Although the California primary is long over, a few students from the Stanford community are still directly engaged in the ongoing nomination process of the Democratic Party, particularly Obama supporters.

Three students left campus this week to work on the Obama campaign in Indiana: Jonathan Jourdane ‘08, Sean Augenstein and Dan Berkenstock, both graduate students in Aeronautics and Astronautics.

In the week prior to the Pennsylvania primary, six students flew out to participate in the Obama campaign effort there. Angelina Cardona ‘11 and Sarahi Padilla ‘11 shared their experience canvassing in Pennsylvania with The Daily.

The students were both in Philadelphia for about a week. While Cardona canvassed door-to-door, Padilla was in charge of more logistical aspects, such as office managing and recording data.

“I was in West Philadelphia, which could be considered the lower income part of the town,” Cardona said. “They were all overwhelmingly for Obama. So the issue wasn’t persuading voters to want him, it was just a matter of persuading them to go.”

She worked with a team to canvas in West Philadelphia to drum up support for the Illinois Senator in the days leading up to the primary.

“Day-to-day, we knocked on doors, we had literatures for them, we had door-hangers with number to call if they have any question about voting, or if they need a ride to polling,” Cardona said.

Padilla worked in the campaign office from 8 a.m. to about 2 a.m. each day.

“I was usually sorting out the data [collected by canvassers]. I usually worked in the office,” she said. “A lot of times when we were pressed for time, we would leave one person in the office, and everyone would go out to canvass.”

While Padilla acknowledged it was not easy to make it through eighteen-hour workdays for a week, she was determined to help out as best as she could.

“We have a saying in the campaign called ‘fierce urgency of now,’” Padilla said. “You have to feel this ‘fierce urgency’ and when you feel it you can just keep going.”

Padilla, who has been involved in the campaign in five states, said she feels motivated by the excitement people felt about politics during this primary.

“You go to these different states, you meet all these people,” she said. “You see how excited people are about politics and you hear all their stories, ‘Oh I haven’t voted in 30 years. But I’ll make sure it is the first thing I do.’ Then they come back to tell me, ‘I was the first person in line in my voting station.’”

Both students pointed to Obama’s leadership as their initial reason for joining the campaign. Cardona traced her involvement back to a speech Obama give in Reno, Nevada last April; Padilla was inspired when she saw him at the Democratic National Convention in 2004.

Cardona and Padilla both stayed with other volunteers at the homes of host families, who were also Obama supporters. They agreed that the hospitality of their hosts and the diversity of the people they met were definitely some of the best parts of the experience.

The cost of the trip was largely reduced as well.

“Just food, that was it,” Cardona said. Their tickets were bought using the frequent flier miles of other Obama supporters.