Remarks by The First Lady at George Washington University Commencement
Washington, D.C.
10:55 A.M. EDT
MRS. OBAMA: Wow. Thank you all. Thank you so much. (Applause.) Thank you. “Dr. Obama” -- I like that. (Laughter.) I think I'll have everybody at home start calling me that. (Laughter.)
Thank you. I am so honored to help you celebrate this wonderful day.
And thank you, Ally; thank you, Dr. Knapp, for your generous introduction. I also want to thank Russ Ramsey, Chair of the George Washington University Board of Trustees.
And congratulations to the extraordinary young men and women of the Class of 2010! (Applause.)
You guys, you should be so proud of yourselves and your incredible accomplishments. But let’s not forget all the people who also share in that pride –- again, your moms and dads, and brothers and sisters, your friends, grandparents, mentors –- all of whom took this journey with you in ways both seen and unseen. So this is their day, too. So let’s give them another round of applause and thank you. (Applause.)
Now, I’m here today for a reason -- and not just because it’s a quick commute. (Laughter.) I am here because, as you’ve seen, eight months ago, I used you all in great ways. I issued a challenge to the students, faculty, staff, and trustees of GW. I promised you that if you performed 100,000 hours of service to the greater Washington community this school year, that I’d come and speak at your commencement.
Well, I am a woman of my word! So congratulations on this remarkable achievement. Thank you for the incredible contributions that you’ve made to the lives of so many people.
But I will say that if I had known that you’d complete more than 3,300 hours on the first day of the challenge -- (laughter) -- I'd probably have picked a higher number! (Laughter.)
Each month, you sent me just wonderful letters updating your progress. “Dear Mrs. Obama, we’re at 19,000 hours.” “Dear Mrs. Obama, we’re at 46,000 hours.” “Dear Mrs. Obama, we’ve at 73,958 hours.” (Laughter.) Yes, I got every minute of detail. (Laughter.) And soon enough, I realized, “Uh-oh, I better start working on that commencement speech!” (Laughter.)
But more impressive than the fact that you did it was really how you did it. Your letters were filled with, oh, wonderful stories of holding food drives, and beautifying parks, and making care packages for our troops and writing postcards to their families.
You helped your neighbors in Foggy Bottom dig out after “Snowmageddon” –- an effort spurred by Ally.
And led by junior Eden Sutley, you helped more than 1,000 -- hey, Eden, yay for Eden -- (applause) -- you helped more than 1,000 World War II veterans from her home state of Louisiana come to see the monuments on