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.”
