- We're really lucky, because we're actually joined
by some of the amazing young people
who they're working with, yes.
- Here they are right here.
(audience cheering)
- By way of quick explanation,
what we do at the foundation is as we identify
these amazing young leaders from around the country,
around the world, and we bring them together.
So that not only can they learn from folks
who've traveled the road on the issues
they're working on, whether it's environment, or health,
or anti-corruption efforts, or human rights.
But they also learn from each other,
which is even more important.
And so a bunch of them are gathered here
in New York right now,
and we happen to have some in the audience.
So, Trevor, I'll hand it over to you.
(audience cheering)
- I have so many questions for you, funny enough.
'Cause I wanna know what it's like
working for this man right here.
So please introduce yourself.
Tell me your name, where you're from.
- Yeah, my name is Dekevious Wilson.
It's an honor to be here.
I'm originally from Arkansas, but I live in Chicago.
And I work for the Becoming a Man program,
which is under the My Brother's Keeper Alliance.
And what we do is we're a mentoring and coaching program
for young men that deal with their mental state of mind.
- [Trevor] Wow.
- And the decisions that they make.
And so last year we serviced over 7,000 students and yeah.
(audience cheering)
And now we're in London, England.
So I have to throw that out there.
- [Trevor] Wow, congratulations.
So we're really doing good, yes.
- Wait, wait, wait, before you go, I would love to know
being in this orbit here is like-
- [Dekevious] Yes.
- 'Cause you know there's different types of mentors?
- [Dekevious] Right.
- But when your mentor has achieved everything,
is that more pressure
or does it illuminate the path more for you?
- Yeah, so it is more pressure
'cause I thought I was gonna be the first black president,
but we see how that turned out.
(all laughing)
But being with President Obama,
he was the first president I voted for,
and I got to exercise that right.
Yeah, yeah.
- So the first time you were eligible to vote?
- [Dekevious] Yes.
- Oh wow.
- Me and my grandfather, we went together and voted for him.
And so, he's like big brother.
And so it's a full circle moment to be
in this space with my other co-leaders.
Because we get to see the ups and downs,
but we also get to get that gleam of wisdom.
- That's amazing. That's amazing.
Congratulations.
(audience cheering)
- Hi, everyone. I am Ines.
I am from Touman, which is a tiny province
in the northwest region of Argentina.
In the south of theme of America.
- That's amazing.
And so what projects are you working on?
And what brought you to be part of the initiative?
- I am coordinating a scholarship program
that offer scholars,
1,000 scholarship in programming and coding
for young people in my country.
But also I am creating an incubator
to mentor indigenous women that are entrepreneurs.
- That's really amazing.
(audience cheering)
Congratulations. Yes.
(audience cheering)
- Hi everyone, I'm Ify Umunna.
I am the founder of Corey Collective
based in Lagos, Nigeria.
(audience cheering)
- [Trevor] What do they do?
- So we provide access, and resources, and tools
for marginalized women to become financially literate
and have financial agency
across Nigeria and hopefully the world.
- So then I have a question for both of you then.
Because, I guess, both of your programs
are focusing predominantly on women,
giving them equity and access.
Do you work with President Obama
'cause you're secretly hoping to meet up with Michelle?
Is this like an added perk?
- Well, keep in mind that, there's a program,
the Girls Opportunity Alliance within the foundation
that focuses on empowering women and girls around the world.
- [Trevor] That's amazing.
- And so they're already linked up
with a bunch of the work that's being done.
- That's amazing.
- And it's true that they prefer Michelle to me also.
(Trevor and audience laughing)
So, but that's not unusual.
They're not alone in that.
Yeah.
- I'm Lois and I live and work in Timor-Leste or East Timor,
which is a little country between Indonesia and Australia.
And I lead Malo Timor, which is an NGO
of about 19 mostly Timorese who work on advancing quality
in primary healthcare by the Timorese for the Timorese.
- [Trevor] That's amazing.
- [Obama] She's a doctor.
(audience cheering)
- That's amazing.
Wow.
- No, I was saying amazing work, bringing healthcare
to places that have very little access to healthcare.
- Yeah, especially when it's healthcare
in the place for the place by the place.
- Exactly.
- Yeah. That's a lot harder to achieve.
Congratulations.
- Trevor, you asked what it's like to be mentored
by President Obama.
- [Trevor] Yes.
- I think that we all know that he's a busy man.
(audience laughs)
But we come for,
I think that I speak for my Asia Pacific cohort,
from the first day that we came in,
we were asked by Professor Maya Soetoro-Ng,
President Obama's sister to call her Auntie Maya.
And being Asian, we understood that very well.
- [Trevor] I love that.
- I cannot call her by her first name,
but I can call her Auntie Maya.
- [Trevor] Yeah.
- And through our six month program,
just that presence and that recognition,
of not just being seen by somebody so important
that we respect so much,
but being seen by each other and by being connected-
- [Trevor] Beautiful.
- Not by being rich, or by being articulate,
or by being pretty, but by having the same values
and the shared values that are really surprisingly common.
Yeah.
- [Trevor] That's really amazing. Wow.
(audience cheering)
That's really amazing.
- Hello everyone.
My name is Dieudonne and I'm from Liberia.
Thank you, thank you.
I lead a non-for-profit or non-profit that is founded
in a belief that young people in Liberia,
regardless of where they are or where they're from,
can lead transformational change as long
as they have access to the opportunities-
- [Trevor] Yeah.
- And the space.
- [Trevor] Yeah.
- And so what we've done
is create the Change Makers Village
where young people come and they have intentional access
to entrepreneurial opportunities, leadership abilities,
and just educational advancement opportunities.
And that is what we've been doing in Liberia.
And it's a lot of pressure being mentored
by the President Obama.
But, for me, he's like the beacon of hope
and he inspires me to keep going
knowing that our best years as a nation
are still ahead of us.
- [Trevor] I love that.
- Yeah, see.
- Congratulations to all of them.
- Thank you, Mr President.
- Thank you, man.
I appreciate you so much.
Thank you for being here.
- See you, guys, good job.
- [Trevor] Thank you.
- [Obama] Thank you.
All right, brother.
- Thank you for your time.
- We'll stay in touch.
- Oh, thank you.
(audience clapping)