Each year four students are selected by Beauregard Electric Cooperative, Inc. (BECi) to attend the annual NRECA Youth Conference held in Washington D.C. Jacob Mullican, from BECi, was chosen by his peers in Louisiana to represent our state in March at the 2023 Power XChange Conference. The youth tour gives students an opportunity to see their government first hand. Delegates visit national monuments, visit with congressional delegates, and meet other cooperative students from around our nation. Jacob is currently a senior at South Beauregard High School and is the son of Jess and Paige Mullican. In his speech he gave at the Association of Louisiana Electric Cooperatives annual meeting this past July, Jacob stated, “Co-ops not only connect the nation through poles and lines but through people and lives.” Jacob has two grandfathers that worked for BECi and stated if it were not for them, he would not be where he is today and would not have taken the opportunity to go on this tour. Mullican felt the friends he met on the trip became more like family in one short week, which gave him connections across the country for a lifetime.