Local eighth grader visits President Obama
13-year-old wins national video game challenge and a visit to the White House
MILWAUKEE - What started out as a school project has given one 13 year old Milwaukee student national attention from a video game.
President Obama spoke to more than 100 students and parents at the 2nd White House Science Fair Tuesday, "The young people behind me, you guys inspire me. Its young people like you that make me so confident that America's best days are still ahead.
One of the young people behind the President was Milwaukee eighth grader Shireen Zaineb, who told TODAY'S TMJ4's Jesse Ritka about her experience, "It was really exciting; I never thought I would go to the White House. It was really fun."
Shireen earned the trip to D.C. after taking first place in the National Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Video Game Challenge. She created her own video game called "Discover" with the help of web game design company Gamestar Mechanic. "My game is a science game and it's about gravity, friction, solids, liquids and gases," Shireen explains.
Milwaukee Montessori School students not only played Shireen's game on Tuesday, they celebrated.
Shireen's Teacher, Sherri Dodd, was proud to have one of her students in Washington, "Yesterday was so exciting, all the kids we watched the live stream yesterday and all the kids were gathering around and we had it on several of our computers, our tablets, we had it projecting on the screens all over the school."
But Shireen's video game along with other science projects impressed more than teachers and students, President Obama was having a good time as well, "As I was walking around the science fair, I was thinking back toward when I was your age, and basically, you guys put me to shame."
Words and an experience Shireen Zaineb isn't likely to forget, "He was really nice and funny, I think it's really good that he encourages people to do that. I never thought I would win or go to the White House but I did!"
Shireen says this may actually be done designing video games; she wants to be a doctor.
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