Chris Broadfoot '09 talked with politicians, proposed deficit solutions...

"...So here's Howard Dean jumping out of my car to give me parallel parking directions."

The beginning of a strange dream? The first line in a quirky short story? Nope. The erstwhile presidential candidate really did help Chris Broadfoot '09 maneuver his '95 Escort into a tight parking spot in Boston. Broadfoot never expected this particular adventure when he left Wayne, New Jersey for Bennington in the fall of 2005, but a few short months later, there he was.

"For my first Field Work Term I was hired for an internship at Democracy for America. One day I was working and the executive director asked if I'd like to see Howard Dean give a speech to the New England Press Corps. 'Sure,' I said. Then he asked if I'd like to drive him there." Turns out Dean only rides in American-made cars. In a lot full of Hondas and Volvos, Broadfoot's car was the only Ford.

"I went to pick him up at his house and we drove to Boston. He got on the phone with his communications director, and it was so interesting to hear that behind-the-scenes kind of conversation." As the car neared Boston, Dean took the directions from the other intern in the car and commandeered the job of navigator--and, eventually, parking director.

"On another day I got to have lunch with him," Broadfoot says. "And then later in the internship, [2008 presidential candidate] John Edwards came up for a DFA conference on poverty, and I drove him around Burlington. He was such a nice guy. One of the men with him was Fred Barron, the biggest contributor to Democratic politics in the south. He was like, 'So, Chris, when are you running for office?'"

Broadfoot isn't ready to throw his hat in the ring yet, but it's on the horizon. He came to Bennington with plans of studying literature and eventually becoming an English teacher, but a push from his advisor helped him clarify where his fiercest interests lie. "I took The American Short Story with Doug Bauer, who's also my advisor. He was hard on me, in a great way--I was lax, and he pushed me. He both helped me realize that literature wasn't exactly what I wanted to do, and made me better at it." A political economy class called States, Markets and Society captured Broadfoot's attention and gave him a clue as to what he did want to do: study politics and education. "Now I think I'd like to be a teacher, and later take that someplace political."

If he does, that could be very good news for the voters of the future--especially in an age of ballooning deficits. Among the many issues that Broadfoot has examined, the U.S. budget deficit particularly interests him. "I wrote a lot about it in my political economy classes, studying it more and going into hard research. Coming up with my own solutions on how to reduce the deficit, proposing them in my papers, and getting feedback through my evaluations was a really good experience."

While Broadfoot has clearly latched onto something he loves, he has left plenty of room for exploration. The Language of Music with John Van Buskirk helped him hear music in a new way. "I always go to Music Workshop now, even though I have nothing at all to do with music." And his second term found him taking his first-ever dance class. "A friend was pushing me to do it, saying 'Come on, it's all about expanding.' I said, 'Yeah, I don't know about that,' but a few other friends pushed me and I ended up taking Contact Improv. It was a lot of fun. I said I'd give it my all, and I tried, and it made me more confident about moving around, which was really cool. It was great going to the Emergent Improvisation dance performance that came to Bennington and realizing the dancers were doing some of the same things I was doing in class."

And rather than abandoning his interest in literature, Broadfoot was delighted to find it intersecting with his passion for politics. "In my second term I took two classes that ended up relating to each other--The Literary Spy Novel with Annabel Davis-Goff, and Trade, Money and Empire with Geoff Pigman. Both classes included Rudyard Kipling's Kim. With Geoff we looked at the British Empire and how it dealt with ruling over India politically and economically, while with Annabel we were reading more from Kim's point of view--what it was like for the people in India under British rule.

"I loved seeing it from the different perspectives, those two things fitting in together with my interest in the theme of democracy, or lack thereof."

Courses Chris Took in his First Year:

Fall Term

• The American Short Story with Doug Bauer. "Doug really pushed me and helped me become a better writer."
• Greek Tragedy with Dan Hofstadter.
• Socrates with Karen Gover. "Greek Tragedies and Socrates obviously went really well together."
• States, Markets, and Society with Geoff Pigman.
  

Field Work Term

• Internship with Democracy for America.

Spring Term

• Literary Spy Novels with Annabel Davis-Goff.
• Trade, Money, and Empire with Geoff Pigman.
• The Philosophy of Democracy with Paul Voice.
• The Language of Music with John Van Buskirk.
• Contact Improvisation with Felice Wolfzahn.