{"id":3328,"date":"2019-05-01T15:51:59","date_gmt":"2019-05-01T19:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wordpress\/?p=3328"},"modified":"2019-05-01T15:51:59","modified_gmt":"2019-05-01T19:51:59","slug":"michelle-obama-celebrates-college-signing-day-in-la","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2019\/05\/01\/michelle-obama-celebrates-college-signing-day-in-la\/","title":{"rendered":"Michelle Obama Celebrates College Signing Day in LA"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_3331\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3331\" style=\"width: 474px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3331\" src=\"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/michelle-obama-CSD-2-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"474\" height=\"356\" srcset=\"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/michelle-obama-CSD-2-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/michelle-obama-CSD-2-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/michelle-obama-CSD-2-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/michelle-obama-CSD-2.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3331\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courtesy of UCLA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Former First Lady Michelle Obama celebrated student success at Reach Higher\u2019s fifth annual College Signing Day event Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want you all to know, personally, you are about to make the best investment that you can possibly make. And that\u2019s true whether you are going to a trade school or to the military or to a community college or to a four-year university,\u201d Obama said to loud cheers.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Nearly 10,000 college-bound students attended the celebrity-studded event on UCLA\u2019s campus. It featured appearances by Conan O&#8217;Brien, Kelly Rowland, Lea Michele, Jidenna, Elizabeth Banks, Patton Oswalt, Eva Longoria, Pentatonix, Bebe Rexha, Jesse Williams, Usher, Yvonne Orji, Elaine Welteroth, La La Anthony, Don Cheadle, John Legend, and many others.<\/p>\n<p>Legend told the crowd that no matter your desired career path, higher education is a great choice for your future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think I would be here today as an artist, as a performer, as a leader if I didn\u2019t go to the University of Pennsylvania and I\u2019m so grateful for that experience. I want to congratulate each of you on this new beginning. Go out there, reach higher, and make it a better place,\u201d Legend said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aqFme04xlmM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>More than 3,000 College Signing Day events \u2013 honoring more than 600,000 students across the US &#8212; were planned nationwide this year. The annual celebration, coordinated by Reach Higher, is aimed at increasing college access for low-income, minority, and first-generation students.<\/p>\n<p>Obama spoke to the crowd and encouraged them to face their challenges head on and build a community of support to help build them up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want you all to know that the road doesn\u2019t end today. Once you get to college you all have to apply those skills that you used to get you here \u2013 that same grit, that same resilience, that same commitment that makes you who you are. And when you run into those challenges &#8212; because you will &#8212; I don\u2019t want you to be afraid of that challenge,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026I also want you to know that when you get to college you have to build a community for yourself. That\u2019s the only way you are going to make it\u2026None of us do this alone. That\u2019s why we put this day together because we want you all to understand how many people have your back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Ashley Dobson is NACAC\u2019s senior communications manager for content and social media. You can reach her at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:adobson@nacacnet.org\">adobson@nacacnet.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former First Lady Michelle Obama celebrated student success at Reach Higher\u2019s fifth annual College Signing Day event Wednesday. \u201cI want you all to know, personally, you are about to make the best investment that you can possibly make. And that\u2019s true whether you are going to a trade school or to the military or to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2019\/05\/01\/michelle-obama-celebrates-college-signing-day-in-la\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Michelle Obama Celebrates College Signing Day in LA<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college-admission","category-value-of-college"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Ashley Dobson","author_link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/author\/ashley-dobson\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peWmJq-RG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}