Some schools listed may include students whose parents receive electric service from another electric cooperative. If their electric cooperative does not participate in Energy Camp, such students will be allowed to enter Cotton Electric Cooperative’s contest. If their cooperative sponsors a Energy Camp contest, those students have an option to choose between the two cooperatives. Students will be ineligible if they enter more than one essay or more than one contest.

CONTEST DETAILS

The contest is broken into two rounds and starts with the essay contest. Students may submit an essay of approximately 50-100 words to Cotton Electric.

Writers of the Top 10 essays move to the second round, a live video interview. The question-and-answer video call between students and independent judges will be arranged by Cotton Electric.

The Top 4 will be awarded an all-expense paid trip to Energy Camp held at Canyon Camp in Red Rock Canyon. 

Contest dates 
Jan. 31, 2025        Contest opens for entries.
Mar. 20, 2025        Essay deadline – Essays must be submitted online by 3 p.m.
Apr. 8, 2025        Live video interviews of authors of Top 15 essays.
Apr. 25, 2025        Camper information is due.
May 27, 2025        Leave for Energy Camp.
May 30, 2025        Return from Energy Camp.

CONTEST RULES

1. Topic for 2025 Essay is: I would like to represent Cotton Electric at Energy Camp because: 
2. Fill out all required fields and upload an essay of no fewer than 50 and no more than 100 words on the above topic at www.CottonElectric.com/energycamp.
3. Deadline for uploading completed essays is 3 p.m. Mar. 20, 2025.
4. All essays are made anonymous before submission to judges.
5. BE ORIGINAL!
6. Essays will be judged by the following criteria: Composition, 40%; Originality, 30%; Neatness, 10%; Grammar, 10%; and Spelling & Punctuation, 10%.
7. Independent judge(s) will score the essays and narrow the pool of candidates to 10.
8. In the second round of competition, the Top 10 essayists will be invited to participate in a Zoom interview to discuss the essay and general cooperative knowledge with independent judges. The judges will select four winners.
9. The top four students will be awarded an all-expense paid trip to Energy Camp 2025.
10. Judges’ decisions throughout the process are final.  

Students selected and sponsored by Cotton Electric Cooperative are expected to participate in required preparatory activities related to Energy Camp and the full duration of the student program, including travel to and from Energy Camp. The student experience has a program value of $500 per participant. While cancellations are unfortunate, cancellations received/processed 60-days prior to the day of registration are appreciated and needed to allow cooperatives to find alternate student participants.

Families of selected students who cancel less than 60-days prior to the day of registration, may be responsible for reimbursing the sponsoring cooperative up to 50% of the program value. No shows and families of selected students failing to notify their sponsoring cooperative of non-participation, may be held responsible for reimbursing 100% of the program value.

These links will take you to pages on our website or they will open PDFs. Applicants are encouraged to review these resources to prepare for the interview portion of the contest.

7 Cooperative Principles 

Cotton Electric History

Co-op 101

Annual Report