The District Chronicles

Issue date: 6/14/09 Section: Cover

Media Credit: Justin D Knight/Howard University

Eighteen-year-old Jasmine Williams is not one to be easily intimidated. She grew up in Sursum Coda, a tough Ward 6 neighborhood known for gangs and drugs. She had seen her classmates die from violence and completed her homework at a dimly lit table.

But, in August last hear, Jasmine entered the senior year at a school where almost 100 percent of graduates go to college, the Washington Mathematics, Science and Technology Public Charter School at 1920 Bladensburg Road, NE.

She had grown to believe that the most difficult challenges in her life did not lie in the present, but the future. And she wanted a pep talk from the person she believed could understand the struggles she and 98 fellow classmates at WMST were going through - First Lady Michelle Obama.

So, in December 2008, she thought nothing of inviting Mrs. Obama to be the graduation speaker at WMST.

"She has such great inner strength that it drew me to her," Jasmine of Mrs. Obama. "I wanted to see if I could get her to speak at our graduation. I wanted to meet her."

But Jasmine also figured that wanting the First Lady to speak at graduation was a dream thousands of other students across the nation shared.

"But there is always a chance," she thought to herself. "Just like playing the lottery. Even though your chances of winning are like a million to one, if you don't play, you have no chance. So I was like, 'sure, write the letter so we'll have a chance'."

At WMST, Jasmine had relied on teachers for guidance in her academic and personal struggles. But this time she took the letter to Principal Mark Holbrook for guidance.

"Jasmine came to me on a Friday in December and asked if we had a commencement speaker yet," said Principal Holbrook. "I told her I had someone in mind, Dr. William R. Harvey, legendary president of Hampton University."

Jasmine asked Holbrook to invite Mrs. Obama instead. He sent the letter off that Friday. To his surprise, Mrs. Obama's office called him that following Monday.

"I was like, 'No, don't play with me'!" Holbrook said, relishing the moment the White House called. "But they simply said they had received the letter and would make a decision."

Jasmine's appeal to Mrs. Obama was direct. "Where we come from, being a young minority means we have little chance to succeed," Jasmine wrote.

Last year only 57.6% of the students in the DC Public school system graduated, the remainder became a dropout casualty.

Continued...

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