Wake Forest-Rolesville Senior Covers Arrival of President Obama at RDU
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Student Holden McLemore covers the arrival of President Obama at RDU aboard Air Force One. |
Sept. 19, 2011 – A student journalist at Wake Forest-Rolesville High got an opportunity that few professional journalists get – the chance to cover the arrival of President Barack Obama on Air Force One.
“It was an incredible experience – a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said senior Holden McLemore. “The thing that caught me by surprise was how huge Air Force One is. I’ve seen it on TV, but when you see it in person, 50 feet away, it’s surprising how big it really is.”
Upon hearing about President Obama’s planned trip to the Triangle on Sept. 14, McLemore began investigating ways that he could cover the president’s visit as a journalist for the school’s student newspaper, The Forest Fire.
He first tried to secure access to cover Obama’s speech on the campus of NC State University. When that did not work out, he set his sights on covering the president’s arrival at Raleigh-Durham International Airport aboard Air Force One.
“I knew someone on the NC State newspaper who gave me the link to the White House Media Affairs Office,” he said. “They have an application online that you can fill out to get permission to cover the president, so I filled it out and found out on Tuesday that I was approved.”
Wednesday morning, Sept. 14, McLemore joined other journalists from professional media outlets at RDU to cover the president’s arrival.
“We had to be there at 7:30 in the morning to go through the first round of security,” he said. “Then we went back at 9 where I waited with the rest of the media pool.”
The president landed at 10:51 a.m. When Obama got off the plane, he greeted local officials and a group of family and friends of White House and Secret Service staff before leaving in the motorcade.
“He passed within 10 feet of us and gave us a wave,” McLemore said.
The sports editor for The Forest Fire, McLemore is also Wake Forest-Rolesville High’s student body president. He said his two passions are journalism and politics.
“I love journalism and politics, and to be able to have my two interests wrapped into this one event was a great opportunity,” he said.
McLemore said he plans to study politics and history in college. He hopes to attend NC State, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill or Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia.