President visits Memphis H.S. graduation

NEW: "I gave Barack Obama a hug," one student proclaimsThe president flies to Memphis to address students at a high schoolHe surprises them with a visit prior to their graduation ceremonyBooker T. Washington High was the winner of the Race to the Top competition"Don't Fail Me: Education in America " examines the crisis in our public education system and why America's financial future is at risk if our students can't excel math and science. It airs at 8 p.m. ET May 21 on CNN.

Memphis, Tennessee (CNN) -- A hundred and fifty-five Warriors from Booker T. Washington High School received a diploma Monday -- and a handshake from the president of the United States.

"Just a couple of years ago, this was a school where only about half the students made it to graduation. For a long time, just a handful headed to college each year," President Barack Obama pointed out in his address to the students.

The school's dramatically improved graduation rate was one reason the president came to Memphis on a cool spring day.

Booker T. Washington High is credited with a jump in graduation rate from 55% to 82 % in just four years through the use of gender-based classrooms and increased teacher effectiveness. Teachers who seemed to get more than a year's growth out of their students were moved to the core classes of English and mathematics as part of the school's educational innovation.

"Because you created this culture of caring and learning, today we are standing in a very different Booker T. Washington High School. Today, this is a place where more than four out of five students are earning a diploma -- a place where 70% of the graduates will continue their education," Obama said.

The president has set a goal of having the largest percentage of college graduates in the world by the year 2020.

Booker T. Washington is an inner-city school in a low-income neighborhood with high incidents of teenage pregnancy and violence.

"I gave Barack Obama a hug," happy graduate Markeshia McKinney said after the ceremony. For her success, she credited her hard work and not falling behind in her schoolwork. McKinney said she plans to take care of her baby that is due in a few weeks for the short term, and go to college in the long term.

Graduate Catron Roland attributed his success in school to his teachers, who he said pushed him to succeed.

"When I tried to quit, they told me not to, and to come to school every day," he said.

The students knew Obama would speak to them from the stage during their graduation ceremony, but the president surprised them by visiting them in their holding room prior to the ceremony.

The students, bedecked in green-and-yellow caps and gowns, erupted in applause and tears of joy when the president appeared to tell them how inspired he was with their accomplishment of graduating high school.

"A lot of you had to struggle to get here. Most of you weren't born with a silver spoon in your mouth," he told them. "What you have shown is determination, what you have shown is character, what you have shown is a willingness to work hard, and the ability to steer clear of folks that were trying to send you down the wrong path."

The students earned the visit from Obama by winning the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge, a high school competition in its second year in which high school students write essays and create videos to show how their school is innovative in education.

"In the face of all odds against them succeeding, they are succeeding. That represents the American spirit at it's best," said Kriner Cash, Memphis superintendent of schools.

CNN

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Paraplegic walks at UC Berkeley graduation with help of 'exoskeleton'

(CNN) -- Austin Whitney is walking proof that determination -- combined with creative ingenuity -- can turn a seemingly impossible idea into a reality.

Paralyzed from the waist down since a 2007 drunken driving accident, he had worked hard to graduate on time -- and with honors -- from the University of California at Berkeley.

That was reason enough to celebrate. But nothing compared to how he accepted his diploma on Saturday.

Pressing a button on his walker, Whitney rose to his feet at the commencement ceremony. Then, with the flick of a switch, his legs moved across the stage.

The journey lasted seven steps. Halfway through, he glanced over to the cheering crowd of 15,000 people, who were also on their feet.

"It really was beyond my wildest dreams," Whitney said Sunday night. "I'm still decompressing ... it really was overwhelming."

Whitney was able to move his legs thanks to an "exoskeleton" created by a group of graduate students and Berkeley mechanical engineering professor Homayoon Kazerooni.

"They're absolutely amazing," Whitney said of the engineers. "They're my best friends at the university." He has been working with the team for several months.

The project that helped Whitney take his first steps in years dates back to in 2000,when Kazerooni received a grant from the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency -- a division of the U.S. Department of Defense -- to make an apparatus that would allow people to carry heavy loads for longer periods of time, according to Berkeley's media relations department. The idea was to help people to trek across rugged or remote terrain for longer periods, such as when military medics carry away an injured soldier or when firefighters trudge up stairs with their equipment.

Four years later, the idea culminated with the unveiling of BLEEX -- the Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton. The contraption, which has a backpack frame, connects to a person's legs and uses its own power source to move them without putting undue stress on the muscles of the human attached to it.

"We've designed this system to be ergonomic, highly maneuverable and technically robust, so the wearer can walk, squat, bend and swing from side to side without noticeable reductions in agility," Kazerooni said in a Berkeley press release at the time.

The professor said he envisioned bigger plans for his exoskeleton -- helping a person who cannot walk be able to.

While Kazerooni kept perfecting his exoskeleton project, Whitney was a star student at St. Margaret's High School in San Juan Capistrano, California. There, he was active in student government, participated in sports and acted in plays.

Whitney graduated from high school in May 2007 with a 4.0 GPA, sporting a bright smile and seemingly brighter future.

But his life changed two months later, on the night of July 21. After having a few drinks with friends, Whitney got behind the wheel of his car and then got in a horrific crash.

His best friend almost died, with doctors forced to remove his spleen and treat a fractured vertebra in his neck, according to a public letter from St. Margaret's released soon after the crash. Whitney suffered a broken back, and his spinal cord was instantly severed -- rendering him a paraplegic.

"I did it to myself," Whitney said. "I was consumed by self-hatred. But I realized I had two choices: I could live in the past and be filled with self pity ... (or) face the adversity in my life, not let this cover my goals and dreams and aspirations."

He chose the latter. Ten days after being released from the hospital, Whitney began classes at University of California at Santa Barbara. He eventually transferred to Berkeley, where he pursued a double major in political science and history.

Whitney plans to attend law school this fall and hopes to work in the entertainment business one day. But first, he'll start working full time at Kazerooni's lab on Monday.

Whitney met the professor last year after a friend from wheelchair basketball told him about Kazerooni's project. Whitney called Kazerooni, who invited him to his lab.

"It was like stepping onto the set of a sci-fi movie, this lab," Whitney said.

As a student, he became an integral part of the research team, which named a specially-designed exoskeleton "Austin" in honor of its first test subject.

Because others in the lab aren't paralyzed, "there's a lot of things they don't anticipate," Whitney said. "Once I test the system, I give them feedback. It's a very active role."

Kazerooni told the UC Berkeley News Center that exoskeletons currently on the market can cost more than $100,000. He said creating more affordable exoskeletons will enable more people to experience such technology.

Whitney said his type of exoskeleton isn't designed to replace the wheelchair, as it doesn't have the same amount of speed, agility and maneuverability.

"But there are so many health and mental benefits to be able to stand," he said. "I can't tell you what it means to walk across that stage and look the chancellor in the eye or be able to hug my mom while standing up -- that's priceless for me."

In addition to continuing his work with the exoskeleton project, Whitney also plans to continue speaking to high school students across the country about drinking and driving. In the past few years, Whitney said, he's reached about 40,000 students.

Now, he'll be able to tell them about graduating from college and redefining the impossible.

"When I stood up and I took the first few steps ... I felt a rush of memories," Whitney said. "Everything from the worst moments of my life -- the car accident, realizing I wouldn't walk again -- and then the best moments of my life -- being accepted to Berkeley -- and realizing, wow, I'm really here. I really was able to graduate in four years and wow, I'm really here walking, doing something I thought was 'impossible.' I'm much more hesitant to use that word ever again."

CNN's Greg Botelho contributed to this report.

CNN

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