David Todisco is on the fast track to a political career.
Todisco, who's president of the UML College Democrats, campaigned for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 New Hampshire presidential primary and then interned with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren. He volunteered with state Rep. Sean Garballey '07 and coordinated voter outreach for Medford Mayor Stephanie Muccini Burke's re-election campaign.
He went to the 2016 Democratic Convention and President Trump's inauguration through the university's partnership with The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars and worked as a social media intern for a summer in the UMass president's office.
And Todisco did it all in three short years while taking six or seven classes a semester so that he could graduate early, with a major in political science and a minor in Italian.
"The Political Science Department here is phenomenal," he says. "The faculty all have so much experience they bring to the table."
He's also impressed with the diversity on campus and inspired by his fellow students. He says many of them are working class - and they have a tremendous work ethic.
"Everyone's studying all the time, reading, listening to podcasts and educating themselves - while holding jobs, interning and taking care of their families," he says.
Todisco canvassed for Clinton as a first-semester freshman at the University of New Hampshire before transferring to UMass Lowell.
That experience helped him get a coveted internship the summer after freshman year in Warren's Boston office, where he learned about the intricacies of constituent service. About one in six calls he fielded were from people desperate to find drug addiction treatment. Others pleaded for help with their student loans or deportation orders.
In the middle of it all, Todisco flew to Philadelphia for the two-week Washington Center program on the Democratic Convention, where he interned for NBC News. A few months later, he flew to Washington, D.C., for the Washington Center program on the transition of power. He witnessed President Trump's inauguration and the Women's March the next day.
Having a front-row seat to history and being involved in so many campaigns has only stoked Todisco's appetite for public service, although he's still not sure whether he will seek elective office or work behind the scenes in policy. He's already been accepted into graduate school, where he plans to pursue a master's in public administration with a focus on state and local politics.
Meanwhile, the political junkie is making politics a family affair. He recently took his parents to watch as former U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power interviewed former Vice President Joe Biden live for National Public Radio.
"I got my parents tickets for Christmas," he says.