The process of electing the next President of the United States began in earnest this month when the Republican National Committee selected Cleveland, Ohio, as the host city for the GOP’s 2016 national convention. Six cities are vying to host the Democratic National Convention in two years.
Geoff Yost ’12
For alumnus Geoff Yost ’12, the gearing up of the 2016 presidential nomination cycle stirs fond memories of his own experience with this uniquely American political tradition.
Yost had a front-row seat to history during President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection bid – from the fervor of the nominating convention, through the emotion of election night, to the pomp of inauguration day.
Having graduated from the College of Charleston only a few months earlier, Yost was awed by the experience and, at times, wondered how he got there. But those who know Yost say it was no accident. He’s likeable, tenacious and hardworking. A natural-born problem solver, he has a knack for thinking creatively on his feet.
Yost credits the liberal arts education he received at the College for teaching him to be adaptable and open to new experiences.
Campus Newsman
Yost wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted to do after graduating from high school in Charlotte, N.C. But he’d always been fascinated by the news business, and he’d been told his booming voice would sound good on radio.
Within months of his arrival at the College of Charleston in the fall of 2008, Yost was overseeing public relations for the College’s student-run radio station and hosting a news program. He wasn’t discouraged that the program had few listeners; he was broadcasting the news and enjoying himself. “It wasn’t very good,” he says of the show. “We were just having fun.”
At the time, the radio station was one of four student media organizations on campus, the others being the George Street Observer student newspaper, Cougar Television (CTV), and the Miscellany literary magazine. Yost was part of a team that consolidated the four student media organizations together under a single umbrella called Cougar Media Network, which would later evolve into CisternYard student media network.
Geoff Yost (top right) oversaw the student media newsroom as editor-in-chief for CisternYard.
Yost rose through the ranks of student media, becoming general manager of the radio station and eventually editor-in-chief of the student newspaper. Along the way, he oversaw the newspaper’s conversion to an online-only format – one of the first college student newspapers in the country to do so – as well as the launch of a news magazine called “G.”
Nathan Frandino ’10 worked with Yost in student media. Yost was one of the younger members in the newsroom at the time, but already he was attuned to the rapidly changing media landscape that was beginning to hammer print newspapers. “He was always well informed and following the latest trends in news media,” says Frandino, now a producer for Reuters TV in Washington D.C. “He really helped push us forward into multimedia and convergence. He was very forward-thinking.”
RELATED: Read about alumnus Nathan Frandino’s work for Reuters TV at the World Cup in Brazil.
Yost was the quintessential campus reporter. His student media office in the Calhoun Annex became a second home. He often slept on the office couch after long evenings of writing and editing articles.
Though he enjoyed his courses in communication and political science, he didn’t think twice about missing class to cover a big campus event. He laughs when recalling the day in January 2012 when comedian Stephen Colbert drew thousands of people to Cistern Yard for a faux political rally. Reporter’s notebook in hand, Yost was headed across campus to the rally when he saw his theatre professor – the one whose class Yost was skipping. Yost – who stands 6 feet 4 inches, has the build of a linebacker and a crop of curly red hair – can be hard to miss. The theatre professor certainly noticed his pupil. “He knew what was going on,” Yost says.
But Yost’s professors also understood that the real-world experience he was gaining in journalism and politics outside the classroom was an important part of his education.
One academic resource Yost found most beneficial was the Department of Communication Advisory Council, a who’s who of successful and well-connected communication professionals who share their expertise with the department and mentor its students. Yost was mentored by advisory board member Jeannie Bunton, senior vice president of communications and marketing for the Consumer Bankers Association.
Bunton says she mentored Yost in the same way that she has all students. “They already are getting a world-class education at the College,” she says. “My role is to help them put it to practice – get a chance to shine early in their post-academic careers.”
Watching History
Geoff Yost at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.
Following his graduation in May 2012, Yost reached out to Bunton, his mentor from the advisory council, who offered advice and helped connect him to the right people. Yost soon landed an internship at the 2012 Democratic National Convention in his hometown of Charlotte.
He worked in the department responsible for all convention logistics, attending to myriad tasks and details associated with converting Time Warner Cable Arena, home of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, into a political venue for some 25,000 party delegates, journalists, politicians and guests.
One of Yost’s small but important tasks at the convention was operating the podium lighting system that signals the speakers on stage when their allotted time is up. Political conventions are notorious for their non-stop parades of long-winded speakers, so Yost took it in stride when the orators largely ignored his commands. “It’s really hard to tell these people to stop talking.”
One speaker who needn’t worry about such time constraints was President Obama. On Sept. 6, 2012, Yost was standing on stage just a few feet away when Obama officially accepted his party’s nomination for re-election.
As he listened to Obama’s speech, Yost took great pride in knowing that he had played a role in putting together an enormously complex event that culminated in a speech by the leader of the free world. One of the reasons he had gravitated toward journalism and politics in the first place was that those professions often provide practitioners with access to remarkable events and places.
“I love that,” Yost says. “You get access to places you don’t think you are supposed to be.”
After the convention, Yost barely had time to get settled in Charleston before he got an offer to work in Chicago leading up to Election Day on Nov. 6, 2012. He boarded a plane the next day.
As national advance site deputy, he handled many of the same production and logistical duties he had performed at the convention. But the election night party was even bigger. Some 30,000 people packed Chicago’s McCormick Place Convention Center.
One of the biggest challenges in organizing the event was moving thousands of revelers through security and into the venue in a short window of time. The doors could not be opened until the election polls officially closed. And the attendees were in a rush to get inside for a good viewing spot before the guest of honor arrived.
Election night in Chicago, Nov. 7, 2012.
The television networks projected just before 11:30 p.m. that Obama had won re-election. Yost was rushing around backstage when he heard the crowd erupt in celebration. He tried to pause and appreciate what he was part of, but there was work to do and hours to go before the Obama family would take the stage. “You want to take stock of the moment, but it’s right back to work.”
By this point, Yost had noticed that many of the staff with whom he had worked at the convention had stayed on to work election night. And, if they continued to perform well, they would be working at Obama’s second inauguration on Jan. 21, 2013. Yost hoped to join them.
Before long Yost got an offer to work as executive assistant to the inaugural committee’s director of events and ceremonies. He arrived in Washington D.C. on Thanksgiving weekend and crashed on the couch of a former College classmate. He spent about two months helping put together the inauguration and related events, including three inauguration balls.
Unlike his two previous posts, the inauguration afforded Yost the opportunity to watch the historic event as a member of the audience. Yost stood on the Capitol lawn as Obama took the oath of office. Having watched the president’s reelection journey unfold, Yost felt like he had played a part, however small, in getting the president to that historic moment.
As the inauguration concluded, Obama headed back into the Capitol before turning around just inside the doorway. “I want to take a look one more time,” Obama famously said. “I’m not going to see this again.”
RELATED: Watch a video of President Obama pausing to look back at the crowd at his second inauguration.
The president’s moment of reflection resonated with Yost. The past few months of his life had been a whirlwind. He’d gone from graduating college to working within earshot of the President of the United States. He didn’t know where he’d go next, but he knew he’d been somewhere special.
Bunton, Yost’s mentor at the College, was not at all surprised that her protégé had made the most of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and shined. “He is creative and he is capable,” Bunton says. “He very quickly becomes the indispensable member of any team. He’s found his niche and as a result he is a standout.”
After the Party
Yost’s experiences during Obama’s reelection helped hone his problem-solving skills and his understanding of what it takes to stage high-profile political events.
In May 2013, Yost signed on to work with the Congressional campaign of Elizabeth Colbert Busch to help stage strategic events and produce the candidate’s election night appearance. The race became something of a national media circus due to the celebrity of Colbert Busch’s brother, Stephen Colbert, and the political backstory of her opponent, former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford.
Yost’s next assignment began in December 2013 and took him to Richmond, Va., where he helped oversee the inauguration ceremony of Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe.
The predictable next career step for Yost would have been to join up with another political campaign. But by early 2014, after more than two years of traveling at a moment’s notice and living out of a suitcase, Yost decided to pull back from politics.
He’s maintained the passion for radio broadcasting that first kindled his creativity as a freshman. For the past six years he has been involved in producing public radio’s annual coverage of the Spoleto Festival.
Jeanette Guinn, a visiting assistant professor in the College’s arts management program, was a member of the student media advisory board during Yost’s time at the College. She also has worked alongside Yost in her role as host of the Spoleto Today program on ETV Radio.
“He just exemplifies what a liberal arts education can do,” Guinn said. “He’s not afraid to try new things and is curious about everything. He doesn’t pigeonhole himself in one little area.”
True to Guinn’s assessment, Yost recently went in a totally new direction – joining two fellow alumni and a current student at the College to start a graphic design and marketing firm. The company’s name, Annex, is homage to the campus building where the three graduates became friends while working in student media. So far, the partners have been bootstrapping the business. They have clients in Charlotte and Charleston and recently handled some marketing work for the Piccolo Spoleto Festival.
“This is really what I want to do,” Yost says of his start-up business. But he’s also learned enough about politics the past couple of years to know that new opportunities can seemingly drop out the sky without notice.
The trick, Yost says, is being ready when they do. “Say yes. Every opportunity I’ve had is because I’ve picked up the phone and said yes. It might seem crazy at times, but it’s worth it.”
