【正文】 even went on food stamps at one point to help us get she didn’t she earned her degree, and made sure that through scholarships and hard work, my sister and I earned used to wake me up when we were living overseaswake me up before dawn to study my English when I’d plain, she’d just look at me and say, “This is no piic for me either, buster.”(Laughter.)And my mom ended up dedicating herself to helping women around the world access the money they needed to start their own businessesshe was an early pioneer in that meant, though, that she was gone a lot, and she had her。d been doing this for two years even before I had had nothing to show for I’ll be honest, I felt pretty discouraged as didn39。s it。we went to churches。s Michelle’s advice.(Applause.)And never forget that the most important example a young girl will ever follow is that of a and Sasha are going to be outstanding women because Michelle and Marian Robinson are outstanding understand your power, and use it last piece of advicethis is simple, but perhaps most important: worthwhile is one of achievement has avoided failuresometimes catastrophic they keep at learn from don’t know, when I first arrived on this campus, it was with little money, fewer it was here that I tried to find my place in this knew I wanted to make a difference, but it was vague how in fact I’d go about it.(Laughter.)But I wanted to do my part to do my part to shape a better even as I worked after graduation in a few unfulfilling jobs here in New YorkI will not list them all(laughter)even as I went from motley apartment to motley apartment, I reached started to write letters to munity organizations all across the one day, a small group of churches on the South Side of Chicago answered, offering me work with people in neighborhoods hit hard by steel mills that were shutting down and munities where jobs were dying munity had been plagued by gang violence, so once I arrived, one of the first things we tried to do was to mobilize a meeting with munity leaders to deal with I’d worked for weeks on this invited the police。s American history, though, they have lost that bet, and I believe they will this time as well.(Applause.)But ultimately, Class of 2012, that will depend on ’t wait for the person next to you to be the first to speak up for what’s maybe, just maybe, they’re waiting on brings me to my second piece of advice: Never underestimate the power of your very fact that you are graduating, let alone that more women now graduate from college than men, is only possible because earlier generations of womenyour mothers, your grandmothers, your auntsshattered the myth that you couldn’t or shouldn’t be where you are.(Applause.)I think of a friend of mine who’s the daughter of she was in high school, her guidance counselor told her, you know what, you’re just not college should think about being a , she was stubborn, so she went to college got her master’ ran for local office, ran for state office, she ran for Congress, she lo and behold, Hilda Solis did end up being a secretary(laughter)she is America’s Secretary of Labor.(Applause.)So think about what that means to a young Latina girl when she sees a Cabinet secretary that looks like her.(Applause.)Think about what it means to a young girl in Iowa when she sees a presidential candidate who looks like about what it means to a young girl walking in Harlem right down the street when she sees a who looks like not underestimate the power of your diploma opens up new possibilities, so reach back, convince a young girl to earn one, you earned your degree in areas where we need more womenlike puter science or engineering(applause)reach back and persuade another student to study it, you39。s almost made this document special was that it provided the spacethe possibilityfor those who had been left out of our charter to fight their way provided people the language to appeal to principles and ideals that broadened democracy’s allowed for protest, and movements, and the dissemination of new ideas that would repeatedly, decade after decade, change the worlda constant forward movement that continues to this founders understood that America does not stand still。you’re half its workforce.(Applause.)More and more women are outearning their ’re more than half of our college graduates, and master’s graduates, and PhDs.(Applause.)So you’ve got us outnumbered.(Laughter.)After decades of slow, steady, extraordinary progress, you are now poised to make this the century where women shape not only their own destiny but the destiny of this nation and of this how far your leadership takes this country, how far it takes this worldwell, that will be up to ’ve got to want will not be handed to as someone who wants that futurethat better futurefor you, and for Malia and Sasha, as somebody who’s had the good fortune of being the husband and the father and the son of some strong, remarkable women, allow me to offer just a few pieces of 39。if we developed more clean energy so we could use less foreign oil and reduce the carbon pollution that’s threatening our planet.(Applause.)We know that we’re better off when there are rules that stop big banks from making bad bets with other people’s money and(applause)when insurance panies aren’t allowed to drop your coverage when you need it most or charge women differently from men.(Applause.)Indeed, we know we are better off when women are treated fairly and equally in every aspect of American lifewhether it’s the salary you earn or the health decisions you make.(Applause.)We know these things to be know that our challenges are eminently question is whether together, we can muster the willin our own lives, in our mon institutions, in our politicsto bring about the changes we I’m convinced your generation possesses that I believe that the women of this generationthat all of you will help lead the way.(App