Early life and education

Hager was named after her maternal grandmother, Jenna Hawkins Welch. She was educated at several primary and secondary schools. In Dallas, Texas, she and her sister attended Preston Hollow Elementary School and then The Hockaday School. In 1994, after her father was elected Governor of Texas and the family moved to Austin, Texas, Bush was a student at St. Andrew's Episcopal School, and attended Austin High School from 1996 until her graduation in 2000.

She attended the University of Texas at Austin and took summer classes at New York University. She was a legacy member of Kappa Alpha Theta, her mother's sorority. While there, Jenna and her sister Barbara made national headlines when they were both arrested for alcohol-related charges twice within 5 weeks: on April 29, 2001, Jenna was charged with a misdemeanor for possession of alcohol under the age 21 in Austin. On May 29, 2001, Jenna was charged with another misdemeanor—attempting to use a fake ID (with the name Barbara Pierce, her paternal grandmother's maiden name) to purchase alcohol. She pleaded no contest to both charges. Jenna Bush graduated from UT Austin with a degree in English in 2004.

2004 U.S. presidential election

She had asked her father not to run for president in 2000: "Oh, I just wish you wouldn't run. It's going to change our life." Her father told her that he and her mother needed to live their lives. In the winter of 2003, however, she decided to become involved in the 2004 campaign. In response to this decision, she made media appearances during the summer of 2004 prior to the election. She and her sister made several joint public appearances, including giving a speech to the Republican Convention on August 31, 2004. She made headlines when she was found sticking her tongue out to media photographers at a campaign stop in St. Louis. Jenna and Barbara took turns traveling to swing states with their father and also gave a seven-page interview and photo shoot in Vogue. The media also extensively covered the campaigning of John Kerry's daughters Vanessa and Alexandra, making the "battle of the daughters" a human interest element of the campaign.

Career

Teaching

Before leaving Washington, D.C. in Summer 2006, Hager worked at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School for a year and a half as a teacher's aide. She took a leave of absence from the Charter School teaching position to work at a shelter as part of an internship for UNICEF's Educational Policy Department in Latin America, specifically in Panama. After her internship for UNICEF, Hager returned to her position at the charter school in Washington, D.C. She currently works as a part-time reading coordinator at the SEED Public Charter School in Baltimore, Maryland, and contributes a monthly news story about education for the Today show.

Writing

In 2007, Hager began marketing a book proposal with the assistance of Robert B. Barnett, a Washington attorney. The title of the book is Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope and it chronicles her experiences working with UNICEF sponsored charities in Latin America, including visits to drought stricken Paraguay in 2006, while working as an intern for United Nations Children's Fund. HarperCollins announced in March 2007 it would publish the book and it was released September 28, 2007, with an initial printing of 500,000 copies. Her share of the profits will go to UNICEF; the remainder will go to the woman whose life is the basis of the book, assisting in the young woman's continuing education. During the book tour, Hager appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show; during the interview Hager telephoned her parents. Hager wrote a second book, in conjunction with her mother, which is designed to encourage children to read. The book, entitled Read All About It!, was published on April 22, 2008, also by HarperCollins.

On November 26, 2012, Hager was named editor-at-large of Southern Living magazine.

NBC News correspondent

In August 2009, NBC hired Hager as a news correspondent for the morning television show Today. Her role is to contribute stories about once a month on issues such as education. On April 19, 2010, Hager interviewed former President Bill Clinton and discussed Haiti and his daughter Chelsea's upcoming marriage. She also helps out with NBC News's Education Nation segments on all platforms of NBC and fills in as co-anchor and "Orange Room anchor" on Today. She is also a contributor and a substitute anchor on NBC Nightly News.

Personal life

After meeting during her father's 2004 presidential campaign, Bush and Henry Chase Hager (born May 9, 1978) became engaged in August 2007. Before proposing, Hager asked President Bush for permission to marry his daughter. Their relationship became public when the two appeared together at a White House dinner for The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall in November 2005. Henry Hager attended St. Christopher's School in Richmond, Virginia, and holds an MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. He worked as a U.S. Department of Commerce aide for Carlos Gutierrez and as a White House aide for Karl Rove. He is the son of former Virginia Republican Party Chairman John H. Hager, who previously served as Lieutenant Governor of Virginia and as the U.S. Department of Education Assistant Secretary under George W. Bush. The wedding took place during a private ceremony on May 10, 2008, at her parents' Prairie Chapel Ranch near Crawford, Texas.

On December 12, 2012, Henry and Jenna Hager announced on the The Today Show that they were expecting their first child. Their first daughter, Margaret Laura "Mila" Hager, was born in April 2013, in New York City. Their second daughter was born in August 2015. She is named Poppy Louise Hager, "Poppy" being President George H.W. Bush's childhood nickname.

Hager also serves on the board of the Greenwich International Film Festival.

Unlike most of her relatives, Hager is not a member of the Republican Party. While registering to vote in New York, she mistakenly registered with the Independence Party of New York while meaning to declare herself a nonpartisan. In 2010, Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Bush told People that they preferred not to identify with any political party, stating, "We're both very independent thinkers."

Ancestry

Ancestors of Jenna Bush Hager

16. Samuel P. Bush 8. Prescott Bush 17. Flora Sheldon 4. George H. W. Bush 18. George Herbert Walker 9. Dorothy Walker 19. Lucretia Wear 2. George Walker Bush 20. Scott Pierce 10. Marvin Pierce 21. Mabel Marvin 5. Barbara Pierce 22. James E. Robinson 11. Pauline Robinson 23. Lula D. Flicking 1. Jenna Welch Bush 24. William Franklin Welch 12. Mark Anthony Welch 25. Nancy Jane Aldridge 6. Harold Bruce Welch 26. Doctor C. Lane 13. Marie Lula Lane 27. Emily J. J. 3. Laura Lane Welch 28. Charles Wesley Hawkins 14. Halsey Sinclair Hawkins 29. Martha Jennie Allen 7. Jenna Louise Hawkins 30. Joseph Allen Sherrard 15. Jessie Laura Sherrard 31. Eva Louise Lemaire

[ Source: Wikipedia ]