LAWRENCE — Northern Essex Community College students, in collaboration with history professor Richard Padova, have published a booklet, “From FDR to Biden: The First 100 Days,” which surveys the inauguration of 15 administrations and explores the modern-day I was immersed in the changes in presidential politics.
Students Taylor Gagne, Xavier Jimenez, and Mike McDougall investigated what the new president did and failed to accomplish during his reign, and whether he fulfilled key campaign promises. .
This project gave students the experience of researching books and the opportunity to dive into history, fulfilling the final project requirement for the Government 101 class taught by Padova.
Additionally, they were able to gain a deeper understanding of the era in which they live compared to other eras in American history.
Gagné and McDougall said in interviews last week at the community college's Lawrence campus that the booklet project, which took place during a pivotal presidential election year, captured students' imaginations, albeit for different reasons.
Gagne, a 2023 graduate of Haverhill High School, enrolled in an early college program to earn credits, but just graduated from NECC with an associate's degree in liberal arts.
This fall, she will study literature and philosophy at Dartmouth College.
Since junior high school, he has been interested in world politics, including Brexit, the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union (EU).
In The First 100 Days booklet, she examined three recent presidents: Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Barack Obama.
It was difficult to find reliable sources and relevant observations about CEOs in the vast amount of online information.
“They made so many promises trying to decide what to focus on,” Gagné said.
She analyzed their speeches, identified themes, and established a timeline of what they said and when.
McDougal, 32, who works in information technology, attends NECC through MassReconnect, a program that pays for community college for people 25 and older without a college degree.
“I went back to school for the first time in 15 years,” he said. “This was exciting.”
He delved into the early records of Presidents Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan.
“In some ways, I think it was easier for me,” he said, because during those presidential years there was no internet and less information available.
He organized the results by each president's major campaign themes, such as Nixon's on law and order and Reagan's on the economy.
“The most difficult thing for me was eliciting concrete (campaign) promises,” he said.
McDougall relied on primary sources whenever possible, using information from The American Presidency Project, a collection of presidential documents on the Internet.
Padova met with students weekly to check on their progress and answer questions.
Their report was required to include the president's laws and executive orders for the first 100 days or so.
Meanwhile, Padova said the project will examine the U.S. political system, its federal and state frameworks, its constitutional underpinnings, what powers each branch exercises and how they are balanced. He said Government 101 was built on classroom research.
It gave students the opportunity to explore the topic more deeply.
“I hope it enriches their hearts,” he said.
The 20 students in the Government 101 class had the choice of a final project. They could study the president's first 100 days or conduct a poll and produce a report that includes an analysis of what those interviewed said.
This is Padova's fourth book on presidential politics and the second in which students have contributed research.
A free 50-page booklet published by NECC will be published later this month. No profits are made from this book, so students can participate in its creation.
Informative and entertaining, this book builds on facts and anecdotes like this one at the beginning of Chapter 2.
“Harry Truman never expected to become president,” it begins.
The chapter goes on to talk about Franklin Delano Roosevelt's unexpected rise to fame and the great weight that rests on his shoulders after his unexpected death on April 12, 1945. .
Dwight Eisenhower popularized press conferences, and the first press conference was held on February 17, 1953, with approximately 200 people attending over two terms, many of which were televised.
FDR's ambitious start saw him succeed in the first of his four presidential bids, establishing the 100-day concept.
He proposed 15 New Deal policies that Congress passed to provide hope and aid to a nation that suffered 25% unemployment and poverty during the Great Depression.
The family lost their farm and the bank went bankrupt.
The 15 major legislative items included the Civilian Conservation Corps, which would put more than 3 million young unemployed men to work on rural projects over a nine-year period. CCC crews set up camp in the 3,300-acre Harold Parker Forest in Andover, North Andover, North Reading, and Middleton, conducting extensive clearing, planting, and construction.
The federal emergency aid law funneled billions of dollars to states and cities for local work projects to provide funding for millions of unemployed workers.
After FDR, journalists, pundits, and historians have regularly speculated about what the next president will do in his first 100 days.
Padova, a collector of various presidential election memorabilia, has long been fascinated by politics.
