Aging conference: Part 2 paying attention to STEP

As the second day of the conference began on Wednesday at 8 am, I was torn between workshop choices: 

• Launching Leaders: Getting a Head Start on a Career in Aging, hosted by Students to Emerging Professionals (STEP), or
• Healthy Environments Across Generations: A Life Course Approach to Health (Aging 101, Physical Health & Aging) with Rick Moody

I’d already missed Moody on my first day due to volunteer duty.  Now I’d miss him again, this time drawn to the former workshop in hopes that it would address some of my concerns about starting all over again as I launch my encore career as gerontologist.  Malcolm Gladwell said it takes 10,000 hours to be an expert, and I feel like I’m building on my employee benefits background as issues of retirement income security and health care are universal throughout the life course. 

The five panelists discussed networking (LinkedIn), researching opportunities (LinkedIn), effective resumes, cover letter, interviews and professionalism (be careful what you post on LinkedIn).  I heard LinkedIn so often that I wondered if they were investors?  After the presentations, I was pleased to be paired up with Amy Eisenstein, the only one of the five panelists who has MA Gerontology (as well as PhD in Public Health and Aging), to review my resume.  She encouraged me to attend STEP Networking Event that evening, where I chatted and ate with others in-person until 10 pm.  I could never spend that much quality time and enjoy food through LinkedIn.

Agora’s headless and armless sculptures milling about anonymously in Chicago’s Grant Park

I wondered whether MA Gerontology would make me stand out like being an ERISA geek.  When I worked in the employee benefits field, not only could I charge my firm’s premium billable rate to delve into the arcane intricacies of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), but even laypeople wanted to talk shop, like ask me variations of Whitman’s 7 Unsolved Mysteries in Aging Policy, especially how could they be financially independent so they could retire by age 40 and then really live the life they want? (Sure there were jokes about ERISA standing for Every Ridiculous Idea Since Adam, and ERISA hotties at http://abovethelaw.com/2006/09/erisa-hotties-the-winners/, but at least ERISA practitioners were valued and I miss having recruiters find work for me.)  Now when I say that I’m attending an aging conference, older persons will say, hey, I can teach you about that!

 

Where’s the respect for gerontology? When I say that I’m studying gerontology, some people assume I’m preparing for a career in assisted living or nursing home.  I suppose I can’t fault them for thinking that way because most scholarships available to SFSU gerontology students are awarded to those who intend to work in institutionalized settings.  Is gerontology unpopular because it’s associated with institutionalization, which most people would like to avoid?  My interest is in health promotion and aging in place through home and community-based programs.  However, it seems employers in these programs prefer hiring graduates in social work or counseling. 

While I’m on my soapbox, seems I also can’t fault people when they assume my membership in Sigma Phi Omega is the Asian-American sorority (dot-com) founded in 1949, rather than the gerontology national academic honor society founded in 1980 (http://www.sigmaphiomega.org/)?

 

STEP Career Trajectory Panel (left to right) was moderated by Jarmin Yeh (PhD student at UCSF). 

• Kathy Sykes (MA Public Policy) came into the aging field through serendipity, as the daughter of advocate Jim Sykes, who brought to their home visitors like Arthur Flemming (U.S. Commissioner on Aging during Nixon administration), Bernice Neugarten (gerontologist) and Claude Pepper (former U.S. Senator from Florida who championed elderly rights).  As Senior Advisor at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Aging Initiative, she was one of few federal government representatives attending the conference due to sequestration.  She also told us about Older Americans 2012 databook and other useful publications that can be ordered via her office at http://epa.gov/aging/resources/factsheets/order.htm.

• Mauro Hernandez grew up helping his father who developed assisted living housing, which led to an academic career (BS Business, PhD Sociology) before returning to the family business as CEO.
• Cathy Spensley (who has sought-after MSW, LCSW credentials) encouraged me with her mid-career change from journalist to Senior Services Director at Family Service Agency in SF. 
• Alan DeLa Torre (BA Sociology, PhD Urban Studies) is Project Manager for Portland’s Age-Friendly Cities Project.

While I found them awesomely inspiring, I wondered about the absence of MA Gerontology credential – an endangered species?

SFSU Gerontology Professor Brian de Vries convened Gerontology and Geriatric Education Peer Group, which opened up with an almost existentialist discussion about defining gerontology as a field of study.  SFSU’s own MA Gerontology Program consists of ten required “gerontology” courses (http://www.sfsu.edu/~bulletin/current/programs/geronto.htm), which I’ve decided to list on my resume since people often ask me, “what exactly do you study?”  Since gerontology is interdisciplinary, some topics are repeated in different courses and one classmate seemed to find her calling as she made identical final presentations on legalizing physician-assisted suicide for the three classes that we took together last semester.

SFSU Gerontology Professor Anabel Pelham and others recommend raising the stature of the gerontology field by accreditation of gerontology programs and the credentialing of gerontology graduates (read “Professionalizing Gerontology: Why AGHE Must Accredit Gerontology Programs” at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22289063).