Bottoms' historic win inspires Clayton County high school students: "I can do anything"

For five young women at Clayton County's Mount Zion High School, Keisha Lance Bottoms' projected victory is more than an election result. It's a new way to imagine their futures.

Bottoms will become Georgia's first woman and first Black governor, as well as the first Black woman governor in the country.

"I just feel like as the new generation, we're starting to make a change," one student said.  "And it's like making me feel like I can do anything."

The students, members of the school's Circle of Sisterhood in partnership with Keke Palmer's Cinderella Curriculum, spoke to CBS News Atlanta on Wednesday about college, careers, and seeing a woman reach a position no Black woman has held before.

Principal Kimberly Grant said that example gives substance to something educators tell students every day:  They can do anything.

"So now it's more of a reality as opposed to just a dream," Grant said.  "I see what I can be and now I'm more likely to go towards it."

Dr. Cynthia Spence, an associate professor of sociology and founding director of Spelman College's Social Justice Program, said the milestone belongs to the nation as well as Georgia.

"Georgians need to strut a little bit and say, look at us.  Look at Georgia," Spence said.  "And if we want to maintain that momentum, then we need to come together around issues that unite us."

Bottoms' next challenge, she said, will be building bipartisan coalitions around shared concerns, including health care and schools.