Tuesday afternoon, 5th graders at Hawthorne Elementary gathered in one classroom to hear the President talk to them about the importance of staying in school, challenging themselves and working hard for their country. Jordan felt like the president was speaking directly to him, "I feel that he made a connection with me when he said if you give up, if you drop out of school you're giving up on your country." Jordan's classmate Raquel said that the President's message will push her to succeed, "When he said that when we grow up we can be anything that we wanted to be if we studied hard at school." 5th grade teacher Megan Moline said after Tuesday's speech that the President's challenges certainly resonated with some of her students. "I thought, especially for a school like Hawthorne, it's great for those kids to have such a powerful role model who started where a lot of our families have started and come up from there. I thought it was inspiring for them to see this today." Inspiring might not have been Jordan's word, but Tuesday's speech will be in the back of his mind when times get tough, "I feel like I should never give up on my work and try my best and reach my goals." After the Presidents speech, the students at Hawthorne got the old dictionary out and went through different words in the speech and also talked about their goals for the upcoming school year and what the President inspired them to do. © 2009 KSFY Action News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.