The New Hampshire Institute of Politics has been busy around the clock. Although we are not in election season, there is still plenty of activity going on down at the NHIOP. Students are so lucky to have such amazing opportunities on such a regular basis. The NHIOP has been hosting some pretty influential people over the past couple of weeks including New Hampshire native and Fox News Correspondent, Karl Cameron as well as the famous author and CNN Correspondent Jake Tappers. Most importantly, the Kevin Harrington Student Ambassadors are continuing with their goals as a student group on campus.
With the new changes and structure to the ambassador program, there are a lot of opportunities for students to have more of a leadership position within the program. Tara Sennick ‘14 and Jake Wagner ‘14 have been working diligently through the year to come up with some ambassador bonding events. The program has decided to create more opportunities for the members to be friends outside of working the events they do throughout the semester. As the co chairs of Promotions, Caleb Mason ’14 and Meghan Gill ‘14, have been utilizing social media to its fullest capacity to spread the word about the great events that the NHIOP has to offer. Caleb Mason shared, “Our mission is to continuous increase event attendance through public support and personal appeal and to more fully utilize the outlets available on campus”.
The Civic Engagement Committee is charged with creating more events and opportunities for students to engage politically. Karen Ejiofor ’16 and Ashley Scoville ’15 serve as the co-chairs of this committee. They have been working hard on creating more Pizza and Politics events for students. Some potential speakers they are looking into is James Pindel and former Governor John Lynch. Ejiofor and Scoville are working with their committee members to start planning and organizing citizenship week as well, which will take place in the fall. Karen Ejiofor is a newly selected chair, but she stated she loves “the ability to talk to a group of awesome people and discuss the ways we want to spread the love we have for politics to the community”.
The Community Outreach Committee is extremely active here on campus and in the community. In the past, ambassadors had participated in some community service, but Amanda Sharon ‘15 and Kelly Flathers ‘15, as the two co chairs of this committee, are creating more organized community service projects for the ambassadors. They have participated in four major community service projects as well as some smaller ones. It is important for students to give back to the community for all that it has given us.
There are over 60 ambassadors that benefit from being a member of the Kevin Harrington Student Ambassador Program. Ashley Scoville commented upon her experience as being a chair, “What I have enjoyed most about being a co-chair is the ability to help out the Institute and to be actively engaged in politics which is something I have always enjoyed”. The opportunities for student ambassadors are endless and they are so lucky to have the opportunities. Eric Hook ’16, a new member to the program this year reflected on his time so far as, “It gives us a chance to make a difference while also making a difference on yourself”!