On Friday, four Simpson students will be headed to New York City to take part in a CBS Evening News youth panel.

Shanice Whitney, Jesse Van De Krol, Madison Boswell and Steffi Lee will be representing Simpson at this event. The students from Simpson will be joining three students from Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. The panel will be filmed at CBS Studios with the evening news anchor Scott Pelley.

“These kids are engaged,” said Mary Sheka, the Culver Center executive director. “They have something to say about the 2012 presidential election.”

The offer to Simpson came about through the Harvard Institute of Politics, which is made up of schools, including Simpson, that have similar public policy centers. Simpson’s relationship with former Iowa Senator John Culver, for which the Culver Center is named, was very influential in this decision said Sheka.

Junior Shanice Whitney said that, for her, this is an experience of a lifetime. She said she is going to be spending a lot of her time before she leaves re-watching the presidential debate and learning all she can about the issues so that she can be firm in what she believes.

“I have been paying a lot of attention to this election, so that will help in the panel,” Whitney said. “One of my goals was to be more politically involved, especially with this election because there are so many hot topic issues.”

This event will also be a great professional development piece for the Simpson students in attendance said junior Madison Boswell.

“I know Steffi and I are both really excited about doing this because we are both communications majors, “ Boswell said. “It will be really fun to see the behind the scenes action of a major news organization. The whole process is very educational for us.”

While this is a very exciting experience for all parties involved, it is also puts some pressure on the students involved said freshman Steffi Lee.

“I’m scared about having my voice heard,” Lee said. “I’m excited, I know what to say, I know what I’m interested in, and I know why I’m voting the way that I’m voting; however, at the same time it’s such a close election that things are up in the air, and it’s actually a really important interview.”

As well as this event being a great experience for the students involved, it also has great potential to help Simpson College become more well-known around the United States said senior Jesse Van De Krol.

“There is a possibility that if we represent Simpson in a positive way and if CBS does a good job of propagating Simpson as a college, then I can see people taking interest,” Van De Krol said. “Hopefully Simpson College will become well-known regarding this.”