Elizabeth Atkins, Firoz Jameel and John Nelson hopped a flight to Iowa to spend nine days working on John Edwards’ presidential campaign leading up to the Iowa caucus.

Nelson, who has volunteered at Edwards’ campaign headquarters in Chapel Hill since July, heard about the opportunity from his supervisor.

“He called me one night and said ‘My boss needs unpaid labor,’” said Atkins, who worked as a congressional page last summer. “I was like, ‘Oh yeah.’”

Two weeks and three plane tickets later, the trio was off to Iowa.

In the small town of Creston, the group was tasked with outreach, going door to door and making phone calls to potential Democratic caucus-goers.

“One day we called three women named Twyla all over the age of 85,” Atkins said.

Jameel said they came out of the experience with a much greater respect for telemarketers.

“Some people were very receptive about it,” Jameel said. “Some people were also very fed up with the entire process.”

Atkins and Nelson said their youth and Southern accents may have attributed to some people’s willingness to talk.

“We had some really valuable conversations. I was favorably surprised,” said Atkins, who also said she was surprised with how much face time she got with voters. “I didn’t realize how much of that grass roots stuff still goes on.”

“People were really impressed that we’re so young,” Nelson added.

Atkins, 17, Jameel, 16, and Nelson, 18, said they were among the youngest volunteers in Iowa, which is no surprise — Jameel won’t even be old enough to vote in time for the November election.

“I’m relatively bummed that I can’t,” Jameel said.

Don’t let their youth fool you — the three are passionate about politics.

“We’re sick and tired of how Washington politics are today,” Jameel said, adding that if John Edwards doesn’t take the Democratic nomination they would like to see Barack Obama take it.

Nelson said he has been aware of Edwards and his platform for a few years.

“It really clicked with what I wanted to see in the United States,” Nelson said.

The students did get to meet Edwards once, during his 36-hour blitz just before the caucus.

At 2 a.m., Edwards, his wife and an army of media came through the doors of the home where they were staying.

Though the candidate was upbeat at such a late hour, he wasn’t quite his perfectly coiffed self.

“He had a little bit of bedhead in the back,” Jameel said with a smile.

Nelson said he and others were shocked by the size of the press corps that traveled with Edwards.

“The number of people that came running through the door,” Nelson said. “There was just this barrage of reporters and cameramen and boom operators.”

The trio got to experience a side of presidential campaigns that most people even three times their age aren’t privy to.

“The campaigning process is absolutely grueling,” Nelson said.

“McDonald’s every single day,” Atkins added.

But the worst part wasn’t the hundreds of phone calls or knocking on so many strangers’ doors, or even the indigestion. It was the bone-chilling cold.

“I think my boss decided I was complaining too much,” said Atkins, who said at one point she was instructed to stay inside and make phone calls.

After nine days of hard work, the group was ready to come home.

“We got off the plane in Atlanta and I smelled barbecue and got really excited,” Atkins said with a laugh.

But all the same, they’re eager to hit the pavement again, next time a little closer to home.

“We’ll probably end up [campaigning] in South Carolina,” Jameel said.