Barack Obama: Personal
Barack Hussein Obama II was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4, 1961. His mother, Ann Dunham, was born in Kansas. His father, Barack Obama, was born in Kenya. The two met as students at the Universtiy of Hawaii, where Barack Obama Sr. was the university's first international student from Africa. They married on February 2, 1961. However, they eventually divorced, and Barack Sr. was not a part of his son's childhood. Dunham remarried and had a daughter, Maya Soetoro Ng. The family then moved to Indonesia, but Obama was not receiving a quality education there, so he was sent back to Hawaii. There, at age 10, he lived with his materal grandparents and enrolled in the Punahou School in Honolulu.
Obama struggled with his father's absence during his childhood. Barack Obama Sr. left to study at Harvard and then returned to Kenya. His father visited him in Hawaii in 1971. That was the last time Obama saw his father. He has written about his struggles growing up without his father in his memoir. He explains how he turned to alcohol and drugs in order to distract himself from questions about who he was and his multiracial heritage. His high schools years in Hawaii helped form the person he would become later on.
Obama attended the Punahou School from fifth grade through high school. After graduation, he enrolled in Occidental College in Los Angeles. After two years, he transferred to Columbia University in New York City. He graduated in 1983 with a B.A. in political science with an international relations focus.
Clockwise from upper left, Obama at:
1. High school graduation
2. Occidental College
3. Punahou basketball team
4. New York City
5. Occidental College library
The 2016 drama Barry follows 20-year-old Barack Obama, then known as Barry, during his years at Columbia University. The film shows his struggle to feel like he belongs in a mostly white school, his relationship with fellow student Charlotte, and other important moments in his life. Starring Devon Terrell and Anya Taylor-Joy, the film premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and received positive reviews.
In 1988, after working for a few years in Chicago, Obama entered Harvard Law school. He worked as editor and eventually, president of the Harvard Law Review during his time there. Additionaly, he was a research assistant to Laurence Tribe, a constitutional scholar, for two years. He graduated magna cum laude with a J.D. in 1991.
Left: Obama at Harvard Law School, 1989
Right: Obama after being elected president of the Harvard Law Review, 1990
Barack Obama's immediate family includes his wife Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, and their two daughters, Malia Ann Obama and Natasha Obama. Michelle is from Chicago, the daughter of a city water plant employee and a secretary. She has an older brother, Craig. She attended Princeton University and then Harvard Law School.
Barack and met Michelle in 1989. 
She was assigned to be his adviser at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin during the summer. They started dating, and were engaged in 1991. They married in Chicago on October 3, 1992. The Obamas have two daughters, Malia and Natasha, known as Sasha. Malia was born in 1998, and Sasha in 2001. The family also has two Portuguese Water Dogs, Bo and Sunny.
