A Promise of College for All
A Day with the Former Second Lady!
Last week in Breckenridge, CO at the annual summer Colorado Association of School Executives convention (CASE), I was honored to meet and learn from Dr. Jill Biden, wife of former Vice President Joe Biden. Dr. Biden is a community college professor and an advocate for public schools and community colleges in the US. In addition to meeting Dr. Biden, I was able to participate in professional development, attend inspiring sessions, and to engage in some "best practice sharing" with colleagues. Attending with me were my friends and co-workers from Mortensen, Linda Ciccarelli (Assistant Principal), and Brandi Stott (Instructional Coach/Fourth Grade Teacher).
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| Linda Ciccarelli, Karla Hankins, and Brandi Stott at the CASE Conference in Breckenridge, CO July 2017 |
Professor Jill Biden is the wife of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. She used her position as America's second lady to advocate for military families and community college outreach.
Here is a quote from Dr. Biden:
“When we were elected I said to Joe, ‘You know, I have to continue teaching,’ and he said, ‘Of course.'”
—Jill Biden
Here is a bit of bio on Dr. Biden from Wikipedia:
Jill Biden, born on June 5, 1951, spent most of her childhood in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. Having always enjoyed English classes in high school, Biden eventually earned two master's degrees in the subject and then a doctorate in education from the University of Delaware. Biden has taught at community colleges throughout most of her career and later developed related college programs with backing from the White House. As the wife of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, she was America's second lady and helped raise awareness about supporting military families, education and women's issues.
In 1977, two years after they met, the Bidens were married. Biden helped her husband raise his two sons from a previous marriage, and they had a daughter of their own in 1981. Within two years, Biden was "itching" for more, according to an article in Vogue magazine, and decided to return to school.
While working in a psychiatric hospital—where she taught English to adolescents with emotional disabilities for five years—Biden earned two master's degrees, from Villanova University and West Chester University. She went on to teach for three years at Claymont High School, and then at Delaware Technical and Community College. Biden also earned her doctorate in education from the University of Delaware in January 2007.
Professor and U.S. Second Lady
Biden has been a professor of English at Northern Virginia Community College since 2009, the same year that her husband was sworn in as vice president of the United States after the 2008 presidential win of Barack Obama. In 2010, she hosted the first-ever White House Summit on Community Colleges with President Obama and continued to work on related outreach for the administration as later seen with the 2012 Community College to Career bus tour.
Advocate for Military Families and Women's Rights
With one of her stepsons in the military, Biden became involved with the nonprofit organization Delaware Boots on the Ground, which helps families during times of military deployment. Biden and First Lady Michelle Obama also launched Joining Forces, an initiative which has provided educational and employment resources as well as health/wellness services to military personnel and their families. She also wrote a children's book, Don't Forget, God Bless Our Troops (2012), based on her granddaughter's story of a military family's experience with deployment. Additionally, Biden co-founded the Book Buddies program.
On November 6, 2012, Joe Biden was reelected to a second term as vice president. After President Obama's acceptance speech, Jill Biden appeared with her husband, their family and the Obama family onstage at the McCormick Place in Chicago to celebrate the reelection. She continued to serve as America's second lady until January 2017. Jill Biden has maintained her work as an advocate for military families and has also traveled abroad, having focused on the rights and welfare of girls and women in Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone. She has focused on women's educational opportunities in a tour of Asia as well that took her to Japan, Korea and Vietnam and later served as a U.S. representative to announce food aid to Malawi.
The Biden family faced tragedy when Joe's son Beau passed away from brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46. (source - Wikipedia)
Dr. Jill Biden is passionate about the College Promise movement — an effort encouraging states and localities to cover community college tuition and fees so students can earn a college degree without taking on a mountain of student debt. That movement is picking up steam all over the country, but especially in California, which now has more than thirty programs underway.
These programs are creating educational pathways to good jobs and a decent quality of life without a mountain of student debt. There is undeniable momentum for the College Promise movement.
Here is a photo of Dr. Biden and a CASE Board Member at the Q&A Session:
Click here for a short video of Dr. Biden's speech at the CASE Conference:
After I returned home from the CASE Conference I did some more thinking about the opportunity that I had to meet Dr. Biden and to learn about her initiatives in promoting the benefits of community colleges. Both of my daughters and my niece have benefited and received credits from community colleges. It is certainly a great option for young people today. Please consider these benefits from an article in US News and World Report:
Next Blog topic will be: The Beginning of a New School Year!
Enjoy your last few days of summer!
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