The Manhattan Optimist Club’s Manhattan High School student of the month is Sam DeLong son of Dr. Rob DeLong and Dr. Belle Federman of Manhattan.
Sam is very active in speech and debate at MHS. He received the level of premier distinction with the National Speech and Debate Association merit program. He is a three-year qualifier to the National Speech and Debate Tournament in five speech debate events. Sam is also a National Individual Events Tournament Champions octafinalist and a Sunflower Novice Open Invitational qualifier.
Sam is also involved in choir and musical theatre. He is a member of the Manhattan High School Chamber Choir. He has had roles in several MHS theatre productions including Disney’s “Newsies” in 2018 and “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” in 2020. He has participated in theatre dating back to third grade including community theatre and school productions.
Sam is politically active. He is the founder of the Manhattan High School Democrats and has served as president of the MHS Democrats interest group and club.
His future plans are focused on being a lawyer, a political analyst or possibly a statistician. No future school has been selected.
The Manhattan Optimist Club’s student of the month is designed to recognize Manhattan High School seniors that make a difference in their community through volunteerism and leadership activities that have a positive impact on MHS and/or the Manhattan community. The goal of the program is to inspire and encourage youth to get involved in their community in an effort to benefit others.