Video: 2025 Graduate Jayde best: “I am exactly where I wanted to be” | Bu today

Jayde grew up as the oldest of eight children in Maryland and learned to be independent. She had the feeling that she could handle everything herself, and she rarely asked for help, even after her mother died during her studies in the high school. When she arrived at BU as a first generation student four years ago, she found that she made the transition to college life much more difficult than it had to be.

Thinking about her first semester (Wheelock'25) says that she would “never go back and do it [again]. It was very rough. “

As the first generation, she says, her family did not know the best ways to support her. Going the college was a novel for her, so she had to learn a lot alone. They held their perfectionism and independence from asking for help, even if she needed the most urgent.

Despite a difficult start, she found her foot best after she was introduced to Maria Dykema Erb, Executive Director of the Newbury Center of BU, who are devoting herself to the support of the first generation students while navigating the college. She says Erb understood what she did and was sensitive and helpful. “She felt that she was in this rough season in which I was,” says Best for me. “And she told me that it wouldn't be forever.”

When she settled into college life, she discovered Sisters United, a club led by students who supports and strives for black and brown young women. Best says she immediately felt at home among the club members. This year, as a senior, she was the club's president.

“If I look back on it now, it should definitely be,” says Best. “When I did, I knew that it would lead me to this way where I was in the club? No. But I'm really glad that it was done.”

When she applied to colleges, she knew best that she wanted to work with children and health care. People told her that she had patience to deal with children and grew up as the oldest siblings of a large family, definitely influenced her career choice.

At Bus 152. Beginning on Sunday, she completed a degree in education and human development with a specialization in the mental health of children and adolescents on a children's life. In addition to juggling school work and extra -curricular juggling, she also worked as an assistant for child life assistant in Boston Children's Hospital in oncology and hematology.

After the completion, BU will remain at BU to acquire a degree. This autumn she will start with a Master of Science in Wheelock's children's life and family -oriented care program. When she applied for BU, she had no idea that the wheelock program was one of the best in the country and was actually the first of its kind. It trains specialists to change the experience in the healthcare system of children, adolescents and families in hospitals and other environments.

The best thing to do is say that she thought: “I could not be better anywhere.”

She hopes to pursue a career in nursing at some point – it is about to maintain her certified nurse assistant – or a pediatric specialty in the field of healthcare. “It is so effective,” she says. “I want to be able to bring a smile into the faces of the children in some of their darkest times.”

She has learned to believe in herself and her ambitions. “I just learned to scare it, to do it uncomfortably, to make it unsure,” she says, “and that's better than not.”

Best has also learned how important it is to surround yourself with people who believe in them. She says she couldn't have achieved everything she did without the support of her actual family and her chosen family, and she is grateful for the encouragement she received from you.

She gives a special greeting to her academic consultant Elizabeth Vassallo, Wheelock Associate Dean of Student Affairs Ad-Interims and Director of Student Studies and to her Patin Melina for her support in the past four years. And when she is preparing to start a new chapter, she hopes to help others because her support group has helped her.

“I want to be like you,” she says. “To appear in other people's lives and give them hope and give them support and give them a little thrust that they didn't know they needed.”

In all the challenges that she faced, Best says, she grew a lot and learned a lot about herself at BU during her time. “It was definitely not easy, but I would definitely say that it is worth it,” she says. “I am exactly where I wanted to be and do the things to do.”