Marietta Girl Interviews President Obama During Netflix Series

Marietta GA

15 July, 2021

8:22 PM

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MARIETTA, GA — When Cami Cortez was accepted as a Scholastic Kids Press student reporter last summer, she knew the program would provide her with the opportunity to hone her interviewing skills as an aspiring journalist. What the 14-year-old Marietta teen didn't expect, however, was landing in a Netflix special in which she and four other student news reporters interviewed President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama. Cami, who will be a freshman at Campbell High School in Smyrna this fall, joined the Obamas on an episode of a Netflix series that they are serving as executive producers of called "We The People". The ten-episode series launched on July 4 and teaches the basics of the rights of an American and citizenship through music from popular artists and animation. Cami told Patch she learned of the opportunity to be part of an episode in which the Obamas explained the project and then answered questions from the five kid reporters who ranged in age from 10-14 in late June when she received an email gauging her interest in participating in the project. The five students are part of the 45 student reporters that are part of the Scholastic Kids Press program. On her bio, Cami lists being an astronaut as an alternative career goal along with being an investigative journalist. "It was definitely my dream (to interview a former President), but I didn't think it would ever happen," Cami told Patch in a telephone interview on Thursday. Cami, who attended middle school at Hightower Trail, lists being an investigative reporter as one of her career dreams. She said the idea of informing people about new things while learning new information and then sharing it with people is what drives her to want to be a journalist. On the Zoom call in which the interview with the Obamas took place, Cami and her fellow kid reporters submitted two questions — one of which they would be able to ask to the President. Cami said that she conducts plenty of research into the subject matter before crafting questions. Over the past year, Cami has conducted interviews with a journalist, YouTubers as well as fishermen after a shark turned up at a local beach. She called getting the chance to interview the former leader of the free world "surreal." In the video interview, Cammie asked Obama what he hoped youngsters and teens would get out of the Netflix series. In the video, the Obamas discuss how the lessons in the "We The People" series remind them of the 1970s Saturday morning staple "Schoolhouse Rock" in which animated shorts taught lessons on government and civics. In response to the local teenager's question, Obama stressed the importance for youngsters like those who participated in the video would know that anything is possible if they are willing to work hard and dream big. "The fact is that ultimately, you guys (the young reporters) are the ones who are going to determine how the government works," Obama said in the video. "We live in a democracy and the way democracy is supposed to operate is that each of us has a vote, each of us has a chance to decide who's going to represent us as a mayor, or as the governor, a member of Congress or the President and each of us has the right to run for those offices." He added: "I want these films to communicate to (youngsters) how important you are and how important your voice is and how much power you have if you go out there and get involved and be confident that you have as much right and as much responsibility as anyone else to help make this country what it should be." As of Thursday, the fact Cami had actually spoken to the President hadn't yet sunk in. But as she begins high school and considers a future in journalism, she said that she will carry the President's words with her. She said from the Obamas, she learned that if she hopes to reach people, she has to figure out a way that will connect with them and resonate with them much in in the same way as she established a connection with the former first couple. While her dream was to interview Michelle Obama one day, she never imagined it would actually take place with the nation's 44th President — and at such a young age. But even two weeks after the taping of the episode took place, the incoming high school freshman is still coming to grips with the subject of her most recent interview as the Scholastic Kids reporters program winds down. "I've watched myself (on the show) a lot and it's really weird because it's me, but it doesn't feel like it was me," Cami told Patch. "It felt so many because (the Obamas) are these giant celebrities and people I've looked up to my whole life and then I saw that they're people themselves – they're normal people with feelings and the way they talked to me. It was amazing."