Obama, A President Kids Can Look Up To

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RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

Now to a healthy way for teenagers to spend their time. High school students not old enough to vote for president, still managed to get in on the big day. NPR's Claudio Sanchez went to one school the morning after.

CLAUDIO SANCHEZ: Colonel Zadok Magruder High School is a racially and ethnically mixed school in suburban Washington, D.C. Latinos, blacks, and Asians make up about 56 percent of the student body, whites 44 percent. And everybody, it seems, stayed up until the middle of the night to hear Barack Obama's victory speech.

(Soundbite of students chatting excitedly)

SANCHEZ: By 7:15 Wednesday morning, the hallways at Magruder reverberated with his name, Obama. Sleep-deprived and giddy with excitement, some students like Jeremy Jacoby(ph) and Maurice Silva(ph), both 17, are already thinking about how they'll describe what they felt about this moment in history to their children.

Mr. JEREMY JACOBY (Student, Colonel Zadok Magruder High School): I'll say it's a feeling of joy and optimism.

Mr. MAURICE SILVA (Student, Colonel Zadok Magruder High School): Like Jeremy, I'll be happy to tell my children that I witnessed history. But I'll tell them that we were all scared because we don't know what really is going to happen.

SANCHEZ: Even if you were too young to vote, says Maurice, the fear is real. Not knowing what's going to happen with the economy, two wars, terrorism, the environment. Still, Vanessa Trend(ph), 15, says nothing will keep her from telling her children about the night an African-American was elected president of the United States.

Ms. VANESSA TREND (Student, Colonel Zadok Magruder High School): I wasn't really supporting either candidate, but I would tell them about jumping on the sofa, how crazy it was, and how involved everyone, all my friends and my peers around me were with this election, like more than ever, in a way that our youth hasn't been before.

SANCHEZ: Vanessa says it's not Obama's race that appeals to young people, it's his youth. But for Lauren Haines(ph), 16, Obama's victory was about race.

Ms. LAUREN HAINES (Student, Colonel Zadok Magruder High School): To be completely honest, I did not think I was going to be alive to see an African-American voted into office. So I was really glad to see that this happened. That means I can do anything I want and that this country really is a place to achieve your dreams.

SANCHEZ: Lauren's biggest worry, the false expectation that Obama will fix everything.

Ms. HAINES: Obama is going to make some mistakes, but I think that he's intelligent enough to surround himself with people that will help him make better decisions and fix any mistakes that he might make in office.

SANCHEZ: As for the immediate future under a Barack Obama presidency, Keely Dobbs(ph), 17, says, sure the recession will be foremost in people's minds, but for lots of kids the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are a bigger concern.

Ms. KEELY DOBBS (Student, Colonel Zadok Magruder High School): I'm ready to have our troops come home.

SANCHEZ: The notion of a war without end is scary, says Jeremy Jacoby.

Mr. JACOBY: I volunteer with veterans and I see kids who are, you know, a year older than me that don't have a leg. That's something that really scares me is, you know, I don't want my country fighting, and I don't want to fight.

SANCHEZ: Jeremy says many students in Magruder High supported Obama in large part because of his promise to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan quickly. And though they were lots of McCain supporters at Magruder, Jeremy says they weren't nearly as vocal about the war or anything else. Whatever tension there was, says Maurice Silva, it's now giving way to something else.

Mr. SILVA: For some reason, I feel like we have a new start or something like - Obama, maybe he's not going to make a huge change, but he's going to at least start it.

SANCHEZ: And the best part, these teenagers say, is that in four years after Obama has had his chance, they will have a say in terms of where this country's headed. They'll be old enough to vote. Claudio Sanchez, NPR News.

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