Worcester, MA - The Consortium Gerontology Studies Program (CGSP) was well represented at "Aging in America," a conference hosted by the National Council on Aging (NCOA) and the American Society on Aging (ASA) in Washington, D.C. on March 26-30.
Students Bryanne Chew (Worcester State College), Ashley Domingue (College of the Holy Cross) and CGSP Director Dr. Kelly Niles-Yokum presented a research poster at the conference entitled "Making it Real: Connecting Students and Elders Though Oral History."
Download the poster online (second column - sixth from top)
This project explored the use of oral history as a tool to connect students in an aging and society class to gerontological issues, their own life experiences, the attitudes and beliefs they hold about elders and the aging process in general. Over several class sessions the students worked together to develop the interview protocol which included sections related to cohort-related issues, growing older in the Worcester region and politics and community involvement. As a part of this multi-phase project, the students were assigned a reflection paper in addition to the project report. Student reflections were generally positive and included statements about their fears as well as insights into what they learned about themselves and about growing old.
The 2008 NCOA-ASA "Aging in America" conference is the largest, most comprehensive multidisciplinary conference on aging. Attendees are part of a diverse, multidisciplinary community of more than 4,000 professionals from the fields of aging, healthcare and education as well as business leaders from across the United States who attend to learn, network and discuss relative issues.