Students of the 2010 class at Kalamazoo Central High School (KCHS) in Michigan have good reason to be proud. They beat a national field of contenders to win a speech from President Obama at their graduation ceremony. He spoke at the school on Monday, June 7.
The students created a video they called “We are the Giants” as part of their application for the Race to the Top commencement challenge. According the city of Kalamazoo’s website, the per capita income in the area was $20,088 in 2005, and 30 percent of residents lived in poverty. Yet despite a lack of privileged circumstances, KCHS won the honor.
Senior and President of Student Government Simon Boehme led the project.
“ It really unified the Class of 2010 and really united a community,” said Boehme. “We campaigned for it, we had 10 hours to shoot the video and had 10 hours to edit. We really tried to be creative and unique.”
Boehme added that the one guideline they followed was that they did not want it to be an infomercial. The video starts with slam poetry, followed by an underwater shot of someone holding a sign that said “college” and then someone dunking a book.
Boehme is headed to the University of Michigan to major in Political Science and Business.
Kalamazoo’s ace in the hole could have been related to the city’s scholarship program, called the Kalamazoo Promise, which was set up by anonymous donors. The scholarship guarantees free instate college for residents who finish high school. Because of that, the video said that, “Failure is not an option.”
The students created a video they called “We are the Giants” as part of their application for the Race to the Top commencement challenge. According the city of Kalamazoo’s website, the per capita income in the area was $20,088 in 2005, and 30 percent of residents lived in poverty. Yet despite a lack of privileged circumstances, KCHS won the honor.
Senior and President of Student Government Simon Boehme led the project.
“ It really unified the Class of 2010 and really united a community,” said Boehme. “We campaigned for it, we had 10 hours to shoot the video and had 10 hours to edit. We really tried to be creative and unique.”
Boehme added that the one guideline they followed was that they did not want it to be an infomercial. The video starts with slam poetry, followed by an underwater shot of someone holding a sign that said “college” and then someone dunking a book.
Boehme is headed to the University of Michigan to major in Political Science and Business.
Kalamazoo’s ace in the hole could have been related to the city’s scholarship program, called the Kalamazoo Promise, which was set up by anonymous donors. The scholarship guarantees free instate college for residents who finish high school. Because of that, the video said that, “Failure is not an option.”
Senior Jay Valikodath held the underwater sign that said “college.”
“ I think that the Kalamazoo Promise has had a big impact on me and how my future was going to lie out,” said Valikodath. “It made it so that college was necessary in my life and that’s one of the big things that happened in my life.”
Valikodath said that he can’t describe the feeling of winning the contest and knowing that Barack Obama was coming to his school.
“[It] just proves that all of our hard work and effort really paid off in this video and all the hard work that the film crew did and all the campaigning really brought the community together.”
In the video, voices softly sing “we are the giants” while student Xavier Bolden recites a poem about achievement, learning, and the future.
Student Xavier Bolden, who will go to Western Michigan University for Theater Performance in the fall, said the teachers and peers he met at KCHS “were key in bringing me further into my future, into making me successful. I don’t feel any other school really has that aspect other than KC, which is great for me.” Bolden would tell other students, “ Just work hard and trust in what your teachers ask you do to, what they need for you to do and what they expect from you—also your parents—nobody intends to lead you the wrong way, everybody wants to see you be successful in life.”
The last words in the video are “We promise.”
With reporting by Valerie Avore and Ying Wan
