New Hampshire may be the best classroom today for political-science and journalism students. That’s the idea behind two courses’ trips to the famous primary election there.

Dan Hofrenning, a professor of political science, brought 20 students from St. Olaf College to New Hampshire for one of the college’s “January Interim” courses. In the mornings they meet for class — hearing an array of guest speakers and discussing topics like the electoral process, campaign history, and political strategy — and around noon they go volunteer for various candidates’ campaigns. (They’re also finding time to blog for the Minneapolis Star Tribune.)

“It’s a class in which more-traditional academics and the lived experience of campaigning meet,” says Mr. Hofrenning. The students get fired up, but also a bit jaded, he says. “Does phoning cranky voters for 12 hours a day make you like politics and political science more or less?” The professor bets on “sheer engagement.”

That’s been the case for Matt Gallagher, a sophomore in the class who is interning for John McCain’s campaign. He has called voters, knocked on doors, and generally been astounded by “the amount of grunt work that goes into running a national campaign.”

“What we get through the media is a very packaged, manufactured kind of display,” Mr. Gallagher says. “What the rest of the country doesn’t really see are the grass-roots efforts.” After long days and lots of coffee, he is looking forward to a brief respite before the class heads down to South Carolina.

Thirty students from American University are also in New Hampshire today, in the middle of a five-day trip with a communications course, “Covering the 2008 Presidential Election.”

In six teams of five, the students are working to produce short documentaries on topics including new American citizens voting in their first election and the youth movement behind Barack Obama.

Christine Cotter, a senior public-communication major, is interviewing veterans and shooting footage for a five-minute documentary on their role in the campaign. “Who better to talk to about the war in this election than the people who have been there and seen it?” she says.

And where better to do that than New Hampshire? “It’s absolutely crazy because the people here are just so energized,” Ms. Cotter says. “It’s really just hands-on retail politics.”

The American University students are reporting for the American Observer.