Sometimes it can be hard to walk away from a career that you truly love, but eventually, everyone needs to decide when the time is right to retire. For First Lady Jill Biden, that time is now.
Biden has been a teacher for 40 years, but she is officially putting her teaching career behind her. She made this announcement this past week after teaching her very last class which was at Northern Virginia Community College.
Yahoo! reports that she made the announcement during a virtual event where teachers from around the country watched. She explained, “Being your first lady has been the honor of my life. But being your colleague has been the work of my life.” She continued, “Last Thursday, I taught my last class of the semester and my final class ever at Northern Virginia Community College.”
The First Lady added, “I will always love this profession, which is why I continued to teach full time while serving as your first lady.”
If you think it sounds unusual for a First Lady to work outside of the White House, you’d be correct. In fact, Biden is the first and only First Lady to have an outside job while her husband was President.
Biden has taught at Northern Virginia Community College for 15 years, and she choose not to give up that job when her husband was elected President. Now that they will be leaving the White House in the coming weeks, Biden is putting the both the White House and teaching behind her.
Northern Virginia Community College President Anne Kress spoke highly of Biden in a statement. Kress described the First Lady as “an exceptional faculty member.” She added, “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.”
The statement continues, “She has been a remarkable, unequaled champion for America’s community colleges, and we know that her advocacy will continue.”
Biden began her career teaching high school English inWilmington, Delaware, back in 1976. After several other teaching positions, she began teaching English and writing at Northern Virginia Community College in 2009 when her husband, Joe Biden, began Vice President alongside President Barak Obama. The couple moved from Delaware to Washington D.C. while her husband was Vice President, but even after that time in office ended, she continued to teach at Northern Virginia Community College, commuting via train from Delaware.
Watch the video below to Biden explain why she loves teaching.
Does it surprise you that Biden is stepping away from her teaching position at Northern Virginia Community College? Do you think she will end up taking another teaching position at a different school, or do you think she is officially retiring?
