The roots of Students for Barack Obama are the stuff of legend: 

In the summer of 2006, on July 7th, some eight months before Obama announced his run for president, Bowdoin College junior Meredith Segal created a Facebook group that went on to reach fully-fledged PAC-status before being rolled into Obama's campaign organization as its official student wing.

By February when Obama's campaign was actually launched nine months ago, Students for Barack Obama was already:

a political action committee with nearly 62,000 members and chapters at 80 colleges, the most structured grass-roots student movement -- there's a director of field operations, an Internet director, a finance director and a blog team director -- in the presidential campaign so far.

Many of those student leaders are still involved in what is a fully-fledged student leadership.  As of October 22nd, according to a campaign press release, Students for Barack Obama has more than 600 chapters on college campuses and high schools across the country.

In Iowa, because of a state law that young voters be able to caucus so long as they turn 18 in time for the November general election, nearly all of high school seniors will be eligible to vote.  Students for Barack Obama has responded by organizing chapters at more than a third of Iowa high schools.

In all, by my count, they have chapters on at least nineteen college campuses and at a stunning 144high schools across Iowa, with new chapters being added daily. 

In New Hampshire, Students for Barack Obama has chapters at all of New Hampshire's twelve college campuses with five full-time campaign staff members aiding student organizing efforts.

No matter which candidate you support, this level of grassroots organization among students bodes well for the future of Democratic Party politics. 

There's more...

In the news this past week...

Senator Obama's speech last week to members of Nevada for Health was featured in UNLV's student newspaper.

And his address to City College in Santa Barbara drew 4,000 people. 

Georgetown student Justin Charity (shown above) chronicled his summer internship with Obama for America in the Georgetown Hoya 

Brown University's SFBO chapter previewed their first meeting in the Providence Daily Dose.

Director of Students for Barack Obama, Meredith Segal, was profiled by her school's paper this week.

Yale for Obama kicked off their fall semester and garnered some coverage from the Yale Daily News.

Chapter highlight 

Now on to what can only be described as the University of Wisconsin rewind...

The chapter's kickoff was previewed inThe Daily Cardinal. The paper also featured them in another article later in the week. The kickoff meeting was also covered by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's political blog. The Badger Herald highlighted the meeting as well.

Chapter coordinator Andy Gordon also had an op-ed published. 

Kudos to the SFBO chapter at University of Wisconsin for their strong showing this week. Keep up the good work! 

At each and every juncture of our history, somebody's been audacious enough to say, "We can do something different." And more often than not it's been young people who have done it.  ---Barack Obama

Thanks to the hard work of students from all around the country, from Illinois to Iowa, from Maryland to Michigan, from Connecticut to California, Students for Barack Obama has grown to more than 550 chapters nationwide.

Words do not do nearly enough to express the level of anticipation and excitement present on campuses all over the United States. We need to make it crystal clear to our classmates that we need Barack Obama to secure a better future for not only students, but for all Americans.

We've created a short video featuring some of Senator Obama’s speeches, his thoughts on getting young people involved in the political process, and conversations with students. This fight is not his alone. We need to stand next to Barack Obama in this campaign. Take a simple step toward getting involved in the political process by checking out the video and sharing it with your friends!


Click the picture above for the video.

This was originally posted at students.barackobama.com 

Last night a dozen students decided to go to downtown Columbia, South Carolina…to phone bank?

Some of the volunteers will likely be voting for the first time, but others are prohibited from voting for Senator Obama. They’re too young. But that is not keeping them from making a difference in their state's primary.

Time and time again the Obama campaign has demonstrated an ability to attract young people to go above and beyond on the Senator’s behalf. According to CNN.com’s political ticker:

“The student volunteers read from a script as they called other young people in the area who have been identified by the Obama campaign as potential supporters. Obama operatives said the calls were made to teenagers as young as 17, who will be old enough to vote by the time the Democratic primary rolls around in January.”

This is just the latest of Obama for America’s innovative approaches geared toward harnessing the enthusiasm young people express for Senator Obama and turning it into a political force:

“The Obama staff told the students they were going to start organizing at more area high schools and encouraged the students to reach out to their friends ‘who are interested in politics, who are interested in Obama, who are just interested in change.’”

Read the whole CNN political ticker item.

This post is cross-posted on Students.BarackObama.com

Here's a look at what Students for Barack Obama chapters have been up to this week... 

Senator Obama swings through Kentucky drawing student supporters to a rally in Lexington.

University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)'s newly founded Students for Barack Obama chapter held its first organizational meeting.

 

The "Barack Chalk Jayhawks" welcome the senator to Kansas. The organization is currently working on putting together a trip to Iowa and organizing a Fall benefit concert, "Barack and Roll."

 

 

Florida A&M University students follow in footsteps of alumni activists and rally behind Barack's candidacy. 

 

SFBO members out in full force in New Hampshire. 

More in weeks to come!