By Meg Bernhardt News-Post Staff
Andrew Pirring is soon going to find out what it's like to be the elephant in the room.
When the room is filled with donkeys. Pirring, a Frederick resident, was selected by his university to work at the Democratic National Convention and earn academic credits.
The only catch? He's a Republican.
"I'd like to go and support my own party, but going to the convention is still fun," he said.
Pirring, a junior at California University of Pennsylvania, hopes to attend law school after graduation and become an environmental lawyer. He is grateful he was given the opportunity to attend the convention by his university, he said.
For an essay to get into the program, Pirring wrote about how the Republican Party should get more involved in environmental policy. The party could lead the government to help boost a growing industry of green businesses, he wrote.
The other student from his school who was selected to go to the Republican National Convention wrote about the growing role of women in politics.
Both students are Republicans, and both topics could have been tied to the Democratic party as well. But the school had to select one for each party, so Pirring will be heading to Denver.
He's met Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and hopes he could be linked to him or another environmental activist at the convention.
The program is through the Washington Center and each student will be working with politicians or lobbyists at the convention.
They will find out when they get there who they are matched up with. In addition to helping, they will keep a journal and earn three credits.
"I wanted to learn more about how the political system works and how it really runs," he said. He caught the university's eye because he is the secretary of Cal Campaign Consultants, a student organization that leads campaigns for people running for student government.
Pirring is also active in other organizations. He is the president of the local chapter of his fraternity, Phi Gamma Delta, and has a double major in meteorology and political science.
As a meteorology major, Pirring serves on a team that makes weather predictions online and is a member of the school chapter of the National Weather Association.
He also recently went on a tour of the Midwest for a class to chase after storms like tornados.
He offer this advice to high school graduates heading off to college now:
"Work hard but have fun," he said. "It goes by faster than high school and when you come out with a diploma, it means something."
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