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N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – Fifteen North Dakota high school students have returned from the 52nd annual Electric Cooperative Youth trip in Washington, D.C.

More than 1,600 students from around the nation spent seven days touring museums and memorials, visiting with the state’s congressional delegation, and learning character building and the cooperative business model. Each student was sponsored by their family’s electric distribution cooperative.

Students who participated needed to write an essay and answer the following question: ““Pick one of the four Touchstone Energy ® Cooperative core values — innovation, integrity, accountability or commitment to community — and describe how you see this in action at your family’s electric cooperative.”

The entered essays were judged and picked by the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives.

This year, students from North Dakota and Montana were chaperoned by Katie Ryan- Anderson, the manager of member communications for Dakota Valley Electric Cooperative (Edgeley and Milnor) and Northern Plains Electric Cooperative (Carrington and Cando), and Steve Hildebrand, the member services representative for Roughrider Electric Cooperative (Hazen and Dickinson). Joining four chaperones from Montana, Ryan-Anderson and Hildebrand helped guide 41 young leaders safely around our nation’s Capitol.

“Some thrive in situations like that – new people, new places — and made friends easily. They then welcomed the quieter, shyer students, which was inspiring to see,” she said. “Leadership comes in all forms — shy, outgoing, loud, quiet, in words and by example. Whether shy or outgoing, these students who represented their family’s electric cooperative are making a positive difference in their communities.”

Two local North Dakota students picked to join the tour were Morgan Ziesch of Pettibone and Hobie Bear of Montpelier.