A select group of undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff will find themselves close to the action this weekend as volunteers for Sunday’s presidential debate at Washington University.

Over 1000 students, faculty and staff applied last June to be considered as a presidential debate volunteer. A total of 255 people were notified that they were accepted over the summer and received their placements this past week, just days before the debate.

Golf carts for the Wash. U. police departments and other campus institutions are parked outside Seigle Hall.

Volunteers will be placed with one of three different groups, Director of Career Services Aimee Wittman, who is co-managing the volunteer program with Associate Director of Employer Relations Jennie Marchal, said. Some will work in support of the Commission on Presidential Debates through administrative and logistical support roles. Other students will be working with different national media outlets or helping with University operations.

“I’m just in awe at how amazing our community is and how many people are really willing to just jump in and say ‘what can I do to be a part of this process?’” Wittman said. “I think that’s a really exciting part of it.”

Sophomore Eden Livingston found out that she will be working with NBC over the weekend, although she is unsure currently as to what capacity. As an ROTC student who regularly writes to her local congressman, she said she was looking to get involved in any way she could.

“It’s definitely going to be something I look back on and tell people ‘I worked at the 2016 presidential debate’ so it’s going to be really cool,” Livingston said.

To become a debate volunteer, students had to apply over the summer by filling out a short application, submitting recommendations and writing an essay explaining their interest in serving as a volunteer.

Wittman, who also managed the University’s 2008 vice presidential debate volunteer program with Marchal, said they were looking for flexible people with a good work ethic, who were willing to jump in and have good communications skills.

Junior Emilia Weinberg, another volunteer, is a golf cart driver for the weekend.

“I figured when else am I going to be in a place where the debate is happening, so I might as well try to get involved as best I can,” she said. “Really, I can watch the debate from my couch, but how else can I be involved?”