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A New Light for Katie Day
 Katie Day, above, stands along a balustrade at the Indiana Statehouse. Katie, a senior at Plymouth High School, was selected to represent Indiana on the national Electric Cooperative Youth Leadership Council during last June’s Youth Tour. After speaking to Indiana’s electric co-op leaders last month in Indianapolis, she revisited the Statehouse, the first stop on the Youth Tour. The tour, she said, instilled in her a passion for government, and changed her career plans.
At right, Katie (underneath Abraham Lincoln’s outstretched arm) joins other partcipants on the 2007 Youth Tour for a photo op with the statuesque president in downtown Gettysburg.
2007 Youth Tour participant came home with new perspective and passion
Last June, Katie Day boarded a bus for a weeklong excursion to Washington, D.C. As one of Indiana’s participants on the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour, she thought she was going to visit great places and learn about government and history.
She did those things. But soon after she returned home, she realized she learned far more about herself and her future.
Now she said she wants to go back to Washington one day — as a congresswoman from Indiana. “The trip allowed me to see the world through a new light,” she noted. “Seeing the government function up close allowed me to flip that switch.”
Like countless other high school juniors who have been selected for the Youth Tour since 1960, Katie and the other participants on the 2007 tour came home changed. The trip gave them new experiences, outlooks and ideas.
“Leaving a lasting impression on young people and stoking their aspirations to make a difference in life is the tour’s mission,” said Lynn Moore, who heads up the trip each year as director of member relations for the Indiana Statewide Association of RECs. “They’re the leaders of tomorrow and it’s our duty to give them the opportunity to broaden their horizons.”
Katie already had a wide-angle lens on life. She’s been taking in about as much as her hometown of Plymouth could offer. Her list of high school activities reads like a yearbook’s table of contents: cross country, track, band, speech, debate, Spanish Club, National Honor Society, Key Club, Angels-In-Action, Future Teachers of America, school publications, and so on.
She’s also active in church and community, including starting a local chapter of Pure Fashion, a national faith-based program that encourages teen girls to live, act and dress with dignity.
Despite her full schedule, she jumped at the chance to go to Washington last year when her local Marshall County REMC announced it was looking for applicants. “We got an Electric Consumer that said if you’re a junior and your parents are on REMC, you can apply. So I did,” she said.
Katie, who turns 18 on Jan. 6, was one of the 65 selected for the trip from REMCs and RECs all around the state.
The participants assembled in Indianapolis from all corners of Indiana on June 7. Before heading east on two motorcoaches the next morning, they spent the afternoon touring the Indiana Statehouse. For many from outside the Indianapolis area, including Katie, it was their first chance to see the statehouse.
“I really was in awe,” Katie said. “The architecture is amazing. I didn’t realize we had such a great building.”
It was the first of many firsts for Katie and others. She had never been to Gettysburg. That was the first stop on the way to Washington. She had never been to the Baltimore harbor, the second stop, or Washington itself.
While on the trip, Katie was selected from among almost two dozen applicants as Indiana’s representative on the Youth Leadership Council. Each year, one student from each state’s Youth Tour group is chosen for the YLC.
That person then returns to Washington a month later for more in-depth leadership training and cooperative education with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. YLC members also attend the national electric cooperative annual meeting the following winter.
For Katie, that means she will be joining the other YLC members from around the country next month for NRECA’s annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif.
Katie’s busy schedule almost caught up with her at the end of Youth Tour. She came home Thursday, June 14, then immediately was back on the road the next morning to Wichita, Kan., for the high school debate team national competition.
Somewhere in the rush between Washington, Wichita and coming home to Plymouth that light toward public service switched on in Katie’s mind.
She said she always liked working with people. She planned to combine that with her love of writing in a career in journalism or teaching. She said public office never occurred to her — until the trip. “To understand politics more and see things up close and how our government works … I changed my perspective a lot,” she said. “Seeing the live session of Congress really hit me. I always loved to debate, so that was an important component.”
Now, she said she’s hoping to study journalism in college, then establish herself in a community before seeking public office. “I want the people to vote me into office knowing what I believe,” she said, adding it’s the duty of those in office to follow their conscience as a representative of the people.
Katie describes herself as “about as conservative as you get.” She has strong pro-life beliefs she attributes to her upbringing from her parents, Ron and Lori Day, and her Catholic faith. She adamantly opposes abortion and the death penalty. “Ever since I was little, I’ve always felt God has had big plans for me,” Katie noted. “Part of me wonders if those big plans are to one day become a politician and change society’s view on various issues.”
“The Youth Tour experience has allowed Katie to realize her passion for servant leadership,” said Moore. “As she develops her strengths and focuses on the words of the leaders she met in Washington, her dreams of becoming Congresswoman Day are sure to become a reality.”
“I believe everything happens for a reason,” Katie added, “and I believe the reason I journeyed to Washington D.C., was to recognize I have the responsibility to change the world. I’m not about to sit back and watch life pass me by.
“I really want to make an impact on our country. That’s part of my personality — to fight for what I believe,” she said. “This is what I want to do. This is something I am passionate about.”
Story by Richard G. Biever, senior editor of Electric Consumer
Go to next “Youth Tour Memories” story
Return to the “Youth Tour Memories” table of contents
Return to the January 2008 issue table of contents
Written By: eceditor
Date Posted: 1/2/2008
Number of Views: 389
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