Local teen to attend governor’s inauguration

Duvelius knocked on doors, helped organize rallies and made phone calls.

LEBANON — Governor-elect John Kasich’s inauguration Monday will be a capstone event for Tyler Duvelius.

After working for several months on Kasich’s campaign in Warren County, the 17-year-old Lebanon High School senior plans to attend the oath of office ceremony and other events leading up to it.

“It will be a powerful feeling seeing Governor-elect Kasich take the oath of office,” said Duvelius, son of Mark and Carolyn Duvelius in Lebanon. “I’m glad that I had a very small part in helping achieve a new day for Ohio.”

Duvelius got involved in the campaign after he was recommended to Sherri Carbo, a volunteer who led the campaign in Southwest Ohio. Carbo said Duvelius knocked on doors, helped organize political rallies and probably made most of the estimated 200,000 phone calls to local Republican voters in the months leading up to November.

“He’s been one of our top volunteers in Warren County,” Carbo said. “I wish I could have cloned him by about 20, because he has so much energy and enthusiasm.”

While politics may be in his future, Duvelius is finding ways to be a leader already. As student council president, Duvelius sits next to Lebanon schools Superintendent Mark North during the monthly school board meetings, providing updates on student activities and achievements for the board as a student liaison.

He also serves as the Southwest Ohio vice president of the Future Business Leaders of America, which recently took him to the FBLA national conference in Washington, D.C.

Duvelius said he will skip the inaugural ball Monday night at the Columbus Convention Center because he has to study for exams in calculus and public speaking.

“I’m a high school student first,” he said, recalling advice Kasich gave him over the summer to keep his priorities straight.

Duvelius said he’s considering attending Capital University or Ohio State University, but he knows he wants to study business and political science. He said he hopes to land an internship with Kasich’s administration.

“Eventually, I want to be a politician,” he said. “I want to work for the greater good. That’s my calling in life.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4542 or rwilson@coxohio.com.

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