University of Texas at Austin alum Alejandra Salinas is valuable to this year’s Democratic National Convention for several reasons.

One is that she’s the first Latina elected national president of the College Democrats of America. Two is at the age of 22, she reflects the youth vote. Three, she’s gay. And if you don’t know much about politics, that’s a valuable combination. So valuable, in fact, that Selinas will be delivering a speech in front of the DNC tonight before President Obama takes the stage.

The former Longhorn, who now attends law school at Boston College, got her start in high school when she organized a walkout in her predominately Hispanic high school to protest immigration reform in 2006. Once she was accepted into the McCombs School of Business, she became involved with the Texas College Democrats, and in her junior year was named by Politics Daily’s The Cram as one of Five Rising Stars Age 25 and Under.

Since Monday, Salinas has spent her days at the DNC running between speeches, panels and news interviews talking up President Obama, and why the youth and Latino vote matter in this election. She told USA Today:

"My message, and what I can speak best to, is the role of young people in the party," she says in an interview between a caucus speech and a TV interview. "What the president has done for my generation and what we're going to do for him."

Salinas also told Politico that issues such as college affordability, immigration, the DREAM Act, and same-sex marriage, are ones that most young Americans agree with President Obama on. Politico quoted Salinas saying:

“They said the word youth a lot at the [Republican National] convention. And it’s really nice symbolism to say the word, but I think it’s very much like ‘The West Wing’: What are the next five words after that? And the next five words are policies that are detrimental to our generation.”

When countered with the question of whether or not President Obama has lost the youth vote since his 2008 campaign, Salinas said in an interview with PBS that “there's going to be over 1,200 youth delegates [at the state convention]. That's an incredible number and a really great example of how energized young people are about this president.”

Salinas did not respond to interview requests by The Horn. However, on Sept. 3 she tweeted:

“I'm so excited to share at the @DNCYouthCouncil that I will be speaking at #DNC2012 on Thursday evening at Bank of America Stadium.”