Speaker Robert DeLeo on Wednesday heaped praise on Rep. Evandro Carvalho, who is starting his first full two-year term, calling the Dorchester Democrat a "rising star."

"He's going to be a rising star in this building," DeLeo told college students gathered for a financial aid event. DeLeo said Carvalho is "very bright" and has "a great story to tell."

A Cape Verde immigrant, Carvalho worked as a janitor and at a factory before he graduated from Howard University School of Law and then prosecuted gun crimes, according to his campaign website.

"I meant that, what I said," DeLeo told reporters after the event. He said, "Once you see his appointments I think you're going to see he's a guy who's doing very well."

There are 13 positions, including powerful chairmanships, where the representative who held the post is no longer a member of the House. The appointments, which are controlled by DeLeo and his top deputies, are expected to be made at a caucus Thursday.

Carvalho won a special election last April after the House expelled former Rep. Carlos Henriquez, a backbencher whose House career ended behind bars. Henriquez was convicted of assault and battery against a woman he was dating, and he attempted to retain his seat from the Middlesex House of Correction in Billerica.

House lawmakers convened closed-door hearings with Henriquez, who then maintained his innocence in a speech to his colleagues before they voted 146 to 5 to expel him.