After our educational and engaging site visit to Casa De Manana last week, it was nice to be able to gather as a group for an in class session. As we started, we were able to discuss with each other our thoughts and feelings surrounding our visit to Casa De Manana. Being that we all interacted with different people at our visit, it was interesting to hear about each person’s perspectives and experiences. This discussion provided some insight and posed some questions that I did not think of, and made me eager to learn even more about senior retirement communities. We then proceeded to participate in a book talk surrounding Selling the Fountain of Youth by Arlene Weintraub. My group was given the the task of presenting an overview of the book and leading a discussion regarding its contents. The book discussed how aging has been characterized as a disease in order to capitalize on peoples insecurities leading to financial gain via selling hormones and other procedures, that are unsafe and ineffective. We prepared discussion questions for the rest of the class, and were able to engage in a deep, and thoughtful discussion of the book.
Once we completed the book talk, some of the class members were able to share the oral history projects. These oral history projects detailed an extraordinary person in their lives, and included various memories and pictures. It was enjoyable to be able to hear my fellow students share their extraordinary person as it was if I was getting a glimpse into someone else’s life. It further expressed how diverse each person is and how the overall aging experience is different for each person. I look forward to being able to share my extraordinary person the next time we meet. Once done sharing, we then broke up into smaller groups and began developing our ideas and plan of action for our two group healthy aging projects that entail dances at two senior communities.
After spending a decent amount of time working on the group healthy aging project, we were visited by a student run non profit who was prepared to give us a presentation. The presentation detailed the organization the two students formed, which deals with providing mobility devices for seniors and the disabled for free. It relies on donations of used mobility devices to provide to those in need, and they expressed their need for certain devices as well as volunteers. I was encouraged to hear that an organization like this existed on campus, and I’m interested in possibly getting involved. We ended with a brief discussion of our neighborhood assessment project and logistics for our next site visit. It was a very productive and insightful day, and I’m looking forward to many more experiences as a life course scholar.
Once we completed the book talk, some of the class members were able to share the oral history projects. These oral history projects detailed an extraordinary person in their lives, and included various memories and pictures. It was enjoyable to be able to hear my fellow students share their extraordinary person as it was if I was getting a glimpse into someone else’s life. It further expressed how diverse each person is and how the overall aging experience is different for each person. I look forward to being able to share my extraordinary person the next time we meet. Once done sharing, we then broke up into smaller groups and began developing our ideas and plan of action for our two group healthy aging projects that entail dances at two senior communities.
After spending a decent amount of time working on the group healthy aging project, we were visited by a student run non profit who was prepared to give us a presentation. The presentation detailed the organization the two students formed, which deals with providing mobility devices for seniors and the disabled for free. It relies on donations of used mobility devices to provide to those in need, and they expressed their need for certain devices as well as volunteers. I was encouraged to hear that an organization like this existed on campus, and I’m interested in possibly getting involved. We ended with a brief discussion of our neighborhood assessment project and logistics for our next site visit. It was a very productive and insightful day, and I’m looking forward to many more experiences as a life course scholar.