USFSP students Kristina Sonstroem (left) and Victor Sims (right) pose with former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and a cardboard cutout of Hillary Clinton.
During the whirlwind 10-day adventure to New Hampshire, two USFSP students posed with a cardboard cutout of Democratic contender Hillary Clinton and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who was campaigning for Clinton.
Donald Trump holds up a USFSP T-shirt at his rally at Bay Community College in Portsmouth, N.H., on Feb. 4.
The students got close to several of the candidates, including Donald Trump, who posed for a photo holding up a USF St. Pete T-shirt.
They have manned phone banks, gone door-to-door in countless neighborhoods, gotten front seats at candidate appearances and posed for photos with Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton.
And some of them have seen snow for the first time.
For more than a week, New Hampshire has been the epicenter of the 2016 presidential campaign, more than 20 students from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg have been in the middle of the action.
Under the direction of political science professor Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan, the students have worked in the campaigns of seven of the candidates seeking a strong showing in Tuesday’s important New Hampshire primary.
McLauchlan, herself a veteran of several campaigns, has led this class every four years since 2004. She and the students move quickly from class seminars and field trips to campaign events.
They have even made news themselves. They appeared in the campaign coverage of the New York Times, CBS News, News Channel 8 in Tampa, the Miami Herald, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and other news outlets.
This is what some of the students have posted on the blogs they are maintaining during the 10-day internship.
Samantha Kendall, Bernie Sanders campaign
So we were minding our own business, working in our mini office, when there was a knock at the door. It was a reporter and photographer from the New York Times there to interview us about working on the campaign.
It was absolutely insane. The NEW YORK TIMES WAS INTERVIEWING ME. It was the greatest moment of my life. And then a TV crew and a reporter from (the cable TV network) Al Jazeera America popped into the room and interviewed us some more. Oh, and then CBS News dropped by after that for some more interviews.
After CBS, a reporter from a local New Hampshire paper stopped by as well, followed by some really cool guys from an organization called HeadCount. They are a nonprofit organization that travels all over the United States to different concerts and events and registers people to vote!
There are also some really cool people working in our office. We’ve got a couple of Aussies, we met a Panamanian, and we also have a refugee from Sudan as one of our supervisors. Probably the most diverse political campaign office that has ever existed, ha ha.
Antonio Permuy, Hillary Clinton campaign
It’s been a while since I last had to canvass, and today was a little more challenging because we had to go knocking on doors in the rain.
However, any time it got difficult, I just remembered Hillary’s energy and drive from the day before and her overall perseverance in the past, and I got through it.
Our office has a simple sign on the ceiling that reads, “Call by call, knock by knock, inch by inch,” which really captures the spirit and tone of the closeness of this race and how hard-fought it will be ….
Hillary herself is keenly aware of this and that major, lasting progress is rarely achieved through a short burst or swell of revolution, but rather a series of carefully and patiently taken steps that are regularly tended to and followed up with over time.
I’m proud of my work, proud of my candidate, and see my own goals being projected by and through her. I really do feel a connection with her and identify with her and her ability to endure anything, bounce back and keep standing through it all.
Courtney Fornof, Marco Rubio campaign
It has been an early and exciting morning! We departed our hotel at 6 a.m. to attend a town hall for Marco Rubio in Bow, New Hampshire.
Sen. Rubio is a great public speaker and is very good at connecting with his audience on a personal level. He was generous enough to take the time to answer audience questions, and I was lucky enough to sit in the front row and take it all in.
Something I especially love about Rubio is that he isn’t afraid to talk off script, and he is clear on the ideas he is planning to bring to the presidency.
I encourage you all to research and watch some of his speeches. He really is a great and motivating speaker.
Salvador Encinas, Ted Cruz campaign
We got up really early (to get to) Sen. Marco Rubio’s town hall event in Bow. For me, it was the first time (seeing) a sitting U.S. senator!
After the town hall, we were dropped off at our campaigns. At the Cruz HQs, I phone banked for several hours until I and the other volunteers helped in Sen. Cruz’s town hall event in Nashua.
It was a great pleasure for me to shake hands and have a picture with a potential president of the United States!
Emily Hughes, Jeb Bush campaign
USFSP students Emily Hughes (left) and Sarah Adams (right) with Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush.
To say that yesterday was incredible would be an understatement …. (At the Bush campaign headquarters) we spent a few hours (phone) banking and helping get things set up around the office …
Around 4 p.m. we were told the boss was coming in. And that’s when the office went into hyper mode. Everyone was frantically making calls, looking productive and anxiously awaiting the governor (Bush) to come in.
Once he arrived he took the time to personally thank each of the volunteers and shake their hands….
Later that evening at dinner, my friends began to blow up my phone. It appears I had made the cover photo of online magazine BuzzFeed!
