WMNF 88.5 Sean Kinane "USF St. Petersburg Students Head to New Hampshire Primary to Work on Presidential Campaigns"

88.5 WMNF reporter Sean Kinane

Click on this link to listen to the students' interviews:

https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2020/01/26/in-tampa--michael-bloomberg-says-he-s-the-best-democrat-to-match-up-against-donald-trump-in-november-

Here are some excerpts from the WMNF website post:

USF St. Petersburg students head to New Hampshire primary to work on presidential campaigns

January 30, 2020 by Seán Kinane

  

Students from a University of South Florida St. Petersburg political science course are leaving this weekend for New Hampshire to work on political campaigns. For more than a week, they’ll get hands-on experience working for their favorite candidate in the run-up to the February 11 primary election.
Senior political science major Peyton Johnson will work for the current front-runner in New Hampshire, Senator Bernie Sanders from nearby Vermont.

“As a political science student you really appreciate a hands-on experience. And I chose the Bernie Sanders campaign because not only has he run for president before in the 2016 campaign, I am expecting a well-oiled machine when I go to New Hampshire and being a part of the first in the nation primaries it’s an incredible experience.”

The latest Real Clear Politics average of polls in the New Hampshire primary has Sanders with a nearly double-digit lead over the next tier of candidates, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren.

Senior Sarah Ortner is trying to help Massachusetts Senator Warren win New Hampshire.

“Well, it’s a combination, for me, of perception and policy. I think Elizabeth Warren is a very unifying figure but she also has a lot of really good plans. Especially, considering the student debt relief. And just the way that she speaks is very unifying and very inspiring.”

So, what will these students be doing in the cold New Hampshire winter? Sydney Snyder is a poly sci major and French minor.

“There’s not exactly a set plan for everybody. It’s going to really be different every day because of just the nature of the job. But I know we’re going to be doing a lot of canvasing, phone banking just kind of introductory political campaign stuff. But yeah it’s really going to be totally different with every candidate. So I’m really excited to see all the differences and the different experiences we have.”

Snyder will be campaigning in New Hampshire for Andrew Yang.

Manuel Rodriguez is a first-year poly sci student who will work for the person polling in second place in New Hampshire, former Vice President Joe Biden.

“And the reason that I have stuck with the Biden campaign so long is because his message has been the same since the beginning. He is trying to restore the soul of this nation and in this very divisive nature of our political system. He has been around for a long time which some say is not a good thing but I think is a good thing because he understands how people work. He knows how to bring people together and I think he is the future of this country.”

On the Republican side, President Trump is expected to easily win the primary, but Maria Starr will still work on his campaign in New Hampshire. She’s a junior majoring in poly sci and minoring in communications.

“I’m looking forward to it, I voted for him in 2016. When I voted for him I didn’t have a college education I just kind of did not want to vote for Hillary Clinton and when I started college I had a really really cool professor who was a 2-star general who also worked in the White House and he was my American government professor. He really elaborated so much in the American government and the structure and he was also a Trump supporter. He kind of inspired me to follow his views because how he elaborated on the subject and I have been doing my own research and I’ve been really seeing what Trump is doing specifically with sex trafficking on the south border. I am a very big advocate in its prevention so I’m really looking forward to what will happen in the future.”

The university is supporting the effort for the students to work on the presidential primary campaign in New Hampshire. Magali Michael is Dean of Arts and Sciences at USF St. Petersburg.

“It’s fantastic, I mean it’s giving the students the ultimate educational experience in civic engagement. I mean they’re going to be there and working over 12 hours a day for 10 days and getting a real sense of how politics work in our country basically, so I think it’s fabulous. Their instructor puts hours and hours of planning into this and students are so excited that we had to raise the cap of the class from 20 to 30… 29 are going. Because obviously it would be a little easier with 20 but the demand was so high and I think there may have been a few that wanted to go who weren’t able to go.”

Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan. By Seán Kinane / WMNF News (30 Jan. 2020).

The professor of the course is Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan. The students are blogging. You can read it here. And here is a link to the course blog.
Halley Hobbs is a political science major who will work for Pete Buttigieg.

“Well I went into this a Biden supporter and then after every single debate there was it was Pete Buttigieg who had impressed me more than anybody else on the stage. I am just very impressed by the way he talks on stage but also I’ve watched him in town halls and how he’s talked to people and the different grassroots organizations that his campaign has done and it’s just very impressive… and I am optimistic that he’s the main underdog in this campaign but he’s still in the top 4. So it’s going to be exciting to see it first hand in New Hampshire.”

 Senior political science major Samantha Fiore is campaigning for Amy Klobuchar in New Hampshire.

Another Elizabeth Warren supporter is Noah Miller, who is a senior psychology majo

WMNF intern Emma Friedman contributed to this report

USFSP's website article: "Road to the White House Internship Places Students with Presidential Primary Campaigns during Critical Juncture of Primaries"

USF St. Petersburg students head to New Hampshire primary to work on presidential campaigns

Road to the White House Internship Places Students with Presidential Campaigns during Critical Juncture of Primaries

During The Road to the White House, students will phone bank and canvas for their chosen candidate.

(Jan. 29, 2020) – On Sunday, February 2, students from USF St. Petersburg will travel to New Hampshire for The Road to the White House 2020, a 10-day internship that offers them the opportunity to participate in presidential primary campaigns. Twenty-nine students will contribute to eight campaigns leading up to the nation’s first primary.
“I’ve organized an ambitious itinerary,” said Dr. Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan, a Professor of Political Science who first launched the program in 2004. “This will include meetings, field trips and guest speakers in the mornings. Then, students will work with their campaigns from around lunch time until the wee hours of the morning.”
Students will perform tasks like canvassing and phone banking during this critical juncture on the campaign trail. However, Scourfield McLauchlan stressed that they should be ready to improvise and adapt as the race develops.
“What I’m trying to have everyone mentally prepare for is that this is the last final push before the primary,” she said. “They should assume that during the internships they will primarily be asked to ‘get out the vote.’”
The New Hampshire internship is paired with a course about presidential campaigns and elections. During the course, students are each assigned an essay looking at a particular candidate’s campaign. However, they were allowed to choose which the campaign they contribute to in New Hampshire.

Students will spend 10 days in New Hampshire during the internship.

“If you’re going door-to-door in the snow for hours or standing on a corner holding a sign in freezing temperatures, I want you to believe in the candidate and their message,” Scourfield McLauchlan said.
For Noah Miller, a senior psychology major who will be working with Elizabeth Warren’s campaign, The Road to the White House offers “the epitome of experiential learning,” he said. “It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be able to learn the history and politics of presidential elections while also being in the field canvassing for the candidate I believe in.”
Peyton Johnson, a senior political science major campaigning for Bernie Sanders, said, “Grassroots organizing is the future of politics. I hope to gain not only a clearer understanding of the dedication it takes to run for president, but an experience that sets me apart from my peers.”
An interest in speech writing inspired Caitlin Crowley, a sophomore political science major also campaigning for Sanders, to join the course. “While on this trip, I hope to be exposed to other writers collaborating to build the best platform for their candidates,” she said. “I’ve always heard stories about speech writers in the White House editing and revising statements up until seconds before the president delivers the message to the rest of the nation. I’m curious what that process looks like.”
This is the fifth Road to the White House program Scourfield McLauchlan has organized since 2004, and her largest class to date. In 2016, the class had the opportunity to meet with candidates such as Governor Jeb Bush, Senator Marco Rubio, candidate Donald Trump and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at campaign events. McLauchlan plans to include a few candidate events on the 2020 New Hampshire Itinerary.
The 2020 Iowa caucuses will take place on Monday, February 3 – just two days after students arrive in New Hampshire.
“We’ll be there just before and after the Iowa caucuses, and that can really impact the race,” said Scourfield McLauchlan. “What happens in Iowa will affect things moving forward, so the dynamics of the race may change while we’re there.”
It’s this dynamism and sense of urgency that makes The Road to the White House such a thrilling experience to be a part of, said Scourfield McLauchlan,
“It’s just electrifying,” she said. “If you’re interested in politics and campaigns, there’s just no substitute. Students come away with a real appreciation for New Hampshire and its role as the first primary. It’s a high intensity environment and the stakes are extraordinarily high. There’s a lot of pressure but at the same time it’s an exciting pressure.”

Bay News 9 Political Reporter Mitch Perry Interviews USFSP students before we leave for New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary #FITN #RTWH2020

Veteran political reporter Mitch Perry interviewed our Road to the White House students before they departed for New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary.

You can watch the Spectrum Bay News 9 video here

https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/community/2020/01/28/usfsp-students-to-travel-to-new-hampshire-to-work-with-primary-candidates-

USFSP Students To Travel to New Hampshire to work with Primary Candidates

By Mitch Perry Florida
PUBLISHED 4:45 PM ET Jan. 28, 2020 UPDATED 1:44 PM ET Feb. 02, 2020

USFSP Students To Travel to New Hampshire to work with Primary Candidates

By Mitch Perry Florida
PUBLISHED 4:45 PM ET Jan. 28, 2020 UPDATED 1:44 PM ET Feb. 02, 2020

USFSP Students To Travel to New Hampshire to work with Primary Candidates

By Mitch Perry Florida
PUBLISHED 4:45 PM ET Jan. 28, 2020 UPDATED 1:44 PM ET Feb. 02, 2020

USFSP Students To Travel to New Hampshire to work with Primary Candidates

By Mitch Perry Florida
PUBLISHED 4:45 PM ET Jan. 28, 2020 UPDATED 1:44 PM ET Feb. 02, 2020

WMNF's Sean Kinane Interviewing USFSP Road to the White House 2020 students prior to NH departure

As we met for the last time on the USF St. Pete campus before heading to New Hampshire, several

Pictured below: Students had the opportunity to speak with 88.5 WMNF reporter Sean Kinane about their expectations for the presidential campaign internship in advance of the first-in-the-nation primary.

The link to the audio is here


https://rtwh2020.blogspot.com/2020/02/wmnf-885-sean-kinane-usf-st-petersburg.html

interviewing Dean Michael

ABC Action News -- WFTS Tampa Bay -- stops by the USFSP Road to the White House 2020

WFTS - our Tampa Bay ABC Action News station - came by to meet with students before we left for New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary.

https://www.abcactionnews.com/

Did you know that every student in USFSP Road to the White House 2020 RTWH2020 will be blogging?

In addition to this course blog, which will describe activities of the class as well as highlight the students work on 8 campaigns in 3 cities.  Each of the 29 students will also be blogging and posting photos.

You can find links to each of the blogs on our course website:

https://www.usfsp.edu/road-to-the-white-house/2020-student-blogs/

Students will begin blogging in earnest once we are up in New Hampshire.

The First in the Nation New Hampshire Presidential Primary - Coming soon in 360 degrees! Thanks to OLITS at USFSP

We have a fabulous distance learning team in our Online Learning and Instructional Technology Services (OLITS).

The Director - David Brodosi - has done an amazing job with developing distance learning and all things tech-related to improve instruction on our campus (e.g., he and his team helped me develop my American Government class online - see

JSM's article in the eJournal of Public Affairs: "Civic Engagement in the Online Classroom"

and, going even farther back, David helped me set up my first iPad (!)

After our class (which, when we are on campus, meets in the new STEM lab in Heller Hall) we met with David to get a tutorial in how to use the 360 degree camera.

Stay tuned for videos from the first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire - that are 360 degrees!

This is the 5th time I have taught this quadrennial course, and so much changes with each election cycle. I first taught this course before facebook and before twitter and before instagram. 

Now for the 2020 course, my students will "take over" the "I Am USFSP" instagram account.  (More on that in a separate post)

I appreciate OLITS and the work that is being done to keep us up-to-date on the latest technology.  I am looking forward to seeing how this new camera helps us to communicate with you (more intensely) about what we are doing and learning in New Hampshire.


 

when you download the app on your phone, then you can see the videos the camera is recording - and save and share them from there