Johns Hopkins student serves as DNC delegate for West Virginia

Two weeks ago, hundreds of new Johns Hopkins undergraduates experienced Baltimore for the first time during first-year orientation. But amidst all the cardboard boxes and move-in excitement, one student was missing.

Missing, that is, unless you happened to turn on C-SPAN.

"My name is Kathryn Prather," she said, hand around a microphone. "I am 18 years old, and I am the youngest delegate from West Virginia."

Instead of swapping names and hometowns with her new classmates, Prather had traveled to Chicago to serve as a delegate at the Democratic National Convention (DNC), where the party selects its presidential nominee. There, she spoke in front of thousands of audience members and millions of viewers at home, casting her state's votes for candidate Kamala Harris alongside the oldest West Virginia delegate, 83-year-old Jean Evansmore.

"It was really incredible to be in the same room as so many leaders of our nation," Prather said in an interview with the Hub. "As I've been telling my friends, I have officially breathed the same air as the Obamas, so that's incredibly exciting."

Up until last week, Prather had lived her entire life in Wheeling, West Virginia, a small city in the state's northern panhandle. She had been uninvolved in politics until her father ran for local office last year, at which point Prather started tagging along to political events.

"My parents were going to the county democratic convention," she explained. "I had zero clue that these were even being held, but they were like 'Hey, there's food.'"

Prather found herself enjoying the convention so much that she decided to run for state delegate. Then, at the state convention, she decided to run for national delegate.

"I just continually ran for the next level," she said. "I believe that young people should be involved, [so] I was like, 'Well, I guess I've got to stick to my word.'"

As she attended more conventions, Prather, who has been diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, noted how few attendees shared her identity as a young adult with disabilities. The DNC even scheduled the convention's youth meeting and disability caucus at the same time, forcing Prather to pick between the two.

But Prather focused on how crucial it was for her to be the representation she couldn't find elsewhere.

"I think it's important for people like me to be at these kinds of things," she said. "It's incredibly important that people that are not necessarily politicians be involved in the political process."

Now living on Homewood campus, Prather has finally had time to settle into her residence hall and meet her classmates. As a first-year student studying materials science and engineering, there aren't any political science classes on her schedule—though she's not opposed to the idea of taking one or two in the future.

In the meantime, Prather is content to explore Baltimore and experience the region's seafood (a novelty for someone who grew up in land-locked West Virginia). And, perhaps most exciting of all, Prather will cast her first-ever presidential ballot in November.

As someone whose political involvement has already gone above and beyond what most college students experience, Prather encourages her peers to participate in whatever way they can.

"People who are in politics actually do want to hear from you, but they don't quite want to hear from you enough that they'll invite you into the room," she said. "My advice is to just show up, and I do mean that literally. … You don't need more credentials at all."