Below are excerpts from First Lady Michelle Obama's speech at the Florida Campus Compact Awards hosted Thursday by Miami Dade College at the Freedom Tower:

In the next four years, as many as one third of America's 3.2 million teachers could retire. By 2014, our nation's schools will need to hire as many as 1 million new teachers. So today, more than ever, we really need skilled, committed, service-minded young people to step forward and to help us meet these challenges. Applications are way up for AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps, and last year, 25,000 young people applied for just 4,000 slots in Teach for America.

All of you are helping to redefine the role of universities in our communities, replacing the old image of the remote ivory tower with a caring and engaged partner. It's simple, but maybe revolutionary: that universities have an obligation to be good citizens, and that students' education is about more than just what their school and community can give to them; it's also about what they can give back.

Even if your students don't ultimately pursue a career in public service, what's important is that they graduate with a public service orientation -- an understanding of the problems in our communities; an awareness of the skills they have to offer; and a sense of the difference they can make when they commit their time and their effort.

They become, in a sense, volunteers for life. And we need these insights and this experience just as much -- if not more -- in the private sector as we do in the public sector. You all know we need business leaders motivated by both the pursuit of profit and the pursuit of the public good. ...

If we want to boost student achievement in our schools, we are going to need businesswomen and men, and lawyers, and scientists and others willing to serve as partners and mentors. ... No matter where you come from, or what you do for a living, you can make a difference in someone's life.