21st Century Prep seventh-grader attending inaugural ball

Centoria Ray, a seventh grader at 21st Century Preparatory School, is eager for a new president to be named and she hoping it’s Barack Obama.

“It makes me feel great that we might see an African-American-elected president,” says Ray, who maintain a 4.0 grade average.“Hopefully if he elected he be able to change things in America.”

Now matter who is the new president, Ray, who wishes to become a bakery chef one day, will be going to inaugural events in
Washington, D.C.

She was selected by the Presidential Youth Inaugural Conference to attend the event in January.

“It is my privilege to congratulate you on your daughter, Centoria's, invitation to be a scholar at the Junior Presidential Youth Inaugural Conference (JrPYIC),” wrote Donna Snyder, managing director of education in a letter to the Ray family.

As an Inaugural Scholar, Centoria will witness the president and vice president taking the official oath of office on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and hear the president's first address to the nation. She will view the inaugural parade over lunch at the historic Marriott Wardman Park Hotel and watch as the president, vice president and their families make their way down Pennsylvania Avenue from the U.S. Capitol Building to the White House.

The letter also explained that Centoria will be inspired by keynote speakers, including seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, attend a special reception at the Smithsonian Institution and, later that evening, a Gala Inaugural Ball.
Centoria’s fifth-grade teacher Tena Miller, her fifth-grade teacher nominated her for the award. “Not many kids get the opportunity to go away on a trip like this one and I am glade I was selected,” Miller said.