Before she steps down from her position as the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama gave a speech promoting racial and religious diversity during the 2017 School Counselor of the Year event held last Friday at the East Room of the White House.

"Our glorious diversity —  our diversities of faiths, and colours, and creeds —  that is not a threat to who we are; it makes us who we are," Michelle said, according to the Gospel Herald.

The First Lady was quite emotional during her speech as she urged the youth of today to always prioritise their education. During her eight years in the White House, Michelle said one of her treasured causes was empowerment through education.

When she was just a young girl growing up on the South Side of Chicago, she recalled how her father worked hard just to see her and her siblings go to school. In fact, Michelle said they were the first generation from their family to ever attend college.

"The hope of folks like my dad, who got up every day to do his job at the city water plant, the hope that one day his kids would go to college and have opportunities he never dreamed of," Michelle said. "That's the kind of hope that every single one of us — politicians, parents, preachers, all of us — need to be providing for our young people, because that is what moves this country forward every single day."

With a good education under their belts, the youth of today can accomplish great things, Michelle said. "So to the young people here and the young people out there: Do not ever let anybody make you feel like you don't matter, or like you don't have a place in our American story because you do, and you have a right to be exactly who you are," she said.

Michelle added that being the First Lady of the United States has been the greatest honour of her life. "I hope I've made you proud," she said.