Bringing ohana to the classroom Three Bennetts describe being in a class with family as positive and lifetime opportunity Grandmother is a professor, grandfather to graduate in June, granddaughter is also a student BY HAELEY VAN DER WERF When Berklee Bennett tells people she not only goes to school with her grandpa, but she also has a class with him, they don’t believe her. Sitting with her grandparents in the classroom where they meet, she laughed as she described how, “Everyone I’ve told about it has thought I was kidding.” Every Wednesday and Friday at 2 p.m. Berklee Bennett, a freshman from Oregon majoring in elementary education, and her grandpa, Gary Bennett, a senior from North Carolina majoring in art, head to the school of education building for their science methods class, which is taught by Gary’s wife, Carol Bennett. This is the second time the trio has been in class together. The first was writing methods in Fall 2019. The first class According to the family, they loved being in the Writing Methods class together because of the family environment it created, and it gave Berklee Bennett a chance to get to know her grandparents better since she grew up on the other side of the country from them. Berklee Bennett described how she knew she wanted to come to BYU–Hawaii long before her grandparents moved to Hawaii. “I visited Hawaii with my family when I was 12. We toured the campus, and I thought, ‘That’s where I want to be.’” She also explained how she needed this class for her major, but she thought it would be a good experience to take the class with her grandpa. “I thought it would be really fun and really cool. I’ve never grown up by them, so it’s been really fun to get to know them on a different level.” Gary Bennett said he needed an elective class for the semester, and Carol Bennett said she suggested this class for him because “writing is not his strong suit, so I knew it would be helpful no matter what he did. I thought it 30
KE ALAK A ’I
Carol Bennett teaches an education class. Her husband and granddaughter took one of her classes together and she said it was a great experience. Photo by Chad Hsieh
would be good. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity for us to all be in a class together.” Despite initial concerns about the effect of having her husband and granddaughter in her class, Carol Bennett said it has actually been a positive experience. “I can honestly say it’s been a huge plus. Other students have really seemed to enjoy it. I think it has made the whole class be more of a family-oriented class.” Having her husband and granddaughter in her class has helped them all develop a relationship on a new level, Carol Bennett said. Speaking of her husband, she became emotional as she explained how, “We’ve been married 46 years, so we know each other really well. We have always had a really good marriage. “For me, him being in school has added [to our relationship]. Now, we have an intellectual talk that we can do that we didn’t have before.” Carol Bennett also shared how happy she is to live in a town with her granddaughter nearby for the first time. She said, “I love having Berklee here. I love seeing her interact with other students. I love
walking down the hall and seeing her in another professor’s class.” Gary Bennett also described how living near Berklee Bennett has helped them catch up after only seeing each other a couple of times a year for most of her life. “She comes over to our house every Sunday for afternoon supper. We really are catching up after all these years.” Where it all started Carol and Gary Bennett moved to Hawaii from North Carolina in 2014 after Carol Bennett was hired as an assistant professor of Education. The couple said they met while working in the same grocery store in North Carolina and becoming friends after finding out they have the exact same birthday. “He was really cute, but we hadn’t talked yet or anything. We had just seen each other. I heard his birthday was Jan. 21,” Carol shared. After asking him if he had looked in her purse, they swapped licenses for proof. “There it was: my birthday on his license. That broke the ice. Then we started talking before he asked me out on a date.”
