By Lexie Schapitl

@lexieschapitl

Senior staff writer

With the 2016 elections approaching, four University of Maryland students will be taking off the fall semester to work as organizers for Democratic Party campaigns.

Senior government and politics majors Andrea Holtermann and Laurie Davis will be working as field organizers for the Democratic Party of Virginia to elect Democrats “up and down the ticket,” from presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to local candidates, Holtermann said.

As field organizers, their responsibilities will include running phone banks, holding voter registration events and going door-to-door to “get as many people out to the polls and engaged as possible,” Holtermann added.

Davis was interning with the Democratic Party of Virginia for the summer when she realized she only needed 21 more credits to graduate, she said. Once she figured out she could take the fall semester off and still graduate in four years— she plans to take six credits during the winter term and 15 in the spring semester — she decided to pursue an organizing position with the party, she said.

Davis, who had never worked on a campaign before, said she is “really happy” to be working on a campaign this fall, particularly in a swing state.

“It’s a really cool thing for a college student to get involved in,” she said. “You’re young and you have the energy, and it’s a job that requires a lot of energy.”

Holtermann had been interning with D.C. non-profit Issue One, which focuses on campaign finance reform, when she learned of opportunities to work with the party by attending a Young Professionals for Hillary event in Clarendon last summer.

Later, she volunteered with the party and spoke with a field organizer who helped motivate her decision.

“He was just talking about how everybody around the country was dropping everything they were doing to get on the campaign,” Holtermann said. “So that really swayed me to want to join.”

Holtermann and Davis will be living in a supporter house in Falls Church, Virginia, through November, as some supporters get involved with campaigns by allowing field organizers to stay in their homes for free, Holtermann said.

Government and politics majors Cassidy Chassagne and Jenna Williams will also be working with the Ohio Democratic Party, according to past Diamondback articles.

Student Goverernment Association President Katherine Swanson — who knows and has worked with Chassagne, Williams and Holtermann — said the three are “really hard workers” who “don’t stop for anybody.”

While is she sad to see them leave the campus for a semester, she is also “happy to see them doing something they love,” Swanson said.

“I think they all have dreams of working on campaigns after they’re out of college, and I know they all really love Hillary, so … I was just really excited for them,” Swanson said. “They’re doing really great work, and like i said, I’m sad to see them go but I think they’ll represent UMD really well.”