The deadline to apply for this year's Youth Education Summit is February 1 — less than a week away.

Interested in visiting the Nation's Capital? Felt the need to develop a greater understanding and appreciation for the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the workings of the federal government? If you're a high school sophomore or junior in good academic standing, you shouldn't pass up the opportunity to become part of the NRA's Youth Education Summit (Y.E.S.).

Open only to sophomore or junior students, Y.E.S. is a once in a lifetime, seven-day, all-expense-paid leadership week in Washington, DC, featuring tours of the U.S. Capitol, National Archives Museum, Pentagon, NRA National Firearms Museum and more.

Y.E.S. also features opportunities to earn scholarships.

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Our series of reports from NRA Youth Hunter Education Challenge (YHEC) Program Coordinator Susan Hill continues this week with a look at an event for homeschoolers in Oklahoma. Despite heavy rains, the group enjoyed their first YHEC event and look forward to holding another one this year. Thanks for the report and photos, Susan!  

The Altus, Oklahoma YHEC event was held on October 8th, 2011 at the home of one of the families from the Altus CHESO homeschool group. Their 80-acre farm was a great place to set up the Hunter Safety Trail and ranges for both Rifle and Archery. Rachael Bender served as the Coordinator for the event and recruited 18 volunteers and 30 participants.

Carey Pribil and Lindell Newman with the Oklahoma State YHEC program volunteered to help and drove more than three hours to bring a trailer of YHEC equipment to the event. Greg Sexton, a Game Warden from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife and Conservation came to the event and helped run the Hunter Safety Trail.

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At yesterday's Media Day, the NRA's Youth Programs booth had some special visitors stop by, four of the 2012 Brownells/NRA Youth Ambassadors. Olivia Cashman from the NRA, Brandy Drozd from USA Shooting, Jared Hill from the Royal Rangers and Jesse Rogers from the National High School Rodeo Association greeted members of the media as they made their way into the Boulder Pistol, Shotgun and Rifle Club for the 2012 Media Day at the Range.

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We’ve got another report and photos from Susan Hill, our Youth Hunter Education Challenge (YHEC) Program Coordinator. Susan has been hard at work this year helping groups in the Midwest start local YHEC events as part of the NRA YHEC Mid-America Expansion Project, sponsored by Midway USA.

Many states in the Midwest saw first time YHEC events being held, including Missouri. Here are Susan’s report and photos from an event in Warrensburg.

Our September 24 YHEC event was held at the University of Central Missouri Shooting Range in Warrensburg, Missouri. It was attended by 10 participants from the Johnson County Shooting Sports Club, led by Jeannie McClymond.

The Missouri Department of Conservation has helped develop the range, which is staffed by University employee Mike Busekrus. Mike made sure the range was in full operation with the assistance of graduate student Darren Doherty.

The Old Drum 1374 Detachment Marine Corps League from Warrensburg provided seven volunteers to help run the Shotgun Event. Other events held included Archery, Hunter Safety Trail, and Wildlife Identification.

Mike is planning a Spring Outdoor Youth Camp to be held at the range and will include YHEC as part of the camp.

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Here is another report and photos from Youth Hunter Education Challenge (YHEC) Program Coordinator Susan Hill on another successful YHEC event held this fall as part of the YHEC Mid-America Expansion Project, sponsored by our friends at Midway USA. This YHEC, held in Missouri, offered the Archery, Shotgun, and Wildlife Identification events to the over 40 participants, making this a very successful first-time event. Here's what Susan had to say about the Apple Creek YHEC event:

The Apple Creek Youth Hunter Education Challenge was held September 10, 2011 in Fruitland, Missouri at the Apple Creek Shooting Range. Apple Creek is a Missouri Department of Conservation range, but is staffed privately by the Apple Creek Gun Club. Grant Gillard is the President of the club and he, along with Vice President Alice Ireland, worked to run the Shotgun event. Grant and Alice were very instrumental in putting on this extremely successful event.

Greg and Alison Staggs were great Event Coordinators and made sure that they had a large group of volunteers from the Lynwood Baptist Homeschoolers group available to help run the event. There were 44 participants with 14 volunteers and Greg and Alison are working toward increasing their numbers for their 2012 YHEC events at Apple Creek. More...

Heading out west to the NRA Whittington Center in Raton, New Mexico is always one of the highlights of my year, so for my "honorable mentions" for top stories of 2011, I decided to go with two seperate events that took place this summer amidst the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

I've already used the winners of the 2011 NRA Youth Hunter Education Challenge (YHEC) as my #3 story of the year, but there's one part of YHEC that everyone looks forward to - especially the participants. Although the bulk of the competition at YHEC takes place on the range or in the woods, it's the annual Tug of War that really gets the competitive juices flowing.

This year, I was able to capture it on film and watch as the teams were narrowed down to the final two team in each category. In the end, the Junior Team from Forbush, North Carolina, the ladies from New Mexico, and the Hempstead Swamp Donkeys Senior Team won their brackets, respectively, earning them Cabela's gift cards, a pretty awesome trophy, and bragging rights for the next year.

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Kyle's Story #1 from 2011 - Youth Wildlife Art Contest

The George Montgomery/NRA Youth Wildlife Art Contest requires a considerable amount of time; time for those who enter it and time for those who manage it. Personally, it eats up a good portion of my time during the fall. And on another front, it provides a stark contrast between the long hours hunkered down at my desk overseeing the contest with the busy travel schedule of spring and summer. That's why my number one story from 2011 – and probably my favorite event of the year – is the Youth Wildlife Art Contest.

I started working for the NRA in the fall of 2008. By then, the year's contest was well underway. Thrust into a room stacked high with crates of unopened envelopes, I was tasked with cataloging each and every entry in preparation for judging. The hours were long and the papercuts many, but everything was eventually sorted and looked very impressive when all was laid out for our panel of judges; a collage of North American wildlife.

Thankfully I wasn't asked to judge as narrowing down the artwork to determine a winner appeared to be impossible. Some entries stood out due to their technical superiority, but I would have considered more. After spending so much time cataloging the entries and speaking with parents and students, I understood how much hard work went into each and every piece of art. There is no way I could have been objective.

"That's the girl who asked if she should do watercolor or pencil," I would think to myself when reviewing the art. "There's the boy who wanted to know if armadillo was huntable" or "I snagged my finger on a staple from that student's packaging." A connection had been created with each entry.More...

Each summer, I look forward to attending the NRA International Youth Hunter Education Challenge (YHEC) for a variety of reasons, but mainly because I get to spend time with the participants and their families. This summer, we found ourselves back at the NRA Whittington Center in Raton, New Mexico for the 2011 YHEC. Hundreds of young hunters and their families traveled from all across the country to compete in a series of eight events designed to test hunting skills and knowledge. While I am always impressed by the abilities of our YHEC participants, each year I am blown away by their dedication, commitment, sportsmanship, and their desire to preserve the sport of hunting.

It's no wonder why these young people are so incredible - talk to any of the parents and coaches that accompany them and you'll see the same dedication and positive attitudes in the adults who help these young hunters become skilled hunters and exceptional leaders. This year, participants from North Carolina, Oregon, and Louisiana dominated the leaderboard, taking home top honors in both the Individual and Team categories in the Junior and Senior age groups.

I choked up several times during the awards ceremony - not because of the excitement on the winners' faces, but because of the pride shown by the parents and coaches. Tears of joy streamed down their faces as they watched their children accept the awards they had worked so hard to acheive. Photographing them proved difficult as I could barely see through my own tears.

In the fours years I've been to YHEC, I've been able to watch these kids grow and mature as people and as hunters, seeing their skills develop year after year. Because of this, seeing the winners from 2011 accept their awards was moving for me because of all of the hard work they and their parents, coaches, and communities put in each year. It's something that I've discussed with the families from Louisiana, Oregon, and particularly the Efird family from North Carolina. 

In 2010, Hunter Efird from North Carolina was the top Junior individual, and in 2011 I was able to watch him win again in the Senior category. One of my favorite photos that I've taken in my career is that of Hunter and his father embracing following his win in Raton this summer. As I interviewed Hunter and the other winners and coaches, it was apparent that everyone wanted to acknowledge that hard work and practice pay off, and that it takes a group of people to come up with a win.

If that's the truth, then everyone who participated at YHEC this year was a winner, because if anyone knows the meaning of dedication and hard work, it's the people in our YHEC family.  

Narrowing down my top 5 stories of 2011 has been no piece of cake. 2011 has been a busy year for the programs of General Operations, making the year fly by and giving me too many options to choose from. So, when choosing my #5 and #4 top stories of 2011, I decided to pick a milestone for our organization and a homecoming of sorts.

Kerrin's Story #5 from 2011: NRA turns 140

Birthdays are a big deal, but having the NRA turn 140 years old in 2011 is pretty incredible. In those 140 years, the NRA has grown and evolved from an organization created to improve military marksmanship to the world's leader in firearms training, shooting sports programs, and the primary defender of Americans' right to keep and bear arms.

The history of the NRA is rich with some of the same traditions we still take part in today. Instead of Long Island's Creedmoor Range or the fields of Sea Girt, New Jersey, competitors now flock to the ranges of Camp Perry on the shores of Lake Erie for the National Matches.

The focus of the NRA has also expanded from just marksmanship and competition to include many other aspects of the shooting sports. We've grown from having 200 boys competing in 1906 to reaching millions of children each year through programs designed specifically for youth.

 Women have also become an integral part of the NRA through our Women's Programs Department and programs designed by women, for women. NRA also works tirelessly to defend the rights of hunters across the country and provides programs to encourage hunting, especially among youth.

I could write a entire post about how the NRA has evolved, but for now I'll just stick to wishing the NRA a very happy 140th birthday and toasting to another 140 more.

I've said that Camp Perry is an almost a magical place. The ranges seem alive with history when you think of how many shooters walked up to the firing line and competed side by side for more than a century. That's why I was so excited for the 2011 National Junior Air Gun Championship & Training Summit to return to Camp Perry this summer. Over 230 young people traveled from as far as Hawaii, California, and Alaska to compete against the best junior air gun competitors in the country.

But this year's competition had some international flavor when a group of competitors from South Africa made the journey to Northern Ohio to compete against their American counterparts. That meant that young shooters from all over America and even the African continent would get a chance to compete on the grounds of Camp Perry and be a part of America's competitive shooting history.

Throughout the event, these young people got a chance to not only compete, but to connect with old friends and make new ones along the way. They also got a chance to leave the firing line for classroom training thanks to the Training Summit. During specialized training sessions, these young competitors learned about various topics including fitness, nutrition, how to keep a shooting journal, collegiate shooting programs and other shooting sports opportunities available to youth. But what I found most intriguing was how the American shooters connected with the young people from South Africa. From questions about competition, to culture, and even about food, the competitors from both countries bonded over their sport.