Last week it was my honor to be part of the 26th annual Foundation for Rural Service (FRS) Youth Tour, hosting 97 enthusiastic and curious high school students for several days in Washington, DC. Assisting were 26 brave chaperones (employees of NTCA member companies, some with their spouse) and outstanding FRS and NTCA staff partners Lorna Gilmore and Kyle Aaron, as well as many other NTCA colleagues who volunteered in some capacity. It truly takes a village to successfully complete a Youth Tour.
We started on Wednesday, May 31, as the students and chaperones, many of whom had never traveled without their parents or even been on an airplane, arrived at Reagan National Airport. We had participants from 23 different states, some from as far away as Alaska and Oregon. The students and chaperones were selected by their host NTCA member, which sponsored their participation in the three-day experience. After getting to know each other a bit better and settling in, everybody hit their pillow looking forward to the adventures to come.
We were up very early the next morning for guided tours of the U.S. Capitol and then the obligatory group photo in front of the Capitol Building. After lunch we made our way to the Senate side of Capitol Hill to learn about the legislative and regulatory processes from members of the NTCA Government Affairs team. We then had an informative discussion with a staff member from the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, and another staff member from the office of Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.). We ended our time on Capitol Hill by visiting the Senate offices from the students’ and chaperones’ home states. A few even had the chance to talk with their Senator!
We experienced Washington, D.C. traffic as we raced from Capitol Hill to the Kennedy Center, rushing into our seats to watch Shear Madness, an interactive whodunit play. Attending the play was made possible by generous donations to the Tim Owens Memorial Fund. This special fund, created in honor of the first executive director of FRS, allows participants of FRS Youth Tours to experience a world-class cultural and artistic opportunity unique to Washington, D.C. After the show, we enjoyed dinner on the roof of the Kennedy Center with a backdrop of the Potomac River and the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. We capped off the night with visits to the Jefferson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King Jr. Memorials.
On Friday, we visited the FCC in their new building. Learning about the FCC is a unique element of the FRS Youth Tour and every year, FCC commissioners and staff look forward to our visit. This year, we were welcomed by Commissioner Brendan Carr, who gave an overview of FCC responsibilities and generously answered students’ questions about topics ranging from cybersecurity and Tik Tok to his personal career path that led to becoming an FCC Commissioner. We also heard from a staff member of Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and learned about the new FCC Space Bureau, how the FCC maintains communications during a natural disaster and resources available in the Emergency Communications Fund after the pandemic.
After learning about all the FCC, we traveled to Mount Vernon, the historic home of Martha and George Washington, where students toured the house and spacious grounds. We then moved to bowling and playing arcade games before another nighttime tour, this time visiting the White House, World War II Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Lincoln Memorial and Vietnam War Memorial. Were we exhausted? Absolutely!
The final full day of the Youth Tour started with a guided tour of Arlington National Cemetery and visits to the President Kennedy gravesite and the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The majestic precision of the guards at the Tomb is breathtaking and one can’t help but feel especially patriotic. That feeling intensified when we saw a group of veterans, participants in an Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., arrive at the cemetery.
We ended Saturday with visits to various Smithsonian museums, including the National Air and Space Museum, the Natural History Museum and the American History Museum. Amazingly, students and chaperones found a second wind after we had our final dinner and danced the night away to a DJ spinning the hits.
With hugs and tears, we said goodbye the next morning as the students and chaperones left for the airport and their return home. Four days earlier, these students didn’t know each other and were visibly nervous about what they had signed up for. But by the end of the Youth Tour, they had become fast friends with other young people from all over the country and had built relationships with adults who might become future mentors or even employers. At FRS, we know about Youth Tour students becoming college roommates several years later. One student even maintained a relationship with her NTCA member to become an employee and was a chaperone last year!
My favorite part about the FRS Youth Tour is the transformation many students experience. They arrive on the first day timid and nervous but leave inspired and more confident. I also believe that coming to the “big city” made every student appreciate their rural community. In fact, as they returned to their families, students started texting me photos of their homes and the beautiful landscapes along the way; I could feel their pride in the photos and the realization that there truly is no place like home.
Thank you to the NTCA member companies that support FRS and the Youth Tour by sending students and/or chaperones. By Sunday, I was exhausted, but I didn’t mind. It might sound corny, but I believe the FRS Youth Tour can change lives. I know it changes mine and I’m grateful for it.