Ahead in the polls, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) has shifted her attention from campaigning to community service after Hurricane Sandy devastated much of New York City and the surrounding area.

With just over six months until the November elections, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) finds herself in a strong position as she campaigns for her first full Senate term, campaign finance records and a recent poll show.

In her address Friday at the 22nd annual meeting of the President’s Council on Cornell Women, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) spoke about the importance of recruiting women for jobs in the fields of science and technology.

Before trying to enact some of her major policy agendas in the Senate chamber in Washington, D.C., Kirsten Gillibrand, the junior senator from New York, has to listen to her constituents in order to determine what exactly her agenda should be. After holding economic development roundtables in Cortland and Elmira yesterday, Gillibrand also participated in a roundtable discussion at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

“I’m here to help,” Gillibrand told the panelists and audience members. Focusing on what Gillibrand could do for the people and the region she represents in Congress, the roundtable gravitated towards how Gillibrand could help alleviate the economic and agricultural issues facing upstate New York.