Chelsea Clinton

Chelsea Clinton
Chelsea Clinton speaking during a campaign stop for her mother in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 2008.
Born	Chelsea Victoria Clinton February 27, 1980 (1980-02-27) (age 29) Little Rock, Arkansas, United States
Alma mater	-Bachelor of Arts in history, Stanford University -Master of Philosophy in international relations, University College, Oxford
Political party	Democratic
Religious beliefs	United Methodist[1]
Parents	William Jefferson Clinton and Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton

Chelsea Victoria Clinton (born February 27, 1980) is the daughter and only child of Bill Clinton, the 42nd U.S. President, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Early years

Clinton was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. Her name was inspired by her parents' fondness for Judy Collins's 1969 recording of the Joni Mitchell song "Chelsea Morning".^[2]

Clinton excelled in academics. A family friend described her as a precocious child.^[3] While in elementary school, Clinton skipped the third grade.^[4] Her parents encouraged her academic excellence, with her father keeping a miniature desk for his daughter in the governor's office when he was Governor of Arkansas.

In Little Rock, Clinton attended Forest Park Elementary School, Booker Arts and Science Magnet Elementary School and Horace Mann Junior High School.^[5]

Throughout her childhood, Clinton enjoyed volleyball, cards, ping pong and movies.^[4] She became a vegetarian.^[6]

Teenager at the White House

White House portrait of the Clinton family, unknown date.

Clinton moved into the White House on the day of her father's first inauguration on January 20, 1993, when she was twelve years old. Her Secret Service codename was Energy.^[7]

In Washington, D.C., she attended Sidwell Friends School. She was a National Merit Scholarship finalist in 1997. Having taken dance classes since she was four years old, Clinton began taking ballet courses at the Washington School of Ballet in 1993. She played the role of the Favorite Aunt and the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Washington Ballet's 1996 production of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. Additionally, she was a chairperson on the board for the School of American Ballet.^{[clarification needed]} Clinton is also a veteran of the Model United Nations.^[8]

On February 5, 1999, just before the U.S. Senate vote on her father's impeachment, People ran a cover story on her which irked the First Family, as well as the Secret Service.^[9]

She assumed some of her mother's White House hostess responsibilities when her mother was campaigning for the U.S. Senate in 2000,^[10] continuing until the end of her father's presidency on January 20, 2001.

Life after the Clinton presidency

Chelsea with her parents in her father's 1997 inaugural parade, January 20, 1997.

Seeing her mother, Hillary Clinton, sworn in as U.S. Senator, January 3, 2001.

At Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, where Clinton did her undergraduate studies, she had declared a major in chemistry with an interest in medicine before switching to history after two years.^[11] The film Chasing Liberty (2004) was said to be inspired by a photograph of Clinton at a Stanford basketball game, trying to blend in with other students.^[12] In 2001, she graduated from Stanford; her undergraduate thesis topic was the 1998 Belfast Agreement in Northern Ireland.^[13]

She went on to earn a master's degree in international relations at University College at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom.^{[11][not in citation given]}

In 2003, Clinton joined the consulting firm McKinsey & Company in New York City, New York; she was the youngest person hired in her class.^[11][14] In the fall of 2006, she left McKinsey and went to work for Avenue Capital Group, a hedge fund run by Marc Lasry, a donor to Democratic causes and supporter of the Clintons. She serves on the board of the School of American Ballet and has also served as co-chairperson of a fund-raising week and for her father’s Clinton Foundation.^[11]

Chelsea Clinton speaking to students on behalf of her mother's campaign at the University of Missouri, January 2008.

In 2005,^{[clarification needed]} Clinton took up residence in New York City in the Gramercy neighborhood on Manhattan's East Side. During the November 2006 mid-term election, in which her mother was running for re-election to the Senate, attention was drawn to her residence when it was discovered that an error at her 20th Street polling station had resulted in her name not being in the voting book. Clinton was allowed to vote via a paper ballot.^[15]

Wikinews has related news: Chelsea Clinton engaged to banker Marc Mezvinsky

In November 2009, Clinton announced her engagement to investment banker Marc Mezvinsky,^[16] son of former Iowa congressman Edward Mezvinsky and former Pennsylvania congresswoman Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, and nephew of Norton Mezvinsky.^[17] A summer 2010 wedding is planned.^[18]

At December 2009, Clinton is studying health policy and management at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.^[19]

Campaigning for her mother

Chelsea Clinton speaking during a campaign stop at California Polytechnic State University for her mother, February 2008.

Clinton speaks during the second night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, introducing her mother, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, August 2008.

Until her mother began her presidential campaign, Clinton had never publicly commented about any of her parents' policies or public statements. But she did begin to rally support for her mother and speak publicly on her behalf. In May 2006, her mother publicly apologized to Clinton for critical remarks she made about young people's work ethic, after Clinton privately took exception to her mother's comments.^[20]

In December 2007, Clinton began to campaign for her mother's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in Iowa before the January caucuses, greeting potential voters in Des Moines, Iowa.^[21] After that, she campaigned for her mother extensively across the country, largely on college campuses.^[22][23][24] By early April 2008, she had spoken at 100 college campuses on behalf of her mother's candidacy.^[25] During the campaign, Philippe Reines, her mother's press secretary, often shadowed Clinton during her public appearances, attempting to deflect "...hangers-on, swooning frat boys and, mostly, looming trouble in the form of microphones, cameras and notepads".^[26]

Clinton's blanket refusal to speak to any media members has been noted. In December 2007, she refused to answer a question from a nine-year-old "kid reporter" named Sydney Rieckhoff from Scholastic News who asked whether she thought her father would be a good "first man".^[27][28] Chelsea replied, “I’m sorry, I don’t talk to the press, and that applies to you, unfortunately — even though I think you’re cute.”^[27][28] Controversy arose when MSNBC’s David Shuster said that Clinton was being "pimped out" by her parents for the campaign. Shuster was later suspended for his remarks.^[26] Clinton introduced her mother on August 26 at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Chelsea Clinton

• Chelsea Clinton at the Internet Movie Database
• Chelsea Clinton News and Blogs

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