Surprise meeting with Michelle

Arianna Moonsamy, left, with Michelle Obama and a |fellow pupil.

Arianna Moonsamy, left, with Michelle Obama and a |fellow pupil.

Published Nov 12, 2015

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RUMANA AKOOB

A TEENAGE girl originally from Silverglen, Chatsworth, recently met Michelle Obama during the US first lady’s official visit to Qatar.

Arianna Moonsamy, a Standard 7 (Grade 9) pupil at Doha British School, was one of the few lucky girls to have met Obama during a surprise visit.

Photographs of the two were seen around the world when Obama posted a picture of them on her personal Instagram account.

Obama was on a seven-day tour of the Middle East.

While speaking at a conference on education titled the World Innovation Summit for Education(WISE) at the Qatar National Conference Centre last Wednesday, Moonsamy and fellow pupils had been attending a workshop at the same venue.

The workshop facilitators had tasked the pupils to make a keyboard out of aluminium and play dough.

While doing this, and unbeknown to Moonsamy, Obama, who had completed her speech at the conference, had walked into the room the girls were in.

The shy 13-year-old had only realised the first lady was in the room when someone placed their hand on her shoulder.

When she looked up, she was surprised to see who it was. Moonsamy said Obama walked around the room to meet and greet each pupil.

“When she came up to me, I introduced myself and we chatted about education and she told us to make it our priority and become independent women,” said Moonsamy.

“I was excited and honoured to be in her presence and to talk to her.”

She said she felt inspired by the visit because Obama was highly educated and motivated her, and the others, to aspire for more.

The teenager relocated to Doha with her mother, Desigee, and 7-year-old brother, Aaron, when her father, Rodney, got a job as a flight paramedic in 2009.

She said they visited South Africa for two months in the year. Moonsamy would like to study chemical engineering and is working hard to secure a spot at a university in New Zealand as she has family in the country.

Desigee, a teaching aide at her daughter’s school, said: “Arianna is a bright pupil, who is self driven and passionate about maths and science.”

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