From left to right, William Washington, Lisa Femia, Vaniah Temple and Lamonte Pryor, winners of a voting rights youth essay contest who traveled to Denver to attend the DNC with the D.C. delegation.

The youngest members of the District of Columbia’s contingent at the Democratic National Convention had to do more than be loyal Democratic Party stalwarts to gain access to the Pepsi Center — they had to put pen to paper to convince local party officials they deserved a trip to Denver.

About 15 D.C. high school students applied to an essay contest put together by Democratic Party activists Jeffrey Richardson and Sheila White, and four winners were selected: Vaniah Temple, a sophomore at School Without Walls; Lamonte Pryor, an ’08 graduate of Coolidge High School who starts at Temple University this fall; Lisa Femia, a junior at Wilson High School; and William Washington, an ’08 graduate from Wilson who is heading to Catholic University. All four are actually skipping the first week of school to attend the convention and canvass young people to educate them about D.C.’s voting rights cause, but unsurprisingly, they don’t seem too worried about it.

“Our teachers just said that it’s a neat thing for us to do, and that they’re jealous,” Temple said.

The foursome have been spending their time passing out voting rights literature in front of meetings of the Youth Caucus, where they say they’ve found younger people who seem more interested in D.C.’s struggle to gain congressional representation. And in a larger sense, all four agree that even if young can’t yet vote, it’s never too early to get involved.

“It’s important for the youth to be here, so that they have a voice in the next election,” Washington said.