By Geralyn Magan
Need help with an organizational initiative? Consider hiring a UMass Boston doctoral student to complete it.
When UMass Boston doctoral student Elisabeth Stam went looking for a meaningful work experience to supplement her academic studies, she depended on Professor Edward Miller and the university’s Gerontology Institute to find her a perfect match.
They didn’t let her down.
Stam just completed a one-year assistantship with the Archdiocese of Boston’s Planning Office for Urban Affairs (POUA), an affordable housing developer that has completed 16 communities for older adults in Eastern Massachusetts and has one underway. POUA needed help surveying its more than 1,500 affordable senior housing residents to better understand and support their health-related needs.
As a licensed certified social worker, Stam had the analytical skills to develop a survey that would give POUA the information it needed to develop programming for its Health & Housing Initiative, according to the Gerontology Institute Blog. On top of that, Stam’s gerontology background helped her write survey questions that residents would feel comfortable answering.
Stam’s assistantship is the latest in a series of matches between UMass Boston gerontology students and organizations in need of their services. Miller, who serves as director of graduate programs in the university’s Department of Gerontology, has also paired students with such organizations as RTI International, the Veterans Health Administration, Liberty Mutual, and Brown University.
The success of the POUA assistantship convinced Miller that providers of aging services—and LeadingAge state partners—would make outstanding training grounds for his talented students.
“Providers and state partners will get high-quality, skilled support from students who are well trained and come with relevant experience and interests,” says Miller about the potential of matching students with LeadingAge member organizations. “They’ll also be supporting the next generation of gerontology leaders, which is what we train our students to be.”
HOW ASSISTANTSHIPS WORK
Host organizations usually come to the Gerontology Institute’s assistantship program with a specific project they want a student to complete, says Miller.
“They may have data that they want analyzed, projects that they’re developing, interventions that they might need help putting into place and evaluating,” he says. “They may want to put a process in place to better understand their residents. State partners may want to prepare background documents to help them influence policymaking within their state. The possibilities are endless.”
Students in the assistantship program spend an entire academic year working with their host organizations. Doctoral students are available to work anywhere in the country, either onsite or remotely, depending on how far along they are on their degree paths. Typically, students take classes on the university’s Boston campus during their first three years in the gerontology program.
The process of creating an assistantship starts with a simple conversation between the gerontology program and the organization, explains Miller.
“We discuss what they want to accomplish and how ready they are to take on a student,” says Miller. “And then we connect them with a student so they can see if it’s a good match. We want to make sure that both parties will benefit from the experience.”
Once the details of the assistantship are ironed out, UMass Boston and the organization sign a memorandum of understanding that outlines the student’s scope of work, and the stipend the student will receive for that work. Stipends, paid by the host organization, range from $18,500 to $22,000 for the academic year. Students typically work up to 18 hours a week during the fall and spring semesters.
While host organizations must provide a team member to supervise the student’s work, additional support is always available from UMass Boston, says Miller.
“We want to make sure it’s a good place for our students and that they’ll get good supervision,” he says. “But there is always going to be someone on our end who’s supporting the relationship.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Need help with a project or initiative? Consider welcoming a doctoral student to your organization. Contact Miller (Edward.Miller@umb.edu) for more information.