George Mason University

The goal for George Mason University’s project was to infuse aging content into several required courses so that social work students would not be able to graduate from the program without having some personal contact with an older adult. This meant adjusting a major diversity assignment in Introduction to Social Work, expanding junior and senior placements to include more opportunities for students to work with older adults, introducing a required in-class hour long interview with a senior adult in the Interpersonal Communications Lab course, and an attempt to include senior students in the Research class.

Each of the activities that were developed for the project (except the qualitative research component) have continued over two years. Overall, students participated in a diversity community interview experience with older adults, have greater opportunity to have a field placement with older adults, and have a face-to-face interview with a senior adult in class with their fellow classmates. The grant has allowed GMU to institutionalize the assignments and they have developed some new placements.

Courses that Included Experiential Activity:

• Introduction to Social Work
• Field Placement
• Interpersonal Communications Lab

Gero Practice Behaviors:

• Assess and address values and biases regarding aging.