Hawai'i high school student body presidents or school representatives were invited to share thoughts about what they hope and expect for themselves, their classmates and their generation from an Obama presidency. Excerpts appear here, and the full essays can be found in the links above.

JILLIAN OYAMA

Kaiser High School Senior

As a young leader, I have been impacted by Barack Obama because he shows that anything is possible, and he is a true leader. He truly sees the American situation, and can be counted on to be honest. I have been inspired to be a true leader like Obama, to treat all people equally, and to be honest. These leadership qualities will assist me currently in my school and state student councils and in any career, including a career as a pediatrician, which I currently plan to pursue. With the inspiration from Obama's leadership, I aspire to be an honest, equal servant leader in a medical setting.

ROBERT FIRME

Campbell High School Junior

I have high hopes for the sweeping change that will surely "rock" the very soils of America, that will rivet a divided nation together, that will dramatically alter the fabrics of history, and that will magnanimously kindle peace in a globally divided world.

EVAN TAKEMOTO

'Aiea High School Junior

As a member of the Hawaii State Student Council I have visions, missions, and goals to achieve for the public school students I represent. As our new elected president, Barack Obama, I am hoping to see "A Time For A Change," the fulfillment of his promise from the day his term begins.

As a future leader for tomorrow, I am going to embrace what President Barack Obama has to offer. Not only for myself but for my generation and the many more to come because we are the future, and we will be the future leaders for tomorrow.

LARAINE BAUN

Laupahoehoe High School Senior

I hope that Barack Obama's presidency would create many changes for our dissipating economy. I am an immigrant and my family came to the United States for a better future. President Obama would be that change that my family looked forward to.

I admire President Obama's will and determination; he is the change that we all look forward to after a tough eight years going nowhere. I hope, and I sure believe, that President Barack Obama will lead us out of this mess and get us back on the train of success.

FRANCIS SAKAI-KAWADA

Waiakea High School Senior

With President-elect Barack Obama soon taking his oath and moving into office, he has sparked hope in the hearts of many Americans across the country. He has moved people so they believe and expect greatness during his four years in office. He has inspired them to want to work hard and to want to achieve greatness alongside him. From the start of his campaign I, too, expected great things from President-elect Barack Obama. Now that he has been elected as the next President of United States, I, along with the rest of our nation, stand firm with the expectation and hope that President-elect Obama will put into action some of the long-awaited change that our country has been crying for.

He is the pinnacle of hope for the people, and I have much faith in him. I believe that through his presidency he will accomplish great things to help our country move forward. With all of the problems that our country faces, his journey will be a difficult one. However, I firmly believe that with the support of a nation united, he will succeed in making the United States stronger. Yes, we can!

KRYSSA ISOBE

Pearl City High School Senior

Obama won the votes of millions of Americans for one very solid reason. He is honest and dedicated to turn our country around into a better future. When he speaks, he speaks for all Americans — environmentalists, veterans, children, women and even Republicans.

I've watched President Barack Obama from the moment that he announced that he'd be a candidate in the 2008 Presidential election. With the war, falling economy and global warming surrounding us, he brought hope to Americans. I'd like to believe that someday I can bring about such change to my peers. Obama helped me be consciously aware of who is being affected when I am making a decision. When making a school-wide decision, I need the opinions of everyone, even those that don't support me. The voices of the people that don't support me can't be cast aside, because their opinions matter, too. President Obama also encouraged me to be more driven. His road to winning the election was not an easy one.

KELLY MAESHIRO

Pearl City High School Junior

I hope you will understand, Mr. President, the importance of our generation, that we are the future of this planet, and that our prosperity, on many parts, is contingent upon your generation's commitment to us. Let me warn you, you have never seen a generation quite like this one, Mr. President. We are a generation that will rock and shake and scream until all is justly done. We are a generation that will not sleep until our representatives and senators close their hands to the corruption that has too long plagued the American government. We are a generation that can and will do, with all our might, everything that has been dreamed of and everything that has yet to be dreamed of. Might I request one more thing, Mr. President — it is that you believe in our generation and that you remember the American people.

ERIN MAU

Kalani High School Senior

As a senior in high school, and an upcoming college student, my education sets the tone for my future career decisions. My generation will be directly affected by Obama's presidency, and I anticipate seeing more financial aid for students, better quality in teachers, a sufficient supply for educational tools, i.e. textbooks, but most of all, more funding. A quality education for our generations to come will be valuable to the future success of America.

Personally, President-elect Barack Obama has been quite an inspiration to me. Being a local boy, and growing up in Hawai'i, his success has given me optimism, that just because I'm from a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific, I can one day reach great heights and lengths of success.

VICTORYA HAFOKA

Kahuku High School Senior

When Barack Obama started campaigning, many doubted his success because he wasn't well known and he was the "underdog." However, Obama's successful campaign has proved that change is here. Many people have hopes and expectations from an Obama presidency. I hope for a better future for myself, and my generation. I hope Obama's presidency will continue to focus on education, be able to strengthen our school systems and decrease the amount of budget cuts. I expect Obama's presidency to fix our nation's economic problems and issues.

Obama's election has inspired me to pursue my own personal goals in many ways. His victory has proved that anything is possible! This is a very historical time for America because Barack Obama is the first African-American president. Although I am not African American, I feel very affected by this because Barack Obama is a minority ... just like me. For a minority to become president of the United States of America during this time is just amazing! He also grew up here in the Islands, and I think there is a connection between the people of Hawai'i and Barack Obama because of that. His victory has stated a lot about our country's potential to overcome racial barriers (which we did overcome), and the great things that are in store for us. I'm very grateful that I witnessed this change in American history.

RHIANNE SHIMOMURA

Baldwin High School Senior

For my generation and myself, I expect President-elect Obama to use his great influence on everyone to not only enhance the U.S. government but also improve the way individuals carry themselves through their own lives. When he delivers speeches to his supporters, one can see the impact he has on individuals with his powerful words of courage and change. He has become the idol of many Americans who have faith that he can make a change. Obama has many plans to improve family lives, retirement funds and homeownership, but he has also expressed that the government can only do so much. He has articulated that individuals also need to take their own responsibilities into account and improve themselves as individuals. He is the ultimate role model for many and hopefully he uses that power to influence Americans into becoming greater citizens.

Just the fact that an individual from Hawai'i is the next president of the United States increased the faith that I have in myself in achieving any goal and becoming successful. The influence he has on people, and the hope that he instills in people's hearts have made me want to go into political science or pre-law. Seeing the change that he is inline to carry out has altered my view of the possibilities the world offers today. Although I may not go into politics in the future, I still would like to believe that I could one day affect someone's life just as he has done in the past and will expectantly do in the future for many Americans and world citizens.

NINAMARIE JEFFREY

Hilo High School Senior

According to my adviser as far as she knows, there has never been an African-American S.A. President at Hilo High School and I am reminded quite often with general assumptions about my family, past and hometown. Perhaps that experience results in stomach butterflies when I think about the historic election I was lucky to witness in my time. With his success, he has contradicted a doubt I once refused to admit was there. The doubt that my little siblings, classmates, every American and I can do all things. I look to him as a reference point. A man I can look up to as a reminder that we can achieve all aspirations in America. For me, and for everyone, Barack Obama's success has marked how far we've come, and how far we have yet to go before true equality is received by the land of the free.

SANG HEE (TERESA) PARK

Roosevelt High School Senior

As a student in Hawai'i, I have dreamed to see America where every single child receives quality education and students pursue their education without having an obstacle such as financial difficulty. Barack Obama is the one that the nation needed. He will make a world where generations are taught well by teachers, who will pass on valuable lessons. To me, "Make College A Reality" is one of the most appealing policies, mostly because it will support college credit initiatives and encourage high school students to take Advanced Placement classes nationwide, preparing them for colleges.

Every single student has a right to learn and nurture his/her knowledge. When President Barack Obama was addressing his powerful speech to the crowd, I believe millions of individuals' minds were filled with buoyancy, like mine was, that he will, indeed, exert himself to make a better America as well as the nation. "When Americans come together, there is no destiny too difficult or too distant for us to reach."

KATHERYNE HUIHUI

Kalaheo High School Junior

Our country has morphed into one that places my classmates and me in a state of trepidation. We hope from the Obama presidency that the economy will be turned around through our ties with Saudi Arabia being completely reconciled and wise choices, leadership and courage being present in this one man who is to represent the soul of the United States of America. The majority of my generation is fascinated with the idea of Barack Obama alleviating this prolonged war through bringing the American troops back home. There has been too much death and everything now is fragile. All we can turn to now is peace, a higher power, and the promise of the best education that Obama is able to provide for our futures.

I deeply hope from the Obama presidency only one thing — that Barack Obama remain the authentic man he came into the election as and even become more than what is expected for the improvement of conditions of the American people under democracy. Obama has the whole world at his hands. A diverse world that has been inspired by our newly elected president; as a native Hawaiian, I have full-blown inspiration for my future. President-elect Barack Obama has now become America's only source of hope. My generation over the course of a couple of years will be going to college, starting careers and families, living as Americans under an amazing president. Yes, we can.

JANELLE CHONG

McKinley High School Senior

"Change" seems to be the one word which has come to represent and encompass the Obama presidency. Now that Obama is set to become our new president, the one thing we will expect from him as American citizens is to deliver that change which he has promised us. We expect him to bring "change" to our country. And we hope that that "change' will be a positive one.

President-elect Obama's oratorical skills are superb. His speech on election night proclaimed that night, Nov. 4, 2008, as the answer to all those who doubted "if America was a place where all things are possible," or questioned "the power of our democracy." His words were an inspiration to many and I am no exception. To witness this man who is of a minority race, and who is Hawai'i-born, ascend to such an esteemed position is certainly proof that all things are possible. President-elect Obama's success is an excellent motivator for me, and my peers, to set our goals high in any endeavor that we choose to embark upon.