ATLANTA — First lady Michelle Obama was welcomed with thunderous cheers and told the 550 people graduating from Spelman College, a historically black women’s school, that no matter where they go, they need to bring the school’s ideals to the world.
In Obama, the young women see the essence of the successful, black career woman many of them hope to become. But her message of service to others also reflected her roles as first lady and a major campaigner for her husband.
Obama delivered four commencement addresses this season, and her choices were politically strategic as the president gears up for the 2012 campaign. She was in Iowa last week and is set to speak to graduating seniors at Quantico Middle High School in Virginia, whose parents serve at the Quantico Marine Base.
“Find those folks who have so much potential but so little opportunity and do for them what Spelman has done for you,” Obama said. “No matter where you go in the world, you will find folks who have been discounted or dismissed but who have every bit as much promise as you have. They just haven’t had the chance to fulfill it. It is your obligation to bring Spelman to those folks. Be as ambitious for them as Spel man has been for you.”
