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| 11-10-2004 | Previous edition: 11-09-2004 |
        
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Printer-friendly version Graduate student lives with retirees
By Ben Steckler Executive Reporter Tetyana Pylypiv rarely eats alone. For almost two years she’s had dinner dates nearly every night. Most of her dates are retired, have children and grandchildren and are three times as old as she is. The 22-year-old lives with these retirees at Westminster Village. At 4:30 every afternoon on weekdays – before some students are even out of class – she sits with her dates over dinner and talks about their lives, her life and anything else that comes to mind. It’s a different college experience when most of your neighbors have grandchildren your age. Tetyana Pylypiv knew it wouldn’t be the normal life of a graduate student when she agreed to participate in this unusual Purdue program – a bridge program between a college student and the residents – and live in an apartment at the retirement village. Coming into the experience Pylypiv, a graduate student, wasn’t sure how the arrangement would work. “I had no idea what this was going to be like,” said Pylypiv. “I know that residents didn’t know what to expect because they were told some foreign graduate student would be living with them.” Pylypiv, an international student from Ukraine, wasn’t sure if she’d be living in a nursing home with bedridden patients. She was surprised to find she had her own apartment in a community with independent and active seniors. “They’re just still so active that they remind me of my own grandparents and that’s why it doesn’t make as much of a difference as if I lived in a nursing home,” she said. Since the residents are so active, Pylypiv finds there are plenty of opportunities to interact with them. She’s gone to conferences and events with residents and recently went to pick out pumpkins. Being a student from another country hasn’t hindered her relationships with the residents. Perhaps, she says, it has helped her develop friendships, as people immediately took an interest. “They know about my schoolwork and tests and they ask all kinds of questions, so I’m never craving for attention,” she said. She developed one of her most meaningful relationships from the beginning – a relationship she shares with 91-year-old Kathleen Johnston. Johnston is a former department head at Purdue and has been Pylypiv’s mentor at Westminster Village. Westminster’s director asked Johnston to become Pylypiv’s mentor at Westminster just 10 minutes after the pair met. Johnston helped Pylypiv adjust to life in the community and they’ve become close friends despite the 69-year age difference. Johnston said she liked Pylypiv immediately when she saw how much of a people person she was. Johnston has seen how well both Pylypiv and the retirement community have managed to interact despite some of the residents’ initial misgivings. “She won them over immediately,” said Johnston. “They all feel like she’s another granddaughter.” The residents take an interest in the homeland of their adopted granddaughter. Pylypiv says they’re usually more informed about what’s happening in Ukraine than she is, often bringing her newspaper clippings about events in her home country. “These people have really become my family. My parents are far away, my whole family is in Ukraine, so I have,0 as they say, plenty of grandmothers,” said Pylypiv. “It’s not rare for me to come up to my room and find little packages of chocolate, like something that they cooked. “Living here, you live in a community so in a sense your life is not just your own. Your life is shared with other people and it’s open to everybody,” she said. “You have people who care about you and who take deep interest in who you are and where you are.” Pylypiv has taken an interest in where the residents are in their lives. Working on a team of Westminster Village employees, she developed a project to help ease the transition elderly people go through as they age. In October, the Indiana Association of Homes and Services of the Aging rewarded the project for its creativity. She also helps the retirement community put together events for the residents. In the past, there has been a flea market and a computer class. As Pylypiv finishes her master’s degree, her time at Westminster Village is also coming to an end. In May another student will take her place at the community. The bridge program has proven to be a resounding success, much of it due to Pylypiv. Her time at Westminster Village has changed Pylypiv’s outlook on the way young and old can interact. “Regardless of where you’re from, and even what age you are, if you take an interest in each other I think you have the potential for developing meaningful relationships,” she said. Printer-friendly version |
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