MISSISSIPPI STATE – Some of Mississippi’s top young people will experience the business world through a four-day state tour known as the 2013 4-H Cooperative Business Leadership Conference.

The conference involves the state’s 4-H Leadership Team members and this year’s 4-H Congress first-place, senior-level competition winners. In a July 16-19 bus tour that begins and ends at Mississippi State University, participants will stop along the way at business cooperatives in Mayhew, Meridian, Jackson, Greenville, Scott and Greenwood.

“We plan this tour each year to take some of Mississippi’s finest young people on a fun and educational tour of the some of the state’s businesses,” said Harvey Gordon, MSU Extension Service 4-H youth development specialist. “These young people have succeeded in 4-H, and we organize this leadership conference to broaden their horizons even further.”

The 4-H’ers will spend the first day of the conference learning about the structure and goals of business cooperatives. Participants will gain firsthand experience when they establish their own soft drink cooperative. The next two days will be spent touring eight cooperative businesses, including an electric power association, a farmers’ supply, a grain terminal and a cotton gin.

They will spend half a day in the Mississippi capital, a visit that includes an intensive legislative insight session and a tour of MSU’s Mississippi Veterinary Diagnostic and Research Laboratory.

“This conference is packed with opportunities for the young people to see working cooperatives firsthand and also to get a glimpse at how state government works,” Gordon said.

4-H is the youth development program of the MSU Extension Service, open to students who are 5 to 18. 4-H youth development opportunities are available in all 82 counties.