Last year, Rukaya Alrubaye of Fayetteville attended Youth Tour in Washington, D.C., as a representative of Ozarks Electric Cooperative. In May, she got a chance to return, this time as the national youth spokesperson for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) and a guest of the White House.
“I am very grateful and honored to have had this experience,” Rukaya says.
Along with Jim Matheson, CEO of NRECA, Rukaya and her father, Dr. Adnan Alrubaye, attended the launch event for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) and Empowering Rural America (New ERA) programs, funded by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The programs make nearly $11 billion in grant and loan opportunities.