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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.”