HOPE Foundation November 2011

Posted by on 3 November 2011

As most readers of this newsletter will be aware, each year the Foundation sponsors two summer research studentships for undergraduates mainly but not exclusively from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of The University of Auckland. (This is in addition to the scholarships we fund at Master’s and Doctoral level elsewhere.)

The students spend approximately two months over the long vacation undertaking research projects that have a bearing on ageing, supervised by senior teaching staff of the Faculty.

Most of the projects are part of a larger research programme involving a team of investigators. We do it primarily to encourage young scholars to realize that research on ageing is a worthwhile long-term focus. The spin-off is that by donating funds that largely originate from the benevolence of older people, we are attempting to create a balance between the needs and aspirations of young people and the welfare of older people who will eventually benefit from the research. It is a model the community needs to take on board. For if we are not careful to look out for each other in an ageing society, we will face rising tensions at both ends of the adult age – range.

In this newsletter you will find brief descriptions of the experience of the two students sponsored over the 2010 – 11 summer vacation. As a condition of the grant, the Foundation asks the students and their supervisors to report on their experience to a combined meeting of the Friends of the Foundation and the N.Z. Association of Gerontology. This has value for all parties. The audience gets to hear about cutting edge research on ageing in lay language, the Foundation gets to hear how its money has been spent, and the students get the opportunity to present their material at a (friendly) public forum and answer questions about it. Sooner or later all professionals have to front up to an audience and these sessions are often the first time the students have done it. The Foundation is the only funder of research studentships that encourages such feedback. The University is highly supportive of our approach. The Dean of Research in the Faculty, Professor Louise Nicholson says that she wishes more donors would follow our example. Don’t you agree that it is enormously gratifying that this programme, to which we all contribute, is having a multiplicity of positive effects? Thanks for your continued support.

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