WALLINGFORD — Masonicare welcomed five new students this year as part of its expanding Students in Residence Program, where students from partnered universities live at the facility and learn to interact and care for the resident seniors.
This is the seventh year Quinnipiac University students lived at Masonicare’s Ashlar Village center full-time since the program started in 2016.
Typically the program has only hosted two students a year, but three other students from the University of Hartford and the University of New Haven will live at Greenridge Place in Rocky Hill and Crosby Commons in Shelton this year after Masonicare acquired both properties within the past year.
Emaly Pereira, an occupational therapy major, and Kelsey Branco, a physical therapy major, already moved into Ashlar Village. The women said they’ve received a warm welcome from the senior residents and are excited to get to know them.
“We can learn a lot from our older generation in any setting, like here, or outpatient, even in the hospital," Pereira said. "You learn so much from this generation that I'm going to take and apply to my future clinical practice. They've changed my life already, I'm getting so much life advice that I didn't even think about, even if it sounds silly. It just makes you sit back and reflect and kind of see how you want to grow as a person."
“The first week has been a little overwhelming. It's a very big campus,” added Branco. “But it's just so rewarding. I just can't wait to make all these lasting memories for both myself and the residents and just leave my mark.”
Both women opted to pursue their respective fields because they've been around senior care professionals. Branco said her mother worked at a skilled nursing facility, and wanted to follow in her footsteps.
The student residency program is one of the first of its kind in the country, according to Masonicare.
Its mission is to foster inter-generational understanding and combat perceptions of ageism. More than that, it allows students to have hands-on experience working with seniors and learning how to respond to their needs in a way that a classroom environment wouldn’t allow them to, according to Masonicare.
Several students who have gone into the program have later gone on to have careers at Masonicare or other senior living facilities.
Students have a weekly, eight-hour community service obligation, with three hours in memory care, assisted living, and two in independent living. They’re also required to have two meals a week with residents and do a monthly learning activity, just to keep them socialized with residents — though they’re encouraged to do more. They’re also asked to keep a weekly video blog to track and chronicle their progress during the program.
Officials from Masonicare were pleased the program's growth and what it would be able to offer both students and residents.
During the recent welcoming reception at Ashlar Village, many older residents were excited by the chance to be able to speak and socialize with them, which Masonicare said is a valuable thing for seniors who might feel lonely or isolated.
“They haven't been here a week, and you can feel the positivity, the excitement, the optimism the residents have," said Kim Magalhaes, executive director of Ashlar Village. "It just shifts everything. People are so thrilled, happy. There's something to be said about it. It's such a unique opportunity for these two ladies to be living here."
She said it also helps build future leaders in the senior care industry, adding the students who participate are special people.
“You don't find too many students who want to leave their college dorm to come move into a senior living community as large as us," Magalhaes said. It's very intimidating learning all of the residents, staff, and they just came right in really confident and inspired — and that translates to the resident."
Masonicare has already received applications from prospective students even though this year only just started and before recruitment started, a first in the program's history, said Cherie Macri, the director of the Encompass programming at Masonicare.
“The growth of the program this year was very exciting,” Macri said.
Both students were enthused during their reception, and were looking forward to their opportunities to gain new experiences over the coming year.
“I'm excited to see myself change," Branco said. "I want to see change, I want to see how I grow."
She said this will give her hands-on experience before entering the physical therapy field.
“There's no better experience than to actually be living with them to know how to help my patients someday," she said. "Because other physical therapists might be able to think of a textbook reason as to why someone might be feeling a certain muscle but I could think of the everyday tasks and emotions and things that they're going through here that could be causing that.”