In 1966, Atholton High School opened its doors as the first desegregated school in Howard County. President Barack Obama was only in Kindergarten. Fast forward 50 years, Atholton is celebrating its semi-centennial anniversary and President Obama is wrapping up his second term as the first African American President. In an auspicious turn of events, Mr Morfoot’s Spanish II class was selected to attend an event today on the White House South Lawn, where they had the opportunity to meet the President and hear him welcome the Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi.
The class was selected along with another class from Marriott’s Ridge as the representatives of Howard County at the event. The greeting was very exclusive, only originally intended for Italian classes from school systems in the state of Maryland. However, due to the fact that Howard County does not teach Italian throughout the school system, an opening was available. Freshman Max Crider, a part of this fortunate group, spoke about the up-close and personal experience.
“It’s not very often that you get to meet the President, let alone be at one of his speeches and shake his hand,” he recalled. Crider also described how successful the ceremony was in its intent to honor the Prime Minister, a head of state of the major European country.
“It was very cool all of the things they did for him,” he said, “as well as the way that he said good things about Italy’s relationship with America.”
“The opportunity to meet the US President and Italian Prime Minister was awesome,” Crider said. “It was a very humbling experience and something like that will probably never happen to me again in my life.”
According to Crider, there were five to six other schools present at the greeting, and nearly everyone was in awe of the experience, President Obama included. In the speech, the President discussed his respect for Italy and its leadership, as well as lamenting how this will be the last major world leader to visit him while he is still the Commander-in-Chief. Obama mainly discussed how strong the bond between the United States and Italy has been over recent years, beginning with the liberation of Italy by the US military in World War II.
According to World Languages ITL and Spanish teacher Jennifer Street, who was present along with the students, Obama’s speech was even more powerful and impactful in person than what she is accustomed to seeing on television. “The energy and enthusiasm that President Obama exudes is absolutely amazing! I am so excited that I got to do this before he leaves office.”
Michelle Obama was also present at the ceremony, although she did not address the gathering.
According to Crider, this is not something that any of these students will forget or overlook for a long while, if not for the rest of their lives. The exclusivity of the event, with approximately 100 people present, speaks to how much of a privilege this really was. “The opportunity to meet the US President and Italian Prime Minister was awesome,” Crider said. “It was a very humbling experience and something like that will probably never happen to me again in my life.”