President Barack Obama said “Go Cats!” in a YouTube video for the second time Monday to congratulate his chief speechwriter Cody Keenan (Weinberg ’02) on winning an award from the Northwestern Alumni Association.

Keenan received the Emerging Leader Award from the association and was honored Saturday at a banquet at the Union League Club in Chicago, the NAA said. The award goes to an alumnus who has made “a significant impact in his or her profession and/or community at large by the age of 35.”

Keenan became the president’s director of speechwriting in 2013 and wrote the 2013 and 2014 State of the Union addresses.

“Over the years, I have come to rely on Cody not only as a brilliant writer but as somebody who is focused on doing right by the American people every single day,” Obama said in the video.

As he did in his surprise video for Block 1 of Dance Marathon, Obama cheered on NU in his congratulatory address to Keenan.

“Even though you didn’t write this, I know you’d want me to say it — go Cats!” he said in the video.

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