Northeastern Illinois University freshman Ophelia Alvarez has been selected as a College Debate 2016 Delegate and will attend the 2016 College Convention from Sept. 9-11 at Dominican University California in San Rafael.
Alvarez, who plans to pursue a degree in Education, already attended June training session in San Rafael to organize issue-focused events and outreach at their universities. The programming will focus on promoting civil discourse, understanding responsible digital citizenry, and avoiding stereotypes and assumptions while focusing on the issues rather than party politics.
“I feel very fortunate to have been selected to represent Northeastern,” Alvarez said. “The application process was very intimidating, but I can understand why. They definitely wanted students who are serious not only about politics but taking the steps to help their community.”
This September convention will provide a forum for focused discussion on national youth issues. The culminating event includes a 90-minute moderated town hall meeting, which will be streamed live to delegates’ home universities across the country.
The final product will be a memo to the moderators of the 2016 Presidential Debates that will contain specific questions the College Delegates want the candidates to address.
“One thing I am really excited about is to have people from different parties say why they support the party that they belong to and why they don’t listen to each other,” Alvarez said. “It is important to know that we are all human and want the same thing most of the time.”
The College Debate initiative was created by Dominican University of California, a Voter Education Partner of the Commission on Presidential Debates to provide forum for focused discussion on national youth’s issues.
