Teacher hopes students learn from his delegate experience

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DENVER – One year ago, Dorian De Long stood in front of his civics class and had realization. In some way, he says that contributed to him being a national delegate at the Democratic National Convention.

"One of the things that you know really struck me about the students I had last year, kind of their level of almost apathy really when it came to talking about U.S. government," said De Long, a social studies teacher at Thornton High School.

De Long says that motivated him to get involved in his congressional district's convention and run to become a national delegate.

"I really wanted to show them that they can make a difference," said De Long. "They can make a change and they just needed to participate."

Little did De Long know that people campaigned to get those positions. He said other delegate hopefuls were handing out buttons and brochures, while all he did was give a 10 second speech at the Democratic convention for the 7th Congressional District.

"I think it was little less than 10 seconds because that was all we were allotted, yeah," said De Long. "I said my name is Dorian De Long. I'm a social studies teacher and I'd like this opportunity to show my students, yes, they can make positive change in our democracy."

De Long says it was moving enough to get him elected as a national delegate and he is making the most of his opportunity – mostly for his students. In addition to taking part in DNC business, De Long is volunteering his time planting trees and taking in political art shows.

He is blogging about his experience for his students as well as answering their questions by email. De Long is also writing for whenhistoryhappens.org. When he gets back to school, he wants to make sure his students understand that participation is a big part of politics.

"Creating a piece of artwork, that's just as important and just as valid as doing volunteer work, just as important as voting," said De Long. "It's still taking part of the process."

His students say reading their teacher's blog is inspiring and eye-opening.

"I read it and I thought it was interesting, like why he was there," said Austin Falcon, a freshman at Thornton High School. "I think it's an important thing to life that you need to participate on as much things as you can."

Matt Hong is looking forward to having his questions answered in person when De Long returns to class.

"I didn't really care about politics very much," said Hong, another freshman at Thornton High School. "He's changing my mind, too."

De Long says that's why he's a delegate, so he can show his students that by doing not just speaking, you can contribute to democracy.

"Point out to them and show them that you know, hey, a 10 second speech and there I was on the floor participating in this and that's all it takes," said De Long. "You don't need to be well connected, you just need to get out there and participate."