While some AU students were watching the outcome of the election in the Tavern, others were volunteering and interning across the city as the election results began to come in.
Some students volunteered at the polls, while others interned for newspapers, television stations and radio broadcasts.
Amr Gundi, a School of International Service graduate student from Egypt, worked at the polls Tuesday. He said he was so moved by the experience that he recorded his activities and feelings from the day in a journal.
"As an Arab Muslim from the Middle East, I am often a big critic of U.S. foreign policy, but I could not help but admire the exemplary demonstration of democracy that I observed," he said. "I realized that this is my opportunity to be part of a democracy by protecting the integrity of the elections."
Aaron Goldstein, a freshman in the School of Public Affairs and another poll worker, said the greatest memory he had from the day was what he saw when he came to the polls at 6:45 a.m., 15 minutes before the polls opened.
"There was already a line of voters a block and a half long down the street," he said.
While some students were working at the polls, James Robertson, a graduate student in the School of Communication, and Tara Fuller, a senior in SOC, were working in USA Today's Web and graphics/design departments.
Robertson said his main job was to monitor the graphics on other Web sites as well as USA Today's site.
"It was really cool to watch them update their information constantly as they converted raw data into a really cool graphic," he said.
Fuller said her job was a little more disappointing. She was assigned to monitor video - something she had very little previous experience with.
"Going into the experience, I was extremely excited," she said. "I thought the newsroom would be lively and chaotic, and it was nothing of the sort. I felt like I wasn't needed and that I accomplished nothing."
Robertson said he appreciated the significance of working during this election.
"Being in a newsroom while such a historic election is going on adds to memories that I don't know will ever happen in my career again," he said.
Elyse Greenberg, a senior in SOC, got involved in exit polling for USA Today through her visual strategies class with SOC professor Lynne Perri.
"I took information back from 1980s exit polls and compared it to exit poll information from last night," she said. "It should be in today's issue of USA Today."
Greenberg said one of the most important moments she experienced was being able to get the first set of exit polls from Virginia.
"I'm a Democrat, and I remember a sense of relief, thinking 'this is actually going to happen!'" she said.
Anna Tauzin, a graduate student in SOC, worked election night at WAMU.
"My radio class professor picked five of us to go to WAMU," she said. "I worked with radio broadcast journalist Kavitha Cardoza, and I was reminded what it was like to 'beat the streets' as a reporter trying to get that story."
You can reach this writer at news@theeagleonline.com.
