To help her better understand her changing political views , Professor Alan Schechter assigned Rodham to intern at the House Republican Conference and she attended the " Wellesley in Washington " summer program . Rodham was invited by moderate New York Republican representative Charles Goodell to help Governor Nelson Rockefeller 's late-entry campaign for the Republican nomination . Rodham attended the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach . However , she was upset by the way Richard Nixon 's campaign portrayed Rockefeller and by what she perceived as the convention 's " veiled " racist messages and left the Republican Party for good . Rodham wrote her senior thesis , a critique of the tactics of radical community organizer Saul Alinsky , under Professor Schechter . ( Years later , while she was the first lady , access to her thesis was restricted at the request of the White House and it became the subject of some speculation . The thesis was later released . ) In 1969 , she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts , with departmental honors in political science . After some fellow seniors requested that the college administration allow a student speaker at commencement , she became the first student in Wellesley College history to speak at the event . Her address followed that of commencement speaker Senator Edward Brooke . After her speech , she received a standing ovation that lasted seven minutes . She was featured in an article published in '' Life '' magazine , due to the response to a part of her speech that criticized Senator Brooke . She also appeared on Irv Kupcinet 's nationally syndicated television talk show as well as in Illinois and New England newspapers and was asked to speak at the fiftieth anniversary convention of the League of Women Voters in Washington D.C. the next year . That summer , she worked her way across Alaska , washing dishes in Mount McKinley National Park and sliming salmon in a fish processing cannery in Valdez ( which fired her and shut down overnight when she complained about unhealthful conditions )
1968 Republican National Convention
1968 Republican National Convention
Hillary Clinton