12:01 AM, January 2008. The ball had just dropped in Times Square, New York City, and a new year has rung in. Cheers are made, resolutions are promised, and high expectations for 2008 remain afloat in the air. As the countdown to the New Year arrived and ended, a new countdown immediately began for about 50 students and faculty members standing expectantly in the lobby of Branscomb Quandrangle. These political activists wait in their parkas and snow boots in anticipation for the 12-hour bus ride from Nashville to Des Moines, Iowa, where they will participate in one of the most energized, momentous presidential elections of their generations. Eight other students are already in Des Moines, where they serve as extended volunteers for their candidates. In this “First of the Nation” political event, every presidential candidate will be in Des Moines to battle in this heated and incredibly close political race in hopes of representing their party. Among the 59 total participants of the Election Alliance Iowa Caucus Seminar, 15 plan on campaigning for the Republican candidates and 44 for the Democratic candidates of their choice. “We will actually be able to be in the same room with 12 different presidential candidates, at 16 different events. It’s an amazing opportunity,” says Lilly Massa, coordinator of the Iowa Caucus Seminar. Activities of the four days spent in Iowa include intense volunteer work, candidates’ speeches, faculty-led political lectures, a dinner party, and of course, the caucus on January 3rd itself. 12:03 AM, January 2008. The participants have loaded onto the bus and will spend the next 12 hours in an educational “Rolling Seminar” which includes political movies and intellectual political discussions. The countdown to caucus has begun.