First Lady Launches Mentoring Program

First lady Michelle Obama launched a new year-long mentoring program in the White House for young girls last week.

Recognizing the importance of having role models at a young age, Obama emphasizes that the purpose of the program is to give girls at local high schools access to accomplished women in the White House, who can help them to build leadership skills and tutor them in financial literacy, careers, life skills, health and more. She also strives to empower young ladies to understand that along the path to success there are often “bumps on the road,” but with the right support system anything is possible.

“I think this is awesome,” said Jamela Joseph, community service director for the Howard section of National Council of Negro Women. “These are the types of programs young girls need. I work with a non-profit organization who serves high school girls in the juvenile justice system and through my work with them it became evident that these girls simply need positive role models who can give them advice and guidance. Mentoring programs help build a foundation for personal and professional growth,” Joseph said.  “I am really happy that Michelle Obama has started this program. I hope it will help these girls reach their maximum potential.”

All of the young ladies in the program are 10th and 11th graders who are handpicked by their principals in D.C., Maryland and Virginia schools. Meeting at least once a month, the girls will have the opportunity to be mentored by senior women on the White House staff, including Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, Domestic Policy Advisor Melody Barnes, Obama’s Chief of Staff Susan Sher and Social Secretary Desiree Rogers among others.
Obama has inspired young women all over the nation with her program. 

“I think it’s great to finally have a strong leader, and a female leader at that, to be so interactive with the community,” said Malika Michaud,  junior public relations major. “It’s really empowering to see a woman like Michelle Obama taking the initiative to show interest in [their] futures.”

Lindsey Payne, junior speech pathology major, shared a similar sentiment.

“The program sounds like it will be a great opportunity for these girls. I’ve done mentoring in the past with Heads Up and it was a really good experience,” Payne said. “What she is doing is great especially because it’s in the White House.”

Both President Barack Obama and the first lady have often stated that they have come from humble means, but because they both had the right people in their corners to support them, they were able to explore endless possibilities. Obama seeks to do just that with her program. Taking a pay-it-forward approach, she hopes that the young ladies will get all that they can out of the mentoring initiative so that when they get into positions in their lives to empower others, they will.

4 comments

Black Colonial Subject

Thu Nov 19 2009 14:17

If Mrs. Obama is really concerned about mentoring your Black girls and women she would have galavanted over to the National Council of Negro Women(NCNW) to learn from a group of people who have been holding the line for Black women for decades. Let me guess, Mrs. Obama doesn't want her neo-liberal White friends to see her with a high concentration of conscious Black women.

A Conscious Black

Wed Nov 18 2009 18:26

I would like to see Mrs. Obama and cadre of 17 assistants personally mentor(i.e., not only for photo opportunties either) some of the younger Black youth who may reside in a local DC foster care home. In addition, Mrs. Obama should bring her isolated children along with her in an effort to be expose to "actual everyday" Black children as compared to those they are around from the likes of the University of Chicago Laboratory School(more affectionately known as the "Lab School" or at Sidwell Friends School). If she(Mrs. Obama) is not willing to do this, this definitely indicates that she's as equally far removed from working class Blacks. For those who will claim that Mrs. Obama comes from a "working class" family, I would emphatically say this was decades ago.

The Black Cynic

Tue Nov 17 2009 12:43

Here's another glaring example of FLOTUS (First Lady of The United States)gallivanting around the US trying to portray herself as a populists and yet all of personal actions are the exact antithesis (i.e., designer dresses, shoes, bags, or even the organic lettuce).

I would really like to know what methodology FLOTUS will use to select the participants. I'm most certain that many of the participants will come from well-connected Black, Latino, and White families. If FLOTUS really want to mentor, her staff would take on the lowest performing students from the most neglected school in Denver, DC, Los Angeles, NYC. Unfortunately, I think FLOTUS and her expansive staff would probably feel uncomfortable being surrounded by "really" poor people (that is economically and certainly not intellectually. Finally, I would like for FLOTUS to actually champion more substantive policy issue regarding Blacks in America considering her politically spineless husband will not. Not including that he's the one that really needs some mentoring as to how to act as if he's the President of the most powerful (not perfect) country on the planet.

In addition to mentoring, the question that should be of FLOTUS:1)have you read the Affordable Healthcare for Americans Act[HR 3962]?; 2) how can you talk about educational reforms when your own children have never attended a public school and only elite White private schools(UC Laboratory School and Sidwell Friends School [upper and lower] in their entire life?; 3)how can your husband appoint someone to be the Secretary of Education and never taught (and only have a BA degree in sociology by the way)in an actual classroom or he's (Arne Duncan) is emphasizing Charter schools and the privatization of public schools?; and 4) why is it necessary for you to continue to talk about tertiary issues as compared to primary issues?

In sum, until FLOTUS began to tackle more substantive issues, I would emphatically say that she'll continue to be viewed as nothing more than a political allegory. Regardless of how many Blacks despised (ok, disliked with a passion) G.W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush, at least Mrs. Bush will not be remembered for simply donning designer dresses, shoes, and bags.

Mrs. Veola Hassan-Timraz

Tue Nov 17 2009 10:00

This is terrific! Let the rest of us do the same. If not involved in such a program, let's start one.

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