Two high school students, Levi Burclaw and Sadie Ostrowski, represented Central Wisconsin Electric Cooperative at Youth Leadership Conference (YLC) held at UW-Stout July 15-17.

The conference was a three-day event for youth leaders across Wisconsin to develop their leadership skills while learning about the purpose, operation, and scope of cooperative businesses.

Ostrowski, who also attended YLC last year and will be a senior at Wittenberg-Birnamwood High School, said she wanted to attend again because of the “positive impact” it had on her last year.

“I wanted to learn more about the cooperative because it would give me a greater understanding of the world around me,” Ostrowski said.

She said she accomplished that goal.

“I learned more about how cooperatives create a positive impact on the community by giving back,” Ostrowski said. “I also learned what patronage funds are and why we have them.”

She added that she enjoyed listening to all the speakers share stories from their lives, as well as share their perspectives on life.

“It was super eye opening,” Ostrowski said.

Burclaw, who will be a sophomore at Mosinee High School, said he decided to attend YLC because he wanted to improve his leadership skills as well as meet new people.

“I went about meeting people by trying to get out of my comfort zone and going to the people instead of having them trying to talk to me first,” Burclaw said. “It went pretty good and most of the people were very nice.”

Burclaw said he also learned more about electric cooperatives.

“I learned that electric cooperatives do a lot more than I expected,” Burclaw said.

He also said he enjoyed hearing the different points of view from the different speakers.

“That was my favorite part because I liked hearing about how different people’s lives went, and how it can help better my life in the future,” Burclaw said.

Ostrowski said that attending YLC will benefit her when applying for scholarships, and it also gave her a better understanding of how different companies work.

Burclaw said attending YLC will allow him to be a better leader in school, in the community, and in sports.

In addition to enjoying the speaker programs at YLC, both Ostrowski and Burclaw participated in some fun activities. Ostrowski said she enjoyed participating in a photo shoot before the etiquette dinner, while Burclaw said he enjoyed playing sand volleyball during some of the available free time at YLC.

Both said they would recommend attending YLC to other high school students.

“I would completely recommend YLC because of the fun experience it provides, the speakers that they have there,” Ostrowski said. “They have so many interesting speakers, and I met many, many wonderful people.”

Burclaw added, “It was a great learning experience. And you can meet a lot of new people from all over the Midwest.”