This summer, I gained many valuable skills that will support me through my career. I spent my summer working under Rachel Ramirez, the executive director at the Lifelong Learning Institute in Chesterfield. Through this experience, I learned how to interact with colleagues professionally, what to wear to the office, and furthered my knowledge on career paths. As defined on their website, the mission of the Lifelong Learning Institute in Chesterfield is to provide lifelong learning opportunities for midlife and older adults. LLI provides education, fitness, and social activities for its members. The vision of the Lifelong Learning Institute in Chesterfield is to be a welcoming community of diverse members dedicated to lifelong learning and personal enrichment (Lifelong Learning Institute in Chesterfield, n.d.). LLI in Chesterfield is partnered with VCU as well as with Chesterfield County, which created opportunities for me to create connections with people in both these groups. I took part in interviewing potential instructors on various topics from the community, and also had the opportunity to meet with members of the VCU College of Health Professions human resources team to learn more about each position and how I can prepare to potentially go into this field.
There were many times throughout my internship when I would recall what I learned in Ageing and the Lifecourse in my sophomore year. This course was the most relevant because of the demographic I was working with. I especially remember a book that was assigned, called Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, which follows the different paths people take later in life, whether it’s living with family, assisted living, or on their own, these topics have been especially relevant when interacting with members. I thought about how the book talked about how people lose their sense of purpose as they age which is what LLI aims to fix. LLI offers many ways to add purpose back to life through volunteering, taking classes, or instructing. Many members come in once a week to work a shift in the office, and because of this, I have gotten to know many of the very dedicated ladies. I can see how adding volunteering to their schedule has given them a sense of responsibility and purpose in contributing to LLI, which in turn adds purpose back to their own lives.
I was often the youngest person in the building, which the members usually acknowledged through jokes and telling me to never grow old. It was interesting to talk with different members who all ranged in age, typically 60 to 80, and gauge how people felt about aging. It was clear just through simple conversations. As I started looking at research on LLIs and OLLIs throughout the country, I often thought about the different research topics in passing with members. A consistent topic was how people felt about aging. Many sources stated that older people felt that they lost importance, intelligence, and attractiveness as they aged. The idea in society that people lose value and substance as they age is extremely prevalent. You can come to the conclusion from the interviews I read that people feel this way due to the effects of society.
I found the class Introduction to Social Inequality and Difference to be important when talking about ageism and other prejudices that affect older people. I learned a lot about elderspeak and how to continue to treat everyone with dignity regardless of age. I thought of the terms and articles I learned about from Dr. Riden in Introduction to Social Inequality and Difference, often when learning about different ways that people are affected by ageism. This boils down to our society seeing elderly people as having lower social status. I observed this frequently in people bringing in deliveries, the transportation drivers, and younger people who are interested in teaching. They would all bypass the older volunteer at the front desk to address me or one of my younger to middle aged coworkers. This is simply from personal biases, whether they are intentional or not, they are looking for the younger person who they assume will be able to answer their question or be more knowledgeable about a situation. After seeing this, I felt motivated to address any internal biases I may have to ensure that I treat elderly people the same as anyone else.
When I started in May, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I hadn’t really connected with the older population before since my grandparents all live farther away. I was immediately met with welcoming smiles and a sense of belonging. I started out by learning from the other members how to do the volunteer tasks. Many of these are face to face with members, so I had to learn quickly how to be more outgoing in order to connect with people. In the beginning, I spent time working the front desk, returning messages, processing payments, logging attendance, and calling members. I spent a lot of time using Excel to log data such as attendance, memberships, withdrawals, and to analyze who would be interested in a special topic class by looking at their previous classes. I used skills gained from Social Research and Program Evaluation and Statistics for the Social Sciences to complete these tasks and understand the data. Having the experience from statistics helped me in processing the data, but to also understand what I was looking at. Although every sociology class I have taken has contributed to my research and analysis skills, Social Research and Program Evaluation in particular supported me in researching various topics throughout my internship.
As I learned more about how the office works, I started to shadow Rachel in her daily tasks. I sat in on many meetings, learned about how she schedules each day to be most efficient, and assisted in different projects. I was able to sit in on a board meeting and learned about how Rachel prepares all the information required, as well as how the meeting is run. The main project I took part in as the Inter-Age intern was learning more about what the term means, and we can incorporate it in LLI. Inter-Age is defined as interactions involving communication or cooperation between younger and older individuals, as well as how different age groups interact, influence, communicate, and benefit each other across their lifespans. We spent the beginning of the summer recruiting groups of people of all ages to participate in courses offered at LLI to get inter-age started. We looked at members who have taken classes that cover topics like Ageism, psychology, and the members who are a part of the diversity committee to all take part in the creation of interage. We also brainstormed how students in the gerontology department can get involved to create these opportunities. We had a successful start. I took part in one class, and we had a wide range of ages present, which led to some interesting conversations and very different thoughts on the book we were discussing.
In conclusion, my internship at the Lifelong Learning Institute has been a wonderful experience that has not only given me essential professional skills but also given me a deeper understanding of aging. Engaging with older adults has highlighted the need for lifelong learning through seeing their need for a new purpose and connection. My courses from Longwood have helped to support me with knowledge and provided me with an understanding of the challenges faced by older people. Overall, this internship has given me new confidence and reinforced my goal to work in a field where I can make a difference.