Students on the 1983 Ohio Youth Tour rest on the Capitol steps.
For 38 years, the Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives Youth Tour to Washington, D.C., has given high school students a unique perspective on our nation’s capital and the electric cooperative world.
It is a fundamentally different experience than any other youth trip to D.C. It is a more personal, more engaging, and more rewarding experience — one where participants can meet new people from around the state and the country while broadening their knowledge of our government institutions.
Youth Tour changes lives and inspires careers in public service. And it is an experience only available to children of electric co-op members.
Catching the bug
In 1983, Greg Moody was a teenager living on Guernsey-Muskingum Electric Cooperative lines. His family operated a farm just south of New Concord, on land that now sits within The Wilds wildlife preserve.
On June 10, 1983, Moody, who was selected by Guernsey-Muskingum to represent the cooperative, departed for Youth Tour with 29 other teens from rural Ohio.
“I remember it as my first experience with a group of people I didn’t know in advance,” Moody said. “The bus ride out was awkward — the ride back was filled with friends.”
While in D.C., Moody had the opportunity to meet his House representative — Congressman Clarence Miller, a Lancaster Republican who served in Congress from 1967 to 1993.
Moody cites that meeting as a formative experience in his life. “It’s where I got the bug for political activity,” Moody said. “Youth Tour made government seem more accessible.”
From Youth Tour to the Kasich Administration
A few years later, Moody applied as an intern in Congressman Miller’s office, and he credits his Youth Tour experience for giving him the insight and confidence to succeed in government.
“When I applied for the internship, I could visualize Congressman Miller’s office and knew where it was relative to the Capitol,” Moody said. “That makes a difference in being able to imagine yourself involved in important decisions.”
Moody’s career in public service officially began in the 1990s, when he became a budget associate for the U.S. House Budget Committee. The committee chair at the time, Congressman John Kasich, tasked Moody with researching the impact of Medicaid on federal spending.
Since then, Moody has become an influential expert on government health policy, serving in both public and private sectors, working to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of government health programs.
In January 2011, Kasich, by then the governor of Ohio, once again enlisted Moody to aid in efforts to improve health care, tapping him as director of the Office of Health Care Transformation. In this role, he is currently responsible for coordinating strategic planning and budgeting across six state health and human services-related agencies.
Moody grew from a farm kid in rural Ohio to a renowned and influential health policy expert — and Youth Tour helped make it happen.
Looking ahead: Youth Tour 2017
Thirty-three years after Greg Moody’s Youth Tour experience, the program has grown and changed in a few notable ways, but the core focus remains: promoting the importance of government and public service to young electric cooperative members.
Adam Specht, director of the Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives Youth Tour, encourages any high school sophomore or junior from a co-op family to apply for the program.
“In my five years assisting with Youth Tour, I’ve seen many shy, modest young people burst out of their shells — all within a five-day span,” Specht said. “It’s a fantastic opportunity for a high school student to learn more about government and meet some great new friends.
“I cannot wait to see what these fantastic young people accomplish in the future. And I hope their experience on Youth Tour contributes to their future success.”
Youth Tour 2017 will be held on June 9-15. Contact your local electric cooperative for full application details and to verify your cooperative participates in the program.
