Sawnee EMC is accepting applications from high school students for this year’s Washington Youth Tour.

Each year the corporation chooses two student delegates to attend.

Cindy Badgett, director of external affairs for Sawnee, said applicants must be between the ages of 16 and 18.

They must also attend school or live within the Sawnee’s seven-county service area.

This year’s tour is set for June 14-21, and the application deadline is Feb. 29.

According to a release from Sawnee, the tour includes meetings with state and national leaders and leadership training, as well as visiting all the major sites of the nation’s capital.

Students also meet and discuss views with students from other states while learning about history, government and careers in public service.

Badgett called the week a “fast-paced, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see how America works.”

“It is not just a week of sightseeing,” she said in a statement. “Student delegates have the opportunity to meet other students from across the nation, meet their congressmen and make memories of a lifetime.”

The two students from Sawnee’s service area will join some 100 others from across Georgia for the all-expenses paid trip.

The Washington Youth Tour has been a tradition since then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson inspired its creation at a meeting of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association in 1957.

Since then, more than 40,000 students have attended the event to learn about electric cooperatives, American history and U.S. government.