This year's election for many college students will be infamous. The majority of college students are coming of age, and the November 8th Presidential election was their first voting experience. Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, NH had much interest in this election.
Intro To Journalism class taught by Mary Helen Gillespie took on the task of managing a pop up news room to take on this beast of an election. For months before the election the class met twice a week focusing on honing in on their journalism skills, and meeting individuals who worked in similar fields.
Weeks before election night was due to take place, Gillespie and her class started putting together a school wide logo, and social media accounts to be used in their pop up newsroom on election night. The students worked together and transformed their schools logo into a red, white, and blue feature for the event. The class also utilized Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to keep everyone up to date before, and as the night dragged on.
The night started just after 6 p.m. when the first few votes started to trickle in. Students jumped into action reporting on their individual races, the senate, the gubernatorial, as well as the 1st, and 2nd congressional races. Much of the night was spent in their pairings, each student had a partner, a race, and were sent out into the night to find fellow SNHU students to talk to about what was going on, and how they were feeling.
As life on campus at these late hours started to dwindle the students checked in on their teacher to report their findings, and then headed to the Last Chapter Pub to take in the election night scene. There they found fellow students congregating together watching the results as they changed continuously until the final votes were in.
Only a few students stayed until the bitter end, but the class worked as a team for much of the night. One of the states votes were not due to drop in until after 1 am, and these hardworking kids had early classes the next morning. I will never forget being apart of this magical night. It is a night that will go down in history, a story each of us will tell for years and years to come.
