Two years after she met them at an Islington school where 54% get free meals, the first lady urges children to aim high
Considering they were surrounded by scores of press photographers and TV cameras, a clutch of shaven-headed secret service officers and the imposing portraits of "great white men" from the last five centuries and more, it was really quite an intimate gathering. A gossipy, girlish huddle where they talked about books, boys, worries and what they wanted to be when they grew up.
"I remember back when I was your age," confided the tall woman at their centre, "trying to decide which schools I would apply to. I worried that I wouldn't be as well prepared as students from more privileged families. I worried that I wouldn't fit in." After a few months, though, she had realised that she was "just as capable" as her peers. And now she is the US first lady.
Two years ago, in what she reminded her audience was her first solo international engagement, Michelle Obama visited the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Language College, in Islington, London, where 54% of students receive free school meals, more than nine in 10 are non-white, and more than a fifth are from refugee families.
Political niceties aside, the schoolgirls she met clearly had some personal significance for her. "I felt a strong sense of connection with all of you," she said. "In your stories I saw so much of my own story. I knew that the next time I came to the UK I wanted to visit with all of you again. In a place like this."
That place was Oxford University, more specifically the dining hall at Christ Church, one of the grandest spaces in the grandest of universities, and now doomed, for a generation at least, to be associated with Harry Potter, scenes of which are filmed there.
"Look around you," Obama told the 37 schoolgirls, some as young as 13, who had spent the morning visiting the university before being ushered into the hall to meet her. "Just look at this! A renowned university that has trained so many of the world's brightest minds and greatest leaders. All of us believe that you belong here. That this is a place for you as well. We passionately believe that you have the talent, the drive, the experience to succeed here in Oxford and in universities just like it across the country and across the world."
The idea for the visit had come from the White House and the school, Oxford said – that it wasn't bad PR for a university that remains buffeted by controversy over the equity of its admissions, particularly on ethnicity, was a welcome bonus. Oxford may have challenged David Cameron's claim that the university accepted only one black student in 2009 – the director of undergraduate admissions, Mike Nicholson declined to disclose the real figure on Wednesday – but the prime minister's description of his alma mater's record as "disgraceful" was less easy to dispute. The university says 150 of its undergraduates are black British of African-Caribbean origin; the total undergraduate student body is about 10,000 students.
Earlier, some of those already studying at the university had confessed to being a little puzzled why an American president's wife should be encouraging children from London to apply to Oxford. "I don't think the whole Michelle Obama thing is really necessary," said Sam Wareham, studying economics and management at Christ Church and a little miffed at being barred from his own college by the secret service. "They get groups around the university all the time."
"I think this is more about show for her and for the university," said his friend Alex Chajecki. "And it makes the government look like it's opening access."
Admission to Oxford, they agreed, "has to be on merit alone." Chajecki said: "Tutors are only looking for academic ability. The whole idea that Oxford might be racist is a bit absurd."
Lucy Ford, a second-year student at University College studying Russian and Spanish, noted that many were happier at other universities, including her twin sister who had been relieved, in the end, to have been accepted at Warwick rather than Cambridge. "It's much better to be accepted on a course where you are learning what you want to be learning. The pressure at Oxbridge is not for everyone."
The first challenge for the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson girls, however, was to imagine Oxford as a possibility, said the first lady, urging them to "paint [the] picture for yourself" in which they belonged there too.
There were no short cuts either. "You just have to work hard, that's it. You have to push yourself. That's the only thing. This doesn't come easy."
In a particularly personal comment, Obama (Princeton, class of 1985) urged "every last one of you" to "reach back and help others get here too. That's one of the reasons I'm here. Reaching back, even as first lady of the United States, and making sure that other young girls have the opportunities I had".
Then it was time for questions. Had she ever suffered from low self-esteem? Of course, she said. "I have doubts today. You learn how to deal with them." When would we see the first woman president? Any day now, she said, with a burst of praise for the "formidable" and "phenomenal" Hillary Clinton. How was raising children in the White House different? "A lot more cameras. But how I feel about being a mother doesn't change with the house you live in."
Yes, yes. What about when she first met Barack Obama, 13-year-old Seren Esnanoglu asked. Did she think that he would go on to achieve so much?
There were giggles. "Honestly, when I met him I knew he was special. I'm sharing secrets here. I knew he was a special person and it had nothing to do with his education, nothing to do with his potential. It was how he felt about his mother, the love he felt for his mother, his relationship to women, his work ethic. He did his work. He was good and smart. He was low key. He wasn't impressed by himself. He loved his little sister. He was a community organiser."
And if her attention flickered to the cameras behind them and the American electorate whose vote her "cute, funny" husband will seek again in 2012, it was imperceptible and perhaps forgivable.
In any case, she said: "The lesson is: reach for partners that make you better. Do not bring people into your life who weigh you down."
What of her own daily life, asked one student. On Tuesday night she had slept at Buckingham Palace, she said. "On Friday I'll go home to go to soccer and go over homework." The best bit, she said, was meeting people like them. "The dresses, the cars, the horses and carriages – I can watch that on TV. But moving you guys, pushing you to do, see more for yourselves, is all that matters."
And with a nod from her press co-ordinator, the gathering was briskly wound up and the girls ushered out for a photocall. First, though, each one had a hug and a personal word from the first lady. They were, hardly surprisingly, bowled over. "It was amazing," said 15-year-old Gabriele Watts. "She can relate to us because she's got children around the same age as us and she comes from a similar background to us."
"Now this is where I want to come," said an almost breathless Josefa Chocieszynska, 15. "She said to us you can aspire to be here, there's no reason you can't."