Two years after 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton was fatally shot on Chicago’s South Side, First Lady Michelle Obama spoke to Hadiya’s classmates at King College Preparatory High School’s 2015 graduation ceremony.

“We don’t really get recognized — black kids from Chicago don’t get recognized for doing great things a lot — but she wanted us to know that people do see us,” said Sunankhem Kheperu, one of the graduates in the audience.

Kheperu attends Spelman College and said she plans to come back to Chicago and raise awareness of mental health issues in the black community. 

Click the play button above to listen to the story.