Nightly News   |  May 16, 2011

Obama addresses 'Race to the Top' winners

President Obama offered some advice for a group of high school graduates whose hard work earned them the privilege of his visit. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> high school graduation is big. today at booker t. washington high school in memphis , it was really big. first of all, they worked hard for today. they took a failing school in an impositivished neighborhood and turned it around and they were richly rewarded with a visit from the president himself. we'll close here tonight with his message to them.

>> congratulations to the graclass of 2011 . we're here today because every single one of you stood tall. and said yes we can. yes, we can learn. yes, we can succeed. i'm standing here as president because of the education i received. i was raised by a single mom . and sometimes she struggled to provide for me and my sister. but my mother, my grandparents, they pushed me to excel. i'm so blessed that they kept pushing. i'm so lucky that my teachers kept pushing. because education made all the difference in my life. and it's going to make an even greater difference in your lives. not just for your own success but for the success of the united states of america . some people say that schools like btw just aren't supposed to succeed in america. so that's why i came here today. because if success can happen here at booker t. washington , it can happen anywhere in memphis . and if it can happen in memphis , it can happen anywhere in tennessee. and it can happen anywhere in tennessee, it can happen all across america.

>> by the way, there is more of the president's message for the class of 2011 on our website. that is