Jill Biden, the Second Lady of the United States, spoke to a room full of UCF and Valencia College students and employees Thursday during a visit to Valencia\u2019s West Campus.<\/p>\n
Biden, who has been a community college teacher for 18 years, participated in a roundtable discussion with UCF student Pamela Garcia and Provost and Executive Vice President Tony Waldrop, as well as Central Florida employers and Valencia students and administrators.<\/p>\n
Biden\u2019s visit was part of a national \u201cCommunity College to Career\u201d tour, highlighting successful workforce partnerships between community colleges and employers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t tell you how thrilled I am that the (Obama) administration has focused the nation\u2019s attention on community colleges,\u201d Biden said. “You all here know how great\u00a0community colleges are. We live it day by day. We see students. We see where they start, where they finish, what they go on to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sandy Shugart, the president of Valencia College, moderated the discussion.\u00a0 He noted that students use college to achieve their goals \u2013 including finding good jobs. \u201cNeither Valencia nor UCF are destinations; we\u2019re just bridges,\u201d he said. \u201cStudents want to go somewhere, they have a goal in their minds, and we\u2019re here to help them reach that goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through the DirectConnect to UCF partnership, UCF guarantees admission to graduates of Valencia College, as well as Brevard Community College, Lake-Sumter Community College and Seminole State College of Florida. UCF academic advisers work closely with students to help them make a smooth transition to the university.<\/p>\n
Garcia earned two A.S. degrees in electronics and engineering\u00a0at Valencia and an A.A. degree before enrolling at UCF. She is a senior majoring in electrical engineering.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter I got an A.S., I got a job with a defense contractor, which offered educational reimbursement, so I thought I should take advantage of that,\u201d Garcia told Biden. \u201cI came back and got my A.A. and, thanks to DirectConnect to UCF, I\u2019m over there now, and I love it. They\u2019re both really good colleges.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jill Biden, the Second Lady of the United States, spoke to a room full of UCF and Valencia College students and employees Thursday during a visit to Valencia\u2019s West Campus. Biden, who has been a community college teacher for 18 years, participated in a roundtable discussion with UCF student Pamela Garcia and Provost and Executive Vice President Tony Waldrop, as…","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":38337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1323,3930,4130,4742,4916,5030],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-38336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","tag-direct-connect-to-ucf","tag-regional-campuses","tag-sandy-shugart","tag-tony-waldrop","tag-ucf-regional-campuses","tag-valencia-college"],"yoast_head":"\n