Barack Hussein Obama II served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009–2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was born in Hawaii and grew up partially in Hawaii and partially in Indonesia. He graduated from Columbia University and Harvard Law School, working for three years in Chicago as a community organizer between college and law school. After law school, he returned to Chicago full-time, where he quickly became active in left-leaning political and legal circles. From 1992–2004, he served as a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. He first ran for political office in 1996, winning his Illinois Senate race.