Karine Jean-Pierre, Biden press secretary, formerly of Hempstead, gets key to the village 

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was back in her hometown Wednesday to receive the key to the Village of Hempstead —  a place she said was significant in helping her become the first Black woman and openly gay person to hold the post.

“Hempstead Village is really part of the reason I am who I am today,” Jean-Pierre told a crowd of onlookers at Kennedy Memorial Park Wednesday afternoon.

Jean-Pierre’s honors from the village came ahead of President Joe Biden's departure from the White House after the reelection of Donald Trump. When asked about her plans after the White House, Jean-Pierre said Wednesday, "I'm focused on the work ahead."

Her ascension to the White House podium followed years of work as a political organizer and communicator. She served as the principal deputy press secretary to her predecessor, Jen Psaki. She worked on both of former President Barack Obama's presidential campaigns and served as regional political director for the White House Office of Political Affairs under Obama. She also served as a senior adviser to Biden’s 2020 campaign, including as chief of staff to Vice President Kamala Harris during that campaign.

Before joining the Biden White House, Jean-Pierre worked for the progressive political action committee MoveOn and often appeared on MSNBC as a political analyst.

But before any of those feats, she was a student in Hempstead Village. Born in Martinique to Haitian immigrant parents, Jean-Pierre was described as a quiet student who excelled in track and field, friends say.

Her family eventually moved to Hempstead after living in Queens Village. In the fifth grade, Jean-Pierre started attending Franklin Elementary School — now Joseph A. McNeil Elementary School, Newsday has reported. She later went to Our Lady of Loretto Catholic School and Kellenberg Memorial High School.

When her appointment as White House press secretary was announced, students at Joseph A. McNeil Elementary School wrote letters expressing how Jean-Pierre was an inspiration to them and they asked her to come back.

On Wednesday, she returned to the school. Later, she recalled that she told the students "not just to dream but dream bigger than your dream."

Former classmate Tyclie Blunt met Jean-Pierre after she transferred to the elementary school in the fifth grade. Blunt, 49, describes their bond as being like a sisterhood. They walked to school together. Both were quiet and ran track.

“She's always been sweet, soft-spoken, very helpful down to earth, and ... she's about the people,” Blunt, of Pikesville, Maryland, said.

Yolanda Hutcherson, superintendent of the village’s parks and recreation, met Jean-Pierre in the seventh grade through Blunt. Hutcherson said she thought Jean-Pierre's journey from the young track star she knew to the White House podium is amazing.

“Of course, we don't always know where we're going to end up in life ... but I'm super proud of what she's become,” she said.

As press secretary, Jean-Pierre has been Biden’s chief defender as she faced questions from the media about his age and fitness for a second term. She often cited his travel schedule as evidence of his ability to keep up with the exhausting demands of the job. Most recently, she was faced with questions about Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden from federal gun and tax charges after months of asserting that the president had no plans to do so.

“I know what I said. I know what the president said. That is where we were at the time. That is where the president was at the time,” Jean-Pierre told reporters during a Dec. 6 press briefing when asked about the change in position. “This weekend, he thought about it, he wrestled with it — he wrestled with it, and made this decision. That’s what I can tell the American people."

Asked about criticisms that have been directed her way from conservative news pundits to social media commentary, Jean-Pierre told Newsday in a phone interview Tuesday: “I don't listen to the noise."

While several modern-day press secretaries have transitioned to successful careers as cable TV news hosts, including Psaki on MSNBC, Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Fox News and George W. Bush alum Dana Perino on Fox News, others have landed lucrative jobs in corporate communications including Robert Gibbs, an Obama press secretary who now serves as head of communications for Warner Bros. Discovery. 

Jean-Pierre told Newsday Tuesday she has yet to process her t2½years in the role. Her return to the village might be an important step.

“You're so focused on the job at hand that you forget sometimes ... that you are bringing the community with you, that there are people who are inspired by you,” she said. “And so this is a moment today where I got to stop and really take it all in. ”