“The students were having difficulty following the fancy moves,” said Min-Kyoung Rhee, an instructional assistant professor who led a study abroad course focused on aging in South Korea. “It was a nice ‘a-ha’ moment that allowed us to see older adults as proactive members of a society who can contribute to younger generations.”

Rhee and Program Manager Jeannie Wakamatsu took students from bustling Seoul to rural Andong to help them gain an understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the world’s fastest-aging nation. Low fertility rates and longer life expectancies are projected to make South Korea the world’s oldest country by 2060, overtaking neighboring Japan.

Students met tech-savvy seniors aging in good health, visited a nursing home to get end-of-life insights, and heard from gerontology experts about their current projects. They also experienced local food and culture through several sightseeing excursions led by an energetic guide who was in her mid-70’s. Kelly Vuong, a Master of Science in Gerontology and Master of Social Work student, said she learned a valuable lesson just trying to keep up with her.

“She was able to walk faster than all of us,” she said. “As someone who lives in LA and hardly goes anywhere without a car, I definitely came home motivated to get more movement in my days.”

Andrew Kim, a health promotion and disease prevention major, said the trip inspired him to translate Korean insights into practical solutions in the United States.

“It has been instrumental in shaping my path towards a future in medical studies with a focus on serving older adults,” he said.

From mastering difficult dances to taking fast-paced walking tours, this course included steps to get students moving in the right direction.

The post An Introduction to Aging in South Korea appeared first on USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology.

Professors John and Julia Walsh in Costa Rica with the students in GERO 489: Finding the Key to a Long and Healthy Life in Nicoya, Costa Rica.

Kiana Hernandez ’22 kicked off her summer surfing in the ocean, practicing yoga on the beach, kayaking down a river, ziplining above forest trees, and enjoying fresh seafood meals.

But this was no vacation. Hernandez, who is now earning her master of science in gerontology, was a student in GERO 489: Finding the Key to a Long and Healthy Life in Nicoya, Costa Rica.

Led by Professors John and Julia Walsh, the class of 13 students traveled to Nicoya, Costa Rica to gain an on-the-ground understanding of why Costa Rica has one of the longest-lived populations in the world; despite being a poorer country overall, Costa Rican residents can expect to live almost two years longer than Americans in the United States.

Nicoya, a peninsula in the north-western part of the country, is one of the five original “Blue Zones,” a term popularized by author Dan Buettner to refer to regions of the world where people seem to live longer, healthier lives than average. In Nicoya’s case, the proportion of centenarians has been reported to be around three and a half times the global average.

“Students were able to downshift into that ‘Pura Vida’ mindset,” said John Walsh, the assistant dean of education and a professor at the USC Leonard Davis School. “They visited with the farmers who grew the fruits and coffee they ate and drank and connected to the local community and environment in a meaningful way.”

The curriculum included meeting doctors with Costa Rica’s far-reaching national health care system – more than 80% of the population is vaccinated against COVID-19 – and emphasized Costa Rican history, foodways, sustainability practices and cultural traditions.

It also included surf lessons. The Nicoya region is famous for its waves, and John Walsh, an avid surfer, says the body movement and connection to nature the sport provides can improve both physical and mental health.

“I’ve been surfing since I was 10 and it’s exhausting, calming and beautiful all at the same time,” said Walsh. “I’m proud to say that 11 of our 13 students tried surfing in Costa Rica and they all learned to stand up on the board.”

At the conclusion of the course, students created a website and Instagram account showcasing their activities and lessons learned. For Hernandez, the most valuable take away was understanding the power of family connections.

“No one is ashamed to live in intergenerational homes and it is no wonder that children are very compassionate toward each other and other older adults,” she said. “This trip was a prime example of why Blue Zone communities are so important to study.”

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This year’s Maymester and summer courses are offered online via Zoom. These courses are currently listed on the Schedule of Classes, so students can register through web registration on MyUSC. If you are a gerontology graduate student, please email Jim deVera at edevera@usc.edu before registration. For prospective or undergraduate students, contact Sara Robinson at sararobi@usc.edu for more info!

GERO 489: Finding the Key to a Long, Happy Life in Nicoya, Costa Rica’s Blue Zone

Instructor: John Walsh

May 17 – June 4 

4 units

Our goal is to immerse students into lifestyles shown to improve the quality of life and extend the lifespan by studying populations that live in communities referred to as “Blue Zones” throughout the world. The list of Blue Zone Communities are the Italian island of Sardinia; Okinawa, Japan; Loma Linda, California; the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica, and the island of Ikaria in Greece. The largest per capita longevity is found in the Nicoya peninsula of Costa Rica. Experiential learning on lifestyle practices believed to underlie the high longevity seen in all of the Blue Zones across the world will complement traditional academic training. Class meetings will be broken-up between true curriculum, cooking and eating together, exercising together and talking together. 

GERO 493: Longevity and Death Among Ancient and Modern European Populations

Instructor: Susan Enguidanos

May 17 – June 7 

2 units

This course provides a multicultural perspective on end of life, death, and burial practices of ancient and modern cultures in Europe. We explore the role of religion and culture in determining and defining end of life care, death practices, ceremonies, and other customs. Class discussions and virtual field trips will demonstrate the strong connection between culture, religion, and afterlife beliefs and body disposal practices. We also explore practice and customs relating to grief and mourning among various cultures and across centuries. 

Finally, we will discuss how these ancient end of life, death, burial, and mourning customs influence modern day traditions and practices. How does this history impact our lifestyle and end of life choices today? Students will be challenged to identify how various cultures and religions across the centuries can inform modern day practices, attitudes, and beliefs toward life and death. 

GERO 494: Emotion-Cognition Interactions (How do our brains make us happy or miserable throughout our lives?)

Instructor: Mara Mather

May 17 – June 4

4 units

Somehow our brains construct our emotions. Two people experiencing the same event can have quite different emotional experiences. What are the brain mechanisms that make us happy or sad? How is that some people suffer emotionally the rest of their lives after experiencing a traumatic event whereas others are resilient? How do these processes change as we get older? 

Understanding paths to emotional resilience versus vulnerability is critical for our society, as well as for us as individuals seeking long and fulfilling lives. Depressive disorders contribute more to disability rates worldwide than any other illness or disorder. Are there ways that we can train the brain to improve our emotional well-being? What is the purpose of emotions in the brain? How does aging affect the brain mechanisms involved in emotion? This course tackles these questions.

Instead of having exams, the class will involve a major project of designing and writing up a proposal for a behavioral intervention with older adults that examines the effects of the intervention on well-being and the brain. The course will cover the basics of designing clinical trials and students will engage in a journal club ‘smackdown’ to learn to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of clinical trials with behavioral interventions and brain outcomes. Another project will be to implement a happiness intervention for oneself for a few days and document the experience. 

GERO 498: Nutrition, Genes, Longevity and Diseases

Instructor: Valter Longo

May 18 – June 11 

4 units

This course is intended to teach students about the important role of nutrition and genes and the impact each has on longevity and diseases, particularly diseases related to aging. Students will be encouraged to observe and compare the lifestyle choices people make through their activities of daily living and dietary choices. Students will also be strongly encouraged to live as much as possible the Mediterranean lifestyle with emphasis on the Mediterranean diet and an active lifestyle. In particular the class will try to emphasize the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle of 50-100 years ago, which is still adopted by the older population but often not by younger individuals. 

Students will examine the effect of nutrition and genes modulated by nutrients on aging and life span in simple organisms and humans. The course will provide an introduction to the biology of aging and to the mechanisms for the extension of the healthy life span and the prevention of age-related diseases. The course will also describe the effect of common but also extreme diets and of diets adopted by very long-lived populations from around the world on aging and diseases. Specific populations with unusually long life spans will be examined as part of the course. Finally the course will discuss the role of diets, dietary restriction and fasting in the treatment of diseases with emphasis on cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. Students will be given actual case reports from doctors and/or clinical trials describing the translation of these approaches to disease prevention and treatment. For example, they will learn about the effects of fasting on the side effects caused by chemotherapy and they will see the effects of dietary restriction on hypertension and diabetes. Students will be responsible for more in-depth study of selected topics through assigned readings.

GERO 499: Aging and Older Adults in Latin America

Instructor: Jennifer Ailshire

May 17 – 28

2 units

This course provides students with a multifaceted perspective on the social, economic, health care, and environmental contexts experienced by older adults in Colombia, a Latin American country with a rapidly aging population. 

With respect to Colombian culture and demography, this course will focus causes and consequences of the rapidly aging population, the impact of social stratification on health and mortality, environmental determinants of health and well-being among older adults, and social and economic aspects of the healthcare system.

The course will include opportunities for Spanish lessons, conversation classes, dance lessons, and cooking classes.

Student Feedback for 2020 Online Summer Courses

“The class really changed the way that I’m thinking about healthcare and my future. It actually made me want to switch my track in the Health and Human Sciences major from International Health to Health and Aging… I really feel like I learned a lot and this class revitalized my passion for learning.”
– Natalia Jun

“This class has solidified my passion to go into public health and work in underserved communities. Thank you for emphasizing the importance of social justice and equality.”
– Ben Vogel

“It ended up being a really engaging experience, even though we were totally online… And I think that made it a lot of fun for all of us.”
– Margarita Osuna

The post Maymester and Summer Online Courses Provide International Experiences appeared first on USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology.

“It ended up being a really engaging experience, even though we were totally online,” says Margarita Osuna, a USC Leonard Davis School doctoral student and Colombia native. “And I think that made it a lot of fun for all of us.”

Latin America is aging rapidly, says Associate Professor Jennifer Ailshire. She launched the course as a way to help students understand the societal impacts of this accelerated rate, which is twice as fast as the rate of aging in the United States. Moving the class online challenged Ailshire to be more creative with her lesson plans, something she believes can improve all teaching going forward.

“It’s important to activate that spark in students so they connect with the content,” she says. “And I worried I couldn’t re-create that spark if we weren’t in the country.”

If this feedback from USC health and human sciences major Natalia Jun is any indication, Ailshire needn’t have been concerned: “This class revitalized my passion for learning,” Jun says.

The post Virtual cultural immersion in Colombia appeared first on USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology.

“Seeing the care that societies take in honoring their dead shows us the importance of remembering, reinforces the continuity of life and connects us to cultures different from our own,” she said. Attendee Erin Martin MAASM ’17 found inspiration in the well-preserved remains of Ötzi, the Iceman, a Copper Age hunter. “He challenges our limited beliefs about aging. Anything is possible,” she said.

She also found more modern inspiration in the trip’s freshly prepared foods, walkable streets and afternoon siestas. “My experience exposed me to a vast history of aging and to another world of living that broadened my perspective in a way that wouldn’t have been possible without my being there,” she said.

Learning from history and from others. That captures the spirit of this spirited trip. No bones about it.

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