::THE SLICE REPORT WITH MONA AUSTIN

buzzz worthy. . . First Lady Michelle Obama: This issue is personal for me. For me, education has never been simply a policy issue – it’s personal.  Neither of my parents and hardly anyone in the neighborhood where I grew up went to college.  But thanks to a lot of hard work and plenty of financial aid, I had the opportunity to attend some of the finest universities in this country.  That education opened so many doors and gave me the confidence to pursue my ambitions and have a voice in the world.  For me, education was power. And a few years ago, when I had the honor of meeting Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head just for trying to go to school, this issue got really personal for me.  I saw that the terrorists who nearly killed her were trying silence her voice, snuff out her ambitions, and take away her power. That’s why I decided to work on global girls’ education as First Lady: because right now, there are tens of millions of girls li...

buzzz worthy. . .#letgirlslearn FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA CELEBRATES ONE YEAR OF LET GIRLS LEARN, AND ANNOUNCES NEW COMMITMENTS TO THE INITIATIVE In March 2015, the President and the First Lady  launched  Let Girls Learn, a U.S. government initiative aimed at helping adolescent girls attain a quality education that empowers them to reach their full potential. The recently released FY 2017 President’s Budget has requested more than $100 million in new funds for the initiative, building on the $250 million in funds requested in the FY 2016 President’s Budget to launch the initiative. Additionally, foreign governments, including  Japan ,  South Korea  and the  UK , hav e  collectively pledged nearly $600 million towards global girls’ education programming. Domestically, the First Lady is galvanizing students to become global citizens, from launching the  #62MillionGirls  social media campaign last September, to releasing the Let G...