Obama as a Role Model: Students, Educators Share Excitement

Nov. 5, 2008 — -- Aloysius Puff is 17. In his short lifetime, the black teen has witnessed the appointment of the country's first and second black secretaries of state and its second black Supreme Court justice. But for a long time, he didn't believe a black person would even come close to the nation's highest office.

Now, President-elect Barack Obama "is stepping it up for all of us, especially blacks," said Puff, of Fort Wayne, Ind. "I just hope us African-Americans realize he's doing it for us, and we should give back and step up -- do what we can do, what we can accomplish."

Across the country, educators, community activists and students are hopeful that the election of Obama, whose mother was a white American and father a black African, will provide much-needed inspiration to black youth.

Obama, the First Black President

Mel Campbell, a Corona, Calif., science teacher who also leads a cultural issues class, said he has seen black students engaged in the election like never before.

"I've got students who don't talk politics who are talking politics, who are talking about futures, who are talking about plans, who wouldn't ordinarily be speaking in those terms," he said. "This presidential election has kicked open [a door] in the minds of our underachieving kids."

After seeing students' excitement about Obama's candidacy, teachers and staff at Ramapo High School in Spring Valley, N.Y., held a late-night election results party at the school Tuesday night. More than 60 percent of Ramapo High School's student body is black.

"I believe that schools can really build on this in so many ways," said Joe Farmer, the assistant superintendent of schools in the area, "and use this as inspiration from the very youngest to the oldest of our students."