140 college students will be attending the RNC in Florida this month as part of a seminar offered by The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars to learn more about national politics. It certainly is an exciting year to attend the convention, that’s for sure.

YBOR CITY – A throng of college students – 140 of them – from around the nation will join tens of thousands coming to see first-hand the workings of national politics in Tampa next week.

The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars is staging the two-week seminar for college students who have paid nearly $5,000 to get a front-row seat to the inner workings of the Republican National Convention.

They are taking classes and have volunteered to do whatever it takes to get close to the action. Some will work with delegates, others with the host committees and others with the media that will mobilize in the city for the convention.

They arrived in Tampa this weekend and began the course with a bus tour of the area this afternoon.

Emily Duren is among the eager students. She’s a journalism major at Hillsborough Community College and sees the seminar as a way to further her career, which she hopes will be in print journalism.

Her instructors and advisers “push hard to go beyond — to do everything we can outside of the classroom,” Duren said.

The 20-year-old Tampa native will be volunteering to help CNN cover the convention.

“This happens once in a lifetime,” she said. “The convention coming here is a huge deal. We’ve had Super Bowls, but never anything on this scale.”