Author: Dr. Jill Biden

Over the next few years, more than a million service men and women will end their military careers and transition back to civilian life. Many of these veterans will decide to go back to school to finish their degrees, enroll in a community college for the first time, or work to obtain a master’s degree.

That’s why, on our campus communities, we need to make sure that our veterans have access to the programs that will help them succeed and obtain good jobs to support their families.

This April, as we mark the second anniversary of Joining Forces, I am pleased to be visiting several higher education institutions to learn more about what they are doing to support student veterans.

Dr. Biden participates on a panel with student, faculty and staff veterans at George Washington University

(by Jessica McConnell Burt / The George Washington University)

On Wednesday, I visited George Washington University to meet with student veterans and hear about several of their initiatives. While I was there, I heard from members of GW Vets, their student group representing more than 1,500 student veterans, military dependent students and allies across campus. 

One of those students was Nichole Krom, a freshman who became involved in GW Vets as soon as she heard about it and is now the organization’s secretary. Nichole is not a veteran herself, but her father recently retired from the New York Air National Guard. She is a wonderful example of an important truth about our service men and women who sacrifice so much for our country – their families serve right alongside them.

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As a community college teacher, I know that excellence happens every day in community college classrooms and campuses across this country. Both in my classroom and when I’m on the road visiting community colleges, I am fortunate to see firsthand the tremendous impact these schools have on so many students.  I see students striving, teachers inspiring, and administrators innovating – each doing their best to make the community college experience richer and more meaningful. President Obama has made community colleges a centerpiece of his goal to have the best-educated, most competitive workforce in the world.

Earlier today at the Newseum in Washington, DC, leaders in education and business congratulated Santa Barbara City College from California and Walla Walla Community College from Washington for being selected as co-winners of the 2013 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. Kingsborough Community College – CUNY from New York and Lake Area Technical Institute from South Dakota were honored as finalists-with-distinction.

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It’s been a very busy couple of days but I wanted to make sure to write about an inspiring day I spent in North Carolina last Wednesday, where I visited with our Marines at Camp Lejeune and met students and faculty at Coastal Carolina Community College. I am always honored to meet our men and women in uniform, and on this day I felt so proud to be both a community college teacher and a military mom.

(Jill Biden spends time with Marines from the 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion and their families prior to deployment. Photo by Cpl. Jessica Martinez, US Marine Corps.)

After stopping into a classroom on campus at Coastal, I spent some time with college instructors and students. I always say that I am inspired by my own community college students because they work so hard to get an education while dealing with many of life’s other challenges, like working full time and raising families. These students were no exception, they truly inspired me. They were all veterans, active duty Marines, or military spouses – working and raising families, serving our country, and training to be teachers on top of it all. It was incredible to see firsthand how Coastal is ensuring our service members and their families have access to higher education.

At many community colleges, students can complete the first two years of a baccalaureate degree at an affordable price, and then transfer on to a four-year university. Coastal Carolina Community College and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington are working together to make that transfer as easy as possible. Students in the cooperative "2+2" teacher education program can study for two years at Coastal, and then walk across the hall to complete their junior and senior years at UNCW extension classrooms, right on Coastal’s campus. One student told me she had wanted to be a teacher since she was a kid but between her husband’s deployments and raising children, she never got the chance to go to school. Now she is studying to be an elementary school teacher through the schools’ 2+2 program.

From the community college I went to Camp Lejeune where I met with almost 150 Marines who were getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan. When I arrived I could not help feeling some of the same pride and anxiety I felt when my son Beau deployed to Iraq. But I was also so grateful to have the opportunity to thank these young Marines for their service. I admire their courage and strength, and I pray for their safe return.

I met more heroes at lunch, where I ate Carolina barbecue with wounded warriors and learned about how injured marines rely on each other while they heal. It was an emotional visit. I hope to continue raising awareness about the wonderful men and women in our military. I want them all to know how much we appreciate them while they are here, while they are deployed, and when they return, especially when they are recovering from injuries.

I always say that a simple "thank you" to a marine or a soldier, or a warm hug to a military mom can mean so much – and I saw this power first-hand at Camp Lejeune. I hope you will join me in thanking our men and women in uniform, and doing what you can to support them and their families. It’s the simple things that can make a big difference.

-Jill