David Jacobson sneaked his way into politics.

In 2000, he was working at a pharmaceutical company in Connecticut in his first job out of college, “very bored and not enjoying life,” he recalled. He woke up one morning to the news that then-Vice President Al Gore (D) had chosen Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman (D) as his presidential running mate, and although he had never been interested politics, Jacobson, who hails from Lieberman’s home town of Stamford, CT, was astonished.

“I didn’t care a lick about politics before that happened,” Jacobson recalled recently in a downstairs lounge at the 92nd Street Y, where he works as an associate in the personal development and singles program. “But once it did, something happened to me. I said, ‘This is a special moment in history.’”

Jacobson, 29, learned of a Gore/Lieberman campaign event scheduled in Stamford for the next day. He knew he had to go.

“So I showed up to this event and I snuck in,” Jacobson said with a smile. “I had no business being there.”

He left the event several hours later with a job on Lieberman’s national advance staff, and spent the next several months crisscrossing the country in planes and motorcades, setting up national campaign events.

“It was an unbelievable rush,” Jacobson said. “Just like that, my whole life changed. I was suddenly into politics.”

After that campaign, he completed a Master’s program in Music and Entertainment in Business at New York University. He then joined former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign after attending a boisterous rally for the then-virtually unknown governor in a Lower East Side bar.

That experience in particular furthered his belief in the power of individual political action, Jacobson said.

Although his job at the Y involves neither politics nor organizing lectures, Jacobson has combined his political experience and passion to create a nonpartisan lecture series about political activism, which features some of the highest-profile political activists today.

Jacobson said the idea for the series, which he calls “What One Person Can Do: Political Expression,” came to him as soon as he arrived at the Y in March.

“When I got here I realized immediately the power of this place – the prestige and the reach this place has,” Jacobson said. “I knew this was a wonderful opportunity to really push the idea of political expression.”

Among those participating are: anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, Becky Norton Dunlop of the Heritage Foundation, playwright Eve Ensler, political consultant and former Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi, and New York Times letters editor Thomas Feyer and op-ed page editor David Shipley. Actress Susan Sarandon signed on, but had to back out because of scheduling conflicts.

The series began Sept. 28 with a panel discussion on grassroots activism. It continues Oct. 4 when Sheehan and Ensler discuss effective political protests, then concludes Oct. 9 with Fryer and Shipley talking about how to write effective letters to the editor and opinion pieces to help activists get their voices heard.

Jacobson said the series reflects his belief in the power of individual political expression. Growing frustration with the inaction of friends and colleagues who readily complained about government and politics also encouraged him to organize it, he said.

“I would love to see as many people as possible come away from this lecture series saying, ‘I didn’t know I could do this! I didn’t know what my voice could do!’” he said.