Surge Institute’s CEO, Will Collins, shares his experience touring the Obama Presidential Center two weeks before its opening.

I had the privilege of touring the Obama Presidential Center ahead of its opening to the public. As an Obama Leaders USA alumnus, the visit was already meaningful. But as a Black man from the South Side of Chicago, as someone whose life and leadership have been shaped by this city, and as someone deeply committed to the future of education, the experience landed in a much deeper place.

My first impression was that the Center is more than a building. It is a statement.

It is a statement about memory, possibility, belonging, and the power of place. There is something profound about seeing a presidential center rise on the South Side of Chicago, not as an institution that feels distant from the community, but as one that is intentionally rooted in it. For young people who will walk through those doors, particularly Black and Brown young people from Chicago and communities like it, I hope they see more than history. I hope they see a mirror. I hope they see evidence that leadership is not reserved for someone else, somewhere else, or someday far away.

That is what moved me most.

The Obama story is not just a story about one man becoming president. It is also a story about organizing, community, education, discipline, family, public service, and the belief that ordinary people can shape extraordinary change. Those are lessons our young people deserve to encounter again and again. And not only in textbooks or speeches, but in physical spaces that invite them to dream bigger and see themselves as builders of the future.

I believe the Center has the potential to deeply impact educators as well. At its best, education is not only about preparing students for careers. It is about helping them understand their power, their history, their community, and their responsibility to the world around them. The Obama Presidential Center gives educators another place to point to and say, “Look at what is possible when preparation meets purpose. Look at what happens when leadership is rooted in service. Look at what can grow from the South Side.”

For me, the visit was both personal and reflective. I found myself thinking about my own journey, about the neighborhoods and people that shaped me, and about the responsibility I feel in this season of leadership. I thought about how many of us are carrying work that is bigger than our job descriptions. We are carrying the hopes of communities that have too often been underestimated. We are carrying the responsibility to build institutions, pathways, and opportunities that will outlast us.

That is why the Center matters.

It reminds us that place matters. Representation matters. Institutions matter. Story matters. And when done with care, a space can become more than a destination. It can become a source of imagination.

As the Obama Presidential Center opens its doors on June 19 (Juneteenth), I am hopeful for what it will mean for Chicago, for educators, for young people, and especially for the South Side. May it be a place where history is honored, leadership is cultivated, and generations of young people are reminded that they do not have to leave their community behind in order to change the world.

Sometimes the very place that raised you is the place that prepares you to lead.

Learn more about the Obama Presidential Center at www.obama.org/visit.

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