- First lady Jill Biden announces she will no longer teach at Northern Virginia Community College.
- In 2021, the veteran educator became the first presidential spouse to have an independent career outside the White House.
- The first lady honors America’s educators for inspiring and uplifting their students.
President Joe Biden isn’t the only White House resident making “job status” updates for his LinkedIn profiles.
First lady Jill Biden has quit her job.
At a recent thank you event for educators across the country, Biden announced she is stepping away from the university teaching position she has held for the past fifteen years.
“Being your first lady has been the honor of my life, but being your colleague has been the work of my life,” Biden said during the Dec. 16 virtual meeting.
“Last Thursday I taught my last class of the semester, and my last class ever, at Northern Virginia Community College. I will always love this profession, which is why I will continue to teach full-time while serving as your first lady.”
It is uncertain whether the 73-year-old Biden will retire from teaching altogether – or simply resign from the NVCC around the same time her husband concludes his presidential term. according to the Associated Press.
In a statement on her LinkedIn page, North Virginia CC President Anne Kress called Biden “an exceptional faculty member” who is “respected and loved” by students and colleagues:
“Dr. Biden – always a teacher at heart – has made the success of our students her priority. As she retires after an exemplary career, she leaves a lasting legacy in the lives of the students she taught, mentored and inspired over the years.”
Kress also called Biden an “unparalleled champion for America’s community colleges.”
NVCC is a public community college with an enrollment of more than 50,000 students.
A first lady on the faculty
Jill Biden’s fifteen years at North Virginia Community College, where she taught English and writing, were historic.
After her husband became the nation’s 46th president in 2021, Jill Biden continued to teach at the community college, becoming the first presidential spouse to have an independent career outside the White House.
Biden’s teaching career dates back nearly half a century.
After earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of Delaware, she began teaching English at Wilmington’s St. Mark’s High School in 1976.
She married Joe Biden a year later and the two had a daughter, Ashley, in 1981.
Jill Biden later taught English at the Rockford Center psychiatric hospital while pursuing graduate studies. In 1993, she made the professional transition to higher education and accepted a teaching position at Delaware Technical Community College.
After earning a doctorate in education, Jill Biden began teaching at North Virginia Community College in 2009 after her husband became Barack Obama’s vice president and lived full-time in Washington, DC.
She’s said it many times“Teaching isn’t just what I do – it’s who I am.”
Jill Biden received an annual salary of $85,985 as a professor in Northern Virginia. according to De Heuvel.
How was Professor Biden regarded by her students?
According to comments on the website ‘Rate My Professor’, which invites students to post reviews of their instructors, Biden received a score of 4.4 out of a possible 5 – rated a “5″ as “great” and a “1″ as “terrible”.
Common tags on the ratings website classified Biden as “respected” and “inspirational” — plus he was a tough judge who assigned a lot of homework.
“There is a lot of writing to be done, but if you complete the work assignments, you will get a good grade,” wrote one of her students. “She doesn’t expect students to know, she will teach the class everything. Take her; you won’t regret it!”
Another North Virginia Community College student posted: “Dr. Jill Biden is the best. Literal.
‘I hated English more than anything, but she made me love it. I’m not going to lie, she gives a lot of homework, makes you work for a good grade, but it is 101% worth it.
“I loved her and would take her classes again and again.”
Professor Biden: Respected – But a “Tough Class”
No surprise: not every student was a fan of Professor Biden.
“Not motivating at all,” one student posted in 2020. “I know there are teachers who teach the class much more interestingly than her section. Let me tell you: avoid her!
Shout-out to America’s teachers
Jill Biden used the Dec. 16 virtual “thank you for teachers” event to salute teachers who are changing lives.
“Every day you see something in your students – a spark of passion, a spark of talent – and you say, ‘Don’t let the world miss your light.’”
Every student, she added, can be a “ray of sunshine” to a teacher’s legacy.
“We don’t always see how far that light travels,” she said. “But right now, someone stands there a little taller because you helped them find the confidence they needed.
“Someone works a little harder because you pushed them to try.”
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, who participated in the virtual event, said Jill Biden left an educational legacy “that will not end when you leave people’s homes.
“You keep working because I know, I will be in touch, for example.”
Leave a Reply