Each June, students are immersed in a one-of-a-kind experience in Washington, D.C., through the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour. Slope Electric Cooperative chose one local applicant as its delegate on the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour. Applicants were asked to answer an essay question: “As member-owned organizations, electric cooperatives are always seeking new ways to engage their members. What are some ways electric cooperatives can better communicate and connect, especially with students and young adults?”
Slope Electric announces Anna Sarsland, the daughter of Curt and Jennifer Sarsland, will represent Slope Electric on the exciting weeklong trip. Anna is a sophomore at Bowman County High School, where she is active in cross-country, track and drama. She is also involved in the Lutheran Youth Organization.
Anna isn’t the first Sarsland chosen to represent Slope Electric on the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour. Her siblings, Caleb (2022) and Julie (2023), also were selected to travel to Washington, D.C., for a once-in- a-lifetime experience. Both siblings were motivators for Anna to apply.
“They encouraged me a lot,” Anna says. “I went with to pick them up for their trips and they always shared fun stories.”
Anna is looking forward to the trip, especially an opportunity to see the White House and learn more about Washington, D.C.
Anna and other North Dakota electric cooperative representatives will take the trip in June. You can follow Anna’s journey on Slope
Electric’s Facebook and Instagram.
Anna's essay:
In cooperatives, it is always important to ensure members are engaged and actively participating in as much as they can. This allows the cooperative to function as efficiently and effectively as possible to give members the most benefits. There are many ways that electric cooperatives, specifically, can better communicate and connect with their members, especially with students and young adults.
The first way electric cooperatives can better communicate with their students and young adults is to partner with schools. Start with bringing in two or more young adult guest speakers from electric cooperatives go to schools and give a short speech on what electric cooperatives are. In addition, you can split your presentation into two groups, giving students the ability to choose which side of the cooperative they want to learn more about. The first group should be the business and economics side of electric cooperatives. The second group should explain the STEM and engineering part of cooperatives. In each group you can add hands on learning activities to engage the students in the presentation. Then, you can wrap up your presentation with a Q&A session answering students’ questions. Students learn by doing, and they’ll remember the organizations that came in and had them do hands on activities, rather than the guest speakers that simply put together a speech while the students try to keep one eye open.
The next way electric cooperatives can communicate and connect with this age group is to create multiple social media accounts on the platforms that young adults and students are on. Young adults and teens are on social media a lot, so naturally they will come across electric cooperative content. The platforms that students and young adults are mainly on are YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. YouTube is a great way to connect with younger audiences and allows you to make long and short videos. Students scroll on TikTok for hours a day, so producing content on TikTok would expose them to electric cooperatives quickly. For a younger audience to watch your videos you must make them interesting and exciting. Younger generations have a very short attention span, so if you make quick 1–3-minute videos about electric cooperatives, they are much more likely to watch them. You must produce videos that keep the viewers interested. Some video ideas would be to show how people use electricity in their everyday lives, like watching tv, heating and cooling their house, and in their appliances like their microwave and their washing machine. You can also emphasize how electricity makes it to those places. Instagram and Snapchat would allow you to make short videos and have a feature where you can post pictures. You can post pictures of everyday activities that electric cooperatives do, such as linemen or office staff at work and behind the scenes of what they do.
The third way electric cooperatives can reach young adults and students is to expand youth focused programs. The first way electric cooperatives can do this is to invite high school students and college students to do half-day or full-day job shadowing experiences. They can observe lineman workers or explore different office roles. Electric cooperatives can also make educational and hands-on programs that focus on energy efficiency or renewable energy. This helps young adults and students explore career opportunities early.
The last way electric cooperatives can reach young adults and students is to set up scholarships. These scholarships can be project based by having the students make projects relating to energy. The scholarships can also be essay-based where the students must write an essay about how electricity has improved their everyday lives. Another option is to conduct interviews, and the scholarship will be awarded based on the students’ responses. Students love scholarship opportunities, especially when they receive recognition for them.
To end, I hope these ideas can be implemented in electric cooperatives to help reach young adults and students, who are important to the future of the cooperative.