The sea of faces turned toward the stage in Chicago when President-elect Barack Obama delivered his victory speech included those of his many young supporters, college students voting for the first time and even younger teenagers caught up in the excitement of the historic campaign.

Crunching the numbers from the election tells the story in another way. Obama led among under-30 voters by 34 percentage points, swamping the 19 percentage-point lead Bill Clinton held in that constituency in 1996.

First-time voters, many of them young, voted for Obama by a 3-1 margin.

Never before have so many young people been so deeply inspired and committed to the possibility that they can make a difference. And in truth, they did.

Hawai'i has a compelling opportunity to parlay the election of a native son — a Punahou School graduate — into a teachable moment.

Now is the time to drive home the importance of civic engagement and community service, building off the momentum of this historic election. Giving students time this week or next, to contribute in a tangible way to their community — a day or even a couple of hours of service — would be a good start.

Obama placed a premium on community service. What better way to mark this historic moment here at home?

Many schools, encouragingly, have community-service programs and curricula. But few would argue against the need to push the principle further in a concrete and meaningful way. Punahou, with its historic ties, would be the obvious leader of the pack, but there's every reason for other schools to follow suit.

Civic engagement has been a theme of national educational initiatives such as the nonprofit National Writing Project that drove students to pen letters to the presidential candidates, and programs such as Kids Voting, which involved 119,756 Isle students this year.

And at a time of economic crisis, two wars abroad and an election year of political division, carving out time to teach our children to give back is a lesson that will have lasting impact.

The campaign has yielded so many valuable lessons. The potential for achievement by those of even humble origins. The power of civic engagement and community service to change the world, and the opportunity for all to become "agents of change." Because of Obama's election, this is becoming evident to students at a younger age.

The students who are thus propelled into community action surely will be key to the nation successfully charting a new course for decades.

Let's not allow the moment for inspiration and commitment to pass by unheralded.