When you reflect upon your experience, what did you learn about campaigning, politics or political strategy?
Personal reflections
Answer each of the following two questions by composing a short essay. Be thoughtful, introspective and focused on your personal volunteer experience. Apply class concepts where relevant. Each essay should be 400-1200 words (1 – 3 pages) in length, single or 1.5 space, 12 point font. The sub-questions may guide your responses, but you are not required to answer all of them. Similarly, it is up to your discretion as to whether you follow the order of the sub-questions in organizing your thoughts.
- What did you learn about yourself? Do you think you could run for office one day? Do you think you “have what it takes” to run for office? Are there particular traits or qualities that you think is important for candidates “on the campaign trail” or staff to have? Do you think you have these traits or qualities? Do you think you might have these traits or qualities in the future?
- When you reflect upon your experience, what did you learn about campaigning, politics or political strategy?
- Did you, or the campaign, seemingly apply any lessons from the course while volunteering?
- Was there anything you learned in the course that could have helped the campaign or increased the likelihood of success of particular activities you engaged in?
- Did your experiences highlight or refute anything about politics and political strategy you learned in this class or previous classes?
- Based on your experiences, how do personal characteristics like gender, race, age or ethnicity affect campaigns and people’s judgements of candidates?
Extra Credit
On the assumption that the more you volunteer, the wider range of experiences you will have and/or the more responsibility you will be given, additional hours volunteering will also enrich your journal and evaluations, indirectly raising your grade. You will receive extra-credit for up to 12 additional hours spent volunteering on the campaign as long as you continue to maintain your journal. Each additional 3 hours will result in roughly ¼ grade increase (or 1.5 marks) up to an 81 (A-). For example: If your journal and post-campaign reflections and reactions earn you a grade of a 74 (B), three additional hours of volunteering will raise your grade to a 75.5, and three more hours will raise the grade to a B+ (77). Once you earn an 81, no extra credit will be awarded (but hopefully, you will enjoy and benefit from the extra experience).
