Newswise — If graduate students are going to study issues facing older adults, then the average 20- to 30-year-old has a lot to gain from living in a retirement center, says a Purdue University gerontology expert.
Two Purdue University students moved in July into Westminster Village, a retirement center north of campus, to spend the next year getting to know what health and social issues many 70- and 80-year-olds face.
"Many of the college students and scholars studying aging issues today find themselves decades apart from their subjects," says Gerry C. Hyner, professor of health and kinesiology and coordinator of the Purdue gerontology program. "While this living-learning arrangement exists in other universities' graduate programs, it is a rare opportunity for students because rooms in these facilities are at a premium, thanks to the growing older-adult population.
"Fortunately, Purdue is working with a facility that values the students' contributions. These students share information they learn in the classroom with the residents about health-care issues, diet and exercise."
The Bridge program began in 2003, and is a partnership between the gerontology program and Westminster Village. Purdue's first graduate student participant lived at the retirement center for two years. The students have their own rooms in the village, which they rent from the facility.
The current students participating - Karis Pallone, 24, a first-year doctoral student from Baltimore, and Markus Schafer, 22, a first-year master's student from Mullica Hill, N.J. - are required to eat at least one meal a day with residents and participate in a weekly activities and serve on a planning committee.
"The students tell me they are literally living in a classroom," Hyner says. "They are learning so much from the people that they seek to serve."
The Gerontology Program is part of Purdue's Center on Aging and the Life Course.
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