A group of aspiring journalists could not contain their excitement on Thursday when President Obama walked into the room for a surprise visit during White House College Reporter Day.
Most of the students immediately gasped in awe and reached for their cellphones to film or photograph the moment, with some female future reporters holding their hands to their hearts in disbelief.
The White House hosted student journalists selected from dozens of college campuses for its first-ever College Reporter Day on Thursday.
Participants gathered in the White House briefing room to attend a news briefing with White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest when Obama made an unexpected appearance.
"Hey," the president said as he walked up to the podium while Earnest was speaking.
The students let out a collective gasp, most of them staring open-mouthed at the president, huge smiles on their faces. A majority of the student journalists could be seen taking their phones out to film Obama standing at the podium, some leaning precariously in their chairs to get the best possible angle.
At least a couple of the female future reporters put their hands over their hearts when Obama walked out, visibly taken aback by the president’s visit.
"I hear there are some hot-shot journalists here," Obama said to the group, holding a drink of some kind in his hand. "You know, Josh was speaking for me, and I want to make sure he was getting it right. How’s it going, everybody?"
"Good!" the students responded eagerly.
"Are you guys having an interesting time here?" the president asked. "Was Josh thorough in his briefing? Well, I heard you guys were around today, so I wanted to stop by and say hello."
The students were scheduled to discuss campus-related topics with senior Obama administration officials and meet members of the White House Press Corps after the briefing.
The participants at College Reporter Day will likely make up the next generation of American journalists, and are presumably training for future hard-nosed interviews with Obama and other prominent politicians.