NIU students Josh Blakemore and R.J. Gravel received scholarships to attend a political training conference sponsored by the Democratic Grassroots Action Institute and Network (Democratic GAIN).

The conference involves basic skills training geared toward the political novice with little-to-no experience.

“I’m happy to get an opportunity to get more of a classroom setting of learning how a campaign operates,” Gravel said. “Most of my experience is practical experience [from working on campaigns].”

The conference is designed to meet the current need for field organizers and general campaign staff and activities. All elements of a campaign will be touched upon, with an emphasis on field organizing and voter recruitment and motivation techniques. Other topics will include fundraising, communication, research, technology, voter files, targeting, budgeting and other aspects of political campaigns, according to the Democratic GAIN Web site.

A condition for most scholarship recipients is to work full-time on a Democratic or progressive campaign after the conference.

“Josh and I were the only ones to apply who stated we would not work on a campaign full-time,” Gravel said.

Blakemore and Gravel are not able to work on any campaigns because of a debate they are planning. The debate is for Illinois Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate and will be held at NIU in February.

In place of working on a campaign, Blakemore and Gravel said they hope to take what they learn from the conference and train others throughout Illinois.