First Lady of Change

She’s been compared to Princess Diana for her natural communication skills, willingness to show raw emotion, and ability to effortlessly connect with almost anyone. Her style has been measured up to Jackie O’s and her professional clout has been likened to political power house Hillary Clinton. But when asked to describe herself, without pause, Michelle Obama says she is first and foremost, Malia and Sasha’s mom.

She’s often said that her daughters are the first thing on her mind when she wakes in the morning and the last thing she ponders when she falls asleep at night. “Their future – and all our children’s future – is my stake in this election.”

Now that she’s taking up residence in the White House, she has no intention of easing up on this commitment.

“My first job in all honesty is going to continue to be mom-in-chief,” she told Ebony magazine, “making sure that they are settled and that they know they will continue to be the center of our universe.”

This is one of the main reasons Mrs. Obama has been able to connect to so many Americans: she’s an everywoman who can speak to the struggles of wives, mothers and working women everywhere while also being an educated, ambitious women in her own right.

The journey begins

A product of Chicago public schools, Michelle received her Bachelors of Arts from Princeton University and went on to graduate from Harvard Law School where she did so well, she landed a job at the Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin. It was here that she mentored a hotshot Harvard Law student whose advances left her unfazed at first but soon enough his community organizing endeavors won her over. It was also this job that led her to her to discover her “true calling.”

Mrs. Obama was making good money as an associate and was on track to becoming a partner but she found the work dull. "Were people waking up just bounding out of bed to get to work? No,” she said in an interview with Newsweek.

Looking back she says she fell into the “automatic path” of a corporate career. “I started thinking about the fact that I went to some of the best schools in the country and I have no idea what I want to do,” she confessed. “That kind of stuff got me worked up because I thought, ‘This isn’t education. You can make money and have a nice degree. But what are you learning about giving back to the world, and finding your passion and letting that guide you, as opposed to the school you got into’?” This realization led her to the life-changing decision to resign from the law firm to mentor young people from her childhood neighborhood.

Although Michelle fretted over how she would pay back her hefty student loans, she took a leap of faith to follow her passion and went on to amass an impressive resume that includes an Associate Dean of Student Services position at the University of Chicago, where she developed the university’s first community service program. Under her leadership as Vice President of Community and External Affairs for the University of Chicago Medical Center, she inspired a program to send doctors from the prestigious medical center into community hospitals and clinics in poor surrounding neighborhoods. (Fun Fact: In the 1990s, Mrs. Obama served as a judge for the Do Something Awards, formerly known as the Brick Awards.)

In 2007, she left her $275,000 a year administrator position to support her husband’s hopes of becoming the 44th and first black president of the United States.

BAM’s Rock

Obama has described his wife as the family’s “rock” and portrays her as one of his top advisers. After the activities of the past few weeks, it’s safe to assume that she will continue in that role as the new First lady.

Michelle Obama brought her passion for public policy to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and already appears to savor her role as a bridge between the White House and the community.

When Obama passed the Lilly Ledbetter Act, a law which will give women greater power to challenge sex discrimination in the workplace, the first lady took this as an opportunity to step into the public policy spotlight. She held a reception at the White House following the signing where she said Mrs. Ledbetter’s struggle was one shared by women across the U.S., and one that she would continue to fight for.

Her foray into public policy advocacy continues with an ongoing tour of all the cabinet-level agencies during which her aides say she intends on listening to and getting to know Washington. Her first stop was the Department of Education on February 3, where she talked about the “hard work” ahead and sought support for her husband’s ambitious economic stimulus package.

Mrs. Obama stressed the need for more education spending saying, “Imagine what we can do with millions of dollars more investment in this area. We can expand opportunities in low-income districts for all students, particularly for students with disabilities.”

Michelle’s Message

Although the first lady has yet to formally announce her platform, she has said she intends to focus on military families and working women. And it seems obvious that she will continue the community involvement that the couple was long known for in Chicago.

We got a glimpse of our future first lady’s role as Humanitarian Volunteer-in-Chief with her message calling all Americans to participate in a National Day of Service on King Day. And she practiced what she preached; on Jan. 19, the First lady helped volunteers with Operation Gratitude, which assembles and sends packages to troops overseas.

She took her call to action to the “Kids’ Inaugural: We are the Future” concert, where she challenged the teen-filled audience to serve their country.

"You kids are the future of this great nation," Obama said to the crowd largely made up of military families and their charged-up children, all who were invited to attend for free. "We need every American to serve their community, including our young people."

“What can kids do?” she wondered aloud. “Volunteer in a homeless shelter, visit an elderly person or write letters to U.S. troops.”

On February 9, she carried her message to Mary’s Center, a social services organization in D.C., where she touched on her humble upbringing during a talk with a group of teenagers.

“I have in some way been where you are,” Huffington Post reports her telling the rapt group. She stressed her view that it’s important for young people “to see me, not the First lady, to see that there is no magic to me sitting here.”

Michelle admitted to Newsweek that she is “a statistical oddity. Black girl, brought up on the South Side of Chicago. Was I supposed to go to Princeton? No … They said maybe Harvard Law was too much for me to reach for. But I went, I did fine. And I’m certainly not supposed to be standing here.” But she is standing there in the White House: an Ivy League educated attorney with an accomplished career, two beautiful daughters and a devoted husband who just happens to be the "leader of the free world.”

And first lady Obama is doing everything she can to turn this “statistical oddity” into an expected certainty in the near future.