Midwest Electric sponsors students to D.C.

Jerad Phillips of Wallace High School and Truman Wilson of South Platte High School were nominated to represent Midwest Electric on a recent trip to Washington D.C. 

Phillips and Truman were two of the 19 high school students from Nebraska chosen by their local electric utility. The group was chaperoned by the Nebraska Rural Electric Association, of which Midwest Electric is a member.

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) Youth Tour provides about 1,500 rural high school students across the United States the opportunity to learn about the electric utility industry and tour the nation’s capital while representing their public power district and electric cooperatives.

The week-long event in early June included participants meeting with members of the Nebraska congressional delegation and attending the NRECA youth day to learn about political engagement, leadership and the pressing issues facing the Electric industry today.

 Phillips was especially intrigued by the Holocaust museum. As a fifth grader, Phillips teacher, Kelly Smith, had her students start the “Penny Project”.  

The students began collecting pennies to represent each person who was killed by the Nazi party. Phillip’s grandfather, Gerald Phillips, served in the Army during WWII and was part of the unit that liberated Buchenwald death camp.  

Jerad’s favorite quote from the Holocaust museum was, “Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned.”