Paul Bunyan Seeks High School Essays for D.C. Youth Tour

Paul Bunyan Communications is inviting essays from area high school students (ages 16–17) for the cooperative’s 2026 Youth Tour contest, with entries due Friday, Feb. 27. The selected student will travel to Washington, D.C., June 1–5, 2026, with all expenses covered by the cooperative. Essays may be up to 500 words and must explain why the student would like to attend the tour; eligibility requires that a parent or guardian be a member of Paul Bunyan Communications.

The tour offers meetings with members of Congress, educational sessions about the Federal Communications Commission, and visits to historic sites—program elements designed to combine civic education with direct exposure to federal regulatory and legislative institutions. For rural communities in Beltrami County, such access matters: federal decisions about telecommunications and broadband funding can shape local investment, digital access, and economic opportunity for years to come.

Paul Bunyan Communications has sponsored a local student’s participation since 1996, marking three decades of this program as of 2026. Recent winners have come from Turtle River, Blackduck and Bemidji, indicating participation across the cooperative’s service area. For students and families, the program reduces financial barriers to a typically costly educational trip by covering travel and lodging, while offering young residents firsthand insight into policy debates that influence internet access, education, and business activity in rural Minnesota.

Beyond the immediate educational benefits, the Youth Tour can have broader economic implications for the region. Exposure to federal policymakers and the workings of the FCC can help build civic human capital and inform future career choices in public policy, law, engineering and telecommunications. That matters in a county where sustaining broadband investment and workforce development is linked to local economic resilience and the cooperative model’s capacity to reinvest revenues into community services.

Students who are eligible should prepare a clear essay of up to 500 words explaining their interest and how the experience would benefit them and their community. The deadline for entries is Friday, Feb. 27. Interested families should contact Paul Bunyan Communications for submission instructions and any questions about eligibility.