The Rural Path of Electricity

Creating an interactive lesson plan to engage students in the classroom provides an enhanced educational experience. Such an experience positively impacts a student’s retention of core concepts. This is what the STEM initiative is all about: finding ways to engage students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, as a method of helping students build and develop essential, twenty-first century job skills.

North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives employ each of these skills, every day, while providing electricity to their respective service territories. This fellowship, which will focus on following the path of electricity from generation to residential delivery, will allow students to gain a basic understanding of future industry challenges. Increasing students’ awareness of these challenges will provide consumers with the necessary tools to help us solve many problems we will face in the future.

In this fellowship, you will have the opportunity to follow the path of electricity across North Carolina, while learning the cooperative business model. The majority of your summer will be spent in Surry-Yadkin EMC’s service territory, which includes Surry, Yadkin, Wilkes, Stokes and Forsyth Counties; however, the fellowship will also feature trips to generation facilities across the state, and to our statewide organization in Raleigh. You will see how electricity is generated, transmitted, distributed, and delivered to residential and commercial accounts. Additionally, you will learn how the costs of creating a safe, reliable path throughout rural North Carolina impact the affordability of retail rates, and subsequently, the consumers’ interest in conserving energy. Understanding these concepts will provide you with additional insight concerning the costs and benefits of coal, nuclear, natural gas, and renewable energy.
So get ready to enjoy a wonderful, educational experience with some of the best and brightest in our industry.