I started out as a psychology major. I had a really good psychology teacher in high school. I checked out the book Careers in Psychology and gerontology was listed as one of the possibilities. I thought "I can definitely see myself doing that."
I thought I could be a counselor or therapist or social worker. My mom is a music teacher and I knew I couldn't do what she does, working with kids. I knew the population I wanted to work with is older adults. You can learn a lot from older people.
We're required to do field work. I did my internship at Life Long which is a senior center in Ithaca. I got a good feel for the programs there—everything from sewing, quilting, poetry, writing. They have educational workshops cooking seminars, exercise, tai chi, jazzercise, dancing, art classes. I got to know the people there and designed a fundraiser for them that showcased all the different types of creative arts. We put it together as a calendar and it worked well as a fundraiser.
One special thing about majoring in gerontology at Ithaca College versus other schools is the partnership IC has with Longview. That was one of the major reasons I decided to go to Ithaca College. We volunteer at Longview a lot, but also seniors at Longview can take classes at Ithaca college. I love it when there's older adults in my classes, especially when the classes are about aging. It just really enriches your educational experience. For example in my aging policy and programs class there were two older adults and it was awesome because we were talking and debating about Medicare, Medicaid, social security, and these are the very things these older adults are experiencing, they are affecting their lives and it's interesting to see their points of view, how to improve them, the problems with it.
My last semester I took Dementia and Aging with many older adults. I was with a Longview resident named Janet and we just got along instantly, and kept on talking, and it was great. And now I visit her once a week at Longview. I go over there to have dinner with her, I go over there to read to her (she has problems reading). It's great. She calls me the daughter she never had. It's a great relationship. She's like a grandmother to me. She cares for me. She gives me advice. She's there to talk with me and listen to me. She's an 86-year-old friend. That's awesome.
There's going to be a lot of career opportunities [for gerontologists]. I'm interested in issues of quality of life. It's one thing to live longer, but there's no point in living longer if you're not going to be happy. So that's where my focus is. I'm minoring in recreation. I'm also interested in life-long education.
Ithaca College has given me a lot of opportunities. You can't ask for more.