2011 STAR Awards Special Recognition for Outstanding Youth Leadership: Essayists/Videographers/Organizers For President Obama’s Visit to Kalamazoo Central High School

In a partnership with the Kalamazoo Gazette, we are pleased to feature their STAR Award winner stories. To view the original of this article, please click here to be taken to the Kalamazoo Gazette’s website.

By Rebecca Roe | Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette

Kelsey Wilson, Machlin Fink and Bridin Clements prepare a script during the filming of their Race to the Top video.

KALAMAZOO — Not many students can claim to be re­sponsible for bringing the pres­ident to town to speak at their high school commencement, but a dynamic group of leaders from Kalamazoo Central High School can.

In just eight weeks, these students spent 175 hours on the school’s effort to win the first White House Race to the Top High School Com­mencement Challenge: Kelsey Wilson, MacKenzie DeWitt, Nicole Allen, Thomas Groes­beck, Machlin Fink, Cara Cun­­liffe, Bridin Clements, Simon Boehme, Kelsey Socha, Justin Kelley, Gwynn Walker, Mara Johnson, Michael Borskowski, Madison Pitts, Alejandra Zafra Hernandez and Randa Elian.

“Not a single person could have done this alone,” said Simon Boehme, a 19-year-old University of Michigan fresh­man who was KCHS 2010 sa­lutatorian. “I have received a lot of credit for making this happen but in no way, shape or form could any one person do it. We all came together.”

In recognition of their work, the group received a 2011 STAR (Sharing Time and Resources) Award in the Special Recog­nition for Outstanding Youth Leadership category.

Ann Miller, the Kalamazoo Central High library-media specialist who nominated the group, said it was a phenom­enal community effort.

“Everyone had ownership of the process and with that own­ership came a lot of incredible things,” Miller said.

“It was just an absolute mas­sive undertaking that really created a lot of friendships and I think brought the school together in a very unique way,” Boehme said.

Each person who worked on the project grew in a num­ber of ways and gained from the experience, said Boehme, who is championing the 2011 Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge and has met with Obama at the White House.

“I think they really exude what the young people of this generation can truly do,” he said. “If people would see the dedication, the persever­ance and the work that I saw, they would be impressed, they would be so proud to say that these students went through Kalamazoo. We showed off to the world, I mean literally, on

the national and international stage, why our school is special.”

Working on the project was an uplifting experience for 18-year-old KCHS senior Kelsey Wilson, who was one of three juniors in the group last year.

“The Commencement Challenge kind of got me excited for what’s after high school and how I’m being prepared in high school for college,” she said.

“The planning was actually rigorous. It was something I had never been through before,” Wilson said. “I’ve never put so many hours into one project, and I’ve never had so much hope for one project.”

The president’s visit still is very much talked about today, said 18-year-old senior Mac- Kenzie DeWitt.

“We hear about it at school, and it has kind of created a standard for our school, for our community.”

As juniors, DeWitt and Wilson knew they wouldn’t be up on stage shaking Obama’s hand, but that didn’t deter them from playing an integral role in the group.

“It meant just as much to us because it gave us a chance to appreciate our school and appreciate the people that we’re surrounded by on a daily basis,” DeWitt said.

“You don’t understand how wonderful your school is until you get to step back and look and say, ‘You know, when you really examine what we have it’s a really great community and it’s something that’s really special.’”

Comments are closed.