youth Tour, Grady EMC and Georgia EMC,
I never would have realized how important Washington,
D.C., is in the realm of our country. I then knew I wanted
a future in politics and therefore applied for the USSYP."
Cone graduated from Thomasville High Scholars
Academy in Thomasville and served as the school council president. He attended the state's Center for Civic
Engagement's Youth Assembly Conference each year of
high school and was a member of Georgia's Superintendent Student Advisory Council. He plans to earn an undergraduate degree at the University of Georgia's School
of Public and International Affairs in Athens.
"The Washington Youth Tour brings together some
of our state's brightest and most promising students, as
evidenced by the many other honors they collect before

Jacob Cone, right, shakes hands with U.S. Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson, a fellow Eagle Scout. Cone was about to give appreciation
remarks after Tillerson spoke to students participating in the Senate
Youth Program's Washington Week in March.

and after the tour. Jacob's selection for this prestigious
program is a great example of that," says Gale Cutler of
Tucker-based Georgia EMC, who coordinates the state's
participation in the Washington Youth Tour program.
The chief educational officer in each state selects the
delegates from nominations that come from teachers and
principals. This year's Georgia delegates were chosen by
Richard Woods, Georgia's state superintendent of schools.
Each delegate to the USSYP also receives a $10,000
undergraduate college scholarship from The Hearst Foundation, which funds the program.

Blue Ridge Mountain employees share electric info with students

JOHN MASON

Students at Hayesville Middle
School in Hayesville, N.C., listen
to Tanner Byers, energy service
technician at Blue Ridge Mountain
Electric Membership Corp. (EMC)
in Young Harris, talk about electrical
safety during the school's STEAM
Expo on April 27. (STEAM is the acronym STEM-science, technology,
engineering and mathematics-
with an A added to represent art
and design.) Byers and John Mason,
member services representative,
also spoke to the students about career opportunities at cooperatives.
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Georgia Magazine - June 2017