Ah to have been a fly on the wall…

The Washington Post reports:

At the White House, First Lady hosts college students with difficult paths

For many high school students, just applying to college can be a challenge. But for some, test scores and grade-point averages aren’t the biggest things standing between them and a college acceptance letter.

For a group of more than 130 students meeting at the White House this week, access to higher education was a road filled with major hurdles: Financial worries at home, a lack of resources, physical challenges. First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Beating the Odds” summit aims to bring college-bound students from all walks of life together so they can focus on expanding educational resources for students like them.

The summit features panels and workshops through Thursday, and rapper Wale is scheduled to perform Thursday afternoon.

Michelle Obama has been encouraging students across the country to seek a college education through her “Reach Higher” initiative. The summit features students who have shown great potential but also faced great challenges to make their college dreams a reality.

Through middle school and his time as an International Baccalaureate student at Central Florida’s Bartow High School, Erick Meza worked weekends in the Florida and North Carolina fields with his parents. His family, immigrants from Mexico, needed Meza’s help as they tried to make enough money to get by.