In her junior year, Rodham became a supporter of the antiwar presidential nomination campaign of Democrat Eugene McCarthy.[26] In early 1968, she was elected president of the Wellesley College Government Association and served through early 1969.[24][27] Following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Rodham organized a two-day student strike and worked with Wellesley's black students to recruit more black students and faculty.[26] In her student government role, she played a role in keeping Wellesley from being embroiled in the student disruptions common to other colleges.[24][28] A number of her fellow students thought she might some day become the first female President of the United States.[24]

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.[26] Rodham was invited by moderate New York Republican Representative Charles Goodell to help Governor Nelson Rockefeller's late-entry campaign for the Republican nomination.[26] Rodham attended the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami. 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.[26] Rodham wrote her senior thesis, a critique of the tactics of radical community organizer Saul Alinsky, under Professor Schechter.[29] (Years later, while she was First Lady, access to her thesis was restricted at the request of the White House and it became the subject of some speculation.[29])

In 1969, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts,[30] with departmental honors in political science.[29] Following pressure from some fellow students,[31] she became the first student in Wellesley College history to deliver its commencement address.[27] Her speech received a standing ovation lasting seven minutes.[24][32][33] She was featured in an article published in Life magazine,[34] due to the response to a part of her speech that criticized Senator Brooke, who had spoken before her at the commencement.[31] She also appeared on Irv Kupcinet's nationally syndicated television talk show as well as in Illinois and New England newspapers.[35] 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).[36]