The Aging and Health program held its fourth annual spring on-site intensive event at the Donald Gordon Centre, April 5-7, 2019. The students in our largest yet master's cohort (pictured) renewed friendships in person after interacting online in courses since their initial meeting last August at their initial on-site intensive event. The master's students presented posters in their work to date for their project course, and oral presentations for their course in Evaluating Aging-Related Programs and Services. Congratulations to Michaela Guy and Teresa Hansen for awards for the top performance in project poster and evaluation course, respectively.
The 11 doctoral students in Aging and Health were also on-site to engage with instructors, thesis supervisors and one another at the event, continuing to foster a sense of community in the program. On behalf of the program, I extend our thanks to the upper-year doctoral students who also contributed to the teaching and assessment of student learning amongst master's and first-year doctoral students.
In February, we bid a fond farewell to Erika Beresford-Kroeger who left her position at Queen's related to a planned family move. We are grateful to all that she did to contribute to the growing success of the Aging and Health program from its launch in 2015. One of Erika's last major tasks was to plan most of the logistics of the April 5-7 on-site event, and the success of the event is a credit to her thoughtful organizational skills.
This month, we welcomed Tim Rosillo as the incoming Programs Manager whose portfolio includes the Aging and Health Program. He jumped right in, ready to help coordinate the on-site in his first week of work with us. He and Kayla Desloges, collectively running their first spring on-site for the Aging and Health program together, did an excellent job of keeping everything running smoothly. Although "event photographer" is not in Tim's official job description, we are delighted that he seems to be pretty good at that, too!
It was a joy to have students spontaneously approach us and express how much they appreciated the opportunities and experience afforded by the on-site intensive. Some are planning to return to their full-time careers, others are planning to use their program experience as a springboard for further university education. Several of them described to us how to they are urging their personal friends or work colleagues to follow in their footsteps and apply to the program.
The successes of the Aging and Health program are only going to grow. The application window for 2019 is now closed, successful applicants to the doctoral program have been offered admission, and the applications to the Master's and Diploma programs are currently being reviewed. We look forward to our next on-site event, August 15-18, when we will welcome the new students to the Aging and Health program.