EXCLUSIVE — Second lady Usha Vance will make a special appearance at the Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., on Monday to underscore the importance of childhood literacy.
During the appearance, which coincides with the start of National Reading Month, Vance will spend time reading with the hospital’s patients.
“Ms. Vance has championed childhood literacy through her projects such as her Summer Reading Challenge launched last summer,” a spokeswoman for the second lady told the Washington Examiner. “The second lady plans to continue her Summer Reading Challenge this year, launching in June.”
Vance announced last year her first Summer Reading Challenge, a program through which children from kindergarten to eighth grade try to read 12 books of their choice before September for a certificate and a prize. In 2025, a child also won a trip to the White House.
In addition, the Washington Examiner exclusively reported last June that Vance, 40, a trial lawyer and Supreme Court justice clerk before her husband, JD Vance, was nominated to become the country’s next vice president in 2024, welcomed more than 200 children to the second couple’s residence, Number One Observatory Circle, for her first Camp VPR, short for Vice President’s Residence.
Every child who attended the inaugural Camp VPR received a book, Usha Vance told the Washington Examiner at the time.
“It was wonderful to see their excitement when choosing a book,” she said. “I hope this inspires them to pick up more books this summer and to complete the Second Lady’s Summer Reading Challenge. I encourage all kids across the country to join in and can’t wait to see what they have to say about the books they read this summer.”
Vance’s decision to include childhood literacy in her policy portfolio as second lady was inspired, in part, by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the nation’s report card, finding in January last year that reading levels for fourth- and eighth-grade students had decreased by 2 percentage points in 2024 compared to 2022.
For example, the National Assessment of Educational Progress found last year that one-third of eighth-grade students scored below “basic” in reading, the most in the report’s history, with 40% of fourth-graders scoring the same result, the most in two decades.
Vance’s appearance at Children’s National Hospital comes weeks after she and the vice president confirmed in January that they are expecting their fourth child, a son, in July.
During an interview last month with Fox News, Vance reflected on the pair’s first year as the country’s second couple with three young children, Ewan, 8, Vivek, 6, and Mirabel, 4.
“I think we’re just taking it step by step and day by day,” she said. “And right now, to me, the thing that I really care about is trying to get some of these projects that we’ve been germinating off the ground, being there for everything that JD needs me for and making sure that our kids get through this with happiness, you know, and with — with a pretty normal life on the — on the other end of it.
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As well as being the first second lady to live at the vice president’s residence with young children, Vance, a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School, is also the first Indian American second lady.
Supplementing her domestic policy agenda, Vance has become a pseudo-ambassador for the United States abroad, including leading a presidential delegation to the 2025 Special Olympic Winter Games in Italy last March and a diplomatic mission to Greenland for the Avannaata Qimussersu, the country’s national dogsled race, before the vice president upended her plans.
The Vances visited the American Pituffik military base instead amid early concerns about President Donald Trump‘s plans for Greenland.
Usha Vance has accompanied her husband on different domestic and foreign trips, from India to the Vatican, including last month’s 2026 Winter Olympics, again in Italy, where they represented the U.S. after protests over the Trump administration’s anti-illegal immigration response.
