ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The community college campus where Dr. Jill Biden teaches is just nine miles southwest of the White House.
But it is one of the very few places in the Washington DC area where the rapidly unraveling crisis surrounding President Biden’s re-election is not one of the hot topics – more than 15 students interviewed by The Post this week had not heard of it.
Some students who know “Dr. B,” as she is called by many at the Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) campus, did not even realize she is the First Lady – and married to the president.
Some of the students at North Virginia Community College’s Alexandria campus where Dr. Jill Biden teaches English interviewed this week by The Post did not necessarily know she was married to the President or about the crisis swirling around the First Couple. Here, Dr. Biden is seen addressing her students at the school. Courtesy NOVA Community CollegeDr. Jill Biden on the job at Northern Virginia Community College’s Alexandria campus. Courtesy NOVA Community College
Most staffers and administrators The Post spoke to declined comment, saying they had been told by NOVA brass not to talk to reporters. Only one staffer, who did not give his name, spoke out about Jill, who has taught English at the college since 2009.
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“You know she swans in here with her entourage a couple of times a week and makes everyone call her ‘Doctor,’ he said, referring to the secret service agents who accompany her.
“I don’t know her personally but it’s a little bit of a joke. Most teachers here don’t insist on being called Dr.”
First Lady Jill Biden has famously been “Dr.” Jill Biden since 2007, when she was awarded her doctorate in education, or Ed.D., from the University of Delaware.
Her dissertation was on community colleges, titled “Student retention at the community college: meeting students’ needs.”
“I stay out of politics and I don’t watch the news,” a 20-year-old Afghani student who was almost fully veiled told The Post as she walked down one of the paved walkways to the campus store. “I know Dr. B. I almost took her class.”
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US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden pictured on June 29. Jill is referred to as “Dr.B” on campus AFP via Getty Images
Others who do know Jill Biden is also FLOTUS did not know there was a controversy over her 81-year-old husband’s cognitive abilities and whether or not he would be capable of governing for the next four years, after his disastrous debate against Donald Trump last week.
“What, he might have dementia?” said one of two young, American-born male students leaving campus for the day when approached by a Post reporter and asked about the controversy over the president. “I feel so bad for him. Is that really true? That’s so sad. I heard about the debate, but not this.”
Two American-born students playing ping-pong outside the student center, just across from the building housing Jill Biden’s classroom, said they were first-year students but did not know the first lady taught at the school.
Only one student, Chris Bladen, agreed his name could be used and he said he didn’t want to say anything bad about Jill Biden or her husband “because I might be the biggest Trump-hater in the world. I just wish we had better candidates.”
In fairness, as Jill Biden herself indicated to Vogue this month, a number of the students at NOVA’s Alexandria campus are recent immigrants and can’t necessarily be expected to know the nuances of American politics. Others, she said, are older women looking to re-enter the workforce.
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Dr. Jill Biden has taught English at the Northern Virginia Community College since 2009
“Whatever I give them,” she told Vogue, “it has to be short. Because they leave my class and go straight to work, many of them. They may work until eight o’clock, then they have to do my homework, and they might have kids, too, or parents to take care of.”
She also told Vogue she often assigns “articles” rather than books because books are expensive – but said she does like to assign students Trevor Noah’s 2019 memoir, “Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood.”
NOVA accepts 100 percent of its applicants and some of the 14,000 in attendance at the Alexandria campus are Afghani immigrants.
Northern Virginia Community College. Google MapsA overhead view of the campus. Google Earth
Alexandria, which is a sanctuary city, has just one public high school with many Afghan refugees, a number of whom come to NOVA.
A spokesperson for NOVA didn’t provide a comment to The Post by press time, while a representative for Jill Biden didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
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Dr. Biden, who taught as recently as May but does not appear to be on the summer teaching schedule, received a grade of 4.5 out of a possible 5 score on the “Rate my professors” site.
Many reviewers praise her, a few say she is not that organized — but the majority of them agree she is a tough grader.
“Am I allowed to say something mean?” asked one US-born student who did not want to give his name but said he had taken one class with her. “Because she’s kind of mean. I had one class with her. I didn’t really like her. It was impossible to please her.”
Prior to coming to NOVA, Jill Biden spent 15 years as a professor at Delaware Technical Community College and before that she was a high school teacher.
Dr. Jill Biden, who received her doctorate in education in 2007, is seen here grading papers aboard Air Force One in 2015 with President Barack Obama. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
Jill Biden got considerable flack after her husband was elected president in Nov. 2020 for insisting on the “Dr.” title. Interestingly, her first Vogue cover, in June 2021, included the title on the cover. This month’s cover story did not.
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“You can tell someone is smarting from an inferiority complex when he insists on being addressed as “Dr.” on the basis of holding an academic doctorate rather than being a physician,” Kyle Smith wrote in the National Review in Dec. 2020.
“Ph.D. holders who have genuine accomplishments don’t make you call them “Doctor,” which is why you never hear about “Dr. Paul Krugman” and “Dr. George Will.” None of the professors I knew at Yale, even the ones who were eminent in their fields, insisted on the title, and I think most of them would have scoffed if someone had addressed them as “Dr.”
In a 2021 Washington Post profile of Jill Biden, the educator included glowing reviews by some of her former students.
“She never really addressed the whole thing about being Jill Biden,” said Juliette Rosso, who had Biden as an English professor in 2017. “She was genuine, and she was humble.”
Mikaela Stack told the paper about Biden: “She cares deeply. She’s incredibly engaging and challenging and kind.”
A Richmond, Virginia, woman lost more than $30,000 after police say she fell victim to a scam.
Click here for updates on this story
RICHMOND, Virginia (WTVR) — A Richmond, Virginia, woman lost more than $30,000 after police say she fell victim to a scam.
CBS 6 Crime Insider Jon Burkett spoke to Frank Oley, her financial adviser and Greg Wade, a Richmond detective about how this happened.
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The woman got an email which appeared to be from PayPal.
“It was about the purchase of some type of malware and if you didn’t want it to call a certain number,” Wade said.
She then called the number and got swindled.
“After the transaction was done, he said, ‘You added too many zeroes,’ and, ‘Oh, my God, I’m going to lose my job, it’s Christmas time and I have kids,’ laid it on thick to her. This client being such a nice, honest and decent person felt sorry for this guy,” Wade explained.
The woman felt so bad she withdrew a total of $34,300 from two banks in an effort to pay for what she thought was her mistake.
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The scammer instructed her to load the cash into a bitcoin machine along Azalea Avenue. It took her two hours and 873 separate transactions to do.
Detective Wade got a search warrant and told the store to shut the machine down. A representative came to open it, and the woman’s money was still there.
Her money is being held as evidence for now, but she will get it all back.
“The good news is with George, the Richmond City Police Department, we got the money back,” Oley said.
Wade says the scammer was traced to a location outside the United States.
East Carolina cornerback Isaiah Brown-Murray (26) committed to Virginia Tech on Saturday night. (East Carolina athletics)
Isaiah Brown-Murray Cornerback East Carolina 5-10, 191 2 years remaining (r-Jr.)
Virginia Tech received a commitment from East Carolina cornerback Isaiah Brown-Murray on Saturday night.
The Charlotte, N.C, native tallied 63 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss in three seasons with the Pirates. He deflected 11 passes over that span, intercepting one, while forcing a fumble and recovering one.
He led ECU’s defense with 830 snaps this season, per PFF. He graded out well, too: 74.0 overall, 74.1 in run defense, 80.4 in tackling and 73.2 in coverage. Those marks ranked 13th, 12th, sixth and 13th at his position in the AAC, respectively.
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For comparison, here’s where his grades stack up against Hokies cornerbacks Dorian Strong and Mansoor Delane:
In some ways, he’s a mix of Strong (coverage) and Delane (run defense, tackling). More than anything, though, he’s played 1,246 snaps in his career and is immediately the most experienced player in Tech’s cornerback room. With Strong and Delane gone, Dante Lovett has the most returning career snaps with 244.
Brown-Murray slid into ECU’s No. 1 cornerback role in Week 4 at Liberty after Shavon Revel, a projected first-round NFL Draft pick, tore his ACL in the third game of the season. The redshirt sophomore notched his first career interception against the Flames and returned it 34 yards, and he also forced his first career fumble that game. In the next outing vs. UTSA, he recovered a fumble for the first time.
A product of Hough High School in Cornelius, N.C., Brown-Murray was a three-star recruit in the 2022 class and a top-40 prospect in the state. He held Power Four offers from Arkansas, Louisville and Kansas while being heavily pursued from Group of Five schools like Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, Liberty, Marshall and Old Dominion. He showed his versatility as a senior by scoring five all-purpose touchdowns: one interception return, two punt returns and two kickoff returns.
With the addition of Brown-Murray, the Hokies have eight scholarship cornerbacks for the 2025 season. He’ll slot in alongside Lovett and ahead of a young trio of Thomas Williams (r-So.), Krystian Williams (r-So.) and Joshua Clarke (r-Fr.). They’re all expected to see time in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl vs. Minnesota on Jan. 3. Tech also has three incoming freshmen at that position in Knahlij Harrell, Jordan Crim and Jahmari DeLoatch.
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He’s the fifth transfer portal addition of the offseason for the Hokies, joining Clemson safety Sherrod Covil Jr., Bowling Green running back Terion Stewart, Central Missouri running back Marcellous Hawkins and Hampton defensive tackle Jahzari Priester.
For more information on Virginia Tech’s comings and goings in the portal, click here for Tech Sideline’s roster management page.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Erik Reynolds II knocked down five 3-pointers and put up 25 points to help Saint Joseph’s pull away from Virginia Tech to earn an 82-62 win on Saturday.
The victory gave the Hawks their first back-to-back wins since they won three straight in November.
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Reynolds hit from behind the arc with 27 seconds left in the first half to send the Hawks (8-4) into intermission with a 32-30 lead. After the Hokies got two free throws to start the second half, Reynolds’ layup kicked off a 10-0 run to take a double-digit lead at 42-32. Derek Simpson’s second 3 of the half made it a 47-34 lead with under 16 to play. Ben Hammond hit from deep to get Virginia Tech within 10 at 54-44, but Anthony Finkley answered with a 3 and Reynolds followed with a layup as the Hawks pulled away.
Reynolds was 10 of 19 from the field, including 5 of 11 from deep, with three assists, two steals and a blocked shot. Simpson was 4 of 8 from 3-point range and scored 18 and Rasheer Fleming was 8 for 8 from the line to add 18 points while grabbing eight rebounds. Finkley chipped in 13 points by hitting 3 of 4 from deep. Saint Joseph’s was 15 of 32 from long range.
Hammond finished with 11 points and Ben Burnham was 3-for-3 from distance off the bench to add another 11.
Saint Joseph’s plays host to Delaware State December 28 before opening Atlantic 10 Conference play against UMass on New Year’s Eve.
Virginia Tech (5-7, 0-1) returns to Atlantic Coast Conference play New Year’s Eve at No. 5 Duke.
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