Cranbrook Kingswood Senior Introduces First Lady

When First Lady Michelle Obama visited Detroit this past Wednesday to promote her youth mentoring initiative, a Cranbrook Schools senior was on stage to introduce her.

Cherry Tolbert, CK/HUB ’10, was selected through her involvement with Big Brothers/Big Sisters to introduce the First Lady as she addressed a crowd of local students that filled the Wayne State University softball stadium.

The limited-ticket event was attended by 40 Cranbrook students in addition to Tolbert. Jennifer Granholm, Governor of Michigan, also took part in the event, as well as leaders in business, entertainment, news, sports and government.

Click here for a video of the event.

Read below for Cherry’s remarkable story and her full introduction.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I would first like to thank the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program for giving me the opportunity to stand before you and introduce our elegant First Lady of the United States. Thank you.

I asked myself if it was a true mystery as to why someone like me stands in this position. But then I realized that like each and every one of you in the audience, I have a story that is in need of being heard today. I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, along with my four sisters in the same education-driven household. “Knowledge is Power”, my mother would always reiterate after her forty-minute lectures about how her summer book reports would be vital at some point in our lives. My mother made sure to enforce academics while keeping the nature of love and the nurturing of hope.

My mother requested that I get a big sister from the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program when I was only a shy, 8-year-old, second grader at Bates Academy. I hardly spoke at all despite my hunger for observing others and their actions and thirst for discovering something new. My mentor and Big Sister, Dr. Angela Hines, exposed me to the business world that seemed so far from my own. She told me about her life journey and how she endured tough times, academically and socially, during college while pursuing her veterinarian career. Being a part of her world, I am able to see that a woman is not limited to staying at home or being dependent upon someone else. She constantly tells me that I have the chance of becoming whoever I want to be and do whatever I want to do as long as I put my mind to it and am willing to work hard for it.

In my eighth grade year, I was faced within strenuous choices as I made my high school decision. Should I just go to the high schools that most of the other kids in my middle school go to or should I venture out and do something different? Well, I decided to attend Cranbrook Kingswood, which is one of the country’s most elite schools, as a Skillman Scholar and a Horizons -Upward Bound student. Of course, there was doubt about my choice to stay at this boarding school because of the long distance away from my family. Nonetheless, with Angie and my mother’s support, they encouraged me to get the best education that I could. They told me that if there was an opportunity for the best, I should take it and run with it. So, from the beginning of my eighth grade year, Cranbrook Kingswood has been my home away from home. Today, I stand here as a senior, about to graduate from this prestigious school. I now plan to go to University of Michigan for my undergraduate years.

However, my bright future has not always been before me. There were times when I struggled with self-confidence due to my heavy intake of the negativity around me. I saw people living on the streets, girls overwhelmed by teenage pregnancy, families that had their lights and gas cut off for days, mothers who spent their last dollar playing the three or four digit number on the lottery machine, and fathers choosing to separate themselves from their children: avoiding a civil relationship with their child’s mother to the detriment of their own child. I saw the parent with the insular mindset that discouraged his or her child from even trying at all, my peers who thought that they had the world at their feet by selling drugs to get quick money, and the cool kids who thought it was easier to drop out of high school—even with only one more year to finish. Was I going to become someone like them? I made up my mind that someone had to break this trend that I was seeing happen so frequently in my life. That someone had to be and was going to be me. My being the first generation that was college-bound, I wanted something more than the limited stories around me. I recognized that I needed to be more willing to listen to others and allow them to influence my vision in order to reach out for opportunities that could change my world.

Michelle Obama stands before us today, a true heroine of mine, committed to the behavior of mentoring. Her own life story is a testament to what hard work can achieve even against the greatest odds. The obstacles found in her distant past, though also found in my present or yours, were not able to keep her from her destiny. She stands before us today, the little girl from the south side of Chicago she once was, the powerful woman she now is. When I look at the story of our first lady, I can only reflect on the parallels to my personal journey. We are examples of how mentoring does make a difference. Michelle Obama was formed by a city whose reputation was as challenged as my own, Detroit. We both faced landscapes which reflect great economic disparity. What connects us is the resiliency of the human spirit, the courage to face odds unflinchingly and dare to want and expect to make a difference in our own lives and in the lives of others. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama.”