The 2011 Youth Education Summit is being held all next week. As NRAblog gears up for bringing you pictures and write-ups on the kids' activities, here's an article from the Elburn Herald on Y.E.S. participant Theo Mirkut.

Local student invited to attend NRA youth summit 

MAPLE PARK—Theo Mirkut, a Maple Park resident and junior at the Illinois Math and Science Academy, was recently selected by the National Rifle Association (NRA) as one of 45 students in the country who will partake in its National Youth Education Summit (YES) in Washington, D.C. in late June.

The trip is solely for outstanding high school sophomores and juniors. And while Mirkut is indeed an outstanding student, he also happens to be an experienced marksman, which probably didn’t hurt his cause much when it came to the NRA selecting participants for the seven-day event in the nation’s capitol.

Mirkut has been involved in shooting sports since he was in the seventh grade, beginning with small-bore Olympic rifle shooting and eventually graduating to both trap and pistol shooting. He currently holds a Bar 3 Sharpshooter qualification for small-bore rifle shooting, and a Marksman qualification in trap shooting. He also recently received certification to be an NRA apprentice rifle instructor.

“One of the things that the NRA looks for in the application are more well-rounded individuals. Part of the application was to write an essay on the Second Amendment, (and) part of the grand scholarship following the program is to conduct an educational program that teaches younger kids about firearm safety,” Mikrut said. “I can’t exactly speak on how my experiences have related directly to my selection to partake in the summit, (but) I can say, however, that my involvement in shooting sports, as well as shooting sports education, (has) contributed to what I believe was an extremely strong, well-rounded application.

Continue reading the article at the Elburn Herald's website here.