Michelle Obama due to make her final remarks as US First Lady
Ms Obama will use her last public address to champion the cause of school counsellors
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Your support makes all the difference.Michelle Obama will deliver her final words as First Lady at an event held in honour of the 2017 School Counsellor of the Year.
The First Lady founded the ceremony which will take place on Friday to raise awareness of the work school counsellors do with young people and the difference they can make.
Ms Obama, who has held consistently high approval ratings, has dedicated much of her tenure in the White House to campaigning for more school counsellors and encouraging post-secondary school education options as part of her Reach Higher initiative. The campaign has aimed to ensure America once again has the highest proportion of university graduates in the world by 2020.
According to a statement from the First Lady’s office, her last public event is an annual ceremony started by the Chicago-born First Lady in 2015. Ms Obama previously joked that it might be one of the last White House events “before they kick us out in January of 2017.”
Ms Obama based the ceremony on the annual Teacher of the Year event which has taken place at the White House for decades regardless of whether the Democrats or the Republicans are in power. The First Lady’s chief of staff, Tina Tchen, said she hoped the tradition would continue because school counsellors, who are responsible for more than 470 students on average, deserve the same accolades as teachers.
There is no direct equivalent for school counsellors in the UK. They are responsible for looking after student’s academic performance, mental health, career aspirations and teachers’ requirements for their students.
Ms Obama was one of the most popular figures in the 2016 election, appearing alongside Hillary Clinton, who she referred to as “my girl”, on the campaign trail. The First Lady, who is very social media savvy and carved out a massive following on Twitter, Instagram and even Snapchat, was applauded for her barnstorming speech against President-elect Donald Trump back in October.
While there have been calls for Ms Obama to run for president in 2020, Ms Obama has adamantly ruled out ever running for office.
In an extensive interview with Oprah Winfrey at the end of December, she said she would not put her family through more time in the spotlight.
Referring to the rumours, she said: “I think some people think it's serious, but some people are just hopeful. I don't make stuff up, I'm not coy. I'm pretty direct. If I was interested in it, I would say. I don't believe in playing games.”
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