When it comes to first lady Michelle Obama‘s pet projects, it’s the White House mentoring program that’s the least talked about. However, in the February issue of More magazine, Obama opened up about program, which, for the past three years, has partnered area girls with female White House staffers including Valerie Jarrett and chef Cristeta Comerford.
“I wanted [the students] to experience this notion that if you can walk [through] the doors of the White House once a month and sit down with the first lady and her chief of staff and some other senior officials, and they’re talking to you and you get used to hearing your voice in that space, then it becomes not a big deal,” the first lady explained to More.
She also got into why the program is so near and dear to her. “I mean, growing up the way that I did — kid from the South Side, going to public schools — the more my career developed, I realized how much I didn’t see, how little exposure I had to opportunities.”
And she also revealed this nugget: she was not thought of as “Ivy League” material. It took her brother, Craig Robinson, getting into Princeton on a basketball scholarship, for the first lady to pursue Princeton as well. “When he got in, I thought, well, shoot, I know I’m smarter than he is,” she said, and applied.
