Jesse Batson

“You can go anywhere from here,” the SDSU television commercials advertise. Normally, these commercials feature SDSU graduates who have excelled in one way or another. But recent SDSU commercials feature current SDSU students.

Mark Glissendorf, vice president of multimedia services at Lawrence and Schiller, is working on the sister campaign. He said the new ads’ goal is to attract a younger audience.

“Young adults, especially high school students, are a difficult group to reach because they are active and mobile and don’t get hit by the traditional media vehicles as easily as adults do,” Glissendorf said.

The sister campaign is focused directly at potential students and less towards their parents.

“It’s too early to verify anything with scientific research or feedback,” Glissendorf said. “So what we’ve had so far is just anecdotal things we’ve heard.”

After doing some limited focus groups with high school students before the commercials aired on television, Glissendorf found that the feedback was positive.

“What we heard from students was that they weren’t aware that you could get as broad of an experience at SDSU before they saw the commercials,” Glissendorf said.

But he will still have to wait to see how truly effective the commercials are.

“Of course, the ultimate measurement is enrollment numbers as those come out every year,” Glissendorf said.

One of the current SDSU students featured in one of the new commercial is sophomore Stephanie Chase, who interned in Washington D.C. last summer for Stephanie Herseth.

“I was involved in her campaign a little bit when she ran in 2002, so I had a couple of opportunities to meet her. Last fall she taught a class on campus, called political parties and campaigning, and I took the class and was really interested in that,” Chase said.

The opportunity to intern for Herseth came about when Chase, a political science major, spoke to her advisor after Herseth won the election when Bill Janklow stepped down.

“(Political Science Professor Robert Burns) approached me one day and said, ‘She’ll probably need an intern,’ ” she said.

After Chase and Herseth exchanged some e-mails, Chase was offered the internship position. She accepted and spent the summer in Washington D.C.

“It was a really fun experience. I really liked it and am hoping to go back out there this summer and intern for her again,” Chase said.

For Chase, one of the best aspects of her internship was seeing the behind-the-scenes roles of politics.

“To see the role that other people can play…it was really interesting,” Chase said.

When it comes to the sister campaign, Chase thinks it will be successful.

“I think it would certainly be helpful. You see these commercials of kids doing exciting things you wouldn’t normally think of. There are a lot of students that are getting a lot of opportunities as undergraduates here,” Chase said. “I think it’s important to advertise that, not only can you do things afterwards, but you can also do great things while you’re here.”

#1.885459:3743033790.jpg:stephchase.jpg:Sophomore Stephanie Chase is one of the current students featured in the new SDSU “You can go anywhere from here” commercials. The places she has gone include Washington, D.C., where she spent last summer interning for Stephanie Herseth.: