Category Archives: Uncategorized

By: Sallie Hardy As I’ve previously stated, the other students who are with me on this trip are journalists and political scientists while I’m a media analyst. This doesn’t mean that I’m carefully analyzing everything being written for correctness and conciseness. That isn’t the media I study. What it does mean is that movements andContinue reading “Inflatable Snakes and Politics”

By Liz Crouse Last night, I received an email from Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s campaign entitled “The reality of being an underdog in this campaign.” This was no surprise – though he’s polling well in Iowa and New Hampshire, I’m not fooling myself into thinking his road to the presidency is a sure bet or evenContinue reading “Working for an Underdog”

By: Jack Norcross It is no secret that we as students at Elon Univeristy are extremely fortunate. It is something I think about often, but rarely am able to visualize. Yesterday, provided a perfect example of this when we visited the University of Iowa. While catching up with my former journalism summer camp teacher, weContinue reading “Recognizing privilege”

By Kara Chalifoux Who would have ever thought a J-term trip to Iowa would be a lifechanging experience. Beyond the access to some of our most admired figures in the political science and journalism industries, we have swiftly dove into a real look about what a career in one of these fields truly entails. OverContinue reading “The most important lesson from Iowa”

By: Ian Weiss When I first got into politics, I did to prove a point. To show off my wits as you may, but as I have aged I have distanced myself from the idea that politics is about being right. On the contrary, politics is about understanding. When a classmate says something I findContinue reading “Understanding Is Knowledge”

By Jon Sarver Jr. On my first blog post, I said that I wanted to become a better journalist and gain more experience on this trip, and I feel that is happening on multiple fronts. The first sign of improvement for me was political event coverage. I have experience with sporting event coverage from myContinue reading “Improvement is key”

By Kenna Cramer Ever since I heard of and applied for the Iowa program last year, I was excited. However, I did not fully believe the ‘hype’ around the program’s experience. Yes, I was excited, but no, I did not have such high expectations. I was told that I would not only gain close accessContinue reading “Once in a Lifetime”

By: Katie Zimmermann Jennifer Konfrst. Mary Mascher. Mary Gaskill. This Monday I shadowed journalism students at the Iowa state capitol who were interviewing Jennifer Konfrst, an Iowan state representative and journalism professor at Drake University. I was excited to meet a female representative but could not fathom how impactful it would be to me. AfterContinue reading “Empowered Women Empower Women”

By: Steph Attias The days leading up to the debate there was a noticeable change in the hotel atmosphere. Suddenly, there was security near our usual class meeting spot and we had to change locations. People-watching in the lobby became more interesting as Wolf Blitzer, Amy Klobuchar, Anderson Cooper, Andrew Yang, Chris Cuomo & manyContinue reading “Debate Done”