Graduating seniors at a Maryland high school went to great lengths to get former First Lady Michelle Obama to give the commencement speech at their graduation next year.
The idea was dreamed up during a student government association meeting at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School and resulted in an aggressive social media campaign to reach America’s first Black First Lady and wife of former President Barack Obama.
In one video, throngs of students standing on stadium bleachers erupt in a thunderous cheer after SGA Vice President, Noah, shouts, “This is day two of asking Michelle Obama to speak at our high school graduation!” Another video shows students singing “Michelle Obama” on the school campus football field.
“I’d watched her documentary ‘Becoming’ on Netflix and, you know, we grew up with her — her being a great speaker, her really emphasizing youth voices, and I just thought she’d be an amazing speaker and we’d be honored to have her at BCC,” Noah told NBC Washington.
Since the group of high school seniors didn’t know “what the process was” to getting one of the most famous political figures in the world to speak at their graduation, they decided to turn to the algorithms of social media. The videos have garnered millions of views.
Eventually, their persistence and creative strategy worked–sort of. Michelle Obama commented on one of the videos, giving the Class of 2026 hope that their wish might just come true.
“I’m so moved by your videos — it’s a credit to what you and so many others in your generation can get done through the power of organizing,” the author of “The Look” wrote. “My team is in touch with your school and we’re working on something special. In the meantime, I want to hear more from you. What gives you hope?”
“I think that what gives me hope is the fact that Mrs. Obama — she heard what we were saying and she reached out to us. And that really shows that if we care about something and we try hard and we persist at something, then our voices can have an impact, and we can make a difference,” said Noah, the SGA vice president.
It remains to be seen if Mrs. Obama, who lives just 8 miles away in Washington, D.C., will actually deliver the commencement address at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, however, the SGA says things are moving “in the right direction.”
