September 30, 2011

>GLSEN Students Get Official White House Welcome Before President’s Job Speech

>Rohan M. is a junior at Friends School in Washington, DC and a GLSEN Student Ambassador. Earlier this month Rohan was invited to attend President Obama’s job speech and wanted to share some of the memorable moments with us.

On September 8th, 2011, I was lucky enough to have GLSEN present me with the opportunity to attend a viewing of the President’s Jobs Speech in the White House! Another student member of GLSEN, Cady, and I were able to watch the speech in the South Court Auditorium.

After going through about thirty minutes of security, we navigated our way through the white house (which was insanely huge), and were seated in a large studio like auditorium with bright lights. The room was filled with white house staff and college students who were part of different affinity groups. Cady and I must have been the youngest people there.

Not 10 minutes after our arrival, Cady and I and two other women were called to the front of the room over a loud speaker. We both glanced at each other nervously and as we rose from our seats, everyone’s eyes were on us. We nervously approached the front of the auditorium and were greeted by Mr. Raul Alvillar and his colleague, both congressional staff members of the White House. They warmly welcomed us and asked us about ourselves. We were both relieved that we weren’t in any kind of trouble. After returning to our seats Cady looked at me and said:

“We got a personal welcome at the White House! Who else can say that?!”

I laughed in agreement and we both settled in to watch the President’s speech, which we both agreed was absolutely fantastic. After the speech, four Senior Administration Officials from the White House entered the auditorium to answer questions about the new bill from Facebook and Twitter on a live stream and we got to be part of the studio audience.

This whole entire experience was mind-blowing! I still can’t believe Cady and I got to be a part of a live studio audience and view the President’s speech. Thank you so much to GLSEN for giving me the opportunity to go, I had so much fun! This definitely goes on my list of amazing things I’ve done, and it’s an amazing story to tell my friends at school.

(A side of the White House rarely captured.)

   

About Elizabeth Free

       

Elizabeth Free is the communications manager at GLSEN--the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. Elizabeth joined GLSEN in 2009 to make schools safer for all students and says one of the best parts of her job is working with GLSEN's Student Ambassadors. She is originally from Texas and has a B.A. in Public Relations and Advertising from the University of Houston.