From Honolulu to the White House: The College Journey of Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II, the 44th President of the United States, embarked on an educational journey that ultimately shaped his worldview and prepared him for a life of public service. While his presidency is well-documented, the foundation of his intellectual and political development was laid during his college years. This article explores the academic path of Barack Obama, tracing his steps from Occidental College to Columbia University and Harvard Law School.
Early Life and Education
Barack Obama’s story begins in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he was born on August 4, 1961. His parents, Barack H. Obama, Sr., a Kenyan studying in the United States, and Stanley Ann Dunham, a white American from Kansas, met as students at the University of Hawaii. When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced, and his father eventually returned to Kenya. His mother later married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian student, and the family moved to Indonesia when Obama was six.
Obama lived with his mother and stepfather in Indonesia from ages six to ten, attending both Catholic and Muslim schools. Later recalling, “I was raised as an Indonesian child and a Hawaiian child and as a black child and as a white child.” Concerned for his education, Obama's mother sent him back to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham. From fifth grade through high school, he attended the prestigious Punahou School, graduating in 1979.
Occidental College: A Time of Awakening
After graduating from Punahou School, Obama enrolled at Occidental College in Los Angeles in 1979. In his memoir, Dreams From My Father, Obama mentioned that he chose Occidental to be near a girlfriend from Brentwood. However, his time at Occidental proved to be far more transformative than he initially anticipated.
Obama's two years at Occidental College marked a period of significant intellectual and political awakening. Initially, he described himself as "indifferent toward college as toward most everything else.” However, he soon began to engage with the world around him, becoming more aware of social justice issues and the power of collective action.
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According to Obama, "I became more socially conscious at Occidental even though I was partying-anti-Apartheid movement, starting to be interested in social policy and poverty and starting to study civil rights even if through the haze of a hangover. That [started] giving me a sense of what a purposeful life might look like."
One pivotal moment occurred on February 18, 1981, when Obama delivered his first public speech at a rally protesting Occidental's investments in companies doing business in apartheid South Africa. Margot Mifflin '83 recalled Obama's first public speech outside the Arthur G. Coons Administrative Center on Feb. 18, 1981, in The New Yorker in 2012. She wrote, "As the opening speaker at a rally protesting Occidental's investments in companies that were doing business in apartheid South Africa, he stood with one hand in his pocket, spoke in declarative spurts, and showed no sign of being the orator who would become President nearly 28 years later."
Obama’s interest in politics was further ignited by political theory courses taught by Professor Roger Boesche. In 2010, Obama acknowledged that Boesche's classes "sparked my general interest in politics." Obama wrote to his old mentor Boesche, anticipating his mentor's pending retirement: "Your classroom is where my interest in politics began. Posing questions that have challenged societies through the ages, your teaching and research remind us of the importance of constant inquiry and debate, lessons that are the core of our democracy, and that I've drawn on throughout my life, particularly in this Office.”
President Jonathan Veitch noted, "What is striking to me is that when asked by any number of people about his formative educational experiences, the president cites his time at Occidental, particularly his political science classes with Roger Boesche. It's clear that the liberal arts education he received proved to be essential equipment in dealing with many of the most controversial issues of our time. It's no accident that this kind of education matters so enormously at that level."
Obama's time at Occidental also played a role in shaping his personal identity. Eric Moore, an Occidental trustee, recalled being the first person outside Obama's family to call him Barack instead of Barry, encouraging him to embrace his African name.
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Obama later reflected on his time at Occidental, stating, "During my first two years of college, perhaps because the values my mother had taught me-hard work, honesty, empathy-had resurfaced after a long hibernation; or perhaps because of the example of wonderful teachers and lasting friends, I began to notice a world beyond myself. By the time I graduated from college, I was possessed with a crazy idea-that I would work at a grassroots level to bring about change."
Columbia University: A Deeper Dive into Political Science
After two years at Occidental College, Obama transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science. In 1983, he graduated from Columbia. He read deeply and widely about political and international affairs.
Community Organizing in Chicago
After graduating from Columbia, Obama spent a year in New York City as a researcher with Business International Group, a global business consulting firm. However, he soon realized that his true calling lay in community service. In 1985, he relocated to Chicago, Illinois, to work as a community organizer for the Developing Communities Project (DCP) on Chicago's largely poor and black South Side. His main assignment as an organizer was to launch the church-funded Developing Communities Project and, in particular, to organize residents of Altgeld Gardens to pressure Chicago's city hall to improve conditions in the poorly maintained public housing project.
Harvard Law School: Honing Legal Skills and Leadership
In 1988, Obama enrolled at Harvard Law School, where he excelled academically. He graduated magna cum laude in 1991. His election as the first African American president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review for the academic year 1990-1991 marked a watershed moment in his career. Although Obama was a liberal, he won the election by persuading the journal’s outnumbered conservative staffers that he would treat their views fairly, which he is widely acknowledged to have done.
His role as president of the Harvard Law Review brought him national attention and a book contract to write about race relations. During his summer internship at Chicago’s Sidley and Austin law firm after his first year at Harvard, Obama met Michelle Robinson, a South Side native and Princeton University and Harvard Law School graduate who supervised his work at the firm. He wooed her ardently (as memorialized in another 2016 movie, Southside with You), and after a four-year courtship they married in 1992.
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Law, Politics, and Public Service
After graduating from Harvard Law School, Obama returned to Chicago in 1992. He served as the Illinois Executive Director of PROJECT VOTE!. He accepted positions as an attorney with the civil rights law firm of Miner, Barnhill and Galland and as a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. He taught constitutional law part-time at the University of Chicago Law School between 1992 and 2004-first as a lecturer and then as a professor-and helped organize voter registration drives during Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign.
Obama’s advocacy work led him to run for a seat in the Illinois State Senate, where he won the election as a Democrat in 1996. During his years as a state senator, Obama worked with both Democrats and Republicans to draft legislation on ethics, as well as expand health care services and early childhood education programs for the poor. In 2004, he joined the United States Senate after winning the largest electoral victory in Illinois history.
Obama was elected to a second term in the Illinois State Senate in November 1998. In July 2004, Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, held in Boston, Massachusetts. He was elected as the junior Senator from Illinois in November 2004.
On February 10, 2007, Obama formally announced his candidacy for President of the United States. He accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination at Invesco Stadium in Denver, Colorado on August 28, 2008. On November 4, 2008, Obama became the first African-American to be elected President.
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