First Lady Michelle Obama Gives Commencement Speech At City College
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Michelle Obama has delivered the final commencement speech of her tenure as first lady at New York's City College.
Mrs. Obama addressed more than 3,000 members of the Class of 2016 at the 169-year-old public college on Friday.
"You represent more than 150 nationalities, you speak more than 100 different languages, you represent just about every possible background -- every color and culture, every faith and walk of life," said Obama, praising the school's diversity.
The first lady told the graduates they're "living, breathing proof that the American Dream endures in our time.''
"You've taken so many different paths to this moment," Obama said. "No matter where your journey started you have all made it here today through the same combination of unyielding determination, sacrifice and a whole lot of hard work."
City College President Lisa S. Coico presented an honorary doctorate of humane letters to the first lady.
City College of New York was founded in 1847 and has long prided itself on educating immigrants and those without the means of attending a private university.
"For centuries this city has been the gateway to America for so many striving, hope-filled immigrants; folks who left behind everything they knew to seek out this land of opportunity that they dreamed of, and so many of those folks, for them this school was the gateway to actually realizing that opportunity in their lives," Obama said.
More than 40 percent of City College's students are first-generation college students and half are from low-income households.
The college counts 10 Nobel Prize winners among its alumni.
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