Once More, With Feeling

The USC Davis School of Gerontology welcomes another diverse class of gerontology students who have one thing in common: a desire to make a difference

By Jonathan Riggs

They came from as close as Orange County and as far away as South Korea: the newest USC Davis School of Gerontology class. Students, faculty, staff and supporters-rookies and veterans alike-came together for Orientation 2011.

"I welcome you all very cordially to our School, which provides leadership and scholarship to create evidence-based applications to make the world a better place," said Dean Gerald Davison in his welcome address. "I wish you all the best on this exciting adventure!"

Every student was given the opportunity to address the group, to introduce themselves and to share a little about why they had chosen gerontology-or, more often than not, why gerontology had chosen them.

"This field is very in-demand but not enough people are doing it," said freshman Raquel Deriane. "I want to change the world!"

"I'm here because of my grandparents: they have been inspirational my whole life and I want to give back to them," said grad student Michelle Pastrano. "I would like to stop the discrimination our society has created for the elderly."

"When I was walking around campus, I walked through this building by accident," said freshman Rishi Raman. "When I heard more about gerontology, I changed my major."

Many students cited the desire to honor beloved grandparents as their motivation for entering the field, or how much they had gained from previous volunteer work with older adults.

"My interest started with my great grandmother who is 104. Her memory is incredible and she is what healthy aging should be," said master's student Elena Gonzalez. "I've worked in a lot of assisted living homes where I have seen the polar opposite, and so long-term I am hoping to counsel older adults."

"I'm interested in gerontology for professional and personal reasons. I've been with patients, holding their hands, trying to help them understand the system," said master's student Sheryl Lapidus. "I thought, "What do people do when they don't have anyone to help them fight the fight?" I want to be that person for them."

"I love older people. I don't like kids," said grad student Minda Miyamoto, earning laughs. "My grandparents were huge influences and when I found out I could study aging, I knew this was where I needed to be."

"I've been living for my grandfather, acting as his caregiver. Parts of it are rewarding and parts are hard," said grad student Lauren Iwata. "My interests come from hoping to learn how to become a better caregiver and how the elderly can stay in their home longer and age gracefully."

Running the spectrum from medicine to Alzheimer's research to policy to caregiving to communications to fundraising, the students' interests shared one commonality: a sincere desire to improve the lives of older adults.

"I work full-time as an administrator for an adult day healthcare center. We're being eliminated as a benefit for MediCal for about 35,000 seniors in California," said master's student Erik Doan. "While working in the field, I noticed there are a lot more problems than solutions, so I'm hoping to become part of the solution."

"My dream job is to audit care homes all over the world because I believe it's a big thing that's not taken into consideration," said freshman Nick Persinger. "I don't know where gerontology will take me or what I will do, but I'm excited."

"We can keep a body alive for so long, but I feel a lot of minds die much earlier," said Ph.D. student Nick Woodward. "I want to address that."

Many of the students were new to Los Angeles-and in some cases, to the United States itself. A few made even more difficult journeys to get here.

"I went through a process with both my parents dealing with a series of health issues and hospitalizations that made me give up my career," said master's student Sue Maisner. "My mother ended up with dementia, so what I'm interested in is researching and investigating baseline cognitive abilities for people: different strategies they can use as well as to research the science that can help them."

"I've been working with the elderly over 20 years," said master's student Larry Perkins. "Twenty-two years ago I was here, but I got sick the day I was supposed to start school, so I'm finally back. I'm grateful to be here and to become more knowledgeable for my clients."

"I'm here because I've had many incarnations and I've done a lot of different things in my life. I decided after having some personal experiences with aging and the legal system and all of the ugliness that has surrounded it I decided I wanted to be more educated about it," said certificate student Susan Fair Clark. "So it's been about 35 years since I've been in school, but I'm excited and I want to learn and contribute."

When Fair Clark revealed she was 60, surprise rippled through the audience, and she discussed how it feels to approach aging from her perspective.

"What is 60 supposed to be? How are you supposed to look and act?" she asked. "Most of my friends are really shocked. They don't understand why I would want to subject myself to being the oldest person in class and in everything else."

Fair Clark took a minute to look around at her fellow students as well as her future professors.

"I'm energized," she said, smiling, "by everybody in this room."

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