A new student-produced documentary “Riding the Wave” highlights Associate Professor John Walsh’s path to studying gerontology, his teaching experience and his marriage with USC Leonard Davis School lecturer and attorney Julia Walsh.
The idea for the documentary, produced by USC School of Cinematic Arts students Sasha Mason and Alvaro Camara, came to Mason while she was a student in Walsh’s GERO 315 course A Journey into the Mind. She approached Walsh when the class was finished in Spring 2023 to propose filming the personal project, which took place from May to July 2023.
“I think probably the most important things that gives me real perspective is that everybody is just trying to grow up, that we’re kids, we’re young adults in college but we’re still making a lot of kid mistakes and everybody deserves a second chance. … if somebody’s having problems, it’s really important to reach out to them and see what you can do to help, and I think that is what is lacking – I get that feedback from a lot of students,” John Walsh says on how he approaches teaching university students.
In reflecting on his life and career, Walsh added that, much like his surfing pastime, he balanced both pursuing his goals and going with the flow.
“It’s colloquial but you do have to live in the moment,” he says. “Yes, I plan for the future and I went to school and I had big aspirations, but I also, every step of the way, grabbed life and lived in the moment and don’t have any regret for all the millions of things that I’ve done.”
And in archival footage featured in the documentary, his perspective on life seems prescient of the celebrated educator and champion for students he would become.
“You know the funny thing about life is once you got the right equipment, had the right amount of preparation, [you can do] pretty much do anything,” Walsh said at the time. “The right tools, proper training – the sky’s the limit.”
Watch the documentary:
Pictured: Associate Professor John Walsh in the classroom in a still from the “Riding the Wave” documentary.
