Not many students from Northeast Washington can say they are on a first name basis with Massachusetts' senior Senator, Ted Kennedy.  But Jasmine Harrison has known him for more than half her life.

"Ted, He asked me to call him Ted as of a few years ago," said Harrison, who has known the ailing senator since the two were paired up as part of a reading program when she was in the second grade.

Harrison and Kennedy read together every Tuesday for five years.

When filmmaker Ken Burns was putting together a video tribute to Kennedy's life of public service, producers called Harrison, who is now beginning her first year at Virginia Commonwealth University.

"We were signed up for the reading program," she said in the video tribute. "I got assigned Senator Kennedy as my reading partner. It gave me someone to want to do well for and make proud. Now I'm at VCU studying education."

Harrison says Kennedy lived the advice he's always given her:

"Stay focused, keep my eyes on the prize, maybe not in those words, but do what I have to do and get it done," she recalled.

Video Tribute to Sen. Kennedy

Monday night, she was given the chance to show how proud she was of Kennedy, who made his first major speech since he underwent surgery for a brain tumor.

"I pledge to you that I will be there next January on the floor of the United States Senate," Kennedy said to roaring applause.

Books are not the only thing Harrison and Senator Kennedy have in common. Kennedy was an early supporter of Senator Barack Obama (web|news|bio), and Harrison says when it comes time this fall time to cast her first ballot, it will be as an Obama supporter.