Video: 2025 Graduate Jayde Best: “I Ended Up Exactly Where I Wanted to Be”
First-gen student’s college journey wasn’t always easy, but the friendships she formed were worth it
Video: 2025 Graduate Jayde Best: “I Ended Up Exactly Where I Wanted to Be”
Video: 2025 Graduate Jayde Best: “I Ended Up Exactly Where I Wanted to Be”
Growing up in Maryland as the oldest of eight children, Jayde Best learned to be independent. She felt like she could handle everything herself, and she rarely asked for help, even after her mother died during her high school freshman year. But when she arrived at BU four years ago as a first-generation college student, she found that mindset made her transition to college life a lot harder than it needed to be.
Reflecting on her first semester, Best (Wheelock’25) says she “would never go back and do it [again]. It was very rough.”
As a first-gen, she says, her family didn’t know the best ways to support her. Going to college was novel for them, so she had to learn a lot on her own. Her perfectionism and independence kept her from reaching out and asking for help, even when she needed it most.
Despite a tough start, Best found her footing after being introduced to Maria Dykema Erb, executive director of BU’s Newbury Center, which is dedicated to supporting first-gen students as they navigate college. She says Erb understood what she was going through and was empathetic and helpful. “She made me feel better about being in this rough season that I was in,” Best says, “and she told me that it wasn’t going to be forever.”
As she began to settle into college life, she discovered Sisters United, a student-run club that supports and strives to empower 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.
“Looking back on it now, I think it was definitely meant to be,” Best says. “When I did it, did I know it was going to lead me on this path to where I’ve been with the club? No. But I’m really happy it did.”
When she was applying to colleges, Best knew she wanted to work with kids and in healthcare. People told her she had the patience to deal with children, and growing up as the oldest sibling in a large family definitely influenced her career choice.
At BU’s 152nd Commencement on Sunday, she graduated with a degree in education and human development, with a specialization in child and adolescent mental health on a child life track. In addition to juggling schoolwork and extracurriculars, she has also worked as a child life assistant at Boston Children’s Hospital, in oncology and hematology.
Following graduation, Best will stay on at BU to earn a grad degree. This fall she’ll begin a Master of Science in Wheelock’s Child Life & Family-Centered Care program. When she applied to BU, she had no idea that the Wheelock program was one of the best in the country, and in fact, was the first of its kind. It trains professionals to transform the healthcare experience of children, youth, and families in hospitals and other settings.
Best says that she thought, “I could not be anywhere better.”
She hopes eventually to pursue either a career in nursing—she’s about to get her certified nurse assistant license—or a pediatric specialty in the healthcare field. “It’s so impactful,” she says. “I want to be able to bring a smile to children’s faces during some of their darkest times.”
I want to be able to bring a smile to children’s faces during some of their darkest times.
She’s learned to believe in herself and her ambitions. “I’ve just learned to do it scared, to do it uncomfortable, to do it unsure,” she says, “And that’s better than not doing it.”
Best has also learned the importance of surrounding herself with people who believe in her. She says she couldn’t have accomplished all she’s done without the support of her actual family and her chosen family and she is grateful for the encouragement she’s gotten from them.
She gives a special shout-out to Erb, to her academic advisor Elizabeth Vassallo, Wheelock associate dean of student affairs ad interim and director of undergraduate studies, and to her godmother, Melina, for their support over the past four years. And as she prepares to begin a new chapter, she hopes to help others as her support group has helped her.
“I want to be like them,” she says. “Showing up in other people’s lives and giving them hope and giving them support and giving them that one little push they didn’t know they needed.”
Through all the challenges she’s faced, Best says, she’s grown a lot and learned a lot about herself during her time at BU. “It definitely wasn’t easy, but I would definitely say it’s worth it,” she says. “I ended up exactly where I wanted to be and doing the things I’m supposed to be doing.”
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