WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama’s daughter Malia will take a year off after graduating high school in June before attending Harvard University in 2017, the president and his wife said Sunday in a long-awaited announcement.
Malia, the eldest of the Obamas’ two daughters, is a 17-year-old senior at Sidwell Friends, an exclusive private school in the District of Columbia that helped educate another first daughter, Chelsea Clinton, in the 1990s. Malia’s younger sister, Sasha, 14, is a freshman at Sidwell. Malia is set to graduate high school in June. She turns 18 on the July 4.
Obama has spoken publicly about dreading the day when Malia leaves for college, and the decision for Malia to take a gap year could keep her closer to home as her family prepares for another major transition next year, leaving the White House and returning to normal life. Obama plans to live in Washington for a few more years so Sasha can finish high school. The president and his wife, Michelle, still own a home in Chicago.
The first lady has said Malia wants to be a filmmaker. Malia spent last summer in New York City interning on the set of HBO’s “Girls,” starring Lena Dunham. She spent the summer of 2014 in California working as a production assistant on “Extant,” a now-canceled CBS sci-fi drama that starred Halle Berry. Malia has also had internships at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington.
The president turned down an invitation to speak at Malia’s Sidwell graduation, saying he would be too emotional.
“I’m going to be sitting there with dark glass, sobbing,” he told Ellen DeGeneres during an appearance on her talk show.
