President Obama celebrated 'change' in the East Room, but he wasn't breaking out his old campaign stump speech.
The White House was actually honoring 16 individuals from around the globe with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award given to civilians in the United States.
"These extraordinary men and women, these agents of change, remind us that excellence is not beyond our abilities," Obama said at the ceremony. "We each have it in our power to fulfill dreams."
Among those honored were actors Sidney Poitier and Chita Rivera, celebrated scientist Stephen Hawking, Joe Medicine Crow - High Bird (the last living Plains Indian war chief), as well as former Supreme Court judge Sandra Day O'Conner, tennis star Billie Jean King, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson, who crusaded for women's rights in Ireland and human rights around the world.
Two of those honored are deceased: Jack Kemp, football star and New York congressman, and gay rights advocate Harvey Milk.
Sen. Ted Kennedy was also honored, but was too ill to attend.
"What unites them is a belief ... that our lives are what we make of them," Obama said. "That no barriers of race, gender or physical infirmity can restrain the human spirit."
"The recipients of the Medal of Freedom did not set out to win this or any other award," he added. "They did not set out in pursuit of glory or fame or riches. Rather they set out, guided by passion, committed to hard work, aided by persistence, often with few advantages but the gifts, grace and good name God gave them."