Westlake Elementary students were excited to have a visit from former first daughter Chelsea Clinton on Oct. 10, part of a tour promoting her new book for young activists that included an engagement at Bookshop Santa Cruz later that evening.

The visit was organized by Casey Coonerty Protti, owner of Bookshop Santa Cruz and mother of Devin Protti, a fifth grade student at Westlake.

Devin Protti introduced Clinton to an auditorium packed with 200 mostly well-behaved students. In an eloquent opening that his mother helped him write, he welcomed the author and thanked her for being a leader for the next generation of activists.

“I feel like starting to write a story because this story is so inspiring,” Devin Protti said later.

The audience of third to fifth graders buzzed with excitement, and the atmosphere was attentive, punctuated with some nervous screaming. The students didn’t seem to know exactly who Clinton was, only that she was like royalty, but they seemed to follow what she was saying.

“I feel like it was an honor to meet the president’s daughter and stuff,” said fifth grader Bo Goldstein. When asked if he had known who she was before she came, he said, “Not really, but now I definitely know. She’s pretty cool.”

Besides spending her teenage years in the White House, Clinton, 38, is the vice-chair of the global nonprofit Clinton Foundation. She has a doctorate in international relations from the University of Oxford and was a correspondent for NBC for three years. She is also the author of “It’s Your World” and “She Persisted.”

Clinton’s new book, “Start Now!,” is a guide for young activists that explains global issues from endangered animals to bullying and highlights some of the youngest people on the front lines, like seven-year-old Isiah Britt, who raised money for hand sanitizer for schools in Flint, Michigan.

In between the faces of students trying to figure out what was going on, many of the kids looked incredibly sad or angry to hear about the threat of climate change and species extinction.

But when Clinton asked, “Who here thinks that you’re never too young to make a difference?” a sea of hands went up.

“It was really cool,” said fifth grader Chloe Jezequel-Smith. “I liked it because she gave a lot of details of how kids can make a difference in the world.” What kind of difference? “The only difference I think I can make is to take shorter showers to save water.”

Devin Protti was similarly im- pressed. “I think she’s a really nice person,” he said. “She’s always inspired me to keep going, and same with the Clinton family.”

In the question-and-answer seg- ment after Clinton’s talk, many of the students seemed most curious the White House, asking what her fa- vorite room was (her bedroom), how it felt growing up there (“both ex- traordinary and ordinary”), and is it hard to live under her parents’ shadow (“I don’t feel that I live under their shadow”).

Westlake principal Clyde Curley thanked Clinton for her visit and for the work she is doing, and the stu- dents gave a thunderous round of ap- plause and started filing out in neat lines to get their favorite books signed. Even if they didn’t catch all of it, Clinton’s talk seemed to fire them up to make some change.

“It told me what was happening,” said fifth grader Diego Jasso-Diaz. “It told me that I can help the world a little bit.”