University Senior Living and University of Michigan Intergenerational Learning Program

Learning and teaching across generations

As part of the early planning for establishment of University Senior Living (UL) during the late 1990s, its founders invited Dr. Richard C. Adelman, Past Director of the Institute of Gerontology and Professor (currently Emeritus) of Biological Chemistry at the University of Michigan (UM) School of Medicine, to design an educational program for UL residents.

The primary goal of this initiative is linkage of the cultural resources of the UM with the intellectual needs of interested UL residents. The strategy for establishment of this linkage is to develop a set of activities that simultaneously provide research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students from the UM at UL, as well as classroom-like opportunities at UL for its residents to interact with UM students and faculty. The long term expectation and ongoing realization of this initiative is for its successes to spark continually growing involvement at UL throughout and beyond the UM Schools, Colleges, Institutes, and Centers. Soon following Dr. Adelman’s retirement from the UM in 2000, UL recruited him as Director of University Relations to continue to develop and direct this program.

The primary source of UM students is its Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP), a nationally recognized initiative in which more than 1,000 students register annually for academic credit to participate in research and scholarship of more than 600 faculty members. Additional sources of UM students include various undergraduate and graduate courses which utilize UL as a clinical training site; graduate students who participate as part of their dissertation research required in Masters and Doctoral degree programs; and volunteering.

Use the following link to access Dr. Adelman’s book, Aging Awakenings, which describes and discusses the implications of the intergenerational program http://www.amazon.com/Aging-Awakenings-Assisted-Residents-University/dp/1449556159/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278154886&sr=1-1.

The Intergenerational Learning Program consists of three major components:

• A movie discussion series that addresses a single theme selected annually by the residents.
• An opera appreciation program that focuses on the live HD TV broadcasts by the Metropolitan Opera House from Lincoln Center in New York City to local movie theaters around the world, including Ann Arbor.
• Intergenerational friendships where Dr. Adelman assigns participating UM students as partners to UL residents in order to encourage the development of intimate personal friendships, as well as the collaborative pursuit of interests in common.

Dr. Adelman's Curriculum Vitae is also available for those interested.