Cori Allen, a recent Free State High School graduate, is headed to the Democratic National Convention as a delegate.

If all goes according to plan, Cori Allen will be among the 75,000 people in INVESCO Field in Denver on Thursday, cheering on U.S. Sen. Barack Obama as he makes history and accepts the Democratic Party nomination for president.

A couple of hours later, Allen, of Lawrence, will board a flight to Boston to start her college career.

But the presidential race will not be far behind.

Allen, who last year celebrated her 18th birthday by registering to vote, has already started organizing support for Obama at her new school, Babson College.

“It’s hard for me to remember a time when I wasn’t interested in politics,” said Allen, who will be a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, which starts Monday.

Kelly Barker, who teaches history and civics at Southwest Junior High School, remembered Allen and Kate Falkenstien when they went several years ago to the University of Chicago to participate in the Model United Nations with several thousand students from across the country.

“Cori and Kate were amazing,” Barker said. “Every time I would walk in to see how they were doing, they would be hammering out some issue and then get in front of the whole council and say, ‘We need to get your support on this.'”

Allen’s enthusiasm for politics seems to be contagious.

During the presidential primaries earlier this year, lunchroom talk at Free State High School often turned to which candidate had the best health care plan, she said.

She credits Obama’s campaign style for getting young people interested in politics and the many issues that affect them.

“For the first time, there is a national-level politician who isn’t about negativity,” she said.

She said while her parents, David and Lisa Allen, have strong political opinions, they haven’t been activists, although she is working on that. She also has a 16-year-old brother, Eli, who she said is more interested at this time in art and swimming than politics.

Allen said she wouldn’t want to be a politician but believes she can do more to help society by working on public policy. That is why she is going to study social entrepreneurship at Babson. “That is a way to right the social wrongs,” she said.