Menard Electric Cooperative Scholarship Program 

2026 Scholarship Application Apply by March 1, 2026. 

This program awards three cash scholarships and one all-expenses paid trip on the Youth to Washington Tour 

• $2,000 scholarship to a 4-year college or university
• $1,500 scholarship to a 2-year community college or tech school
• $1,500 at large scholarship (to 4-year, 2-year or tech school) 
• BONUS: One applicant will be awarded an all expenses paid pass on the Youth to Washington Tour June 15-22, 2026 

General requirements: Applicant must be a high school senior or equivalent; parent/legal guardian must be a Menard Electric Cooperative member with their primary residence or business served by the cooperative.

Scholarship applications will be shared with three individual judges without direct ties to Menard Electric Cooperative but within the electric cooperative industry; personally identifiable information provided in the application, including names, phone numbers, emails, address, school, and mentions of towns or other identifying info, will be redacted prior to sharing.

*On the Youth to Washington Tour more than 60 students from Illinois travel together to spend a week in Washington, D.C. and meet Illinois Congressmen, Senators and their staffs, tour historical sites, receive information on career paths, learn about co-ops, make lifelong friends, and meet students from across the U.S. It is truly a remarkable trip sponsored for more than 50 years by U.S. electric and telephone co-ops. Past participants have visited such places as Gettysburg; Arlington National Cemetery; White House; U.S. Capitol Building; Washington Monument; the Newseum; Holocaust and Smithsonian Museums; and the Iwo Jima, Lincoln, Jefferson, Korean War, Vietnam War, World War II, U.S. Marine Corps and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorials. See more details at the  Illinois Youth to Washington Tour website.