{"id":12,"date":"2015-07-14T13:25:09","date_gmt":"2015-07-14T17:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/umwwebmaster.wpengine.com\/clms\/?page_id=12"},"modified":"2025-07-15T12:18:37","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T16:18:37","slug":"positioned","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/clms\/about\/positioned\/","title":{"rendered":"Positioned for Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>
Center for Leadership & Media Studies<\/div>

Positioned for Politics<\/h1><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n
\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Positioned for Politics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Opportunities abound for politically minded students at the University of Mary Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Farnsworth, director of the university\u2019s Center for Leadership and Media Studies<\/a>, said UMW\u2014situated halfway between the nation\u2019s and the commonwealth\u2019s capitals\u2014stands at the intersection of local, state and federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith the center, we are able to take advantage of our location,\u201d said Farnsworth, who is professor of political science. \u201cWe are in a great position \u2013 students can be a part of political matters that interest them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students are able to intern during the academic year in either Richmond or D.C., without having to take a semester off. In fact, every year several UMW students have internships with congressional offices and national and Virginia campaigns – opportunities that can lead to jobs on Capitol Hill, in journalism, and in public policy development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those experiences often lead to jobs in politics after graduation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver the past dozen years, many Mary Washington students have graduated and gone on to work for presidential campaigns, state senators and members of Congress as soon as they put away their caps and gowns,\u201d Farnsworth said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The center, established in 2011, aims to increase the connections between UMW students, political figures and recent alumni, Farnsworth explained, through bringing political leaders to campus and linking current students with alumni in government fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, the center has been involved in several congressional candidate debates (some of which were featured on C-SPAN), as well as numerous debates for the House of Delegates and the Senate of Virginia. The center has hosted visits by both of Virginia’s U.S. senators, three recent members of Congress of both political parties who have represented the area, as well as several national political reporters and editors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStudents are really excited to meet political figures and national reporters,\u201d Farnsworth said. \u201cThese kinds of opportunities are rare, but they are events we can put together here given our location and the level of student and university interest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the classroom, students have the chance to learn from renowned political scientists, like Farnsworth, who have published their own research books. His research on presidential communication, including “Presidential Communication and Character: White House News Management from Clinton and Cable to Twitter and Trump,” and “Late Night in Washington: Political Humor and the American Presidency” are particularly interesting to students, Farnsworth said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe all consume media,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is important to look at the media as scientifically as possible and ask \u2018what product is being produced?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farnsworth, a Fulbright Scholar who has won three campus-wide teaching awards at UMW, uses his research to teach students about media and politics while encouraging them to think critically and come up with their own ideas. He also encourages his students to share their work with a broader audience. During his years at Mary Washington, he has supervised half a dozen political science students who have won national writing awards, a distinction he said is evidence of Mary Washington\u2019s prominence in student political science research and writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can have really interesting discussions that bring together scholarly work on elections but also the real-world experience that they have,\u201d Farnsworth said, noting that many of his students have already interned or worked in politics before they take his class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a similar way, he hopes the center will integrate the academic perspectives in the classroom with hands-on experience in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of my goals as a teacher is to provide a comprehensive experience,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat we can do with the center is not only promote internships, but also to try to integrate those things into the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published July 7, 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Positioned for Politics Opportunities abound for politically minded students at the University of Mary Washington. Stephen Farnsworth, director of the university\u2019s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, said UMW\u2014situated halfway between the nation\u2019s and the commonwealth\u2019s capitals\u2014stands at the intersection of local, state and federal government. \u201cWith the center, we are able to take advantage of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":6,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"umw_cb_additional_links":[[]],"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_advisory_expires_time":"","_advisory_meta_include":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-12","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","5":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPositioned for Politics - Center for Leadership & Media Studies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/clms\/about\/positioned\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Positioned for Politics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Positioned for Politics Opportunities abound for politically minded students at the University of Mary Washington. 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