“Keep going. Keep giving. Keep engaging.”

First Lady Michelle Obama stands on stage during the George Washington University commencement ceremony on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

In the fall, the First Lady issued a challenge to George Washington University students, faculty, staff and trustees to perform 100,000 hours of community service, promising she’d speak at their graduation if they rose to it. They did and, as a woman of her word, Mrs. Obama delivered the commencement address to the Class of 2010 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

From digging neighbors out after “Snowmageddon” to restoring a local high school to running a clinic for those in need of medical aid to a host of global service projects – Mrs. Obama was impressed by what the George Washington University community did, but more, so how they did it. She asked that the graduates take on one more challenge:

So today, graduates, I have one more request to make of you, one more challenge, and that is: Keep going. Keep giving. Keep engaging.

I’m asking you to take what you’ve learned here and embrace the full responsibilities that a degree from an institution like GW gives you. I’m asking your generation to be America’s face to the world. It will make the world safer, it will make America stronger, and it will make you more competitive.

First Lady Michelle Obama greets GWU graduate Zoe Petkanas, who won the school’s student speaker competition, prior to giving the George Washington University commencement address on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

The First Lady continued, encouraging global engagement through the story of a young woman that she met during her visit to Mexico last month who traveled to Vietnam to volunteer with children on a whim:

She described her days there as very “unfair” and “difficult.” She said there were days there “that [made] us feel meaningless