How Michelle Obama inspired a class of British schoolgirls

As Michelle Obama gives her final speech as First Lady of the United States, we take a look at how the girls at Elizabeth Garrett Anderson school in Islington had their lives changed by her visit in 2009...

We are counting on you, we are counting on every single one of you to be the best that you can be.”

So concluded Michelle Obama’s extraordinary, emotional address to the girls of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson school in Islington, London, on April 2, 2009.

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson is a girls-only, inner-city comprehensive. At the time of the First Lady’s visit, 20% of its pupils were the children of refugees or asylum seekers, they spoke a total of 55 different languages and 92% of them were from a black or minority background. Three quarters of the pupils are eligible for free school meals and Islington is one of the most deprived local authority areas in the country, with a higher rate of teenage pregnancy than the national average

These are not children from wealthy or privileged families.

Turning up at school that Thursday morning, they knew a special guest was due to make an appearance but they had no idea who it was.

When Mrs Obama was introduced, they greeted her with the sort of welcome young teenaged girls usually reserve for the likes of One Direction.

Visibly moved, the First Lady appeared to be fighting back tears during her speech.

“I want you to know that we have very much in common,” she told her audience.

“For nothing in my life’s path would have predicted that I would be standing here as the First Lady of the United States of America. There was nothing in my story that would land me here. I wasn’t raised with wealth or resources of any social standing to speak of...

“If you want to know the reason why I’m standing here, it’s because of education. I never cut class. Sorry, I don’t know if anybody here is cutting class. I never did. I loved getting As. I liked being smart. I loved being on time. I loved getting my work done. I thought being smart was cooler than anything in the world.”

Some 200 girls in grey jumpers and knee-length skirts perched on the edge of their plastic chairs in their school hall and listened intently to the First Lady’s first speech on foreign soil. They listened and they learned.

Head teacher Jo Dibb told me: “What happened in 2009 really was a momentous occasion. The impact took us all by surprise. The girls really took on board the message about working hard and then going on to help others and contribute to your community.

“It’s very hard time to be a young woman – there are so many pressures. It’s even harder if you come from a background where you don’t have role models. You face quite an uncertain future. What Michelle Obama did was feed the girls’ self-belief, and that’s the most wonderful thing you can give to a young woman.”

But if Mrs Obama had an impact on those pupils, it is equally clear that they had an effect on her. Aides have said that she discovered her proper role during the visit.

Jodi Kantor, author of The Obamas: A Mission, A Marriage, wrote: “She looked at the girls looking at her and saw herself through their eyes, noticing how they hung on her every word

“She saw the responsibility, the impact, the potential, of her role. Her time in the White House had been isolating, yet now across the Atlantic she felt so connected."

And the story doesn’t end with her 2009 visit..

In 2011 she invited some of the girls to Oxford University, speaking to them in the dining hall of Christ Church.

“How are you doing? It’s good to see you again,” she said, greeting them like old friends.

And a year later, in 2012, a dozen of them were invited to the White House. None had been to the United States before.

The girls had three meetings with the First Lady and one with the president, during which they were astonished to discover the most powerful man in the world knew all about their school.

I spoke to four of the young women who embraced her message and strove to become the best that they could be.

Gamze Kaplan - 17

Gamze exudes quiet confidence. The daughter of a private hire taxi driver, she has eleven A* and A grade GCSEs and wants to be a lawyer – just like her hero.

“I grew up in north London, and will be the first in my family to go to university,” she says.

“There are a lot of bad influences in my area. There is a lot of crime. Two weeks ago I had my phone stolen by two motorcyclists.

“There’s also gang crime. It was quite difficult growing up. I was really scared. When I was at primary school I was being threatened by gangs. When I was walking to and from primary school these older boys would interrogate me and threaten me every day. That group of boys run the neighbourhood. It was really scary at the time but now I look back and think it’s made me who I am - it’s made me stronger.

“Not many of the girls my age are going to university. Some work in MacDonald’s or Sainsbury’s. A lot of girls get demotivated by their families but I’ve been brought up differently.

“I’ve felt a lot of pressure, but meeting the first lady really motivated me. My parents depend on me a lot and I want to make them proud.

“Michelle Obama gets the importance of family. She said that when she had problems with the President, she would lie on her mum’s lap and talk about it.”

Gamze was one of the 12 girls invited to Washington to meet the first lady and the president.

“We met Mrs Obama and Samantha Cameron at the White House. Mrs Cameron opened up a bit about her childhood and Mrs Obama talked about the pressures on young women to look a certain way. We’re becoming more equal but there is still sexism.”

At Mrs Obama’s recommendation, the pupils spent time with Martha’s Table charity, cooking food for the homeless. At the end of the trip, Gamze was chosen to give a speech.

She said: “We were eating at one of the President’s favourite restaurants – Bens’ Chili Bowl – when they told me. I was so nervous, I lost my appetite completely. But afterwards she gave me a big hug. After that my confidence increased massively. I used to be quite quiet and scared, but now I don’t really get nervous.”

Gamze is now 19 and hopes to follow in her role model’s footsteps.

She says: “The First lady studied Law at Harvard, and I aspire to study History at Cambridge and then convert to law too.”

Ashleigh Jones - 19

Nineteen-year-old Ashleigh dismisses my suggestion that her background was “tough”.

“I grew up in a council house and my dad died when I was seven,” she says. “It’s all I’ve ever known – you get up and get on with it. There’s no point in wallowing around because it won’t change things. I’ve had my mum there. She’s been my mum and my dad for years.”

Of her visit to Oxford, she says: “There were so many cameras and I was really intimidated - I was only a 15-year-old schoolgirl. But Michelle Obama put us at ease and made us forget she was the First Lady. She seemed just like a normal mum, concerned about her children and concerned about us – that we held ourselves in high esteem.”

Ashleigh has since worked as a special educational needs teaching assistant.

She said: “At Elizabeth Garrett Anderson all our teachers believed in us and knew our potential, even if we didn’t. I always wanted to work in special needs teaching. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done – I enjoy it so much, seeing the children learning every day. I just hope that they grow up and realise what Michelle Obama told us – that hard work determines your future.”

Clarissa Pabi - 24

When Clarissa talks about Michelle Obama, her face lights up.

A former Elizabeth Garrett Anderson pupil, she met Mrs Obama in 2012 when she was studying at Oxford University. As President of the Poetry society, Michelle Obama deliberately sought her out to speak to the girls from her old school.

“The White House got in touch and asked me to do a speech, it was very West Wing,” Clarissa says.

“Michelle Obama was very gracious, loving and inspiring. For her it was all about making people understand it’s about how you feel about yourself not what other people think. I use her words as mantras today: picture who you want to be, reach for people who make you better, success isn’t about the background you’re from it’s about the confidence you project.”

Clarissa is now a marketing executive at Ebury Publishing, part of Random House, pioneered the use of social media to increase youngsters’ interest in reading. She is also a keen poet who has performed alongside the American Poet Laureate.

“Michelle Obama really shaped me going into the world of work and thinking about what I want my life to be,” Clarissa says. “She talked a lot about giving back and as a result I do a lot of mentoring and outreach outside my job, to try to help young people from disadvantaged or minority backgrounds into the arts.

“I was so inspired by Mrs Obama. She told me she still gets nervous speaking in front of people – that makes you feel you can do anything. When I have to stand up in meetings, I think back to that experience. It really does shape how I think about myself.

“Afterwards, she kept in contact. She sent me a lovely letter. She genuinely did care.”