President Barack Obama will meet with students from the school that bears his name, the Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy, while visiting Dallas this weekend.
"It means the world to me, just getting a chance to speak with him. Being one-and-one with someone with that much power. Makes me feel like the stakes are so high for me," said student Kendrick Crawford.
The students will meet with the president Saturday morning.
Obama is due to attend a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee at Gilley's on South Lamar co-hosted by the Hon. Ron and Matrice Kirk, DNC finance Chairman Henry Munoz and Emmitt and Patricia Smith. And he will also be at an event for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee at a private home.
The visit reunites Kirk, a former Dallas mayor, with his former boss. Kirk served as a trade ambassador for the Obama administration and was one of the president's most trusted advisors on trade. What he values most is the relationship the two have formed for more than a decade. Kirk met Obama when he was an Illinois state senator in 2002.
"I was proud to support him, even prouder that he asked me to serve. It will be a real special moment when I get to re-introduce him to the Dallas crowd tomorrow," Kirk said.
Though they're both prominent political figures, Kirk said the bond that ties them together is fatherhood.
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"We talk about the things that dads who raise two girls talk about. We talk sports. We talk trash to each other," he said.
Kirk said it is fitting the president will be meeting with students from the school that was named in his honor.
"I'm thrilled that he's going to get a chance to see some of what is going to be his legacy, which is his passion for making sure that America is doing everything we can to give inner-city young black and brown men the tools they need to succeed," said Kirk.
Ahead of the visit, the students have been thinking about what they will ask the president. One wants to know more about college tuition.
"The main thing I want to know is how exactly does he feel about seniors going into college. What does he think about how much we pay for school? How does he think we should pay for school?" said student Edwin Cantu.
Another student hopes to talk to the president about his experience in office.
"I am going to ask him how challenging it was for the eight years. Not a lot of people expected an African American president," said student Sienzi Kouemo.
O'Bryant Allen looks forward to getting to meet Obama and wants to know what the president will do next, saying Obama taught him something about his own life.
"The sky is the limit," said Allen.
Before traveling to Dallas, Obama spoke Friday afternoon at the opening of the South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin.
