Students excited to meet Obama

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This article was published 04/03/2019 (2432 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Karina Lawe knew being a student at Maples Met School would bring special experiences, but meeting former U.S. president Barack Obama was one she never imagined.

That’s what she will be doing today, along with classmates Alexis Bez and Armaandeep Dhanoa, as well as school principal Ben Carr. The group will meet the former world leader in person as guests at the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce’s VIP reception, prior to Obama’s appearance tonight at Bell MTS Place for “A Conversation with Barack Obama.”

“I’m very excited and I don’t just feel lucky. I feel like I’m definitely meant to go see him, and when I get there and talk to him, it’s going to hit me in a very positive way,” said Karina, 16.

“It’s really inspiring to be able to connect with someone that you might have thought you were worlds apart from.

“I was talking to my family about it the other night and what to call him. I don’t want to call him ‘Mr. Obama’ because that makes it sound like he’s a teacher, but my dad said to call him ‘Mr. President,’ because once you’re president, you’ve got the president title forever.”

While tickets for the event ranged in price from $89 to $499, before taxes and fees, admission to the VIP part is by invitation only.

Carr said the school is grateful to Johnston Group Inc. (a Winnipeg-based employee benefit solutions company) and its president, Dave Angus, who, through a partnership with the Met School, donated the four VIP invitations and four tickets to Obama’s evening event.

“The chamber and the Johnston Group are organizations that are really an intricate part of the fabric of our education model that provide leadership and mentorship experiences for our students,” Carr said, noting Obama is known to be a supporter of the Met School’s Big Picture Learning model, which combines academics with project-based learning and internships.

“There are only two Met Schools in Canada; there’s over 200 in the world, many in the U.S., but other countries as well. But only two in Canada, both in Winnipeg, both in Seven Oaks (School Division) and both on Jefferson Avenue,” Carr said.

Carr said Met School education is focused on the interests and passions of the student, in addition to academics.

“It doesn’t matter what your academic performance has been. We are looking for people who want to be here,” Carr said, noting the school has students who are academic scholarship winners and students living with special needs.

“We are a microcosm of society. We have kids of all backgrounds, of all academic strengths, of all different interests and passions and perspectives of the world. We are not a school that caters to one particular type of student and that goes back to our mantra, ‘One student at a time.’”

Carr said the Met school is a publicly funded school that takes students from its middle-years feeder schools and does not have a grades-based entry. It has a special application process that requires a letter from the student explaining why they want to come to the school, a letter from a family member stating why they believe the school would be a good fit for the child, and an in-person interview with the child and their parents/guardians about what they see themselves doing in the school.

Alexis said she and the other students see “drastic differences” from Obama’s presidency (2009-17) and the current climate in the United States.

“I’m excited. I’m interested in politics and I find he’s one of the more well-spoken and kinder people in politics, and not too quick to judge people, which is kind of a problem lately in politics,” said the 17-year-old.

“Even just seeing how the current president (Donald Trump) acts, being on student council, it makes me a lot more aware of how I want to represent and work with everyone and not being disrespectful and calling people names for no reason,” she said.

“Obama was always very respectful, no matter who he was talking to, even if it was someone who made the nastiest comments about him. He was still very calm and respectful. The latest president is calling people idiots on Twitter.”

She said all three students will be doing some sort of project incorporating their experiences that night.

Armaandeep said Obama’s words have already been impactful.

“I ran for Grade 9 representative, and all my speeches were based on Obama’s ideas and the way he talks. It’s really powerful. To see him in person is a dream come true,” said the 14-year-old.

Carr, who has in his office a copy of the famous “hope” poster from Obama’s 2008 campaign, said: “I hope this (experience) serves as an inspiration to these students, to get to be face to face with somebody who brought important positive change to the world and whose message continues to be about hope and continues to be about how we lift one another up and not put one another down.”

The three students were selected with consideration given to their interests and energy, as well as school and community contributions. Seven other students and two teachers are attending the evening event on purchased tickets.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca