Meet Ben Kisang, A Residence Director for the Commonwealth Honors College Residential Community
By Sophie Hauck; Photos by Will Kraft and Myles Braxton
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Ben Kisang is one of the most important staff members of the Commonwealth Honors College Residential Community. As the residence director for its two first-year halls, Oak & Sycamore, his role is crucial in creating a safe space for the growth and success of first-year students. After ten years of working at the University of Massachusetts, Kisang explains the importance of fostering a welcoming community for his residents.
"At the end of the day, after classes, students come back to their residence halls. Our job is to just make sure they're comfortable." — Ben Kisang
Kisang encourages students to find comfort in the network of residential staff and academic faculty ready to support them, but the director has also empowered his residents to lead this welcoming environment. In his role managing Oak and Sycamore Halls, Kisang advises the residential community’s house council, where he mentors a team of elected student leaders to organize events for their fellow residents.
“Student leadership is one of my favorite things about this campus,” Kisang said. “I like to see people get involved and succeed. I want them to join house council and move progressively towards graduation.”
Before working for Commonwealth Honors College, Kisang worked as a residence director in Webster Hall in the Orchard Hill residential area. Under his leadership, the Residence Hall Association awarded Webster Hall with the “House Council of the Year” award for four consecutive years, an accomplishment that Kisang shares with his first-year students to boost house council membership.
“It is not so much the award that I care about—it was the number of programs,” Kisang says, referencing the many events Webster House Council organized for its residents. “I am proud of that legacy, I still talk about it.”
He added, “We're trying to pull it off with CHC—Oak and Sycamore were runners-up twice! I’m hoping that we're going to clinch it eventually.”
Find Ben Kisang at his office in Sycamore Hall or bkkisang [at] umass [dot] edu (reach him by email).