Alumni Association

The "founders" of the Association are Sherrie Ann Bagley, Janet Hoffarth, Terry Hoppe, Norman Jackson, Kathleen McCarthy, Barbara Newman, Ann Rita Sediego and Roberto Velasquez. Currently, these "founders" meet once a month to formulate a strong mission and set of goals.

Supportive tasks that could be accomplished by alumni/ae volunteers are:

• To organize an alumni/ae "Speakers' Bureau" which will be available to explain the field of gerontology to varied audiences, but particularly those entities in a position to hire the Center's graduates (e.g. assisted living facilities whose administrators often believe that a fellow administrator must have a nursing background or the marketing division of for-profit companies).

• To act as recruiters for the Gerontology Program by linking with prospective students in community colleges, high schools, other universities and the existing aging "network". One alumnus/a would be assigned to each one or two entities to be available to prospective students to explain the SDSU Gerontology Program at least once a semester.

• To support the Center's faculty by developing and maintaining a registry of those alumni/ae willing to be guest speakers in regular classes and to offer internships to students seeking to fulfill their Practicum requirements at either the Masters or undergraduate level.

• To support the Gerontology Students' Association in helping to secure speakers for monthly GSA events, in boosting attendance at these events (which also facilitates social interaction between alumni/ae and students) and in assisting GSA with the logistical arrangements for these events.

• To periodically solicit SDSU Gerontology Program alumni/ae through return envelopes to contribute toward the support of SDSU's gerontology students. In addition, to solicit generally older adults in the San Diego area, through assisted living or senior center mailing lists, to support the same internships appealing to the fact that many of those providing support to them are SDSU Center on Aging graduates.

• To sponsor students to attend major national conferences such as those put on by the American Society on Aging, the Gerontological Society of America, AARP and others.

• To develop corporate sponsorships for internships and/or for students to attend major national conferences.

• To sponsor students to attend aging "network" meetings (breakfasts, lunches and/or dinners) in the San Diego area - events that are held regularly among "network" administrators and providers.

• To advise the Center on the Gerontology Program's curriculum and course content with the perspective of those in the field of aging who anticipate hiring the Center's graduates.

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