The Maryland Higher Education Commission approved the graduate-level Gerontology Certificate program in 2003 for students interested in working with the elderly. To earn a certificate, students must complete five classes and participate in an internship.

Christine Malkiewics ’07, a Social Work major, is enrolled in the program’s first course, “Public Policy and Aging” led by Dr. Alva S. Baker ’66 (pictured above).

“The course is giving us a perspective on policy and a broad view of ways to work with the elderly,” Malkiewics says.

The class is a mix of undergraduate and graduate students, College staff and caregivers for the elderly. Baker serves as administrative director at the Copper Ridge Institute, a center for research, education and care of patients with all forms of dementia. He brings a unique perspective to the course.

“I have been working with older persons my whole practice life as a physician and exclusively since 1994,” Baker says. “So our interest is in promoting whatever will advance care and services for aging persons.”

Gerontology is the interdisciplinary study of aging from a physical, mental, and social perspective.

“People may think of gerontology as a new field, but its origins are in the ancient world,” says Provost Tom Falkner. “The Roman statesman Cicero wrote a treatise ‘On Old Age.’  Gerontology is ideally suited to a liberal arts environment like McDaniel, as it can be approached from many perspectives: psychology, physiology, sociology, anthropology–even literature.”

To that end, the College is planning to develop a Center for the Study of Aging, which would work with and serve the local and regional community. Michael Rosenthal, who chairs the Chemistry department and serves as special assistant to the provost, heads the effort.

“We have a lot of potential to do a community-based initiative that will enhance the College’s mission,” Rosenthal says.

The Center would partner students with local and regional nursing homes, hospitals, care centers and businesses that serve the elderly. It would offer degree, certificate, and non-degree programs.

Currently, the College, with the help of Jan Flora ’68, M.L.A. ’97, retired chief of the Carroll County Bureau on Aging, is writing a report about how both the community and the College would benefit from a Center for the Study of Aging.

“Baby Boomers have started turning 60, and it opens up a whole new market,” Flora says. “Part of the unique goal of what McDaniel is proposing is to bring the campus and community together in order to respond to the needs of this growing population.”