Taking this first quarter of the course has really shifted and changed my perspective and career path for me. I had never known exactly what professional job I wanted, I just knew I wanted to work with the older population and cure Alzheimer’s disease. Of course everyone would assume that requires going down a medical route, but I really craved to accomplish this goal of mine through a physical, social environment. During the course of this program, I have been enlightened by the many obstacles, as well as many luxuries that are provided to this community. I’ve been given the hands-on, live perspective of homelessness and affordable housing, dementia care facilities, Intergenerational events, realities of retirement options, etc., and it’s been absolutely wonderful. I’ve been able to intersect the knowledge gained in this class with others and I feel like I’m going in the right direction with what I would want to do career-wise. I was also super grateful to intertwine my varying identities of being a LCS’r and a Rhosa (or a member of Phi Lambda Rho) by having my sisters come out and support our Prom and seeing why I love this class and why it matters. It has been a very impactful experience and I’m lucky to have met the folks at the multiple senior centers and in the course with me.
The class was set up in a flexible manner where you got to choose which dates you presented the various projects we were assigned. My only regret is doing the oral history reflection, current events presentation, and book presentation all within the same Wednesday. That was rough and I wish I recognized that I accidentally chose all the same dates earlier, but it’s okay because I managed and did a successful job at all three. Having class once a week was also hard because it’s so easy to lose track of time with other classes, but having that three hour time block to learn about things I cared about was great. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it helped my mental health to be off campus but still doing school work. I loved going on excursions back-to-back, that was not an issue for me. All the projects were allll things I was curious and interested in, it never felt like I was in class. I don’t think there were any explicit flaws for me as a student, it was just learning how to navigate this uncommonly structured class and the duties it requires, hence why it is 6 units worth. Otherwise, I feel like I have grown stronger bonds with my grandma, discussed the importance of this population and ageism more with my peers, and engaged with professional mentors I aspire to be more like. I can’t wait to see how the second half of this experience is like over Zoom!
The class was set up in a flexible manner where you got to choose which dates you presented the various projects we were assigned. My only regret is doing the oral history reflection, current events presentation, and book presentation all within the same Wednesday. That was rough and I wish I recognized that I accidentally chose all the same dates earlier, but it’s okay because I managed and did a successful job at all three. Having class once a week was also hard because it’s so easy to lose track of time with other classes, but having that three hour time block to learn about things I cared about was great. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it helped my mental health to be off campus but still doing school work. I loved going on excursions back-to-back, that was not an issue for me. All the projects were allll things I was curious and interested in, it never felt like I was in class. I don’t think there were any explicit flaws for me as a student, it was just learning how to navigate this uncommonly structured class and the duties it requires, hence why it is 6 units worth. Otherwise, I feel like I have grown stronger bonds with my grandma, discussed the importance of this population and ageism more with my peers, and engaged with professional mentors I aspire to be more like. I can’t wait to see how the second half of this experience is like over Zoom!