Dr. Jill Biden notifies Fall River BCC graduate of Glamour Magazine’s Community College Women of the Year honor

Bristol Community College’s 2021 Valedictorian Katherine Haley, of Fall River, was recently named one of seven exceptional honorees featured in Glamour Magazine’s Community College Women of the Year feature and was notified of the honor by a surprise Zoom call from Dr. Jill Biden, First Lady of the United States.

According to the college, Katherine and six community college honorees from across the United States were selected from hundreds of applications of impressive women with outstanding academic achievements and a strong commitment to their communities, their families and future goals. For more than 60 years, Glamour Magazine has honored exceptional college women across the U.S. This year, Glamour has focused the feature exclusively on inspiring women enrolled in community college.

The prestigious honor and national feature also included a very special surprise for honorees Katherine Haley, of Bristol Community College and Tay Mosely, of Sinclair Community College, who thought they were joining a Zoom call with Glamour Magazine and instead were greeted by First Lady Jill Biden, who delivered the exciting news that they were chosen as honorees.

While at Bristol, Haley was a student leader focused on issues pertaining to homelessness and addiction. She excelled academically and served the college as the recording officer of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, a student advocate on the National Community College Funding Committee and as a Commonwealth Honors Program Scholar researching how the addiction recovery community is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. A believer in the power of education and connection to community, she designed and participated in mentorship programs for students in need of additional support at the college.

Katherine has extended her critical work by volunteering in her community at the River to Recovery substance abuse recovery program in Fall River and at Bristol’s monthly Mobile Food Market, in partnership with the Greater Boston Food Bank. Katherine graduated from Bristol this past May with an Associate in Arts in liberal arts & sciences (psychology transfer). This fall, she will continue her education in the field of psychology at Brown University.