Youth writers win chance to participate in convention
Thirteen-year-old Kristin Turner, a seventh grader at Boston's Willauer School, will help to gavel open the second day of the Democratic National Convention next week after winning the convention committee's "Gavel in the Future" essay contest.
Turner, who lives across the street from the FleetCenter, wrote in verse about how age is not related to the ability to express opinions.
"I'm not old enough to vote, yet I am old enough to form opinions about what I see and what I would like the world to be when I do turn 18," she wrote. "To learn when to telephone elected officials, or write editors, or gather neighbors' signatures on petitions, or to hold up signs at demonstrations."
"I wanted to try to tell them that kids do have good opinions that should be listened to," the aspiring writer said in an interview.
Turner and co-winner Steven Ruperto, 18, of Moon, Pa., learned yesterday that they were chosen by online voters from a pool of 10 finalists who wrote essays discussing how political involvement can benefit the community.
Ruperto heard the good news from reporters at his local paper, whose calls preceded the official call from the committee. "Everything is a real blur right now," he said.
A graduate of Moon High School, Ruperto is headed to Westminster College in Pennsylvania this fall with an eye toward a future in politics.
For him, "going to gavel in the convention will be a once in a lifetime experience," he said.
The soon-to-be political science major said he wrote his essay in order "to convey that teenagers need to be involved in our political process because they are the key to our future."
"The community benefits because a knowledgeable teen voter will vote for the candidate who seems to care about the community most," his essay reads.
The winner of a second essay contest was also announced yesterday on MTV's "
Michael Negron of Memphis, who wrote about voter apathy among twentysomethings, will speak in prime time on the convention's opening night. The speech will be based on his essay, which warns that 18 to 25 year-olds have the most to lose, as they are the nation's soldiers, poor, and future.
The essay contests are part of a larger effort by the committee to include youth in the festivities.
