Never in a million years did I think I’d attend the university that has the honor of hosting the First Presidential Debate, until I enrolled at Hofstra. The 2008 and 2012 presidential debates were held at Hofstra so it seems fit that the 2016 debate will be here as well. Hofstra is the first university in history to host a debate from three consecutive election cycles. It’s a pretty big deal.
Hosting the debate brings endless opportunities and benefits to Hofstra students. The obvious being prestigious bragging rights. Not very many people get to say they attended the university to host the presidential debate and were present during all of the action. There is also a lot of free swag and who doesn’t like free stuff.
There are many opportunities to volunteer and help work on the debate. From media to general setup volunteers, hundreds of students are getting to work hands on. Then there is the ticket lottery that gives students the chance to win a ticket to actually attend the live debate on September 26, 2016. For those select lucky people, they’ll never forget this experience.
All of September leading up to the debate, Hofstra has brought in speakers and put on programs featuring politicians, media personnel, authors and other important people.
Hofstra is a big communications school and hosting the debate offers once in a lifetime experiences for many journalism, TV and radio students. Come the weekend prior to the debate, campus will be packed with different media outlets. Fox News and CNN are setting up huge stages to broadcast from right in the center of South Campus. Almost any major news organization will have at least one person on campus covering the event.
Anyone on campus has the chance to be featured on TV, interviewed by a news network and meet some pretty important people in politics and the media.
There are so many reasons why hosting the First Presidential Debate at Hofstra is an amazing honor. We will all be a part of history this September 26, 2016.