College students from around the country made the trek to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to attend campaign rallies for presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.
Sanders spoke to a packed convention center ballroom, while Clinton’s rally took place at an area high school in a full gymnasium. Both rallies played host to their fair share of avid supporters of each candidate, including college students from Iowa and around the country.
Alyssa York— Illinois State University
Alyssa York, an Illinois State University student, says she canvassed for Sanders earlier in the day before attending his rally in Cedar Rapids.
“I think I got interested in him because he wanted a political revolution and he wanted to change the way things are,” York says.
York says the issues of college tuition and debt are very important to her, and she says healthcare is also important since she will have to find her own plan soon.
William Riepe— a Kirkwood Community College
William Riepe, a Kirkwood Community College student, says Sanders’ rally was the first he had been to. Riepe says the atmosphere felt hectic because of the amount of people, but was overall positive for him. He says he supports Sanders because of his focus on fixing the issues at home first rather than abroad. Riepe says the free college education Sanders has advocated for has been one of the reasons Sanders seems like a good candidate to represent college students.
“Equal opportunity isn’t a thing until everybody has an opportunity to get equal education and get a better education,” Riepe says.
Joseph Cariz— University of Chicago
Joseph Cariz, a University of Chicago student, says he thought Clinton’s rally had a positive energy where the attendees really wanted to bring about change. Cariz says he supports Clinton because she is experienced and fights for progressive values. He says Clinton is also well qualified and knows how to work with people.
Cariz says he appreciates Clinton for addressing the issue of climate change, since he says that is an issue young people will have to deal with in the future.
“I want someone who can change things and get things done and not just talk about them,” Cariz says.
Andrew Feist— graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Andrew Feist, a recent graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, says he attended four campaign events for various candidates in 24 hours, including Clinton’s rally. Feist says Clinton’s rally had a very diverse, energetic crowd, and he says he thought the crowd resonated with Clinton because she spoke about concrete issues.
Feist says he is concerned about issues such as global health aid, foreign policy, campaign finance reform and college funding.
“I’m here with a [network] of young professionals and college students advocating for global health, and we’re trying to get candidates to commit to … training and maintaining 500,000 community health workers [and] 300,000 healthcare professionals by [the] year 2020,” Feist says.
Feist says he wants to keep candidates accountable and make sure they implement good ideas in the future. He says issues like that of global health are too important to ignore.
For more on college students perspectives of Bernie Sanders, check out Grace Buekendorf’s and Elena Bellamy’s article.