Connecting Across Generations, Students and Older New Yorkers Explore What It Means to Feel Well

Heartwarming course alert! Each student in NYU Steinhardt’s "Wellness and the Human Connection" class is paired up with a local older adult, forming close relationships through weekly interviews over the course of the semester and ultimately writing an oral history of the person's life. The interdisciplinary course—co-taught by occupational therapy professor Janet Njelesani and professor of history and education James Fraser— explores the history of and physical, social, emotional, intellectual, occupational, and spiritual components of wellness and illness from ancient times through the present, considering social, political, economic, racial, gender, and cultural forces that shape how those concepts are experienced and understood. It is open to all undergraduates and counts toward the child and adolescent mental health studies (CAMS) minor.