High Jump Board Chair Nicole Mann, Michael Strautmanis and Nate Pietrini

Michael Strautmanis, Chief Engagement Officer of the Obama Foundation, Speaks at High Jump Luncheon

High Jump held its annual Sustaining Leaders Fund Luncheon on Tuesday, January 29 featuring speaker Michael Strautmanis, the Chief Engagement Officer of the Obama Foundation. In a conversation with High Jump’s Executive Director Nate Pietrini, Strautmanis spoke about his experience growing up in Chicago and the importance of youth engagement in creating change within our communities.

Strautmanis’ childhood was very similar to many of High Jump’s students. He was not being challenged enough at his neighborhood school so his mother enrolled him into the gifted program at Alexander Graham Bell School, a moment that he says changed his life. His time in the two-year program in seventh and eighth grade unlocked his love of learning. “So much of my journey is about that moment and it is one of the reasons why I’m here and why I think High Jump is so important.”

Michael Strautmanis at High Jump luncheon

The spark that was ignited in his middle school years led him to St. Ignatius College Prep where he recognized he could be academically successful. He later received his law degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and started his career at Sidley Austin where he would meet Michelle and Barack Obama. As a key member of the Obama administration, Strautmanis spent over a decade in Washington, D.C., working to increase access to economic opportunity, strengthen the judicial system and champion equity and inclusion in the White House, federal agencies and Congress.

Now at the Obama Foundation, Strautmanis said that he’s excited for the work the foundation is doing with Chicago Public Schools to inspire more young people to get involved and engaged in their communities. While the foundation is currently focusing on high schoolers, he noted that High Jump’s emphasis on the middle school years is so important because “it is a time where they have so much ahead of them. High Jump is a place where students can get involved and learn how to do something productive with the knowledge they are given.

Thank you to the donors of High Jump’s Sustaining Leaders Fund for their support which sustains our programming today and for years to come.

To learn more about Michael Strautmanis and the Obama Foundation, visit obama.org.

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