The President and First Lady Host A Reception for a White House Mentoring Program

First Lady Michelle Obama Discusses Mentoring

First Lady Initiates Mentor Program

hat tip: Michelle Obama Watch






WASHINGTON - NOVEMBER 02: First Lady Michelle Obama speaks to a group of female students during an event to kick off a White House leadership and mentoring initiative in the State Dining Room at the White House November 2, 2009 in Washington, DC. The program provides local high school students the opportunity to discuss career paths with members of the White House staff, including White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers, White House Domestic Policy Adviser Melody Barnes and others.
--------Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

MRS. OBAMA: Well, good afternoon. It is so good to welcome you here to the White House. You know you’re in the State Room? It’s the room where we hold a lot of big, important dinners. And usually the President is standing here and there are tables to the side and there are people dressed in gala, but now this room is for you, and we are so excited to have you all here.

We have been anxiously planning this day and all of us I know in the East Wing, we have been just giddy about the fact that you all would be here. So we want to welcome you.

I want to thank Susan, who is my Chief of Staff and dear friend, for all her leadership and that kind introduction.

And I want to take a second to also acknowledge in particular Jocelyn Frye, who many of you have spoken to in the process of getting here, but Jocelyn is my Policy Director. And really, Jocelyn was the person, along with her team, who helped pull this together and to identify schools and to talk to you all and to work to get the mentors. So we’ve got to give Jocelyn a round of applause. (Applause.)

And as Susan said, I also want to thank the mentors, the senior women here, for taking time out. I mean, these are not just women who are busy in their own professional rights, but these are women who have their own family lives, their hectic schedules and running from here to there. But all of them — and there are many more people here in the East and West Wing who would have wanted to be here — they jumped at this opportunity to be a part of your lives. And we have to give them a round of applause. (Applause.)

As Susan said, mentoring has been something that has been important to me forever, probably as long as I can remember. And the one thing that I knew I wanted to do was to use this platform as First Lady to expand the mentoring role. It’s something that I wanted to do, it’s something that I thought that we should do. So I’m very excited.

I really want kids, young people in this nation to know that when they think of the White House, that they think of a place that is open to them; you know, a place where there are folks who really care about your development and want to listen and be a part of your growth and want to invest in you as a resource. You should know that there are people like this all over this country — not just in the White House, but in every part of government, in private sectors. All over the place there are women who are hungry to help bring you guys up. And we thought that the White House is a good example. If there are great mentors here and people with time, then they are everywhere. So we are thrilled to have you.

One of the things that my mom always said — because people ask her all the time, “What did you do to create Michelle Obama?” (Laughter.) You know, people do have — I think that’s the first thing, “What did you do?” And the one thing my mom has always said, and I agree, she said, “You know what, Michelle and Barack aren’t new.” She says, “Michelle and Barack are not unique.” She says, “There are thousands of Michelle and Barack Obamas all over this nation, in neighborhoods and communities all over the place. And she is absolutely right. She is absolutely right. There is no magic to us.

There are kids like me and Barack who grew up in modest circumstances, who didn’t have access to a whole lot of resources or power or networking. But one thing that we did have were parents who cared about us, a few people in our lives who really took an interest, people who really wanted us to flourish. And that’s really all that it takes. It doesn’t take anything more than consistency and love. And I know many of you have felt that in your lives. And you know that that’s all that it takes to get where you need to be.

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