Monthly Archives: August 2017

In June, four area students had the opportunity to represent Dixie Electric Cooperative in Washington, D.C.  Macon East senior, Tyler Watson was among the over 1,500 students selected from across the United States to attend the week-long tour hosted by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.  Participants toured many historic sites in D.C. and learned more about the importance of political involvement in their local areas.  They learned leadership skills and heard from various speakers about the cooperative world.  The all-expense paid trip is a great outreach program giving students a new outlook on their local cooperative and broadening their education.  Tyler enjoyed meeting students from all over the country on the tour and said he will never forget this experience.

Macon East juniors Dawn Johnson and Madisyn Kennedy attended the annual Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership conference at Troy University. Founded in 1958, HOBY’s mission is to inspire and develop our global community of youth and volunteers to a life dedicated to leadership, service and innovation. HOBY programs provide students selected by their schools an opportunity to participate in unique leadership training, service-learning and motivation-building experiences.  Dawn enjoyed the service project her team did during the weekend, making blankets for area homeless.  Madisyn said the overall experience really challenged her to step out of her comfort zone and grow as a leader.  As America’s foremost youth leadership organization, HOBY has a long and impressive history of successfully motivating youth and volunteers to outstanding leadership.

Three Macon East students attended the Alabama Lions High School Leadership Forum this summer at Troy University.  The theme of this year’s forum was “A Century of Service,” and the delegates heard from various speakers about becoming future leaders.  Jake Gracey, Dawn Johnson, and Alexa McGough represented Macon East at the June 16-18 forum.  The delegates from across Alabama are all leaders at their high schools and enjoyed a weekend of group activities, team building challenges at Camp Butter & Egg, as well as performing skits. The purpose of ALHSLF is to build and strengthen leadership, relationships, and the power to serve, among the youth in Alabama. The ALHSLF goals are to give high school students of Alabama an opportunity to strengthen their leadership, organization and service skills, to build relationships, and to network with other leaders, both youth and adult, from across the state.  We applaud these students on their leadership at MEA.