Making connections

Students find new friends, inspiration and fun on Washington Youth Tour

There were some key moments during the 2026 Youth Tour in Washington, D.C., that left lasting impressions on Hayden Duncan and Sarah Sanders.

They both loved the beauty and history of Mount Vernon, the historic home of George Washington. They found the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum moving and educational. The two say the trip taught them more than they expected to learn.

“What goes on behind the scenes that we really don’t get to see other than on the news,” Duncan says.

Sanders, 16, and Duncan, 17, represented South Alabama Electric Cooperative during the Washington Youth Tour, visiting the nation’s capital with 1,700 delegates from 44 states. Sanders is a student at Pike Liberal Arts School, while Duncan attends Zion Chapel High School.

Both delegates say they would recommend Youth Tour to anyone considering it.

The Washington Youth Tour is an annual event sponsored by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Cooperatives from around the country send delegates to the nation’s capital to learn about the country’s history, government and how cooperatives play a role.

“The experience, I honestly just think, has given me so much more confidence, getting out there and meeting new people,” Sanders says.

The trip included visits to popular memorials and monuments including the Jefferson Memorial, the U.S. Capitol and the World War II Memorial. The students spent a day at the Smithsonian Institution. They clowned around in a replica of the Oval Office at the People’s House, a White House history museum. They listened as Alabama Sen. Katie Britt described her desire to serve and how she balances her family life with elected office.

And they feel like they made connections, meeting peers from all over the country and making new friends along the way.

Both Sanders and Duncan want to study law and maybe one day become lobbyists. Sanders became interested after observing election coverage, but she didn’t know how attainable the goal was. Duncan says the Youth Tour is responsible for her interest in that area. It just so happened that one of their Alabama chaperones is a lobbyist for the Alabama Rural Electric Association.

“That was super cool to be able to talk to her about her experiences and how she got to where she was,” Sanders says. “It has made me more confident in my path, continuing to college and everything.”

Duncan says the Washington trip inspired her.

“It definitely made me feel like this might be something I want to do and make a difference on my own,” she says. “I definitely would love to go into the law, maybe be a lawyer or something like that. This is a whole new door, and there’s so many different things you can do with this.”

There were 61 delegates from Alabama, and Sanders and Duncan say they all grew really close in the short timeframe of the trip.

While the arrival of state delegates is staggered during the week, all the states were represented during a party held for delegates.

“We were meeting people from all over the country, which isn’t something that you get to do every day,” Sanders says.