Michelle Obama is the 44th first lady of the United States. She is a writer and an advocate for poverty awareness, nutrition, physical activity and healthy eating.
Obama was born Michelle LaVaughn Robinson in 1964 in Chicago, Illinois. She was pushed to succeed in school and skipped the second grade. She was chosen for a gifted-student program which enabled her to expand her learning to French and advanced biology courses. She became student council treasurer and a member of the National Honor Society at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School. She graduated as class salutatorian in 1981 before continuing her education at Princeton University. While at Princeton, Obama was involved with the Third World Center, the academic and cultural group supported minority students and ran a day care centre and provided after school tutoring. Obama graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts, she majored in Sociology and minored in African-American studies. Her thesis ‘Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community’ explored connections between the school’s black alumni and their communities.
After graduating from Princeton, Obama attended Harvard Law where she earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree. While at Harvard she was involved with demonstrations demanding more minority students and professors. She also worked for the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, assisting low-income tenants with housing cases. After Law School, Obama joined the Chicago office of the law firm Sidley Austin as a junior associate specialising in marketing and intellectual property where she was assigned to mentor a summer intern called Barack Obama. Two years later they were engaged and later married at the Trinity United Church of Christ on October 3, 1992.
Obama moved on to a career in public service, she took a position as assistant to Mayor Daley and then as the assistant commissioner of planning and development for the City of Chicago. In 1993 she became the Executive Director for the Chicago Office of Public Allies, a non-profit leadership-training program that encourages young people to develop skills for careers in the public sector. She set fundraising records that still stand during her four years in post. In 1996 she became the associate dean of student services at the University of Chicago where she developed the University’s first community-service program. Eight years later she moved on to work for the University of Chicago Hospitals beginning as executive director of community relations and external affairs. In 2005 she was appointed as vice president for community and external affairs at the University of Chicago Medical Center, she continued to work there part-time until just before her husband’s inauguration as president.
From 2007 Obama scaled back on her own professional work so that she could support her husband during his run for the Democratic presidential nomination. In 2008 she became the the first African-American first lady and third with a post-graduate degree when her husband was elected as President of the United States. She has advocated for her husband’s policies by promoting bills that support them including the economic stimulus bill. She has been an advocate on behalf of military families, helping working women balance career and family, encouraging national service, and promoting the arts and arts education. In 2012 Michelle and Barack Obama were awarded the Jerald Washington Memorial Founders’ Award by the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans (NCHV). In 2011 she co-founded the Joining Forces program which aims to expand educational and employment options for veterans and to raise awareness about the difficulties plaguing military families.
As first lady, Obama has been able to fight for the issues she feels are important, during the creation of the Affordable Care Act she began her campaign against the epidemic of childhood obesity. In 2009, Obama and local elementary school students worked to plant a 1,100-square-foot vegetable garden on the South Lawn of the White House. In 2010 she launched the Let’s Move! initiative to promote healthy eating and physical activity. She has also formed a Reach Higher initiative to inspire young people to explore higher education and career-development opportunities.