Adult Interview Paper

I had the privilege of interviewing a 60 year old gentlemen who I will identify as Mr. E to protect his privacy for this assignment. The goal of my interview was to gain insight on aging from an older adult. I interviewed Mr. E in his home on a weekday evening. He expressed appreciation and was surprised that he was the focus of an interview in which his life story and thoughts would be recorded.

Introduction of Older Adult – This is the overall context of your interview but should not include the entire interview itself.

In deciding to write about my friend Jane Addams, I knew that it would not be an easy task. Jane is an amazing person who is driven to help all manner of people even though her own life was filled with struggles. Jane brought hope, caring, and love to many people in two centuries, the 19th and the 20th. She lived her life for others by taking her struggles and turning them into ways to alleviate the same for others less fortunate. Jane's learning took her across an ocean and led her to people who would help her on her journey. One of these people was Ellen Gates Starr. Together Jane and Ellen worked for many years as a team to help others.

Listening will be a very big part of our responsibility as future gerontologist. We had the assignment of being a person-centered listener during week 8 and this assignment helped me be more attentive when listening. This week, we are reading The Voices of the Informants, which explores Erikson’s eight psychosocial themes in the experiences of elders moving through old age. According to Erikson, Erikson & Kivnick, “Burdened by physical limitations and confronting a personal future that may seem more inescapable finite than ever before, those nearing the end of life cycle find themselves struggling to accept the inalterability of the past and the unknowability of the future, to acknowledge possible mistakes and omission, and to balance consequent despair with the sense of overall integrity that is essential to carry on. (p.56). These are the issues that older adults faces and when we take the time to listen to the elderly, they will appreciate that someone HEAR them. According to Rogers, “If I can listen to what he can tell me, if I can understand how it seems to him, if I can see its personal meaning for him, if I can sense the emotional flavor which it has for him, then I will be releasing potent forces of change in him.” (p. 332). As we listen, we are learning because the voices of the elderly are full of wisdom as we see when we read the Voice of the Informants. Sometimes the answers to the questions we have about that person is in the stories they tell. I often ask myself how I can prepare myself to be a great gerontologist, the answer lies in being a great listener and learning

Interviewer: “To begin, how did you manage to survive your childhood? Everything about your life growing up seemed so chaotic and difficult, yet you not only survived it, but went on to prosper in New York, despite it being a radically different environment than the one you grew up in.”

My mom, Jenny Ryan grew up North of Manchester Iowa. She was 12 hanging out with her best friend named Sandi Schaffer. Her aunt invited her to go to Washington D.C. She had also got invited to her best friend’s house for a sleepover. She could not decide what she should do.

New York’s DesignTech Services is the leading provider of design training and support in today’s fast-paced, super-exciting fashion industry. The business stands way out from the typical IT company via powerful fashion technology software and related services. Team members from the New York institution recently interviewed Jason McConnell and Meir Erani, aka the founders of Fashion Classroom, an online video classroom for fashion designers. Check out the following wise words from the fashion technology pioneers, including how their classroom formed and why they made the move to designer training.

Both my mother and my step-father are from a small town in Tetzhu located in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico. They met in Dallas through family members from my mother’s side of the family, and had an instant connection. Although my mother already had my brother and I, he still took us in like his own children apart from the fact that he was only 19 years old at that time, and my mother was already about to be 30! Despite their age differences, there are very happy married to this day, and we now are a family of five. My youngest sister is now 8 years old, my brother is 17, and I am 21. We are all a very close family and I truly value what both of my parents have done for my siblings and I. I’m very grateful for having both of

least a week before the final article is done. The last week will be spent

It was the twelfth of September, the leaves were quietly falling off the trees, and the sky was a gloomy shade of gray. Although I was doing the dishes, on my mother's order, I was secretly attempting to get her to sit down, relax, and let me ask her a few questions. My mother is a very busy woman, she does all kinds of things to make the world a better place, for her loving family, and even for the people she doesn’t know. All she could suspect then, is that I mysteriously listened to her directions without arguing. After finishing the dishes, I rushed towards her before she could start something else, I asked her if she could allow me to interview her. Without hesitation, she replied,” Sure, of course you can interview

In the clinical interview, I explained to my client the extent to which his life has been negatively influenced by his alcohol and drug use. His family has confronted client in the past for his drinking and received outpatient treatment. Client would like to improve in his weakness, try to become optimism about the outlook of his future. Continue with his interest in music as a positive alternative and decreased his level of anxiety. Client reports he would comply with any treatment plan. Based on my client assessment, behavioral and group intervention is recommended. Client agreed to participate in an 8- week inpatient behavioral and group therapy substance abuse program. The concerns to address include control of his alcohol intake, drug use and the ability to control anxiety.

There are many simple and challenging decisions that individuals must make as they become older, and while many have fulfilling lives, some still face challenges that require the care and assistance of others. Often, the only way to address these is through the interviewing and teaching of these individuals. This is done by the dissemination of information that may have been previously forgotten, and/or with the presentation of new information based on current research. Both sessions required for this paper occurred at the individual’s home, which he has lived in for well-over 60 years. The environment was clean, warm, and very-inviting, and my initial impressions were very good. The individual was excited about the interview, as he is a very social person and loves to be around people. This paper attempts to present the findings and teaching outcomes of these two interview sessions with this older adult and will discuss some of his viewpoints, perspectives, and the learning that took place.

The person I am interviewing is from a different race than me. I am Asian, and she is Hispanic. She is from a Hispanic descent. Her mother is from El Salvador but she was born here in Dallas. She is also from a different class then me. Her dad left her and her mom before she was even born. She has never seen her father in real life. Bother her parents are uneducated and barely speak English, therefor they are forced to work with various forms of labor jobs. She is from a different class than me. She has never lived anything above poverty and has been working since she was a child. Both she and I grew up in a single parent household. We were both raised by our mothers. We both did not get to spend enough time with our mother because they both work two jobs. The different between my mom and her mom was that my mom was educated and her mom was not. Her mother did not value education. They were just happy that she graduated high school where as me and my mom did not even attend my high school graduation. Instead of spending money on my graduation, we used that money to apply at more colleges because at that time each college application cost was 80 dollars. Her mom wanted to go to school, but her grandmother did not let her go to school and instead made her work so she can provide for the family. When I spoke to the person I was interviewing about whether she wanted to go to college after high school. She stated. “I never even thought about college or the opportunity it could bring to me. I just wanted to get a good job after high school so I can save some money to bring my mother back”. She mentioned to me that her mother had been deported because she did not have the proper documents to stay here in the United States. When her mother was forced to leave, she was staying here with her aunts and cousins. She basically grew up without her mother and father. Now that she has a son she wants him to go to college and cares about education way more than she did when she was in high school.

My great aunt Sergia has been through many challenges and tribulations in life. By looking at her, one may see a short lady with white hair, but will not believe that she is 81 years old. She is an active person who loves to shop for others, spend time outside in her vegetable garden, and is one of the few people I know who enjoys doing house chores. I decided to make a quick trip so that I could conduct the initial interview in person, so I traveled to Austin, Texas where she lives in a beautiful home with her youngest son and his family. The environment in her house was calm and quiet, perfect for beginning the interview. We sat down at her kitchen table and as we faced each other I nervously began to explain what I was about to do and why. As I was explaining she let out a small laugh and explained to me how she’s had to sit down for interviews many times before with her three grandchildren. Being able to hear her story is proof that no matter how tough life gets, having the will and perseverance can make a difference in how life turns out.

In the beginning of this project, I had a hard time figuring out whom to interview since my “successfully aging” grandparents live out of state. Luckily my parents knew of an older Dutch women named Henrietta who they have known since they were my age. I had never officially met her before but my parents told me she had lived an incredible life. I did not know what I was getting myself into, but I decided to trust what my parents said and went to meet this woman. I now realize this was the perfect person to interview. She lives in Santa Clara, just a few blocks away from my parent’s house. The first time I met Henrietta at her house she was using a walker because she had broken her foot and ankle from falling a number of weeks before. Even though she was in a lot of pain, she did not let that stop her from doing the things she wanted to do. Before even talking to her I could already tell that she was a person who loved and valued her family. All around the house there were pictures -old and new- of her family and friends. She was very welcoming and at the age of 80 she is lively and enjoys talking.