She introduced mentoring as an institutional commitment at a 2009 lunchtime meeting, pairing 13 Washington area high school girls with top female White House staff members. A similar program for boys came later. In addition to getting personal time with the first lady, the students sat down with Supreme Court justices, met with a curator from the African American history museum and sampled a state dinner menu while learning about diplomacy.
2009年，在与13名华盛顿中学女生共进午餐时，她将青少年辅导作为一项制度性承诺提出，随后又发起了一项旨在帮助男生的类似项目。在这些活动中，除了可以与第一夫人共处外，学生们还将有机会与最高法院的法官、非裔美国历史博物馆馆长交流。

The same ethos has guided how Obama has positioned herself abroad. At a London school, she described seeing herself in the faces of the students, who were overwhelmingly from disadvantaged backgrounds. The centerpiece of a Mexico City trip was a speech at a Jesuit university, where she said: “We have seen time and again that potential can be found in some of the most unlikely places. My husband and I are living proof of that.”White House arts workshops, visits to underserved schools and the inclusion of young people at state events are now standard practice and may be her most lasting legacy.
即使在国外，她仍然践行着同样的理念。在访问伦敦一所学校时，她说可以从那些来自贫困家庭的孩子身上看到当年的自己。在墨西哥城一所基督会大学的演讲中她说：“事实证明，奇迹总发生在最不可能的地方，我和我的丈夫就是鲜明的例子。”