Reach Higher - Obama Presidency Oral History Back Index / Policies Reach Higher Transcripts Meredith Koop ...Workshop as part of the first lady's Reach Higher initiative. I would love to hear al... ...something with fashion, and because of Reach Higher she was working on encouraging student... Leah Katz-Hernandez ...Let's Move!, Drink Up, Joining Forces, Reach Higher , Let Girls Learn. If there are any yo... ...And the initiatives, so Let's Move!, Reach Higher , Joining Forces, some of the ones tha... Arne Duncan ...wanted to codify with the first lady in Reach Higher ? Yes, it was building a structure... ...yes, those guidance counselors with Reach Higher ; whether it was community college... Eric Waldo ...executive director of Michelle Obama's Reach Higher initiative, and he still works on tha... ...frankly that became also a big part of Reach Higher and other work we did. But the firs... ...do in all her initiatives—whether it's Reach Higher or When We All Vote or anything, goin... ...authenticity. She wanted to deal with Reach Higher and help young people go to colleg... ...sharing it. When we were talking about Reach Higher , she knew her story, and she wanted t... ...to go to college or go to Princeton. Reach Higher , and then our Gen Z campaign, Bette... ...of the first conversations we had about Reach Higher was actually, Tina Tchen, Mrs. Obama'... ...Day. It fits with our subject matter of Reach Higher and developing educational tools fo... ...five years here, your five years with Reach Higher . So I feel like we covered a lot o... ...I've read through your reports on Reach Higher , and I'm so tremendously impressed b... ...was to keep building and creating Reach Higher , but it was also actually to continu... ...key things that we did early on with Reach Higher was actually, we realized that our ke... ...has tried to do. So when we started Reach Higher , the fundamental idea was, we wante... ...That's been, again, a credit to Reach Higher , but a credit to Mrs. Obama for bein... ...and change lives. That's really what Reach Higher at the end is all about, is inspirin... ...really became the policy advisor for Reach Higher —and Stephanie was the deputy director... ...thing, and it became fundamental to Reach Higher . But I would argue it was part of th... ...scaling of best practices. For us, the Reach Higher side, we knew we wanted to talk abou... ...important. I thought it was a way for Reach Higher to engage with that communit... ...they thought Mrs. Obama could do in Reach Higher to try to help motivate students, t... ...portfolio and really helped a ton with Reach Higher , was a critical leader for us. We ha... ...who end up helping create these state Reach Higher school counselor teams and plans, an... ...able to visit all these schools because Reach Higher and Michelle Obama said this is a goo... ...about this last time. So we have Reach Higher . The goal of Reach Higher is to reac... ...we have Reach Higher. The goal of Reach Higher is to reach young people. We have a lo... ...kind of an It's on Us thing, but for Reach Higher .” So I began inviting Kyle to m... ...my little six-page deck of, here's the Reach Higher logo, here's what we're trying t... ...to announce this campaign as part of Reach Higher , but it's a sub-campaign, it's a bran... ...you're trying to do everything with Reach Higher [laughs] . You're trying to reac... ...brand that's different than Reach Higher . It doesn't mean that Reach Highe... ...than Reach Higher. It doesn't mean that Reach Higher can't talk to students. But if you wan... ...year later in South Court talking about Reach Higher and Better Make Room. And I tell thi... ...spoken at Better Make Room events and Reach Higher events and just been this incredibl... ...final event—during anything we did with Reach Higher and with Better Make Room—hav... ...the impact of Mrs. Obama, the impact of Reach Higher . And I'm happy to talk to you abou... ...So again, while we were out there with Reach Higher and the administration, we would hav... ...something more positive? And today, Reach Higher , after we left the administration... ...when you think about the success of Reach Higher or Let's Move! or Joining Forces or Le... ...like Wale or others to work on Reach Higher and Better Make Room. I mean, the da... ...Let's Move! and Joining Forces, then Reach Higher , and then Let Girls Learn. You see ho... .... We can talk a lot about the things Reach Higher did and accomplished. But I do think... ...There are people in college access and Reach Higher , but what's more important to peopl... ...I talked about, he wouldn't say, “Well, Reach Higher has four quadrants and cares abou... ...powerful. And I do think the idea that Reach Higher is able to exist today is a credit t... ...recently, but we hired someone on the Reach Higher team last summer. She'd also been a... ...summer. She'd also been an intern for Reach Higher , helping do texting, and she was ... ...reason I still feel passionate about Reach Higher is because we want everyone to hav... ...would say, “Eric, doing the work of Reach Higher .” She said it was like yoga for her... ...Better Make Room. We could bring Reach Higher over. And Mrs. Obama was willing to b... ...and doing something positive. And Reach Higher and Mrs. Obama gave them a mechanism t... ...were doing. We made them OTRs for Reach Higher . But basically what would happen is... ...Owens, who was the deputy director for Reach Higher —she and I would call th... ...of the book tour events that we did— Reach Higher , still in the post-administration... ...purposes of ideating about what became Reach Higher right after the reelection. So it wa... ...Pell [Grants] . In some ways, I view Reach Higher and the work Mrs. Obama was doing a... ...millions of students. Then we would use Reach Higher and Mrs. Obama's platform essentiall... ...I would argue that in some ways, Reach Higher was a lot of the work that w... ...also frame it all as a larger part of Reach Higher that was using Mrs. Obama as a way t... ...her work on initiatives like Reach Higher , Joining Forces, Let's Move!, Le... Show more... Debra Eschmeyer ...had Let Girls Learn and she had her Reach Higher initiative, and so she really took o... Jocelyn Frye ...it was the later work that was done on Reach Higher and some of the other programs. Really... Joanna Rosholm ...don't know that Hannah was there when Reach Higher came along. I think that came alon... ...majority of our time there, Lauren had Reach Higher and Joining Forces. I almost neve... ...Forces. I'd help out a little bit with Reach Higher . Although, I remember once helpin... ...some Joining Forces stuff. So she did Reach Higher and Joining Forces. For a while, I di... ...a natural extension of two things. One, Reach Higher ; another was—I'm sorr... ...the first lady—of two things. One was Reach Higher , which was a domestic initiative, ... ...would be sort of a natural extension of Reach Higher , in some ways. I'll never forget th... ...she really wanted—the similar way to Reach Higher , pull back the curtain, like, see th... Show more... Lauren Vrazilek ...Joining Forces. Do we need that for Reach Higher , our going-to-college initiative? No... ...and Let Girls Learn. And then I did Reach Higher , Joining Forces, and everything tha... ...that I worked closely on, especially Reach Higher being one of them, if you're trying t... ...Forces had tremendous impact. I think Reach Higher had some really incredible things. ... Load more Transcripts Related Topics go to the Transition Transition go to the Elections and Campaigns Elections and Campaigns go to the Arts and Humanities Arts and Humanities go to the Immigration Immigration go to the Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa