Youth Obama campaign launches on Penn's campus

Through the work of Penn students actively volunteering in the movement, the Obama campaign brought the first national Obama Student Summit to an audience of 400 in Houston Hall last night.

Students from Penn and other local universities like Temple, Drexel, Swarthmore and Haverford sat down to hear a panel of local students, 1979 Wharton graduate Mayor Michael Nutter, President Barack Obama’s campaign manager Jim Messina and Director of Domestic Policy Council Melody Barnes discuss campaign issues relevant to young voters.

The student summit marked the official launch of the Young Americans for Obama program, part of the Greater Together initiative.

The campaign is aggressively using social media outlets to connect to its youth voters. Obama’s young American voters’ webpage launched last week. Tonight’s event was live-streamed online via the website, and those watching from home — about 6,000 — were invited to tweet questions to the event. “Our goal is to make #greatertogether a trending topic on Twitter tonight,” Messina said.

Reagan Gomez-Preston of The Cleveland Show hosted the student summit, which also screened a short video message from President Obama and students cheered as some accomplishments — Wall Street reform, bringing home the troops, the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell — flashed across the screen.

The event unfolded as a panel discussion, where each guest student spoke about a particular campaign issue. Temple’s David Lopez spoke up about jobs. Another Temple student, Elliot Griffin, discussed health care. Penn’s Graham White — a College junior, regional director for the Obama campaign and Penn Democrats’ membership director — spoke about education.

White explained how important federal funding for higher education is to him. “The only reason I’m sitting here,” he said, “is because UPenn offered free tuition [through a grant] for me to be here.”

In between the discussions, the panel entertained questions from the crowd and via Twitter. A Swarthmore student asked about healthcare reform. “How can we get the word out [about health care] and help people understand the benefits?” he asked, adding that “the world has not ended” because of the legislation’s passage.

Barnes filled each discussion round with explanations about commonly cited but — for college students — little discussed legislation like the American Jobs Act, the Affordable Care Act and Obama’s recent executive order to put student loans on a “pay as you earn” schedule.

Student reaction to the event was generally positive.

“I was a little disappointed about the celebrity,” College freshman Keishawn Johnson said, “but I definitely feel like [the event is] something to enjoy.”

A friend had told international student Hisham Sairafi that Obama would be at the event. Although he realized he was misinformed after he arrived, the Saudi Arabia native was nevertheless glad to be at the event. “[I’m] excited. People are friendly and it’s nice to see what’s going on,” Sairafi said.

A significant number of attendees were freshmen geared up to exercise their right to vote for the first time.

Temple freshman Sean Givnish was eager to get to the polls. “It’s exciting to be involved since it’s my first time voting,” he said.

Johnson agreed. “I’m just excited to be voting for the first time.”

Almost all students present were Obama supporters, although some were keen on hearing both sides of the debate. “I’m 100 percent an Obama supporter,” College freshman Meron Zeru said. “But I appreciate [this event] because regardless of what political party you [align with], you need to be involved and informed.”

Members of the Asian Student Associations from Temple and Drexel universities made their presence seen last night. Their group of 10 or so students stood at the very front of the stage throughout the event.

“As an Asian community, [we’re seen as] passive and apolitical, so it’s really important to get the word out and show people that their vote matters,” said Temple senior Melody Lam, vice president of operations of the Asian Student Association.

“It’s all about building,” youth vote director Valeisha Butterfield said. “Today is the first of many events to come, and we want to make sure we’re building a solid campaign. The way to sustain it is through continual dialogue, bringing in senior officials to communicate directly with young people.

“There’s no better way to communicate with young people than to be in the room,” she added. “And not just talking to them, but hearing from them and [getting] their input.”

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