MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Rewarded with the president of the United States as their commencement speaker, the graduating seniors at Booker T. Washington High School got the same advice a young President Barack Obama once got himself: Keep pushing.

“You’ve always been underdogs,” the president told the cheering students clad in green and yellow gowns from a school where academic scores and graduation rates have soared despite tough conditions in the community. “Nobody’s handed you a thing. But that also means that whatever you accomplish in your life, you’ll have earned it,” Pres. Obama said.

The high school won a national competition, and Pres. Obama’s presence, thanks to its hard-fought academic turnaround. The school is in a gritty south Memphis community where many of its students live in tough neighborhoods beset by crime, drug addiction, teenage pregnancy and untreated mental illness. A majority of the students are poor, and some are homeless.

Pres. Obama told the smiling seniors: “You’ve shown more grit and determination in your childhoods than a lot of adults ever will.”

Pictured: President Barack Obama speaks to graduates before he delivers the commencement address at the Booker T. Washington High School graduation at Cook Convention Center in Memphis, Tenn., Monday, May 16, 2011.