I have walked around my neighborhood that I am doing my NAP assignment on. I did notice that San Diego is huge so the neighborhood (mine is La Jolla) is pretty much the whole “city”. I tried looking for demographics, but I have found either no information or unreliable information (meaning it is dated back a few decades). I have walked around the neighborhood, but I have decided it is simply too big of a location for me to look into all of the La Jolla area. I have decided to centralize my neighborhood around the community park given 1-2 mile radius. Going off of that, the neighborhood really does have a blend of uses from recreational use, to residential to commercial. I have found that this assignment weighs a lot of burden because I know it is 8-10 pages and there are many checkpoints to cover based off of the guidelines by WHO. However, I have taken multiple trips throughout the neighborhood and different times and days, so I do feel comfortable with explaining what the current state of this neighborhood is at. I have also been working on my HAP and have shared my survey to multiple locations in CHula Vista. I plan on waiting a bit more before I get back the surveys, so I can analyze it and then share the survey. I hope people are interested enough to participate
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To be honest, the past several weeks have been a bit hard to keep up in terms of my workload, lectures, and personal life. I found it hard to balance my priorities as it seemed like every minute, there was something more important for me to do. Sad to say, I did put my project on the back burner, so I won’t be able to talk much about the project. However I was able to make moves on my HAPstone. I have reached out to a contact provided to me by my IA Susie (shoutout to SUSIEEE). She was extremely helpful and enthusiastic about the computer literacy program I am working on and we have scheduled a zoom meeting next week to discuss how I could improve and distribute my program. She also mentioned how she has several other projects that fall along the lines of my program and it made me think it’d be great if I could collaborate with the other programs as well. In all honestly, I have been thinking since last quarter how I can implement this program the best way possible considering Covid-19. Is having an event on campus where its a computer literacy seminar a good idea? But then it brings other issues like being able to even reserve a spot on campus and if it is even allowed under the Covid-19 guidelines or if the seniors will be able to find transportation. I also considered having a tutor go to the senior’s residence, but then it is exposing seniors and the tutor during a pandemic. That leaves me with digital tutoring, but then it kind of is preposterous to teach how to use a computer… from a computer. Hopefully, my meeting with the aging services will help me with my issue.
Over the course of the last few weeks, the biggest assignments I did were the book club with the book Happiness is a Choice You Make by John Leland and the current event presentation with my fellow classmate, Abigail. We are four chapters into the book, and the book is such an eye-opening and easy read. It is really easy to digest while also learning life lessons. Sometimes it feels like I am meeting the same seven seniors the author is meeting. I learned how joyous life can be as a senior if you want it to be. For example, Ping says how she has no worries because all is set for her, and she just wants to live and breathe mahjong with her friends. She sees no point in worrying or reminiscing about hard times. During one of the book club discussions, my group and I talked about how it’s almost a privilege some seniors get to have, in terms of selective memory and choosing not to stress. We related to each other about how it’s a blessing and a curse that we have our whole lives ahead of us, unpaved and ready to be trailed. It’s a curse because it makes us worrisome, stresses us about the unpredictability of life, but it is also a blessing because it’s an opportunity for us. We need to look back and learn from the good and the bad, so we can be more knowledgeable onwards. I guess when you’re older and retired, the time between present and future is more foreseeable versus being 21, so we all yearned for the day we can freely live with selective memory. Another assignment I did that left a lasting impression was the current news presentation about seniors and video games. According to the news article, more seniors report playing video games in the last 5 years. We discussed as a class what it would mean for more seniors to play video games. It was mentioned that it’ll create a positive effect for seniors as it’s better to join more communities and to have more social interactions, even if it is through video games. We also talked about the potential downfalls like online bullying or hurting their physical health
In the last few weeks of this quarter, I worked on my HAP proposal which had its own little journey. Initially, I planned on joining a group that wanted to speed date seniors, which I thought was super fun and unique. I was pretty excited to work with my classmates on this proposal, but a week later, the senior couple at my internship mentioned their difficulty with computer literacy and are need of a tutor. I thought that this was probably the case for many seniors and as the pandemic continues to ensue, I felt more compelled that this is a big enough concern to be a HAP proposal: finding a way to teach seniors computer literacy to improve their quality of life and assist easier living. To be very honest, I was really scared of doing an independent project just because I know my shortcomings and this project is kind of a wide reach project. However, Professor Lewis and Professor Bussell were so helpful with providing insight and suggestions on how I could approach this project as an individual. They were so understanding that there are many factors and barriers, so they suggested running this proposal as a pilot program. That really helped my state of mind, and they were able to suggest other departments I could advertise my program to like the education department. Overall, I felt super gracious to have helpful and understanding professors and felt like this interaction I had with them was the perfect example of my overall experience in this class. I can’t wait for Spring Quarter and hope to meet my professors and my classmates!
This past week in lecture, we mostly focused on student presentations like our EP, book report, and current news instead of our other typical lectures. I thought this was a great break from the crazy midterms most students were going through, and I was able to hear how my other classmates’ EP who were usually their parent, grandparent, or extended family. There were other EPs who had similar stories to my EP’s immigration story, and I guess this is a result of going to a more diverse university. Outside of class, I have an update on the elderly couple who comes into the Physical Therapy clinic I intern at. They have asked me if there is a way I could help them with computer literacy since they mentioned how I am one of the few youths they know. After reaching out to my work supervisor and Professor Lewis and Bussell, I thought maybe I should try and use this opportunity to create a capstone project that can assist seniors with computers! That way this could also be of use for the elderly couple as well. However, I am a little nervous about the effectiveness of this project just because we want to be covid-conscious, but it’s hard to teach computer usage over the computer. It is kind of like looking up the definition of a word only to have the word you looked up in the definition. I also know how a lot of other students are set in groups for other projects since we grouped up last week in lecture, so I am a little worried if this is interesting enough for other classmates to want to contribute, and if not, if it is possible to pursue it as an individual project
This past week, we had a virtual tour of three places, but what left the biggest impact in the lecture was engaging with a few residents from Casa De Mañana. They were very encouraging of questions and were more than willing to share their life experiences. I can tell how much they miss being social, and I remember one resident, Susan, said this call reminded her of how much she missed talking to students because she was a former teacher. I wish we could have another call and make it almost regular because I was very shy in the beginning, but as the breakout room proceeded, I can tell the students and I were loosening up to having a more fluid conversation. I also really would love to interact with the two other residents and just get to know them more. Alice seemed like an absolute joy and a powerhouse. Not only do I know that it’ll be educational, but it’ll also be fulfilling in so many more ways.
In addition to meeting the seniors of Casa De Mañana, I also met an elderly couple during the first day of my Physical Therapy Internship. They were gracious enough to be the first patient I shadow, and they are absolutely a joy. I would accompany the wife or husband while the other would be going through their PT session, and they shared their love story and life story. They carry so much happiness and lightheartedness as an individual and collectively as a 70-year-old couple, they are so supportive and loving to each other. I felt so full after the session, and they told me how they will bring the husband’s music album to share good music with me the next time they come for their PT session. They single-handedly made my first PT session absolutely unforgettable. During Week 4, I presented Selling the Fountain of Youth along with a few of my other classmates, and through the preparation of the presentation, I took away more from the book than I would have if I wasn’t expecting to present it. In all honesty, it is so easy as a student to read my assigned readings nonchalantly, not really digesting it. That’s why it is so easy for me to forget what I just read because I take away very little from it. However, this book was very informative and enlightening to me because although biosynthetic hormones are no longer a popular product being advertised in the anti-aging industry, other products are, and I wouldn’t have thought twice about it. For example, an anti-aging lotion or a face mask that is supposed to rejuvenate is a hot commodity for all ages for most females. Even if the product does prevent “aging”, why aging considered a bad thing when everyone goes through it. It is so easy to fall into wanting to make yourself look youthful when the environment is anti-aging. There are so many times where I’d become scared if I notice my skin starting to wrinkle and look into better skincare products or I will see ads for liposuction or botox where you keep everything “tight” because sagging is unappealing. Therefore, seeing the other side of the anti-aging industry was a very necessary perspective for me to see and am grateful for being exposed to such readings as Selling the Fountain of Youth.
Given that this is the first time LCS is working online and my first time as a LCS student, it really is hard to provide a fair reflection. I don't know how this program is supposed to be, but from Week 1 and 2, I can say just how appreciative I am of this program. The lessons, lectures, and readings we have are so informative and interesting. I am reading one of the books "Selling the Fountain of Youth" which expands on the crazed anti-aging marketing and history, mostly in the US. The fear of aging drove so many people to spend money and put their faith in unproven medical treatments from uncertified anti-aging doctors. I also learned how consuming a capitalistic society is because people were making outrageous claims just to gain more wealth and potentially more fame, but that's besides the point. Looking past the education and exposure I have been getting, I really am enjoying my synchronous lecture times. It is the closest I feel to being in an in-person lecture because of how interactive and gentle the professors are. Being in a breakout room and in a super small zoom session with my camera on is a bit intimidating, but I genuinely believe the professors and UIAs work hard to provide a safe and comfortable space. Therefore, I do feel more opened to putting myself out there, and it is making my experience with online learning better.
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Jenny KimJenny is a Human Developmental Sciences with a Specialization in Healthy Aging and Urban Studies & Planning double major from Cypress, CA. A fun fact about Jenny is that she likes her 'warm' foods to be SCALDING hot or else it doesn't taste as good. Archives
May 2021
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