Erin Thesing named to national selection panel

Erin Thesing walks into the meeting of the College Democrats ready to work.

Within the first five minutes she has organized an assembly line at the table to make flags for an upcoming event.  Within the next 15 minutes, the group has voted in a new secretary and campus coordinator, planned a trip to Manchester to help with the city elections, and set a date for a phone bank to support gay marriage in Maine. Talking quickly, tapping the table and waving directions, Thesing moves the meeting from one decision to the next.

Because of her work ethic, Thesing has been recognized on a national level.

She has been selected to serve on a national panel of experts that will choose the winning health care reform video in a contest sponsored by Organizing for America (OFA), the grassroots organization that works to continue the goals of Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

The contest asks supporters of health care reform from across the country to submit a 30-second video that explains their support for President Obama's health care plan. 

Thesing and the other members of ager for Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, and Jen O'Malley Dillon, the executive director of the Democratic National Committee, as well as celebrities from the entertainment world, such as actor Dule Hill of the television shows "The West Wing" and "Psych," front man of the Black Eyed Peas Will.i.am, and creator of the animated television show "Family Guy," Seth MacFarlane. 

Thesing said although she knew she had been nominated for a spot on the panel, she was very surprised to learn she had actually been chosen.

"Last week I was in the library, where I live," Thesing said, laughing and rolling her eyes.  "A friend of mine sent me a message with a link to the [OFA] website and asked me about the panel.  I kind of just clicked on this link and was like, ‘Wait, I'm on this?'"

Although she has not yet been briefed on her exact role, Thesing said she assumes the judging will take place through conference call.

When asked about her feelings on being part of this panel, Thesing simply said it was "pretty cool," and quickly turned the focus away from her personal achievement and onto what she hopes the contest will achieve.

"This contest is just another creative way to get the community going," she said. "And a way to get people talking and thinking about health care, and paying attention to it and getting involved."

Thesing's energy as president of the College Democrats is nothing new.  According to College Democrats Treasurer Kaitlyn Dowling, when she met Thesing her freshman year, this energy was the first thing she noticed.

"She immediately struck me as incredibly intense about the work she was doing and even a little intimidating," Dowling said of her first encounter with Thesing through Students for Barack Obama.       

It is this constant focus on her work, especially the work she did with the Barack Obama campaign in Flint, Michigan, and the undying energy with which she does it that earned her a spot on the OFA panel of experts. 

Thesing was invited to work with the Barack Obama Campaign for Change in Flint, Michigan, which is best known as the hometown of General Motors, in May 2008.  Although the primaries were not over, the Obama campaign was getting ready for the general elections in several key states, including Michigan.

"Michigan was especially important, because Michigan and Florida didn't have a primary, or at least, a primary that Obama was in," Thesing said.

Thesing's first hours in Flint were spent in the poorest part of the city, in a dilapidated apartment building trying to register voters, who, she said, "had no reason to hope, no reason to vote."

"I had kind of my first real wake-up call that day," Thesing said.  "I went up to this girl who was pushing this stroller, asked her if she was registered to vote, and she said, ‘No, I can't register, I'm 16', and she had a baby.  So I just said, ‘Wake up, Erin, you're not in Durham anymore.'"

Thesing decided to stay in Flint for the rest of the summer, and took the fall 2008 semester off to continue working in the city. She did take a break from Flint in August 2008, however, to attend the Democratic National Convention as a delegate for her home state of New Hampshire.

According to Tim Ashwell, a senior lecturer at UNH and chair of the Durham N.H. Democratic Town Committee, the work of students like Thesing demonstrates to other students how much power they have.

"The opportunity for people like Erin to have a meaningful role on shaping national and state policies is really remarkable," Ashwell said.  "It's amazing how kids at UNH can become involved at the level they do."

Perhaps more surprising is the fact that her interest in politics was born only recently.

 "I never was involved in politics in high school," Thesing, an anthropology major, said.  "My parents are independent voters, and because of that my parents never really talked about politics. It was sort of a hush-hush, be polite at the dinner table kind of thing. So my family was a little shocked, I think, to see me all of the sudden get so excited about Obama."

This excitement first began at the beginning of Thesing's freshman year at UNH when she signed up for the College Democrats.  A few months later in the spring of 2007, when Obama came to speak at the Field House, Thesing was in the crowd.

"I was honestly blown away. I couldn't believe it," Thesing said of hearing Obama speak for the first time.  "I had never been to a political event before so I really didn't know what to expect. The next day I went to the College Democrats meeting and a bunch of students and I started Students for Barack Obama that week at UNH.  And I just kind of went full-force from there."