COVINGTON, Ga. — Three Newton County-area students will take part in a decades-long tradition of traveling to Washington, D.C., this summer courtesy of Snapping Shoals EMC. 

Abby Malcom of Covington, Emily Nichols of Mansfield and Emerson Van Ness of Conyers will represent the Newton County-based electric cooperative on the 2023 Washington Youth Tour in June.  

Electric co-ops across the U.S. annually sponsor high school students from their service areas to attend the annual summertime event.

It allows the participants to “experience the nation’s history and government up close while developing leadership skills and having fun with teens representing electric cooperatives from across the country,” according to SSEMC.

Since 1965, the Washington Youth Tour has included 1,650 students from Georgia and more than 40,000 students nationwide. 

The program was initially implemented at the request of President Lyndon Johnson to “send youngsters to the nation’s capital where they can actually see what the flag stands for and represents.” 

The participants representing SSEMC include:

• Malcom, daughter of Ben and Heather Malcom and a sophomore at Eastside High School. 

• Nichols, daughter of David and Sarah Nichols and a junior at Eastside High School. 

• Van Ness, daughter of Ken and JaNice Van Ness and a junior at Peachtree Academy.

Students were required submit applications, write essays on why they wanted to be chosen for the trip, and take a quiz covering electric cooperatives, according to information from SSEMC. 

The applications and essays were then scored by personnel from other EMCs throughout the state.

Youth Tour participants typically visit the U.S. Capitol, U.S. Supreme Court, the Holocaust Museum, Smithsonian Institution and, whenever possible, the White House, a news release stated. 

Other stops usually on the schedule are the National Cathedral and Arlington Cemetery as well as the World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War memorials, and the Lincoln, Jefferson, FDR and MLK Jr. memorials.

SSEMC’s Washington Youth Tour winners also receive $500 scholarships when they begin college. 

Snapping Shoals is a member-owned cooperative providing electric service to about 100,000 homes and businesses primarily in Newton, Rockdale, Henry and southern DeKalb counties.