Students come to the Freedom Academy from all over the city; every year, administrators compile a waiting list of hundreds. One draw is the school's success rate. For the last two years, 100 percent of the seniors have been accepted to college.
Aiming high
The students discussing Obama's victory all have college on the horizon and impressive career goals. Yasmine Coles, 17, wants to open a law firm; English sees himself as a psychologist.
Because of Obama, Breanna Johnson, 16, a sophomore at the academy, envisions a day when more of her peers will aim for high-profile careers - some, maybe, in politics.
"Four years from now, there's going to be a lot of black males that run for president, or black females who want to do something in politics," she said.
And if not, at the very least, it could keep some young people in school, said English.
"It'll probably get a lot of black men to stay out of trouble," he said. "Boys, kids in general, look up to these rappers and these basketball players. Maybe this will make them say, 'Let me run something, let me run a business,' instead of 'I want to be a rapper.' "
Tafari Mills, 15, thinks it's unfortunate that his peers believe Obama has the power to eradicate racism or fan the flames of it, simply by being president.
'He's just a man'
"I think people might have too many expectations for him," said Mills, a sophomore. "They should just see him as a black man trying to make a change in this country. ... People don't seem to understand it's not just about black people. He has a whole country to run. And he's just a man. He's a symbol in some ways, maybe for the older generation, but to me, he's just a man - not as much of a symbol as people think."
Coles - who would have voted for Clinton, had she been old enough - agreed with that point.
"You have a whole country of black people looking at him like he's a god or like another re-creation of Martin Luther King," she said. "They can't look at him like that."
But some young people just can't help themselves. The idea that an African-American could become president is exhilarating. For Farmer, the nomination means change is in the air - change that his older relatives never believed would happen.
"My great-grandmother said that she couldn't believe that a white woman and a black man ran for president of the United States. She still doesn't believe it," said Farmer.
