“When he took the podium —­ that right there sealed the deal,” said Van Fossen, a member of Spartans for Barack Obama, an MSU campaign organization. “Hearing his voice over the loudspeakers ­­— it was just surreal.”

Van Fossen was one of almost a million to watch Obama’s public inauguration address Monday in the nation’s Capital. The 44th U.S. President’s speech intertwined traditional Democratic values, such as gay rights and health care access, with the fundamental principles created by the founding fathers. College students, a demographic that helped win him the presidency four years ago, weren’t left out.

“Our journey is not complete … Until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country,” Obama said.

Criminal justice junior Pamela Brown, president of MSU’s chapter of the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice, missed the inauguration. She wasn’t sleeping in on her day off, she was giving back to the MSU community during Martin Luther King Jr.’s Day of Service.

Brown spent the morning volunteering at a shelter for homeless families and the afternoon symbolically marching alongside Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity across campus to represent King’s effort toward social change.

To her, the fact Obama’s public inauguration was hosted on Martin Luther King Jr. Day wasn’t a coincidence.

When he took the oath of office Sunday, Obama placed one hand on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible and the other on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s.

“I think it stands for just justice,” she said. “(King) was a man who tried to make a great change in society, and I think that’s what Obama stands for — change within our country.”

During his speech, Obama spoke of economic recovery and equal opportunity for all Americans alike.

“We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American, she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own,” he said.

Van Fossen said watching the president give a “spot-on” speech was a sign that all the work Spartans for Barack Obama put into his campaign was worth it.

“We just felt like this was the (result) of what we started back last May,” he said.

International relations and economics sophomore Alex Dardas, an intern for state Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw, said although the inauguration should be a time to set aside party differences, he’s hoping the nation’s economy improves in the next four years.

“I think everyone would say, even him, economically we should be further along,” Dardas said.

For Brown, Obama’s second inauguration means more than four more years of the same presidency. It means continued work toward uplifting the economy and a better health care systems.

“It really gives students, like me, the opportunity to see I can be someone successful,” Brown said.
Although the feeling in his toes came back, Van Fossen still hasn’t fully processed his chance to watch history in the making.

“Everyone around us had a smile on their face,” Van Fossen said. “Everyone felt like they had a reason to be there.”