Drive down County Road 5A and you’ll see a new driveway just before the turn on to main campus—Grey Jay Way. Drive down Grey Jay Way and you’ll find seven new homes, 17 residents, three dogs, and 19 chickens. With the addition of on-campus housing to HMI, employees are able to live in reliable housing, an increasing challenge in Lake County. This spring, we will break ground on three additional homes with the goal of providing housing for even more employees. To get a glimpse into on-campus life, we interviewed several residents about their time on Grey Jay Way so far—here’s what they had to say.
What is your favorite part about living on campus?
I love living on campus not only for the 30 second commute to work, but also for the proximity to some of my favorite running trails. To be able to link up with the Turquoise Lake, Highline, and Colorado Trails right from my doorstep has made microadventures a big part of my after school routine. Two summers ago I found out that a trip to the top of Mount Elbert and back is exactly 50k from my apartment, and this winter I've been skiing laps on the golf course's groomed nordic trails in anticipation of the Leadville Loppet.
Jacob Sheetz-Willard
English Faculty
Access to the nordic trails and being able to walk to work! The best space in the house is either the kitchen or the TV room for watching good reality TV with friends.
Emily Shannon
Rations Manager
What is your favorite space in your on campus residence?
The kitchen! My roommate Jessi and I love to cook together, and dinner is a time where we reunite at the end of the long day to relax and hang out. We also love having folks over to cook, and enjoy getting to share the kitchen space with our friends. I have learned so much about my coworkers when we get to chat while chopping vegetables and sharing a dish we made together.
Louisa McBride
Advancement Associate
HMI's Growing Residential Community
What’s one of your favorite memories from living on campus?
Living on campus, we often join the students for dinner in Who's Hall. Daniel, our eldest, is thrilled each semester to meet his "new friends" when they arrive. I'll never forget the first time he insinuated himself into cook crew: he had asked if he could talk to a student he knew in the kitchen, and the next thing I knew, he was dressed in a ball cap and apron, helping make the salad. Kids respond to the level of responsibility they're offered, and that is even more true when it's other kids offering the responsibility.
Nathan Vish
Director of the HMI Semester
I love hosting advisory dinners at my house; inviting students to share a meal in my home always feels like an important ritual at the beginning and end of a semester. One (ambitious) semester, we rolled sushi all together on my patio. I made shrimp tempura for the first time and we had a blast making and sharing food. We kept trying to one-up each other, building larger and more elaborate rolls as the meal went on.
Jesse Remeis
Math Faculty
This article originally appeared in the Spring 2023 HMI Newsletter.