{"id":38101,"date":"2025-11-07T23:55:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T23:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/38101\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T23:55:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T23:55:18","slug":"eckerd-colleges-mentor-up-program-offers-older-adults-technical-help-and-a-bridge-across-generations-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/38101\/","title":{"rendered":"Eckerd College\u2019s \u201cMentor Up\u201d program offers older adults technical help and a bridge across generations – News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday\u2019s Eckerd cohort of more than a dozen students was led by Adonaya Joyce, a senior human development<\/a> and psychology<\/a> student from Philadelphia. Adonaya is taking Eckerd\u2019s Internship in Human Development<\/a> course and chose to intern at Westminster Shores.<\/p>\n

Harrison says being part of the program made him realize that older adults are \u201creally quite like us. I can relate to them in many different ways. I was expecting it would be very frustrating trying to help them. But they\u2019re a lot more tech savvy than I expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis class is a great way to figure out if working with an older population is a good fit for you. I found this course made me more interested in the field. And it\u2019s a great way to practice interacting with people you\u2019re not used to talking with every day. I was a little nervous going in. What if they\u2019re rude or mean, or I don\u2019t know how to explain something? But all of the residents are very sweet and understanding, and so appreciative that we\u2019re trying our best.<\/p>\n

Ava says she gained an appreciation for working to meet people where they are. \u201cAnd asking the right questions and being clear and concise,\u201d she adds. \u201cI want to go into the legal profession and this will help. Learning how to explain things effectively, especially little things.\u201d Ava spent much of her time taking notes from the session that she would later give to J.C.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had been talking about how much she loves YouTube, so helping her download the app was important,\u201d Ava says. \u201cBut she was telling us about her life. Building relationships and making intergenerational interactions is part of what we try to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

That point was driven home by Eckerd alumna Sarah Feehan \u201919. Sarah is the resident lifestyle facilitator at Westminster Shores. In 2016, she was a human development student in Shovali\u2019s Aspects of Aging class. \u201cThe residents are constantly asking questions about technology,\u201d Sarah explains. \u201cThe average age here is in the mid-80s, and they\u2019re afraid of technology because they didn\u2019t grow up with it. If they press the wrong number, they think it might break something. So the technology help by itself is a huge benefit.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the greater benefit is the intergenerational interaction. There are so many benefits for both sides, and it really opens your eyes to how similar we all really are. Seeing the students get to learn from the residents who really enjoy passing along their wisdom \u2026 a lot of friendships are created through these programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturday\u2019s Eckerd cohort of more than a dozen students was led by Adonaya Joyce, a senior human development…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-38101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}