WASHINGTON (AP) — Jill Biden has closed the book on her teaching career at a Virginia community college.
The first lady, who has taught in classrooms for the past 40 years, announced Monday that she taught her graduating class last week at Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria. The surprise announcement came during a virtual “thank you” event with teachers tuning in from across the country.
“It has been the honor of my life to be your First Lady. But being your colleague has been the work of my life,” she said. “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 job, which is why I continued to teach full time while I was your first lady,” said Jill Biden, joined on a sofa by teachers union leaders Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers and Becky Pringle of the National Education Association.
Biden taught English and writing at NOVA for 15 years. She is the first woman to continue her professional career outside the White House as First Lady.
The announcement comes as she and President Joe Biden prepare to leave the White House in just over five weeks after the Democrat abandoned his re-election bid following a needy debate performance against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump over the summer.
Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris succeeded Biden but lost the presidential race to Trump, who is scheduled to run for a second term on January 20.
It was not immediately clear whether Jill Biden, 73, would withdraw from teaching entirely. Aides had no immediate comment. Northern Virginia Community College also had no immediate comment.
Jill Biden began teaching and writing English there in 2009, after Barack Obama and Joe Biden were elected president and vice president and they moved to Washington. She continued teaching there after Joe Biden’s term ended in 2017, taking the train down from her home in Delaware.
Prior to NOVA, she also taught English and writing at Delaware Technical Community College.
Jill Biden began her career in 1976 as a high school English teacher in Wilmington, Delaware, before becoming a reading specialist at another high school. During her second master’s degree, she also taught English in a psychiatric clinic. She also holds a doctorate in educational leadership.
She often said, “Teaching is not what I do, but who I am.”
