"Mr. Obama, Can We Come and Visit You?"

Local high school kids on mission to get White House invite

Updated 9:54 AM PST, Wed, Oct 14, 2009

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Mia Henry wants to teach Barack Obama how to use iPhoto. She wants to show the president how to take pictures and create podcasts, just like she does as a member of the Barack Obama Digital Media Team, a group of students from Crenshaw High School who are determined to get invited to the White House.

"I'd also tell him of my dreams to go to college, so I can work with autistic children as a child psychologist," Henry said.

Using Barack Obama as inspiration, teacher Daphne Bradford has created projects Crenshaw and Dorsey high schools -- schools in poverty-ridden sections of Los Angeles -- to engage students to learn technological and cooking skills.

At Crenshaw High, students on the Barack Obama Digital Media Team use technology to create digital art inspired by the president. They call it their Journey to the White House campaign. Members of the team have received digital media certification in Apple's iLife software suite.

LOOK

Obama the Family Man

Students recorded video letters to the President aboard the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, a one-of-a-kind non-profit multimedia studio where the Black Eyed Peas, Natasha Bedingfield and other recording artists have laid tracks. The team wrote and produced a Journey to the White House theme song.

"I use President Obama's inspiration and his digital media savvy as inpiration in the classroom pretty much every day," Bradford said. "He is our 21st Century president."

At Doresy High, Bradford worked with the school's culinary arts department to create the Dorsey High School Obama Chefs.

First, students prepared nutritious lunches for Obama volunteers during the stretch run of the presidential campaign last year -- Bradford was a South Los Angeles campaign manager for the Obama campaign. Now, the program has led to a web-based television show, Cooking Live with Dorsey High.

On the show, students prepare various healthy meals and desserts for students, teachers and various community events. The show is featured on www.studentnewsdesk.com.

You can learn more about these students and their teacher, and view the video letters to the President, at www.whitehousejourney.com

First Published: Oct 13, 2009 7:50 PM PST

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