JEFF LAGUNA: Hi, students.
My name is Jeff Laguna, and I'm the program coordinator
for the gerontology program here at Chaffey College.
Right, careers for gerontology.
It kind of is pretty wide open.
And that's primarily because, really in the next 15
years or so, one in five people in America
are going to be over the age of 65.
So we're talking about a huge number of people.
That's going to impact industries
everywhere across the country.
So because of that, the US Department of Labor
defines really careers in aging as one of the high growth
fields, so--
and that includes a number of fields, such as direct care,
working with older adults, which is what a lot of people
think of when they think of gerontology.
So that's in science.
That's in medicine, health care, pharmaceuticals.
These are people that are working
either directly with older adults or in health care
related fields that will impact the lives of older
adults and their longevity.
Also, within gerontology-- really, it's kind of wide open.
You can think of law and finance, people
that are getting into the areas of law that will impact
these older adults as they age.
And like I said, that's 20% of the country.
So it's a huge number.
Financial planning is a big one.
Government at all levels.
So you have local government, state government,
federal government.
Various advocacy groups like nonprofits
that are looking to improve the lives of older adults,
both living in facilities, as well as living in communities,
as well as organizations that support their families
as they're navigating that transition.
Housing, urban planning is a big one.
So hopefully you're kind of getting the idea
that there isn't really just one field that is gerontology.
Gerontology is really a layer that
goes on top of almost every industry.
So we do have a gerontology associates and a couple
certificates here at the college that do not
require separate applications.
It's not a cohort, so you can really
start whenever you'd like.
You're free to go in and actually
go after those certificates, or the associate degree.
In fact, there's a great deal of overlap
with the gerontology requirements and other programs
that we have in Health and Wellness ACC.
So because of that, we do have a number
of students that are majoring in another program
here in the Health and Wellness ACC, while at the same time,
also doing gerontology.
Conversely, because it really is kind of an a la carte type
setup, we also have those students
that are really just taking one or two gerontology classes
on top of whatever major they are choosing here
at the college, [? just ?] to supplement their learning
for the reasons that I described just a little bit earlier.
And it should be worth mentioning
that at the current time, we don't have any field placement
requirements.
So students do not need to go out and do
any practicums, or internships, or anything like that
although that may change in the future.
And also, there really are no implications right now
currently for any DREAMers that want to jump into our program.
There's no restrictions or anything like that.
So whether we admit it or not, we are aging all the time,
and we always have been.
And we actually have a lot of autonomy
in terms of determining what our aging experiences will
look like.
So what your life, your health, your well-being
will look like five years, 10 years, 20 years,
30 years from now.
You have a lot of control there.
So the majority of research has looked at this question--
has found that only about 30% of our genetics
determine our longevity.
So that means that, really, 70% of how long we're going to live
is based on things that happen outside of our body.
So some of that is stuff that's outside of our control,
like whether or not we had access to medicine as children,
and things like that.
But there still is a great deal that we can impact.
Things like diet, like exercise, like stress levels.
And learning how those things impact us as we age,
and what we can do in order to really maximize our lives,
that's pretty powerful.
That's pretty exciting, to be able to,
as a professor, tell my students, hey.
If you apply just two or three things
you're learning in my class, you can
have a totally different life.
This could change your life 10, 15 years from now.
There's not very many professors that
have the opportunity to make that kind of a promise
to their students.
And that's one of the reasons why I
love this field is that I can.
It's incredibly rewarding.
Kind of the flip side of studying aging
and learning about how you can maximize your experience,
there also are some very harsh realities
when we study things like aging, when we study dying and death.
First is just confronting our own mortality
and how challenging that can be.
In America, we live in a death-denying society.
We really, by and large, deny aging.
We try to pretend like it doesn't happen.
And with many older adults, we just
try to get them out of the way.
We just don't want to see them.
And what that really means for us as a society, as well for us
as we go through our own aging experiences,
those are some very harsh realities.
Right.
So the advice that I would give to students considering,
or exploring the program, would be
to challenge them to try to understand
how whatever career they're getting into
will be impacted by older adults.
In my classes, I tell my students name a career
and I'll do my best to make the connection as
to how someone in that career would be better off if they
have some understanding of aging, or older adults,
because chances are that opportunity of working
in that field--
There is an opportunity to impact older adults,
and to improve the lives of people in our society.
So I would say try to think about whatever
it is that you're doing through the lens of gerontology, right?
And of course, if you have any questions,
reach out to me because I'd be happy to help you.
All right?
Thanks, guys.