‘It’s good to be home’: First lady Jill Biden honored with dedication of Delaware Tech Student Success Center

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!

You can’t go far in Delaware without running into the Biden name. 

After three decades representing the state in the U.S. Senate and the past four serving as the only president to ever hail from the First State, Joe Biden’s name has been plastered on lots of things. From Wilmington’s train station, a city pool and even his own institute at the University of Delaware, the Biden name is everywhere. In 2018, the whole Biden family lent its name to the service plaza in the middle of I-95 near Newark.

And now, first lady Jill Biden will get a similar honor of her own.

Friday afternoon, Delaware Technical Community College dedicated its recently renovated Student Success Center on the Stanton Campus in honor of the first lady. As a longtime advocate for community colleges, Biden’s connection to Delaware Tech runs deep. She started her career teaching English and writing at the college in 1993, a role she held until 2009 when her husband was elected as President Barack Obama’s vice president. 

“It’s good to be home,” Biden said as she addressed the crowd assembled on campus for the dedication ceremony. “Even though Joe and I have been to God knows how many dedication ceremonies, I never imagined that anything would be named after me.”

She highlighted the critical role community colleges play in creating pathways to well-paying jobs and providing important resources to students in student centers like the Student Success Center. 

“The thing I love about community colleges is [that] they’re flexible, they meet students where they are, and help them to get to where they want to go. That’s driven in part by the devoted professors like those here at Delaware Tech,” Biden said. 

Since becoming first lady, Biden has continued to champion community colleges from her classroom at Northern Virginia Community College, where she still teaches today.

The renovated Student Success Center aims to provide students with a space dedicated to academic support, career counseling and workforce development, echoing many of the educational priorities that Dr. Biden has advocated for during her decades of public service.

Dan Ehmann, vice president and campus director of Stanton Campus, opened the ceremony by emphasizing the significance of the newly renovated space for students and faculty and reflecting on the conditions the school once experienced. 

“I think that she can remember having, you know, leaking windows in her old office down the hall from here, as well as our 1970s pink carpet in the hallways, and its inadequate lighting that was in all of our public spaces,” Ehmann said. “What she would not know, because she left the college in 2009 to do bigger and better things, is that we still had those exact same conditions in this building up until four years ago.”

This is the first of many projects for Stanton College totalling about $159 million across all three of its campuses.

“This ceremony celebrates the first completed project that has occurred at the Stanton campus since the enactment of [legislation], which has provided critical and stable capital project funding for the college,” Ehmann said. “Because of that bill, our college is in the process of either designing, constructing or completing $159 million of major capital projects up and down the state.”

During the ceremony, Biden highlighted how the new center will serve as a hub for academic support, skill-building workshops and direct connections to employers.

“This is the central place where a student can meet a mentor or sit down with an advisor to map out a graduation timeline. Find a scholarship that can help pay for the next steps,” she said. “Community colleges offer a clear, affordable path to jobs that pay well no matter a student’s background. And while there are so many ways to find solid footing in the middle class, a lot of them run through community colleges.”

Delaware Tech nursing graduate Tashuana Clarke credited her success to being a recipient of the Joe and Jill Biden Scholarship along with lots of support from faculty and staff at the college.

“This scholarship came at a pivotal moment and motivated me to persevere. It not only alleviated the financial burden of my education but also allowed me to focus on my studies without having to worry about the additional costs of transportation and child care,” Clarke said.

“I cannot think of a better person to have their name on a Student Success Center — the person who has taught, challenged and inspired us all with what grace, leadership, class and dignity can mean in the midst of challenging times,” said U.S. Sen. Coons, of Delaware.

He emphasized the impact of community colleges on Delaware’s economy and praised the first lady as an inspirational figure in education, particularly for her dedication to community college students.

Delaware Tech President Mark Brainard offered a tribute to Jill Biden’s influence both at the college and nationwide. He thanked the first lady for her advocacy, particularly during the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the campus was transformed into a vaccination site and a hub for community support.

“I just can’t go on any longer without saying to Dr. Biden, that on behalf of the entire Delaware Tech community, the next time you see the president, please tell him that we have a lot of gratitude and please express our heartfelt gratitude to him for his leadership over the last few years,” Brainard said.