Each other up. The most important thing we can do. All right. [applause] pres. Obama so it is a womans turn. Ok. Everybody is pointing at this young lady. All of her friends are pointing at her, so she has something very important to say. [cheers] welcome to peru, mr. President. My name is sophia, and my friends and i are students. I know you have met mariana. Remember the school . Marianna acosta . I am a student over there. We are so lucky to be studying their to be studying there to get a job in tech, but there is so many young people without our type of opportunity. So what do you recommend for more quality education or opportunity for young people in latin america . Pres. Obama the program you described is doing great work, and there is a lot of good work across latin america. One of the goals is to make sure that not only are we providing a great education for people at the younger stages, basic reading, arithmetic, all those things, but today, you also need to have some knowledge of technology. And what we are trying to do is to work with governments and ngos who expand access to the internet, to digital platforms, and what we also want to do then is to help design curriculums and programs through the internet so that Online Learning is accessible in places where previously there might not be opportunities. We are seeing some of those investments here in peru. That is part of the broader Educational Program that we have throughout latin america, but we can still do more. It is not just us. It is a Publicprivate Partnership also. So having facebook participate and microsoft and other and google and other Big Companies who have an interest in an educated population because the more educated and the more wired they are, the more, over time, customers are using their products and their platforms. What we want to do is to make sure that everybody, even in the smallest village, has suddenly this library to the world and the best educational opportunities, even if there is not a Big University in that small town. Some of the learning that we can do, it doesnt have to be four years. Sometimes a sixweek program could teach people coding and computers, and suddenly right away, that person has a job, and then they can learn more and ultimately go and get a fouryear education. But oftentimes, what you need is that first step. We are doing this in the United States, by the way. It is not just in latin america. In the United States, one of the things we are finding is we need to expand Computer Science and literacy in the schools. We need to make sure also that we set up Technical Training systems, where somebody who is unemployed in a city where there used to be a big factory but now the factory is closed, or because of automation and robots, fewer people are working there, those people have lost their jobs, they might not be able to afford to just go to a fouryear university. Give them six weeks, eight weeks , 10 weeks of training. Get them in a job right now, and then over time, they can learn even more. So congratulations, you guys are doing great work. [applause] pres. Obama all right. Ok. So this is a team effort now. It is good to see this cooperation. Everybody is pointing at one person. This gentleman right here, right in the front. [applause] hello, mr. President. I am a student of this Beautiful University with a Gorgeous Group of people. Im going to give a little bit of contact to my a little bit of context to my question. The smartest man i know is my dad. My dad was born in cuba. When he was seven years old, he went to the United States to get an opportunity. He lived all of his life there from Community College to doctorate, and he managed to do a lot of things because of the open arm policy towards him. Can makeny immigrants the immigration, because there is still this open arm. By an administration but an administration that is intending to go after you is saying they will not have a closeddoor policy. In your opinion, what do you think that today, the stand of the usa is for offshore innovators for people that want to go to harvard, m. I. T. , yale, and what would be the damages of the usa closing their doors to these young innovators . I hope you have two amazing last months of presidency. Pres. Obama thank you, thank you very much. [applause] pres. Obama first of all, i know your father is very proud that you said he is the smartest man he ever knew. I hope moliere and sasha i would say and sasha the same thing about me. [laughter] pres. Obama america is a nation of immigrants. Those of you who visited america, if you walk in an american city, not just new york or los angeles, but st. Louis or indianapolis or columbus, ohio, if you walk down the street, you see people that look like they could be from any place, because the fact is that, except for the native american population, s, everybody in america came from someplace else. All of us are immigrants, and that has been our greatest strength because we have been able to attract talent from everywhere. I use this as an example. You notice that the United States did really well in the olympics. Some of that is because we are a big country, a wealthy country, so we have all these Training Facilities and we can do all kinds of best equipment, and all of that is true. But you know what, i mean, china is a bigger country and spends a lot of money also. The big advantage america has if you look at our team, actually two big advantages first, we passed something called title ix many years ago that requires women get the same opportunities in sports as men do, and that is why [applause] pres. Obama one of the reasons the American Team did so well is the women were amazing. And because they have got opportunities, right, which teaches us something about the need to make sure women and men, boys and girls get the same opportunities, because you do better when everybody has a chance, not just someone. But the second thing, when you look at the u. S. Olympic team, and there are all kinds of different sorts of people of all different shapes and sizes, and part of it is because we draw from a bigger genetic pool than anybody, right . We have people who these little gymnasts, they are like this big. Simone biles came by the white house. She is a tiny little thing. Amazing athlete. And we have Michael Phelps who is 68, and his shoulders are this big, and that is good for swimming. He couldnt do gymnastics, but he is a good swimmer. The point is, when you have all this talent from all these different places, then you actually, as a team, do better, and that has been the great gift of america. Now, what we have to do, not just in the United States but in all countries, is to find a way to have an open, smart immigration policy, but it has to be orderly and lawful. I think that part of what has happened in the United States is that, even though the amount of illegal immigration that is happening has actually gone down while i have been president , the perception is that it has just gone up. Partly this is because it used to be that immigrants primarily stayed in texas and arizona and new mexico, border countries, or in florida, and now they are moving into parts of the country where they are not used to seeing immigrants, and it makes people concerned. Who are these people, and are they taking our jobs and opportunities and so forth . My argument has been that no country can have completely open borders, because if they did, then nationality and citizenship wouldnt mean anything. And obviously, if we had completely open borders, then you would have tens of millions of people who would suddenly the coming who would suddenly be coming into the United States, noth by the way would necessarily be good for the countries where they leave, because in some places like in africa, you have doctors and nurses and scientists and engineers who would all try to leave, then you have a brain drain, and they are not developing their own countries. You have to have some rules, but my hope is that those rules are set up in a way that continues to invite talented young people to come in and contribute and to make a good life for themselves. That we also though have to do what we also, though, have to do is to invest in countries that are sending migrants so that they can develop themselves. You mentioned cuba, for example, where your father fled. He left in part because they didnt feel there was enough opportunity there. Part of the reason i said lets reopen our diplomatic relations with cuba is to see if we could start encouraging greater opportunity and freedom in cuba. Because if you have people who have been able to leave cuba and do really well in the United States, that means they have enough talent that they could do well by staying at home in cuba. There are enormously talented people here in peru. I dont want all the young people in peru to suddenly [applause] pres. Obama i dont want you to feel as if you have to go to new york in order to be successful. You should be able to be successful right here in lima. [applause] pres. Obama so this is true in the americas, it is true in europe, where obviously they have been flooded, and it has been very controversial with migrants. Some of them have been displaced from war in syria, but some are just coming for economic reasons from africa. I just left meetings with european leaders, and we discussed the fact that if we are investing more in development in those african countries and encouraging greater rule of law and less corruption and more opportunity in those countries, people are less likely to want to come to germany or italy for their futures, because they can feel they can make a future where they are. But this is an example of what i was saying earlier. If we think only about very narrow terms about the borders and what is good for us and ignore what is happening everywhere else, eventually, it will have an impact on us whether we like it or not, because the world is much smaller than it used to be, all right . Ok. Lets see, you got a [applause] pres. Obama all right, young lady right there, in the black, yeah. Yes, you. [cheers] thank you. Oh my god, thank you for this amazing opportunity. More than a question i have to introduce myself first. I am jennifer and i am from venezuela. We already talked a little bit about my country, but i just want to thank you for talking about the womens opportunity. I am the ceo and founder of a social initiative that promotes values for women around the world. I have a daughter. It is hard to be an entrepreneur. You have seen support of women empowerment. You supported a candidate who was a woman, hillary. You were supported by your wife, michelle. Pres. Obama michelle is amazing. [cheers] [applause] im sure. I am sure of that. I am thrilled that you have a lot of support. I want some special advice for female interpreters, for those who have to some special advice for female entrepreneurs, those who have to try a little bit more, should i be a mother or should i be a professional i truly believe we can be both at the same time, but i would like to hear it from you. Advice for all potential women who will become mothers, on behalf of all my fellows, thank you for this amazing opportunity. [applause] there are more fellows looking right now from their countries because they could not come to peru, so thank you to all of the fellows watching us right now. Pres. Obama great question. [applause] pres. Obama michelle probably would have more to say about this because, you know, she has gone through it as a professional woman, but let me offer a few observations. First of all, the leaders and the men in every country need to understand that the countries that are most successful are going to be the countries that give opportunities to girls and women and not just boys and men. Now that [applause] pres. Obama and if you look, if you look at which countries are doing best, most advanced, grow the fastest, it is partly because you cant have half the population uneducated, not working, out of the house, not in leadership positions, and expect to be as good as a country where 100 of the people are getting a good education and having opportunities and can do Amazing Things, starting a business or entering into politics or what have you. So this is not just a problem for girls and women. Men have to also recognize this is good for you. And if you are a strong man, you should not be threatened that women are doing well. You should be proud that women are doing well, and families where women have opportunity, that means they will bring in more income, which means the family as a whole is going to do better. And lets be honest, sometimes that whole machismo attitude makes it harder for women to succeed, and sometimes that is coming even from those who love them. So men, those of you who end up being fathers, you have got to lift up your daughters. Just telling them they are pretty is not enough. You have got to tell them they are smart and tell them they are ambitious and give them opportunity. [applause] pres. Obama so once you have a whole country thinking in those terms, then you need to start having policies that can support women, and the most important thing in addition to making sure the girls from an early age are getting a good education, and that they are not being told, oh, you can only do certain engineering is a mans job or being a scientist, that is a mans job. No, no, girls can do everything. You cannot you can be a teacher if you want, wonderful profession, but traditionally women sometimes are told there are a few things they can do, nurse, teacher, as opposed to anything. Once you have done that, then you have to recognize that the big conflict that women have in the professional world has to do rearing. Ly and child for biological reasons, women have more of a burden than men do, but it is not just biology , it is also sociology. Mens attitudes whose mens attitudes of, well, i dont have to do as much. Even in my marriage with michelle, i like to think of myself as a modern enlightened man, but i will admit it, michelle did more work than i did with sasha and malia. So part of what society can do is they can help with having smart policies for childcare. One of the hardest things for professional women, particularly when their children are still small and not yet in school is, who is going to take care of my baby when i am working . And how do i make sure that they are safe and trusted . Making sure that governments have policies in place that help you know, having a motherinlaw who helps is also very useful. [laughter] pres. Obama but not everybody has the option where, you know, they have family members who are close by. That is an example of something we have to really work on. Then we have to put pressure on institutions to treat women equally when it comes to getting loans to start a business. You know, up until just maybe 20 years ago, in some places, in the United States, even. Sign a loanhad to document with a bank even though it was the wifes business. Even if the woman was the one making the money, it was her idea, her investment, she was doing all the work, because of these old stereotypes, that kind of mentality and discrimination still exists in a lot of institutions. So we have to push back against those, fight against those. Women who are successful, you have to then fight for the women who are the younger women who are coming behind you and make sure that you are changing some of these attitudes. If you are high up in a bank, you have got to make sure that these policies are good for women. If you succeed in politics, if if you succeed in politics, then you have to help promote and encourage women who are coming behind you. So the last thing i guess i would say would be i know that michelle says this to our daughters. You can be a wonderful mom and have a wonderful family and have a really successful career. You may have to kind of not try to do everything all at the same time exactly. You may have to time things out a little bit and have a husband who supports taking turns a little bit. So it may be that when the child is very young, you are not doing something that is as hard, because having a really young child is already really hard, and you have to sleep sometimes. But then as the child gets older, maybe that is when maybe your husband is doing something that gives him more time to support that child. There is going to have to be finding the right balance throughout your life in order to be successful, but congratulations on the good work you are doing. [applause] pres. Obama i have got time for i only have time for two more questions. I will call on that gentleman up there with the glasses. Blue shirt. Right here. Wait, wait, wait. Let him ask his question. Then i will ask the last one. Hello, mr. President. It is really an honor to ask you this question. I am studying marketing. [cheers] and my question is about what advice will you give to peruvian students that they are starting to think different. What advice will you give in a world where the bad is good and the good is bad . What advices would you give them to chase their dreams, make the country better, not peru, just worldwide . That would be my question. President obama you are already doing so well, i dont know that i can give you the perfect advice, but i will tell you what i tell my young people who work in the white house and who i meet in the United States, because i think what is true in the United States is what is true for you as well. We live in a time where you were always seeing bad news. Bad news gets a lot of attention. But the truth is in so many ways, the world is better now than it was 20 years ago or 40 years ago or 100 years ago. People are healthier today, they are wealthier today, they are better educated today. The world, if you look over all, is less violent than it was. Look at the 20th century. Millions of people dying everywhere. Look at latin america and the wars that were taking place everywhere across the continent. So you actually are living in a time of relative peace and historic prosperity. And i say that so that you should feel optimistic about the future. You shouldnt feel pessimistic. You are always seeing bad news, but the truth is the world is in a place where the world can solve its problems and be even better 20 years from now or 50 years from now. We have to start with that