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First lady Michelle Obama, accompanied by rapper Bow Wow, visited Howard University  in Washington on Thursday afternoon to meet with a few dozen high schoolers from Chicago.

She came out to promote the president’s initiative North Star, which aims to put the U.S. back into first place in the world with respect to its proportion of college graduates.

Obama, a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law, told the young Chicagoans that she’d had scant exposure to college campuses while at Chicago’s Whitney Young Magnet High School and had visited Princeton only once, to see her brother, before enrolling there.

The Chicagoans are visiting Howard for a campus orientation program.

Obama arrived shortly before 2 p.m., toured dorm rooms and posed for an outdoor group photo with the high schoolers as Howard students cried out from nearby dorms: “We love you, Michelle.”

She moved on to speak to a campus food court to speak with high school and college students.

“This has been the most phenomenal day of my life,” Pamela Mondane, 17, told the first lady. The girl, a senior at Whitney Young, said she planned to pay her $300 enrollment fee Thursday to signal her intention to enroll at Howard later this year. Mondane, in an press interview, said she was “all over the place” with respect to a major — from neuroscience to marketing.

Bow Wow, formerly L’il Bow Wow, is the 27-year-old co-host of BET’s “106 & Park,” a weekday show on which the first lady has appeared. Because Bow Wow, who had a hit record as a teenager, did not attend college, but pursued an entertainment career, according to his manager, Bart Waters, 33, of New York, who was on hand.

“Chicago, whassup?” Bow Wow asked as he began to moderate a discussion the students had with the first lady. He told the students the first time he voted, he cast a ballot for Barack Obama.

Chicago Public Schools officials said 37 students were on the campus visit from 18 area schools.

“When the press leaves, we’ll really get candid,” the first lady said. Reporters were later ushered out.

Source: Chicago Tribune

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