Aging Curriculum

Share Your Wisdom, Shape the Future: Calling All Alumni Age 65 or Older

Thank you for your interest in this program. The sign-up form is currently closed for the 2024–2025 academic year and will reopen in spring 2025.

A key role of the HMS Alumni Council is to connect alumni and students in a meaningful way. With that goal in mind, we are excited to announce the launch of the Alumni-Student Mentoring in the Aging Curriculum program.

Following a highly successful pilot run in spring 2024, this program will become a requirement for all first-year Pathways students in the 2024–2025 academic year as part of the Aging and End-of-Life Care theme, which is a longitudinal curriculum focused on geriatrics and palliative medicine. 

We are seeking alumni mentors age 65 or older to share their insights with first-year students. In this age of unprecedented population aging, our experienced alumni can help prepare students for the unique aspects of caring for older adults, ensuring HMS remains at the forefront of excellence in medical education.

Participant Perspectives

The experience was very grounding, reminding me of the humbling power of human connection across generations and through a core experience of being a doctor.
HMS Student (Class of 2027)
[We] create ripples in support of young doctors, with no idea now of how far those ripples will extend or what effects they may have.
HMS Alum (Class of 1967)

Goals

  1. Help create a generation of doctors with the skills and knowledge to deliver person-centered, age-friendly care to older adults.
  2. Use intergenerational learning to advance students’ professional development.
  3. Provide alumni age 65 or older with meaningful opportunities to reengage with the School as mentors, teachers, and learners, while experiencing changes in the Program in Medical Education firsthand.

Details

  • Launch Date: August 2024
  • Mentorship Structure: Each mentor will be matched with one or more students and will receive a suggested conversation guide via email prior to each call.
  • Duration: Four calls (zoom or phone per mentor and student preference) between September 2024 and February 2025, to be arranged by the mentor and student at mutually convenient times, followed by a debriefing session in March. There will also be an optional introductory session prior to the first call.
  • Focus Areas: How medicine has changed over the course of your career, healthy aging, life changes, and ageism and ableism in health care.

Timeline

SessionTopicTiming
Program Introduction
(optional; you will also receive written material)		The program, your role, troubleshootingSeptember
Student-Mentor Call 1Introductions
Medicine: An Evolving Field		October
Student-Mentor Call 2Perceptions of AgingEarly December
Student-Mentor Call 3Retirement, the Changing LifeJanuary
Student-Mentor Call 4Ageism/Ableism/DEIFebruary
DebriefReflections on Your ExperienceMarch

Background

In 2023, geriatrician and Alumni Council President Louise Aronson, MD ’92, MFA, developed a vision for introducing healthy aging, health care ageism, and geroscience into the HMS curriculum while also increasing engagement opportunities for alumni. In the spring of 2024, she teamed up with Andrea Wershof Schwartz, MD, MPH, chair of the Curricular Societal Themes Committee and co-director of the Aging and End-of-Life Care theme, and Micayla Flores, MD ’24, to launch a pilot program connecting several alumni from the Class of 1967 with students.

Questions? Contact hmsalum@hms.harvard.edu or 617-384-8520 for more information.