Seniors at the University of California, Merced couldn't rely on a wealthy and established network of alumni to reel in a famous speaker for this year's commencement address. That's because the college has yet to graduate a full senior class and only has a handful of alumni. But that didn't keep this year's seniors from landing one of the most sought-after speakers of the season, first lady Michelle Obama. Since February, the 430-member founding undergraduate class organized a nonstop campaign to draw the first lady to the campus in the heart of California's Central Valley, bombarding her office with letters, emails, even hundreds of Valentine's cards. It set up a Facebook page to attract attention and help direct students' efforts. By Friday, the Facebook page for “The ‘Dear Michelle' Campaign” had more than 540 members. The campaign included pleas from students, faculty and local residents. “Mrs. Obama was touched,” Mustaphi said Friday, after the first lady announced she would speak at UC Merced's May 16 commencement. “She's very committed and connected to these young people's drive and wants to recognize the leadership that they've already exhibited.” “We had been watching her speeches and found them incredibly inspiring, and we just wanted to hear her in person,” said Sam Fong, a 22-year-old business major from the San Francisco Bay area city of Fremont who set up the group's Facebook page. “I'm not sure what it was, but something inside me was really confident that she would respond to our efforts and our passion would show through.” As he and other students mused over how to attract her to the graduation, he hit on another selling point: the diversity of UC Merced's student body mirrored that of the Obama administration. Obama is the first black US president. Students also reached out to Charles Ogletree, a native of Merced who is now a Harvard law professor and mentored both Obamas when they attended the school.
