Happy #CollegeSigningDay season 🎉 To every student out there planning to go to community college, enlisting in the military, learning a trade, or attending a four-year university, we are so excited for you!
As a new school year begins, I wanted to share some advice for students heading back to school. Remember to always be yourself, try your best, and never be afraid to make mistakes. I believe in you and can’t wait to see all that you do this school year! pic.twitter.com/QoqMzhH34c
My friend @AliciaKeys and her talented team met with some of our @MBK_Alliance students and @ObamaFoundation Youth Job Corps interns during her Keys to the Summer Tour stop in Chicago. Check out their reflections—and take a peek at what happens behind the scenes of her tour! pic.twitter.com/z2V2xucGdn
I want to celebrate every student who is continuing their education at a community college this year.
I hope you’re proud of the commitment you’re making to yourself, your family, and your future—because I certainly am. #ReachHigherpic.twitter.com/1frjHHHzDz
It was such an honor to have been a part of yesterday’s WOW Circle—a Working on Womanhood program at Hyde Park Academy that creates space for young women to reflect on how to own their narrative in a world that isn’t always set up to empower them.  I’m so proud of you all! pic.twitter.com/4o8XU9LUzB
I’m so happy to be back home in Chicago—and even happier to have spent the afternoon on the South Side with students at Hyde Park Academy! pic.twitter.com/qcd7DiYEij
I'm thrilled to share that @PenguinRandom and @DiverseBooks are launching the Michelle Obama Award for Memoir, a new creative writing award focused on memoir for public high school students.
Michelle and I are proud to join @BChesky in announcing the first recipients of The Voyager Scholarship, which supports 100 rising college juniors as they pursue a career in public service.
I heard about the work that Coach Amaker and the young people at Harvard are doing to build community, so I decided to drop by one of their meetings. Thanks for letting me be an honorary member of The Breakfast Club! https://t.co/EQ6R9nHbz2
The people who need student loan forgiveness are not lazy. You actually can’t be lazy and survive in this country. Trust me I was scarily poor. You can only be lazy if you’re rich. That’s a rich people privilege.
“They don’t wanna work!” I mean I don’t know if we were put on this planet to work BUT REGARDLESS whether folks want to or not, they HAVE to. Lower and middle class is a constant fight to not lose access to basic needs. One hospital visit can ruin your financial life.
Poor people are the farthest things from lazy. It’s very telling that the hardest workers (service workers, janitorial workers keeping our buildings and cities livable, teachers etc etc) are the lowest paid jobs. Unlivable wages. Which is why they need multiple jobs
Now there’s folks born into privilege and those who worked up to being wealthy (although this we could debate forever and also racially who has an easier time moving up out of poverty as they don’t face racial discriminatory obstacles in the financial world). BUT 👇🏽
Those in the second group who say “I didn’t have anything handed to me!” Which again, debatable if you are more likely to have white alumni/resources/banks/employers willing to take a chance on you BUT, well the thing about the second group, which I find myself moving into, is 👇🏽
You should remember how disgustingly difficult it was to survive when you were poor. How scarily hard it was to pull yourself out of a pit you thought you’d likely die in. I know what it feels like to need a miracle. I would never wish the fear and trauma I suffered, on anyone
Because clearly it still needs to be said: Student loan forgiveness is not about irresponsible people taking out education loans and then not paying. These are compounding interest loans: borrowers are struggling because they pay many times OVER what they borrowed and still owe!
Before I finally paid my student loans off TWO YWARS AGO at the age of 44, I had repaid my balance again and again. But the interest meant most of my payments didn't go to the loan debt but the interest and that interest kept accruing daily over 25 years.
Also, government literally exists to further the common good and to help its citizens. Non-homeowners subsidize homeowners, non-business owners subsidize business owners, people w/o schoolchildren subsidize schools. Why is it politically expedient to think so little of each other
The Obama Diary 
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