For This Family of Four, Myles Standish Hall Is Home
Isla Simeon hops on her mom’s back for a break after a long scooter ride down Bay State Road.
For This Family of Four, Myles Standish Hall Is Home
Anthropology prof Carolyn Hodges-Simeon is one of BU’s 15 faculty-in-residence
Editor’s Note: Click on each photo below to read the corresponding caption.
If five-year-old Isla Simeon is on the same elevator as you in Myles Standish Hall, be prepared to talk PAW Patrol.
Isla, along with her three-year-old brother Griffin, mom Carolyn Hodges-Simeon, and dad Jeff Simeon, lives in a three-bedroom apartment on the Myles ninth floor. Hodges-Simeon, a College of Arts & Sciences assistant professor of anthropology, is one of 15 BU Residence Life faculty-in-residence who live alongside undergraduates in campus residence halls, often with families in tow. These faculty serve as informal positive role models, “an adult who is not their professor or their boss,” Hodges-Simeon says. In exchange, they receive free housing and a partial meal plan.
The family heads down in the Myles Standish Hall elevator. The elevator makes it easy to transport strollers and Griffin’s walker, his mother says.
Hodges-Simeon learned about the Faculty-in-Residence program from a colleague and says her husband, Jeff Simeon, who is associate director of programs and product management at the Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering Software and Application Innovation Lab (SAIL), didn’t need much convincing. At the time, the two were living through a disastrous condo renovation with Isla, then a baby, and Hodges-Simeon was pregnant with Griffin. When she became a Faculty-in-Residence in 2018, she and Simeon moved their family into a brand-new three-bedroom, two-bathroom energy-efficient apartment with an elevator (Myles had just undergone an extensive, $133 million renovation). The elevator, Hodges-Simeon says, means they no longer have to lug strollers, scooters, and various other children’s paraphernalia up flights of stairs.
The family of four often takes walks around campus, and today Griffin wants a turn pushing his stroller down Bay State Road.
Out for a scooter ride with her family, Isla chats with Larry Algredo (CAS’25) (left) and Valentino Tartamella (ENG’25) about her favorite Paw Patrol characters. Her mother describes Isla as an extrovert who will happily chat with a bus driver or anyone she meets in the elevator at Myles Standish Hall.
Strollers, a bike, and a scooter lined up outside of the family’s apartment in Myles Standish Hall.
Griffin has CHARGE syndrome. Lacking an inner ear structure, and therefore having no natural balance system, he uses a walker to get around, but is learning how to walk unassisted. “He’s an incredibly joyful, smart, happy, funny kid,” his mom says.
Isla loves to visit her mother’s office in the anthropology department on Bay State Road.
What’s more, the family’s living arrangement and proximity to work have made their lives much easier. Griffin has a rare and serious genetic disease called CHARGE syndrome, which affects the whole body, including vision, hearing, heart, and growth. He wears hearing aids and although he speaks American Sign Language, he is learning to talk. He also uses a walker. Hodges-Simeon says he is slowly learning to walk on his own.
So the fact that she “can walk to [her] office, walk back home, and then take an eight-minute bus ride to Boston Children’s Hospital,” where Griffin receives his care, she says, is a game-changer.
“I have a nine-minute commute,” she says. “I feel like this position has saved my career, because it has been a way for me to continue working and also have a kid with very medically complex needs.”
Griffin puts on a show for his mom and babysitter Shanice Hamilton (Sargent’23) before Hodges-Simeon leaves to teach a class.
Hodges-Simeon chats with a student while feeding Griffin lunch. Griffin uses American Sign Language to communicate and is learning more words by the day, his mom says.
Graduate student Shanice Hamilton (Sargent’23) babysits Griffin while his parents work on campus.
In addition to serving as informal advisors and resources, the couple also organize events for Myles residents. Hodges-Simeon hosts chocolate tastings, applying her anthropological lens whenever possible, and Simeon started a Magic: the Gathering group (“He receives way more engagement than I do,” Hodges-Simeon says with a laugh).
One of Isla’s favorite things to do is riding her scooter down the long Myles hallways. The family continued to live in the building when the campus shut down at the start of the pandemic in spring 2020. “It was like something out of The Shining, but not that dark,” Hodges-Simeon says.
BU Today photographer Jackie Ricciardi heard about Hodges-Simeon from a mutual friend and knew the family’s day-to-day life, living among college students, would make for an interesting photo essay. “You rarely see kids on campus,” she says. “I thought the idea of these parents trying to balance kids and work, while living at work, was neat to see.”
Isla and her dad getting the mail.
Isla waves goodbye to her school bus after being dropped off at Myles Standish Hall.
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