Tonight, Michelle Obama will take center stage at the Democratic National Convention, headlining opening night festivities at the Pepsi Center in Denver.  Sure, she’s the wife of the presumptive Presidential nominee… but in addition to being the mother of two young daughters, Mrs. Obama is also the proud founding Executive Director of Public Allies Chicago, an AmeriCorps program that supports talented young adults from diverse and under-represented backgrounds turn their passion into viable career paths.      

By no means was it her plan all along.  It all started in 1993, when the idea of a youth corps devoted to working in the non-profit world captured her imagination. 

As a Harvard Law School graduate, Ms. Obama said, she had struggled to get off a path that was leading her toward becoming a partner at a corporate-law firm.

“I figured if I didn’t know about it, what about all the other young people in the world who would be fabulous program directors at nonprofits, or who would go into foundations, or be great working with kids in a youth program, but they don’t even know those jobs exist?” she said.

TIME reports this morning:

As Obama gradually moved further away from grassroots organizing and into business and politics, Michelle seemed to fill the vacuum. After 18 months, she left the Mayor’s office to head up the Chicago office of a new charity that was forming: Public Allies, which helps place young people at non-profits.

“Everyone had said at the time that the best young organizer in Chicago was Barack,” says Paul Schmitz, CEO of Public Allies. The group invited Obama to join their board. But when they started to look for someone to head up the Chicago office, Obama recommended his fiancee and resigned when the non-profit began to court her in earnest. “At a time when the average age of our staff was 23, she was like drafting Brett Favre for the Packers,” Schmitz says. “Michelle was 29 when we hired her. She had a law degree from Harvard, had worked for the mayor, for a corporate law firm. Comparatively, I’d worked a telemarketing group. Frankly we were surprised that she wanted to do it.”

Public Allies’ best practices in recruitment, developed in Chicago by Mrs. Obama, are still used by the organization today:  

(Mr.) Schmitz… - who worked with Ms. Obama after he started a Public Allies program in Milwaukee in 1994 — recalled that she looked for leaders in unconventional places, like in the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

“In her first class, she had a Harvard graduate, she had a Northwestern [University] graduate,” he said. “But she also had people who’d been incarcerated, she had women on welfare, people who’d been homeless, who’d been in gangs.”

Public Allies still holds that people from all backgrounds can show leadership, even without traditional credentials, Mr. Schmitz said. “A white college student from a private college goes into a poor neighborhood and volunteers four hours a week, and that’s considered exemplary,” he said. “A poor kid who lives in that community and takes care of all the kids in that neighborhood four hours every day is not seen as a volunteer.” 

She loved it.  And Senator Obama, who had served on Public Allies Chicago’s founding board before leaving when the organization began recruiting his wife for their top post, learned to love it as well.  

“Of all the jobs I’ve had, if I were to do anything again at the drop of a heartbeat it would be to work on this kind of program. I was really passionate and engaged; this was like a family, there was drama, everyone knew everyone.”

…

Throughout his political career, she added, Mr. Obama has been impressed by graduates of Public Allies and other AmeriCorps programs. “They’re the ones who are most likely to run for office, to work on a campaign, to lead an organization or run a foundation,” she said. “What he knows is that you can harness this energy in a phenomenal way.”

Public Allies reports that when she left, their Chicago program “had a cash reserve, a committed board, a talented young staff, and a network of diverse, talented young leaders in Chicago who continue to serve the community today.”  With recent attacks on Mrs. Obama’s patriotism, her Public Allies alumni have a thing or two to say about that. 

Jose Rico, the founding principal of the Multicultural Arts High School in Chicago, and a Public Allies fellow under Obama more than a decade ago, is particularly surprised at those who question her patriotism. He notes that at Public Allies, Obama was the one who helped him become less disillusioned with America and showed him the value of taking part in the political process.

Originally an undocumented immigrant who had just received his legal residency, Mr. Rico felt alienated and was set on not becoming a US citizen.

“She was the one who really challenged me to think about that, in terms of the change I wanted to make, and how that would translate not just to my community, but on a broader scale,” remembers Rico, who went on to earn his citizenship and to achieve his dream of starting a high school, in which Obama also encouraged and challenged him.

Rico and others say that although Obama is an exacting boss with high expectations – and is a fairly strict taskmaster at home as well, where her children and husband all know the chores they’re expected to do – she is also warm and cares about the personal lives of friends and colleagues.

After leaving Public Allies in 1996, she remained involved as an advisor, coach, donor, and champion of the program – even serving on its national board of directors from 1997 to 2001.  She also hired over a dozen participants from Public Allies Chicago and alumni as she moved on to jobs at the University of Chicago and the University of Chicago Medical Center.

And how has Public Allies made an impact on her husband and his political priorities?  Well, in addition to his comprehensive national service plan (which we’ll profile at length here as part of ServeNext’s Unconventional Convention Coverage in advance of his acceptance speech at Invesco Stadium on Thursday) Senator Obama helped Senator Dick Durbin secure an earmark from the Department of Justice to better recruit and retain young men of color for Public Allies Chicago.

As for her priorities as First Lady, if her husband is elected on November 4th? 

I’d also continue to advocate for national service. I started my career as a lawyer, but eventually I realized that my heart just wasn’t in it. I really wanted to do something that would directly improve people’s lives. So I became the founding executive director of an organization called Public Allies, an AmeriCorps program that prepares young people for careers in public service.

Later, I developed the first community service program at the University of Chicago. As First Lady, I would build on those experiences, and work to elevate national service, especially among young people.

Spread the word.  Mrs. Michelle Obama – wife, mother, and national service champion.