Scourfield McLauchlan, Incorporating Internships into Undergraduate Political Science Coursework, Page 19
of getting involved in Florida. I cannot stress how thankful I am to have been
given this unreal opportunity. There were definitely some bumps in the road along
the 10 day journey, but I feel as though my horizons have been broadened
because of this trip.
25
Resources and Logistics
Five months before the class would depart for New Hampshire, I made all hotel and
transportation arrangements. Even though there are many more hotels in Manchester than when
I first began working on presidential primaries there, early booking is a must. I was looking for a
hotel in the Manchester or Nashua regions that was easily accessible to campaign headquarters,
that had internet access for our students, and that was convenient to restaurants. We found a
reasonably priced hotel to accommodate our student group in Nashua that met these criteria. I
planned to drop all of the students off at their internship placements after we met as a seminar in
the mornings, and then asked that the campaigns take responsibility for having a volunteer or
intern drive the students back to the hotel when their shift was over.
26
Due to the nature of the course, I wanted to select the students who would participate. I
created an application package that consisted of a Road to the White House Intern Application
27
(to which students would also attach their resume), Road to the White House Contact,
28
Medical
Questionnaire,
29
Liability Waiver,
30
and the USF Overseas Study Programs Participant
25
Jolene Bussiere, Journal, 28 January 2004.
26
As it turned out, with 21 students working on 7 campaigns in 3 cities, transportation was not always so easily
arranged. In the end, the student who was producing the documentary about the class (driving around to the various
campaign headquarters to film our students in action) assisted me with shuttling our students around the Granite
State. In future, I would bring along a graduate student to assist, or I would reduce the number of students I took to
New Hampshire.
27
In addition to asking for the students’ personal information, including year, major, and GPA, I also asked the
students to describe their prior campaign experience, if any, as well as indicate which campaign they wanted to
intern for, and why. I forwarded the Intern Application and Resume to the campaigns’ internship
supervisors/volunteer coordinators when I arranged the internships on behalf of the students. See Appendix V.
28
In the contract, I asked students to initial a number of stipulations for participation in the course, including their
responsibility to pay the non-refundable course fees and my expectations for their participation in the New
Hampshire internship component. See Appendix V.
29
This form, created by the USF Study Abroad Program, provided information about the students’ medical history
that would be essential in a medical emergency. See Appendix V.
Convention