On Sept. 28 CHS Senior Jake Bernstein sat quietly eating his lunch in the activities office, one eye on his math homework and the other gazing up at the TV set, anticipating the moment when President Barack Obama would mention his name in the president’s third annual speech on education.

“I was really surprised I would be mentioned,” Bernstein said.  “It was not something I expected.”

Since his sister Simone, CHS grad of 2010, left for college, Jake has expanded St. Louis Volunteen.

“My sister saw that it was not easy to find volunteer opportunities in St. Louis because a lot of the organizations don’t take youth due to security concerns and liability concerns,” Bernstein said. “She thought it would be a good use of her time to make a website.”

So how did President Obama find out about Bernstein and his sister’s volunteer program?  According to Bernstein, it all started with a blog.

“I wrote a blog for a 9/11 project that I planned and carried outwith some students from Clayton and other high schools in St. Louis,” Bernstein said.  “In the days before 9/11, a White House Youth Initiative blog was looking for a youth blog that was focused on 9/11.  They found my blog, and they profiled it for their 9/11 week on the White House Youth Initiative blog.”

The 9/11 project was a way to connect the community by having a park clean-up and a one-mile family walk.

“I wanted to organize a project where people of all ages and abilities could participate,” Bernstein wrote in his blog.

Then, the day before the president’s speech, Bernstein got a call from the speech writers of the president about him possibly being mentioned in a speech in the future.

“The next day, about 20 or 30 minutes before that speech, I found out that it was going to be used,” Bernstein said.  “It was a surprise for me.”

When the speech was being broadcasted and his name about to be mentioned by the president, Bernstein was in the activities office along with history teacher Kurtis Werner and Assistant Principal Marcella Pieper.

“When Jake’s name was mentioned there was some clapping and an overall sense of elation for Jake and CHS,” Werner said.  “He just smiled and hung his head with humbled disbelief.”

“We all cheered for him and he kind of grinned,” Pieper said. “I thought it was very cool.  He’s a great kid and what he and his sister have put together is really a neat, unique thing.”

Werner was also proud of Bernstein.

“It is a great honor and testament to how hard our students work to better themselves through ideas of service to the local, state, and national community as Jake has displayed at Clayton High School,” Werner said. “Anytime any CHS student is mentioned by a government official at any level it is a big accomplishment.”

Both Werner and Pieper hope that this event will affect the community in a good way.

“I think it’s a neat thing to show kids that nothing is impossible,” Pieper said.  “You can have a dream and build it.”