TRUCKEE, Calif. — Truckee Donner Public Utility District’s Charging Futures Forward initiative focuses on supporting students in the utility’s service territory. TDPUD participates in programs at every age level of the school district, starting with elementary school field trips to headquarters, all the way up to providing scholarships to local students interested in pursuing college, trade school or vocational certifications. Read on to learn about some of the work TDPUD does with local youth. 

Truckee Elementary Annual TDPUD Field Trip 

Truckee Elementary second graders take a walk down the street to TDPUD’s headquarters every October for some educational fun with the electric, water and conservation departments. The kids rotate through three different stations to learn about the different services TDPUD provides to the community. The electric crew shows the kids how they climb poles and rappel from the line truck, and the kids get to try their hands at raising an empty tool bag up the pole using a pulley, just like the linemen do in the field. The water crew teaches the kids about the local water cycle, which involves mixing together Oreos, ice cream, gummy worms and Sprite to demonstrate the different layers of the aquifer. Conservation has the kids work off all that energy from the edible aquifer by playing games in the garden, like water leak tag. 

Truckee North Tahoe Tech Teens 

This spring, TDPUD participated in the second year of the Truckee North Tahoe Tech Teens program, where students interested in technology can get a behind-the-scenes look at the different kinds of tech that are used at local public agencies to serve the community. The goal of this program, which is a collaborative effort between eight local public agencies, is to inspire and prepare students for diverse career opportunities in the region. 

When the Tech Teens visited TDPUD in April, they were ready to learn, asking a ton of questions and engaging with the electric and water utility staff. They watched the Learn or Burn demonstration, learned how engineering is used in maintaining the electric system, got hands-on experience with water leak detection and SCADA technology, and learned about IT’s role in protecting and enabling TDPUD’s utilities. 

TDPUD Future Workforce Scholarship Program 

In 2025, Truckee Donner Public Utility District launched the TDPUD Future Workforce Scholarship Program. These scholarships target both college-bound high school seniors and local students interested in pursuing the trade and vocational skills that make electric and water utilities function. This new scholarship program is an important investment in the future workforce and TDPUD’s continued ability to serve the community. Learn more about TDPUD’s scholarship program at tdpud.org/scholarship. 

Truckee Students Create Annual Carbon Bingo Board 

Every year, TDPUD celebrates Earth Day with the Carbon Bingo contest. This fun and educational competition encourages customers to change their behaviors to live a more conservation-minded lifestyle by creating a bingo board to incentivize net carbon reduction actions. 

Local elementary school students in Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships sustainability clubs create all the bingo tile artwork. These talented young artists bring decarbonization to life with their illustrations of things the community can do to conserve energy and water, like taking shorter showers, air drying laundry and turning off lights. 

Engaging Students in the Classroom 

TDPUD staff is often invited to speak to local students or participate in their projects by lending their utility expertise when it is relevant to the topic the students are studying. 

• Loyalton High School: TDPUD visited Loyalton High School to speak with seniors who were interested in learning more about utility careers. The students heard from a panel with linemen and electrician and water crew members, who shared information about their jobs and how to get started in their lines of work. Students even got to check out some of the equipment crews use on the job. 

• Alder Creek Middle School: Last year, TDPUD teamed up with Truckee Sanitary District and Tahoe-Truckee Sanitation Agency to visit Alder Creek Middle School to teach students about Truckee’s urban water cycle. TDPUD’s Water Utility Director taught them about where their drinking water comes from and what TDPUD does to make sure they have clean, high-quality water.  

• Tahoe Expedition Academy: TDPUD’s PIO and Strategic Affairs Director was recently invited to be on a panel of judges evaluating Tahoe Expedition Academy’s senior class advocacy projects. He was tasked with giving feedback on how the ideas might fare in the real world, rooted in his expertise in government affairs. 

• Sierra Expeditionary Learning School: TDPUD was recently asked to record an episode of Sierra Expeditionary Learning School’s sixth-grade class podcast, “Kids Talk Climate.” The class is studying the physical and earth science behind climate change and invited TDPUD’s Sustainability and Resource Strategies Senior Analyst on as a guest to talk about how public utilities can help solve climate change. 

Learn more about TDPUD’s Charging Futures Forward initiative at tdpud.org/students. Interested in partnering with TDPUD for your school or community program? Contact Jillian Steward, Director of HR & Risk, at jillian@tdpud.org.