An undergraduate course offered by the Annenberg School for Communication worked to give students an inside look into this year's Democratic and Republican National Conventions.
The course, COMM 4280: “Convention, Debates, and Campaigns,” sent a delegation of its students to both the Republican National Convention in July and the Democratic National Convention in August to see firsthand the electoral process. The course is jointly taught by Marjorie Margolies — a 1963 College graduate — and David Eisenhower, the grandson of former President Dwight Eisenhower and son-in-law of former President Richard Nixon.
College senior Bella Corman served as the student leader of the course and described the course as an “unbelievable” and “once in a lifetime” opportunity.
“[The course] gives you the most in-depth experience,” Corman said. “We had full access to every day of both the RNC and the DNC conventions.”
College senior Jayde Degraff, who is also currently taking the class, echoed Corman’s statements about the exclusivity of the opportunity that the course provides.
“Hearing that this class was an option was incredible because I don’t think you would be able to get this opportunity at any other university,” Degraff said.
As student leader, Corman also had the opportunity to host a panel at the RNC that centered on Pennsylvania's importance in the 2024 election. Though Corman was supposed to host the same panel at the DNC, she said that the panel did not occur due to scheduling conflicts.
While at the DNC, students had the opportunity to attend the Pennsylvania delegation breakfast, where they heard from several prominent politicians about Pennsylvania and the stakes of the 2024 election.
“That was the most unbelievable experience because we got to meet [state Sen. Sharif] Street, firsthand. We got to see Tim Walz, the first day, the vice president nominee. We got to see Josh Shapiro, the governor,” Corman said.
Margolies spoke to The Daily Pennsylvanian about the energy at the breakfast and how the speakers encouraged the crowd to get involved.
“They all stressed the importance of Pennsylvania and how we can’t kind of assume — we can’t think that energy is going to work, we really have to get out and do stuff,” Margolies said.
Degraff mentioned how delegates at the breakfast showed their Pennsylvanian spirit through a cheer for the Philadelphia Eagles football team.
“There was a moment during the breakfast where everyone broke out into a chant for the Eagles, and I think that was also a really special moment because it showed that the people who were at the breakfast not only were there for the election, but were also there to represent their state,” Degraff said. “They just had so much pride, and it was a really cool thing to see.”
Margolies described his hope for his students to see the "underbelly" of these conventions in "real time" through the course.
Corman told the DP that the course works to give students a greater understanding of the functioning of conventions, and, in turn, electoral politics.
“I definitely think that seeing this firsthand has expanded my knowledge and all of the students’ knowledge on what one of our pivotal, sacred processes of the democratic process looks like,” she said. “I’m a person who loves democracy and loves the process, and I think there’s so many of these processes for a reason, and without teaching the generation after us how they work, they can become faded or not seem necessary. But I’m always a person who believes they’re necessary 100%.”
Degraff said that this experience helped her realize that more “regular” and “everyday people” should get the opportunity to attend these conventions.
“I think what I’ve taken away from that experience is that there needs to be more opportunities to get regular, everyday people involved and make them feel like that they have a stake in elections and in politics, and maybe that can improve voter turnout and can really just help politics feel more inclusive, as it should be, because it is for everybody,” Degraff said.
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