Booker T. Washington High School Participating In Commencement Challenge

By Tara Vreeland, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- Booker T. Washington High School has high hopes for their 2010 graduation ceremony.

Students entered the first Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge. The winning school will have the ultimate graduation speaker.

More than 1,200 students, a student body composed of diversity in every sense, and a school that proudly boasts a 100 percent graduation rate -- in a two minute YouTube video, the very essence of Booker T. Washington is captured to attract the ultimate commencement ceremony speaker, President Obama.

"I mean, this is for Obama. It's a pretty big deal," said Luke Leifeste, a Booker T. Washington junior.

"We elected him as a country to be our President. And the fact that we could have the President, not the Democratic President, just the President himself to come to a school like this is pretty cool," said Haley Holtzscher, a Booker T. Washington junior.

The Commander in Chief challenged schools nationwide to show how they are taking responsibility for their education.

"Graduation is an important moment for anyone, but a high school diploma is important for our success as a nation," said President Obama.

"We have every statistic that works against us and we are able to close the achievement gap and find curriculums that work for all students so that they do graduate," said Rachael Stacy, Booker T. Washington Assistant Principal.

Booker T. welcomed the challenge creating the video and writing the required 1,100 word essay in just five days.

Watch Booker T. Washington's Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge video.

"It's really hard to put into words what the Booker T. Washington experience is because this school has so much rich history and school spirit that when I started watching it, I started crying," said Stacy.

The masterminds behind the video think the President will take notice.

"I think so. I think Booker T. stands out as a different school than others in a good way," said Leifeste. 

"We kinda think we do have a chance. We are a very demographically diverse school. We have a lot of things other schools don't," said Holtzscher.

Six finalists will be chosen and those videos will be posted online. The public will vote on the three schools they think will best meet the President's goal, which is to have the highest college graduation rate in the world by 2020. 

President Obama himself will select the national winner.

Watch Booker T. Washington's Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge video.

Watch videos from other schools participating in the Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge:

• Mission San Jose High School
• Shorewood High School
• Loch Raven High School
• Mariner High School
• Miami Beach Senior High School
• New Albany High School
• Lowell High School