Hyde Park Academy Students Spends Father’s Day with President Obama

Deborah Bayliss | As of Friday, June 21, 2013

Students from Hyde Park Academy's Becoming a Man program spends Father's Day with President Barack Obama. President Obama visited the school in Feb. where the young men shared their feelings and talked about their struggles.
Students from Hyde Park Academy's Becoming a Man program spends Father's Day with President Barack Obama. President Obama visited the school in Feb. where the young men shared their feelings and talked about their struggles.
Photo By: AP Photo

Hyde Park Academy students who take part in B.A.M. (“Becoming a Man”), an at-risk youth program, had a chance once again to spend time with President Obama; this time at the White House on Father’s Day.

The students traveled to Washington, D.C. from Chicago for lunch in the East Room, where the President discussed the importance of fatherhood and mentorship, according to the White House Blog.

The president in Feb. was in Chicago to meet the young men who are in the program at Hyde Park Academy, 6220 S. Stony Island, where he spoke with them at that time about the importance of education.

James Adams, 18, a Hyde Park Career Academy High School student spoke excitedly about seeing President Barack Obama up close and personal during the president’s visit to his school in February.

“My heart dropped when I saw him. I heard that he was coming,” said Adams, a B.A.M participant.

“I thought that it couldn’t be true….he wouldn’t come here,” Adams said in disbelief. I thought he would be too busy.”

The president met with the students in a private room setting before speaking with a much larger invitation-only audience who gathered in the school’s auditorium that Friday afternoon in Feb.

“About 17 of us guys were sitting in a circle and we were talking and sharing our thoughts and feelings about how we are emotionally, physically and intellectually as we do as part of our B.A.M, youth group. He walked around and shook all of our hands. He spoke to us about gun violence and said there are other things to do instead of using guns to solve our problems.”

Tyren Thompson, 18, a Hyde Park Academy senior, was intrigued by the president’s visit back in Feb.

“It was a one-time thing for me,” Thompson said. “After seeing and hearing him, I felt I could accomplish anything. He was raised in a single-parent home and grew up without a father like I did. Anything is possible for me now. I plan to go to college or the U.S. army. He told us anything is possible and to keep trying.”

Michelle Morrison, chief executive officer of Youth Guidance, which runs the B.A.M. program was on hand for the president’s visit to the school.

“There’s been a lot of effort locally to fight gun violence and the city is looking to support programs like ours,” Morrison said. “These young men are exposed to tremendous violence, trauma and a sense of powerlessness. There is a lot of weight on their shoulders in terms of providing emotional support for the families and they sometimes struggle to focus in class.”

With the president’s visit, Morrison also said she saw the young men have a chance to be heard.

“They were struck by how much the president identified with them,” Morrison added. “

Mayor Emanuel announced recently an increase in funding for proven programs like B.A.M and programs that will provide at-risk Chicago Public School students with positive opportunities including jobs, life skill training, guidance, and safe alternatives to drugs, gangs and violence.

The City currently serves about 3,500 students in at-risk youth programs.

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