- I think 100 people apply for that job,
but there I was writing that essay as second lady
to try to get the job.
- Are you a hard grader?
- I do demand a lot of them.
[mellow music]
- Dr. Biden, you're continuing to teach
at Northern Virginia Community College
as first lady. - Mm-hmm, yes.
- You're the first first lady to keep her job.
Why is teaching a community college so important to you?
- Well, you know, I taught in the high schools for 13 years,
and then a friend of mine went to the community college
and said, "Jill, you have to come
and visit community college."
So I went for visit, and I walked in the door,
and I don't know, it just felt like home.
I felt it was my niche.
And I started teaching there and I saw, you know,
the students, how serious they were about their education,
and how tough it was for them that they were working,
they were going to school, and had children and they,
or some were taking care of older parents.
So, I just saw just the resilience of the community college.
And I'd loved that about it, the students.
- Is there any particular story of your students
or their personal stories that have inspired you
during your teaching?
- You know, there's so many stories.
I mean, I could sit here for hours
and tell you all about my students.
I have to tell you one semester,
it was the day that research papers were due.
And it was like six o'clock in the morning,
and I got this text from one of my students and she said,
"Dr. B, I can't hand in my research paper today.
I'm on the way to the hospital to have my baby."
And so I said, "Excuses, excuses."
And so, I mean, that just shows that how dedicated
my students are to getting an education,
and darn if you didn't have it in that week.
- So I love that.
Going back to Dr. B,
the professor, - Yeah.
- what type of teacher are you?
If I was in your class, what would I expect?
- You would,
I hope that my students think I'm a fair teacher.
I mean, that's important to me.
But I work really hard from the first day of class
to create this sense of community.
Because here at where I teach, students come from three,
maybe four different states to come to class.
As you said, they're all different ages.
And so they lean on one another and it's a, I teach writing.
Students write very personal things.
And so I want them to become like a family,
like a writing family.
And it's interesting,
this past semester I had to learn to teach over Zoom.
And I thought, "Oh, how am I gonna create community?"
But by the end of the class,
I felt, really the students took over.
I mean, they were like, "You should do this in your essay,"
or "You should change that."
I mean, they really depended and supported one another.
And I just, it just, I don't know.
It gave me such joy.
- I hear you encourage your students to journal.
Why is that important? - Oh, yes, yes.
Well, and especially during this time,
so I ask them to journal every week.
Sometimes I give them a prompt
and sometimes I ask a prompt from them.
And I think it provides the creative part of their writing
because my course is very structured.
It's how to write five paragraph essays, research papers.
But in their journals,
they can write anything they want.
And it was so funny.
This semester I had one class of very young boys.
And they said to me, "Dr. B," they said,
"can we ask you a question?"
I said, "Sure."
And they said, "Can we curse in our journals?"
And I said, "Sure!"
And they were like, "Yes!"
You know, it's like that was so important to them.
They can say anything they want.
They can express anything they want.
And I then get to know them.
Sometimes it's like more than I want to know.
- Like a diary. [laughs]
- Yes, it's like a diary.
But you know, one thing, especially during this pandemic,
and I hope that your readers will do this.
- This is so unique. - Mm-hmm.
- the pandemic,
and we should write about it.
You should write about students.
People should write about how it affected them.
How did it change them?
What did they learn about themselves?
Were they stronger than they thought they were?
Did they struggle more than they thought they would?
When you have grandchildren,
that your grandchildren know what it was like
for you to go through this really horrible
tough time, hard time.
- Monumental time. - Yes.
- And the global experience,
but everybody has their individual take on it.
And I love - That's right.
- that concept in journaling.
We're here today because it's something very special
that we're doing at Glamour.
It's been 60 years that we've done
College Women of the Year.
This is the first year that all of the winners
will come from community colleges.
- I love that. - Right?
I know, we're so excited. - Yeah.
- And when we talked about it as a team,
the word that kept coming up over and over again
was opportunity.
Do you think the place and the role of community colleges
in America is undervalued by some?
- The community colleges really meet the students
where they are.
So they don't have to choose between working
and going to school.
So they meet the needs of the community.
So if the community needs nurses,
they train nurses for that community.
In the Midwest here,
if they are building windmills to provide energy,
they have programs there
that help repair and build windmills,
or I've been to the West Coast
and they have maritime programs there.
So, the one important thing about community colleges
is that when you go there, you will get a job.
And of course, then there's the other track.
If you want to go on to four-year,
most states have programs
where you can slide into a four-year college.
- Meet them where they are. - Yes.
- One of the other things that you do
at your community college
is you mentor women. - I do.
- Why is it important?
We, at Glamour, are always talking about mentoring women
and the importance of it. - Yeah.
- Why is that important to you?
- Well, I see so many women who like myself,
like when I went for my advanced degrees, I was,
I had three children.
I was teaching every day.
And then I was going to grad school.
And here I am teaching women who are working jobs.
They have children.
But they're trying to get ahead
and make a better life for themselves and their children.
I thought it was important to help them.
You may not know this, or you may,
the average age is 28 there.
So they come back and a lot of students have math anxiety.
So we help them with whatever it is, if it's math anxiety,
maybe they need childcare.
Maybe they don't know how to use the computer as well
as they should know how to use it.
And of course, it's just helping them out with life.
It started out as women over 30,
but then so many young women students came to me and said,
"Dr. B, you know, we want to be mentored too."
And so then it was, now it's everybody.
- Everybody. - Everybody.
- And I love that you talk there about
the cross-generational people - Uh-huh.
- that become
first-time students. - Yes.
- We've seen from the applications
to the College Women of the Year.
There is a 74-year-old woman that had to teach herself
how to use a laptop, [Dr. Biden laughing]
and get involved in tech - Yes, yeah.
- and 18-year-olds that are playing soccer and doing it.
What is your advice for first-time
community college students?
- People should know that they're a stepping stone
to whatever they want to do in the future.
And they provide such a good, strong foundation.
I think that they're very nurturing.
The classes are smaller.
All you need is one person to believe in you,
and then you can soar.
So this is just the beginning for so many students.
- Are you a hard grader though?
- Well, I would say I ask them to write a lot,
but then I give of myself as well.
So I give a lot of feedback, and it's like,
I say that writing is a skill.
And if you were a basketball player
and you went out to the court,
and you threw that basket or the ball,
and you threw the ball to get in the basket,
eventually you're gonna land in the basket.
And so the more they write, the better they become.
And so you have to write a lot.
So, I do demand a lot of them.
But let's face it.
I mean, this is the future.
People judge you on your writing
and they're all going for jobs.
They're all probably going to have to write
some sort of essay for their job application.
When I went to NOVA,
I had to do the same thing. - Right.
- I think 100 people applied for that job.
But there I was writing that essay as second lady
to try to get the job.
So, it's important that they write well.
- I love that.
And talking about second lady,
finally, Dr. Biden, - Uh-huh.
- we are in these
beautiful surroundings, - Yes.
which are very familiar to you.
You spent eight years here
as second lady. - Mm-hmm.
- How different is it walking into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
as first lady?
What does that mean to you?
- You know, it is a lot different.
On the other hand, I knew from being second lady
the power of my platform, and every first lady has,
you know, a choice of what the issue she decides to work on,
or maybe she chooses not to work on anything.
But I knew before I, when we got elected,
I knew exactly what I wanted to work on.
I knew exactly who I wanted to work on the issues with.
And so,
I felt really good.
I felt really confident that once we were,
after the inauguration, we got right to work. [hands clap]
We actually got to work before the inauguration.
So I feel,
it really helped me to be second lady.
And of course,
you know, the other parts of the job I was already used to.
I had already had
Secret Service. - Mm-hmm.
And some of the other different, you know,
parts of the job-
- You had to find your way in the first week.
[Dr. Biden laughs]
There was no learning curve there.
- No, yeah, exactly.
So that helped a lot, I think,
because I think being thrown into it was, you know,
I know how hard it was as second lady
to get used to different things.
You know, like if you wanted to go on a run for instance,
and you had four, you know, runners after you. [laughing]
- It's a good pace to set, right?
You got some pace. - Yeah.
Let me see if I can outrun these guys.
- Can I outrun the Secret Service?
I hope the answer is yes. [both laughing]
Dr. Biden, thank you so much for taking the time
to talk to us. - Thank you.
- And I think we're gonna do
some very exciting surprises now.
- Oh, good, good. I look forward to it.
[mellow music]