Benefits for both
“It’s nice to have someone come in who’s young, who is vibrant, who smiles, who talks to us,” said 85-year-old resident Clarisse Miessau, who wore a Quinnipiac University T-shirt Friday to welcome Dacey. “That’s what they have done for us.”
Kozar said she and the other students get just as much, if not more, from the program through living history lessons. Several of the women at the center, she said, had distinguished careers in science and medicine, breaking down barriers that she is now able to walk through. All of them, she said, are happy to share their stories and expertise.
“This place was more full of life than many of my college classrooms,” she said. “My other friends wanted to spend more time there than anywhere else.”
The experience inspired her to start an organization, “Old Friends and New,” which brought other Quinnipiac students to the center.
John Morgan, a university spokesman, said it is becoming clear throughout the higher education community that the elderly are an untapped resource. He said the next step may be to have a Masonicare resident live in a university dorm.
In Ohio, students from the Cleveland Institute of Music have been living at the Judson Manor retirement home since 2010.
Kristina Kuprevicius, the center’s director of marketing, said the arrangement provides a built-in audience for the students and welcome interaction with the younger generation for the seniors.
“Between the two generations, there is a lot of camaraderie that starts to build, because as one resident told me, ‘We don’t have baggage with each other,’” she said. “Students can ask residents about certain issues and how they should react to their parents, and the seniors are kept up to date by the students.”
Kozar said the students have learned that the elderly aren’t necessarily frail and the older residents have learned that Millennials aren’t necessarily self-absorbed, she said.
J.P. Venoit, the chief executive of Masonicare, said when they became involved in the Quinnipiac program he assumed the students would come in, do their required work with the elderly and spend the rest of the time in their rooms studying.
“That hasn’t been the case,” he said. “They aren’t going through the motions. They have become fully engaged. That has been the interesting part. It’s turned out to be something much better, much more than we thought it would be.”