BERKELEY - As the fall semester nears its conclusion, Cal diver Peter Cyr finds himself confronted with a question that might challenge even the brightest minds in professional politics.

What message can Democratic candidate for president Bernie Sanders devise to win a general election against former governor Jeb Bush in the state of Florida?

No, Cyr hasn't abandoned his spot on the diving team to head to one of America's most hotly contested battleground states and walk precincts for Sanders' political revolution. Instead, he's working to find an answer in one of Berkeley's most practical political laboratories -- Political Science 106A.

Titled Campaign Strategy - Media and Message, the class is taught by Dan Schnur, longtime Berkeley lecturer/professor and Director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC. With a curriculum that focuses less on partisan politics and more on the methodology that can help shape the political discussion nationwide, the class attracts students from not only the edges of the ideological spectrum but the middle as well.

Enter Cyr, who as a senior student-athlete is trying to figure out life after Berkeley while at the same time competing as a Division I diver. A native of Hamden, Conn., Cyr intends to graduate in the spring with a degree in Political Science and he'll spend the next few months working on the not-at-all daunting question of what to do with the rest of his life.

Moving in a direction towards public service wasn't Cyr's intention when he got to Berkeley. Instead, he began as an intended English major, but after taking one class he decided perhaps another direction might hold more appeal.

"I also took Poli Sci 1 with Jack Citrin, and he's an older, dry-humored, super-funny guy and it really got me interested," Cyr said. "So, I took Poli Sci 2 for a breadth requirement and I had professor (M. Steven) Fish, who is an amazing lecturer. Coming into my sophomore year, you kind of have to pick a major if you want to get out in four years, so that was the coolest class I'd had so far. It was about comparative politics. Then I started reading stuff online. I'm a political junkie now. I go on Politico, Bloomberg Politics, those are my favorite websites."

Since he made that choice, Cyr's studies have focused on the theories of political discourse that Berkeley has helped shape for generations. His home state of Connecticut is a decidedly blue state, but that didn't necessarily dictate his political persuasions. Instead, Cyr came to Cal with an open mind and opinions yet to be formed.

To that end, Cyr sits in a Kroeber Hall classroom every Monday for three hours and listens as Schnur presents real world examples of how candidates are getting their message across to an electorate more polarized than ever. With a background that includes having run for statewide office as a non-partisan candidate in 2014, Schnur makes sure his students know they're not in his class to hear a talking head espouse political beliefs.

"I make it very clear on the first day of the semester that it's not my place to tell the students which side to take. They're 19, 20, 21 years old. They're smart enough to make these decisions for themselves," Schnur said. "My biggest frustration in higher education, not just here but on any campus in the United States, are those professors that believe their classroom should be a bully pulpit that allows them to impose their own ideological beliefs on their students. Most of my students are somewhat to the left of me, a decent number are well to the right of me but it's not my place to tell them what to think. What I try to do instead is help give them the tools to build public and political support for the candidates and causes and issues that are important to them. Whether I happen to agree with those is absolutely immaterial."

What Cyr has picked up throughout the semester is a greater understanding of why candidates do what they do. There's certainly no shortage of fresh material as both political parties work to identify their candidate for the 2016 election, and the class focuses a good deal of time on current events and what's going on in the world at large.

"I think it's really interesting to be learning about the subject while 2016 is gearing up," Cyr said. "You take things from say Poli Sci 106A and you hear how Schnur presents his ideas and how these candidates try to present themselves in public and you really have a better understanding of why they say the things they do, what motivates their statements, how they design the presentation of themselves."

By the end of the semester, Cyr's task will be to have come up with an answer to the Sanders v. Bush question in the form of a 25-page campaign strategy document. For starters, his thought is that the key lies in the senior citizen vote, and part of his messaging is targeted at spreading the word about an expansion of Social Security benefits.

That's not to say he necessarily agrees or disagrees with Sanders, though Cyr does admit to 'feeling the Bern.' The challenge of a class like Schnur's is to become familiar with all sides of an argument instead of staying confined to one's own beliefs.

"The world is full of advocates, and that's a good thing, but in order to be a good advocate, you need to be a good analyst. You need to be able to step outside of your own ideological construct and look at the world from a broader perspective," Schnur said. "So, I actually encourage students to write their semester papers for the candidates who they oppose. I'm not looking to change your mind, I'm just trying to open it. If we can get students to realize that someone who disagrees with them is not evil or stupid, but rather that person is an equally principled individual who just happens to have come to different conclusions about how to solve our community's problems, it's a lot easier to work with that person once you get to city hall or the state capitol or Washington D.C."

The typical path of a graduate in political science skews toward law school, but that's not where Cyr sees himself headed just yet. His father Gilman is a teacher, his mother Sarah an administrator at a school for autistic people. He beams when describing how much he admires the work his parents do, especially the help his mother helps provide for autistic children at Benhaven Academy in Wallingford, Conn.

That a political science student would look for another avenue to make an impact is a growing trend, Schnur says. Despite what polls and pundits might say about young voter engagement with the political process, he sees students just like Cyr making an equal or greater impact outside the traditional political landscape.

"What I've seen in my years of teaching is a growing disaffection among young people with politics as it's traditionally practiced but a growing interest and enthusiasm with other ways of being involved in their community," Schnur said. "Voting levels might be lower but they are much more aggressive at finding ways to volunteer, get involved in community organizations and finding other, less traditional ways to make a difference."

For now, Cyr isn't planning to move back to Connecticut after graduation. That may change depending on what opportunities come up, but the idea of following up on what he's learned in Political Science 106A holds a certain appeal for a student-athlete who is all too familiar with diving into a task head first.

"When you're in athletics, you're very exposed and you have to present yourself and go about your life in a certain way because you're representing something larger than just you," Cyr said. "You have to present yourself in a certain way just like politicians do because you're in a special place where you can have an effect on a lot more people. I think it's a cool thing because you're exposed in a way that you can also reach more people and you know how to do that. People see you do what you do every day, they think it's cool and you get to be a role model for little kids."