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[musical introduction]

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Obama: It's been a long time coming.

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But tonight, because of what we did on this day,

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in this election, at this defining moment--change has come to America.

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Female narrator:The word I chose is change: a change in

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scenery, in environment, even in the

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people around you. This change may bring

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about uncomfortableness, but with change

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comes incredible growth. When one can stay

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confined to the mundane, it's best to

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take a chance instead. Overstep your

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individual boundaries and limitations,

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and have the courage to seek change.

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Male interview: The literacy experience I remember the most

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are the ones where there was risk

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involved, and, you know, I remember

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fifth grade, because  that's

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when I came to the U.S. I was in

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fifth grade, moved into fifth grade,

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and it was in the middle of the year. It

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was February, in fact, it was close to

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Valentine's Day, which is not something I

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know, and so suddenly the cultural

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change that I experienced required a lot

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of having to figure things out but not

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in a public way. I wanted to pass. But I

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remember early on getting in

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the mail one of those award letters

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--you've won a million dollars--which

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again was a whole new genre for me and

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my family. So I got that in the

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mail and thought, "Oh my god, we actually won this

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thing!" So there's a lot of this sense of

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vulnerability that literacy has. It's

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reading that text and not

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understanding what its function is.

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So yeah, I was an outsider and

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marked in that way and so it was very--

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I've always-- it's important to me to find

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ways to fit in so that I don't

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seem like an outsider.

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Now that has changed over time, but as I

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get older I think I'm much more proud of my

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cultural background, but early on I

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wanted nothing to do with it, to identify, so

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literacy was an effort to erase and fit in and reduce the risk of being marked as an outsider.

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Female narrator: I selected the word change because the most

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influential aspects of my life that have

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truly imprinted my literacy are times

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that I've been exposed to different

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environments and people. In 2013, I

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traveled to Israel on a free trip, not

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having any expectations of what was to

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come. However, even though I didn't have a

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religious background I was really

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imprinted by the Israeli culture

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and by the Israeli soldiers who assisted us on the trip. I gained an

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incredible interest in reading about

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what was going on in the Middle East as

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well as writing my own stories that were

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influenced by their culture and their

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country. Traveling to Israel really gave

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me an incredible perspective of the

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media and the literacy that they portray

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to viewers and readers. Situations

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are often described in ways that they

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were not actually like, and I became a

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reader who is more informed and more

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interested in finding out the different

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perceptions of the situations that did

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occur. From being in the Middle East,

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which is such a chaotic area of our

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world, I really realized that there are

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many minority groups and individuals who

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don't have a voice, like the voices that

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we have here that can be so openly heard.

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And literacy has truly given them the

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ability to express their feelings.

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Realizing this has made me more open to

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sharing the stories and works that I've

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created myself, and I am definitely more

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open to sharing other pieces that I find

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online or within books to my friends and

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family, who I really cherish

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Male interviewee: Real impact in literacy is when I got to high

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school, I basically had a cumulative GPA

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of 0.8 going to high school and just

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didn't really focus like I should've, but

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then between my junior and senior year I

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went to summer school and I took an

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English class. And with this English

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class during the whole summer, I wanted

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to be able to achieve getting a good

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grade, because I had a professor or a

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teacher before that told me I would

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achieve nothing. And she told me I was

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bad at literature skills and everything,

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and I knew I wasn't. So that motivated me

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to basically not only to see the

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light, but kind of prove to her that I'm

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not what she thought--that she shouldn't

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have judged me. Basically I went back to

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high school my senior year. I had to make

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up 10 different classes from my junior,

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sophomore, and freshman year from failing them.

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I took what was called credit recovery, and

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actually passed basically all my English

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classes except one in my junior year

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with the teacher that doubted me.

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So when I went to my senior year, I

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focused myself on reading. I did a lot of

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reading, I did a lot of writings, I actually

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wrote a speech, the first speech I wrote

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it's called "How Can We Change?"