Senior seminar class broadens relationship with older members of the Greensburg community

Fourteen seniors at Seton Hill University (SHU) joined together this semester to better the lives of some of our senior citizens as part of their Senior Seminar service project. The Senior Sem. class partipated in several activities to help out our senior citizens as well as the Greensburg community. The students spent an afternoon at Pershing Square high rise, cleaned up local parking lots, visited six local senior citizens to help spruce up their homes, hosted a dinner at SHU and also worked to renovate Mt. Odin park. The students also sold t-shirts in the cafeteria to raise money.

By Jessie Krehlik

SHU News Editor

Fourteen seniors at Seton Hill University (SHU) joined together this semester to better the lives of some of our senior citizens as part of their Senior Seminar service project. The Senior Sem. class partipated in several activities to help out our senior citizens as well as the Greensburg community. The students spent an afternoon at Pershing Square high rise, cleaned up local parking lots, visited six local senior citizens to help spruce up their homes, hosted a dinner at SHU and also worked to renovate Mt. Odin park. The students also sold t-shirts in the cafeteria to raise money.

“Although we haven’t reached out to multitudes of people, I think that our main goal was more focused on the impressions we made on the people we did meet,” senior Alexandra Christoff.

“It was frustrating that we were not able to implement our project sooner; it took a while for all of the elements to fall into place, which made the final weeks of the semester relatively hectic,” said senior Matthew Henderson.

Junior Angela Palumbo agreed: “It just took a lot of time to get rolling. If you want to do something like this, make sure you start working early.”

However, despite their late start, the Senior Sem. class made huge strides to improve the relationship between the Greensburg community and the SHU community. “Our main goal was to project a positive image of the students of SHU and hopefully plant the seeds for a blossoming relationship between the school and Greensburg’s community,” said Christoff.

Christoff’s favorite part of the project was when the seniors visited Pershing Square. The group of students ate doughnuts and played games with senior citizens. “I played Dominos with a group of women, and they kicked my butt. I only won once! They were really great and we chatted the whole time,” Christoff said, who also shared that she initially worried the meeting could turn awkward. “They really enjoyed having us over and it put me in a great mood for the whole rest of the day.”

“I’ve learned that the little things can matter,” said Henderson. “While our project wasn’t very obviously wide-reaching in its scope, I can see now how having nicer parks and parking lots can brighten someone’s day. Just talking with a senior citizen who might be lonely can have a very significant impact on that person’s life.”

“Sometimes we assume that after a certain age, our grandparents and our parents become less excited for fun, but this experience has taught me that this is certainly not true,” said Christoff. “They were always excited to see us, loved what we were doing, helped us, fed us, and were even more rambunctious than we were.” During Christoff’s home visit, she and her partner cleaned up the yard around the house.

“Too often people gravitate to puppies and children, but senior citizens really, really need the help and attention. They love it when people come to see them because it gives them a chance to share their past experiences. They can give you advice, and it gives them a feeling of purpose,” Palumbo said.

“I would definitely love to go back to the high rise for another game day and spend a few more days with Tom. Our senior home visits got pushed back a lot so we didn’t get to meet with our seniors as much as some would like,” Palumbo continued.

Henderson would also like to revisit his senior: “Being 95, she had lived through quite a lot and had numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It was very nice to hear her talk about what sounded like a very loving and supportive family.”

Like Palumbo, Christoff would return to Pershing Square if she had the chance. “They were so fantastic and they invited us back if we had the time, but with other aspects of our project, we never got to go back,” said Christoff.

Each of the students felt that they made a significant difference in the community as well in the lives of their seniors. “It is really apparent that our senior, Tom, loves to talk. It just makes him so happy to be able to share information about his past with us,” said Palumbo. “He took Greta and I all around his house and showed us old pictures, article clippings and awards.”

“We had great aspirations when we began our project,” said Christoff. “We hoped to promote unity between the Greensburg community and the University.” The Senior Seminar class also endeavored to reach out to people internationally from their course blog entries (blogs.setonhill.edu/seniors-helping-seniors/).