This is a sponsored feature. All opinions are 100% from Her Campus.
On Wednesday, October 3rd, Her Campus at UCF hosted a watch party of The New York Times live conservation series “Get With the Times,” featuring Senator Bernie Sanders! Our writers and guests had a great time hearing from Senator Sanders as he was interviewed by New York Times National Political Correspondent Alex Burns. Senator Sanders started his interview off by expressing his approval of Amazon’s recent workers’ wage increase to $15 an hour. He went on to discuss the corruption of billionaires buying elections regardless of their party affiliations and emphatically pledged to vote no on Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination. He spoke out about sexual assault and expressed his disbelief in Kavanaugh’s testimony. Senator Sanders went on to express his outrage at Donald Trump’s behavior regarding Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony, condemning Trump’s audacity to mock her. He stated that “we have to change this culture where women are in so many ways taken advantage of.”
Senator Sanders also touched on ways the media can influence an election. The most important takeaway was Sanders call to action for young people. “Change in this country never comes from the president in the White House it always comes from mass movements of people…being angry is not good enough. Getting empowered is what it is all about.” The last half of the live stream was dedicated to answering questions from students around the country, including one from one of our HCUCF team members! Read on to find out all of the most exciting things that happened at our watch party.
1. Students got to ask Bernie Sanders questions in front of the entire country!
Our HCUCF team member Vanessa McElwayne asked the very first question:
2. Students registered to vote!
NextGenAmerica, an organization dedicated to registering students to vote, came out to help get event attendees registered. If you missed our event, remember to register by the Florida deadline of October 9th! You can use this link to register online. It’s safe, easy, and takes an average of two minutes!
3. Everyone got tons of freebies!
We gave out pins, stickers, phone loops, free Chick-fil-A and even a raffle prize. It was everything a college student could want! If you missed this event, look for us at tabling and you might get a freebie!
4. Instagram opportunities!
We had a photo frame prop and plenty of politically active friends to take photos with! Check out our Instagram and the hashtag #NYTGetWithTheTimes to live vicariously through all of the awesome pictures from watch parties across the country.
5. Political education!
Attendees learned that their vote matters, and hopefully they now feel educated on issues that matter to them and empowered to vote in the upcoming election! Here is the link to register to vote if you still need to: registertovoteflorida.gov/en/Registration/Index