Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst

June 3, 2009 – First Lady Michelle Obama delivered the commencement address Wednesday to graduates of the Washington Mathematics Science Technology Public Charter School. The first lady said she came because she wanted to “celebrate the achievements of students” in her new hometown and because student Jasmine Williams wrote a letter inviting her.

The first lady told the graduates, all of them Black and Latino, to look forward without self-doubt.  Comparing her own personal story along with the president’s political ambitions, she encouraged the students not to set limits.  “We all felt a little like you might feel right now. We all had doubts. We all have doubts,” she told the 98 young men and women about to receive their diplomas. 

“But in the end we were all more than ready,” Obama insisted. 

The first lady, a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, used the opportunity to praise another Princeton graduate, Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor.  “I don’t know if you know about this phenomenal woman — she’s the President’s nominee for the Supreme Court — and she’s the first Hispanic woman to be considered for the position.  The first,” Obama said.

Mrs. Obama recalled Sotomayor’s comments to the students, [That] “when she stepped on that campus, she said — and this is a quote — she said she felt like ‘a visitor landing in an alien country.’ And she said she never raised her hand her first year because — and this is a quote — she ‘was too embarrassed and too intimidated to ask questions.’”

This was the first time Mrs. Obama spoke about Sotomayor’s nomination, and she made it clear her full support was behind the nomineee.   

Principal Mark Holbrook said 99 percent of the graduates have been accepted at two- and four-year colleges.  Mrs. Obama offered them advice for the college journey. “Never, ever sit in silence, ever.  That first day, raise your hand, use your voice, and ask a question.  Don’t be afraid to be wrong, don’t be afraid to sound unclear, because understand this is the only way you’ll learn.”

The graduation was held at Howard University where some graduates will be attending in the Fall.  Other students have been accepted at Georgetown, Syracuse, Morehouse College and the University of Virginia. 

“So graduates of 2009, with a solid education foundation and a firm hold of your dreams, and with the support of your families and a willingness to work hard, I can assure you, you’re more than ready,” Obama assured them.