Jayde Bennett said, “I never wanted to leave, I was trying to figure out ways to stay at Masters. I felt very much like it was my home for those two years. It was the first place in a long time that felt like home. I was used to moving every two years and being here just felt like I didn’t want to do that anymore. When I got the opportunity, it was a no-brainer, it was like coming home”

Jayde Bennett, head of residential life and associate dean, is a returning member of the Masters community.

 Bennett worked as the dean of residential life in CityTerm, a semester-long boarding program at Masters, before it was shut down. Once CityTerm was shut down, Bennett moved off campus for about a year before returning to live here. 

Bennett really enjoys how the Masters community is such a diverse place when it comes to politics, ideas, gender, race and religion. Bennett went to a boarding school and they pointed out a very major difference between their high school experience and Masters students’ experiences. 

They said, “My school was a more restrictive place in terms of who I was allowed to be and who some of my friends were allowed to be. I think Masters students are very lucky. Your faculty, staff and everyone is really supportive in allowing you to develop into whoever you want to be”.

Bennett came into their position with many goals already in mind. They hope to improve the boarding life for the students to create a more robust environment for all. They want to focus on bringing more activities into the evening hours, especially for upperclassmen, who have free time from 8-11 p.m. Bennett said that there’s not much for students to do during that time and they want to drastically improve that aspect of the boarding life experience.

Bennett said, “I think right now students are afraid of me, you know, because I have the title as associate dean and director of residential life. So I think there’s an organically established relationship set up where it’s like – I’m in a position of ‘power’ and so students feel they need to fear me – but I don’t want that.  I think we’ve been breaking down those walls over time.”

Bennet emphasized that they want their relationships with students to grow individually but also as a larger community. “I’m not as scary as I look or seem. I can be very intense, but when you get to know me, I’m really just here to make sure that you are all having a good time, a good experience. I really want to get to know everybody. The greatest joy and part of this job are the students for me. I’m a very student centered person and so I’m always going be open to conversations with students,” they said.

Bennett is dedicated and ready to make a difference in Masters’ boarding life.