Jill Biden, wife  of Vice President Joe Biden, made three campaign stops in Minnesota on Friday, wrapping up with a speech at Macalester College in St. Paul where she called on students to help re-elect President Barack Obama.

In a speech tailored to the college audience, Biden stumped on the president’s track record of protecting higher education by doubling Pell grants and fighting to keep student loan interest rates low. Her visit came just weeks after Joe Biden appeared at events in Minneapolis and Rochester.

“The president and the vice president are working hard every day so that all of you … you all have an opportunity to create a better life for yourself,” Jill Biden said to a crowd of about 530. “Every day President Obama and my husband have got your back and now we have to get theirs.’ ”

Obama staffers asked students to help man phone banks and canvass neighborhoods in St. Paul, and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who is also up for re-election, stressed the importance of the 2012 campaign.

“There are so many things we have to do after this election,” she said. “Everything you do matters in the next 50 days or so.”

Biden, who teaches at a community college, appeared at home and at ease among the students who crowded into the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center at Macalester. She worked the crowd after the event, posing for photos and chatting with students.

“It’s students like you that make me so excited to be in the classroom,” she said in her speech.

She stressed that the president’s re-election at least in part hinges on recapturing the strong student support he carried in 2008.

“This is the time to show it,” she said. “We need all of you.”