Shannon Hubble

Dr. O’Dell

Internship

5 December 2018

Collin Warren for State House

This semester, I worked on a campaign as a field organizer for Collin Warren, who was

running for State House Representative of the 57th district. The 57th district encompasses

Delmont, Greensburg, Youngwood, New Staton, and surrounding areas. As the field organizer,

my job was to lead groups of volunteers out to canvass and phone bank. This job required me to

use much of my leadership and organizational skills that I have acquired through group work and

team activities at Seton Hill. Not only did I lead others by giving them their own lists to canvass,

but I canvassed much on my own as well. Through my time spent canvassing, I got to know the

people of the 57th district and listen to the problems they have with current state government

decisions. We did not have a set office, however, at the beginning of my internship, Mr. Warren

and I met at Panera to discuss setting up and understanding the online tools we would be using

for the campaign. I also had the great opportunity to go to Hempfield High School with Mr.

Warren to speak about the campaign and state politics in general. The students were taken aback

with how young I was and being on a campaign team. I explained to them that with the right

work ethic, anyone is capable of being in my position, or even Collin Warren’s position. With

our median campaign age of 22, we surprised the entire district with how well we did, receiving

37% of the vote in a notoriously red district that has had no competition in years.
 I learned a multitude of things through this internship that directly relate to my learning

objectives as a political science student and my potential future in politics. Before starting this

internship, I began learning about local politics in Introduction to Political Science. Learning in

class about the ways local government works is a great basis, but to really understand it, one

must apply it to the real world. I had many opportunities to apply what I have learned in class to

the real world of politics through this internship. One example is about the topic of Civil

Discourse. Arguably one of the most important parts of the Introduction to Political Science

course, we learned how to engage in civil disagreements by trying to understand, listen, and

respect one another’s opinions and personal struggles. While canvassing, we made a point to add

in some Republican doors to knock, opening the opportunity for me to engage in Civil Discourse

multiple times. Even when these few people made it clear they were not voting Democrat,

through the use of Civil Discourse, I was able to listen to their hardships they were facing in

daily life and try to guide them towards solutions, including writing to their current

representative for help. I was also able to apply knowledge of current events, tapping into my

understanding of appropriate political terminology, to both my initial interview for the position

and the discussions with constituents. Another connection between class and my internship was

when we were making lists of doors for me to knock. In class, we learned about the low

percentage of voter turnout in the United States and discussed why that might be the case.

Through creating lists in the online database we used throughout the campaign, we were able to

filter the results based on repeat or non-voters, or those who usually turnout or those who

sometimes do/never do. Because of this strategy, we were able to turn out more voters in our

district than Conor Lamb did in the special election. This was borderline our greatest
achievement throughout our work. Coming to these types of results make the countless hours of

work on our part worth it.

In conclusion, through my work as the field organizer for Collin Warren, I applied my

knowledge of current events, political terminology, and in class topics to the real world. I

discussed with constituents the hardships they were facing currently with hot topic issues such as

healthcare and the opioid epidemic. For my internship interview, I was required to give Mr.

Warren a synopsis of my understanding of local politics and my involvement in them thus far,

applying my basic knowledge of political terminology. In class, we discussed many things that I

used in this internship, some being civil discourse and voter turnout. All in all, I learned much of

this information in my Introduction to Political Science course, but had the opportunity to apply

it all to real world situations, pressuring me to further understand the topics presented. After this

internship, I do see myself in Collin Warren’s position one day and will strive to work in the

field as much as possible from now until then, gaining political experience and contacts.