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Caden Raymond ’28 is back for a sophomore season of elbows-deep engagement. Last spring’s winner of the Bob Ruday Outstanding First Year of Involvement Award, the Spartan Alliance Scholar is co-president of UTampa Votes! and the director of programming for Student Government. He’s a political science major, a TV and movie aficionado, and a news junkie who gave the ���dzܰ��Բ�����a little “Extra! Extra!” at the end of our interview. Don’t forget, you read it here first.

What's new with UTampa Votes!

Last year, we did tablings to get students registered to vote and spread voter education, but we knew we needed to do a little bit more. So we made UTampa Votes! a registered student organization, which means it’s now a club. One of our major plans is to have people come and speak about their experiences in public service and how voting impacts what they do. I’ve been connecting with city councilmen, CEOs, federal judges, nonprofit leaders, just anyone to get a real sense of what’s important in Tampa.

How do you stay informed? And how would you recommend other young people learn about what’s going on in the world?

I have all the news outlets downloaded on my phone, all that you could think of, and I have my notifications on. But for some other people, they’ll watch videos or listen to podcasts or even get their news from TikTok. So it’s really about how you best can receive information. Me, personally, I’m a news guy. I read articles. I try to get a grasp of different viewpoints. It’s important to not have bias.

What do you tell friends who think keeping up with current events is too overwhelming?

Sometimes it’s just taking 30 minutes — or 10 minutes — to go and read an article about the top 10 things that happened today. It’s kind of like hurricane season. You have to stay up to date if there’s a hurricane coming. Because it can be here in three days, and in those three days, you want to know how to be prepared.

That’s spoken like a true Tampan. Let’s talk about Spartan Alliance, which is exclusively for local high school graduates.

This scholarship was more than just money. It was guaranteed mentorship for all four years, guaranteed connection and networking opportunities, and guaranteed just getting to the finish line of graduation, setting up whatever the next step in life is. I got into other, well-known schools, so I had to consider whether I should go somewhere and thrive off the name, or go to UTampa and fully take on what this scholarship has given me. It was one of the biggest decisions I have made in my life. And I think, undoubtedly, it was the best decision I could have made.

It sounds like you’ve had a lot on your mind. What do you do for fun?

I watch movies for a living — I try to watch a new movie every single night. And right now, I'm watching (the TV show) Lost, which is, like, an older show. I recently finished West Wing, which I think tells a lot about what I like the best. I love all political shows and movies. I also just finished Veep on HBO Max. I didn’t like how it ended, but it might be the funniest show I’ve ever watched.

OK, last question: Will we see you running for office someday?

I guess this is an exclusive scoop.

Go on ...

I'll tell you my entire journey and plan. I plan to go to law school. After that, I plan to come back to Tampa and give back to the community that really invested in me, because that’s how I think when people give me opportunities: How can I help them? So I plan to get involved, whether that’s being an attorney, working with a nonprofit, or jumping straight into the political landscape, running for elected office, city councilman or mayor or state senator. And then, scaling it a little bit more, running for the U.S. Senate or governor.

Anything after that?

I plan to make history.

— Interview by Holly Neumann | Photo by Jessica Leigh