Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States he also becoming the first African American to serve in that office on January 20, 2009. Obama grew up in Hawaii. Leaving the state to attend college, he earned degrees from Columbia University and Harvard Law School.Obama worked as a community organizer in Chicago. where he married Michelle LaVaughn Robinson in 1992. Their two daughters, Malia Ann and Natasha (Sasha), were born in 1998 and 2001. In 2004, he was elected by a record majority to the US Senate from Illinois and, in February 2007, announced his candidacy for president. During the first two years of his first term, President Obama was able to work with the Democratic-controlled Congress to improve the economy, After winning reelection in 2012, Obama began his second term focused on securing legislation on immigration reform and gun control. Obama left the presidency, at age fifty-five, after his constitutionally limited two terms ended on January 20, 2017. He announced plans to remain in Washington, DC, until his younger daughter finished high school. He also devoted energy to raising money and planning for the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Illinois.