TySheoma Bethea

Eighth-grade student Ty'Sheoma Bethea sat next to First Lady Michelle Obama during President Barack Obama's first joint Congressional address on February 24, 2009. Bethea's school, J.V. Martin Junior High School in Dillon, South Carolina, is over 100 years old and has been partially condemned. Bethea wrote a letter to Congress, asking its members to approve the stimulus bill, so that her school could receive much-needed financial aid. After reading the letter, President Obama invited Bethea and her mother to sit with the First Lady during the speech.Chicago Tribune: Letter from the heart lands teen in first lady's box for tonight's speech

"I think about Ty'Sheoma Bethea, the young girl from that school I visited in Dillon, South Carolina - a place where the ceilings leak, the paint peels off the walls, and they have to stop teaching six times a day because the train barrels by their classroom. She has been told that her school is hopeless, but the other day after class she went to the public library and typed up a letter to the people sitting in this room. She even asked her principal for the money to buy a stamp. The letter asks us for help, and says, "We are just students trying to become lawyers, doctors, congressmen like yourself and one day president, so we can make a change to not just the state of South Carolina but also the world. We are not quitters."Huffington Post: Full text of President Obama's address (February 24, 2009)