Dartmouth’s place as a stop on the first-in-the-nation primary campaign trail gives students a unique opportunity not only to meet presidential candidates of all stripes but to share their ideas and concerns with politicians who swing through the state long before the vote to test the waters for a potential candidacy.

“We’re constantly seeing a stream of candidates outside the classroom, sometimes in the classroom, and that engages students in a very practical way,” says Deborah Jordan Brooks, an associate professor of government. “They’re learning in a way here that you can’t get almost anywhere else.”

The opportunity to explore issues and policies in the classroom and then to talk with candidates during a meet-and-greet, in small groups over pizza, or at a campaign event at the Bema, opens a whole new political dimension, says Berit DeGrandpre ’20, an anthropology major.

“Dartmouth is a great place right now for testing out our political opinions, and it’s a really great place for growing, as individuals, as students, and as citizen voters,” DeGrandpre says.