 Name: Tetyana Pylypiv Shippee
Hometown: Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine Area of Study: Sociology and Gerontology What college degrees do you have? Where and when did you receive them? 2001: AA in General Studies, Olney Central College, Olney, IL 2003: B.A. in Sociology, Lee University, Cleveland, TN 2004: Law degree, Precarpathian University, Ukraine 2005: M.S. in Sociology with a minor in Gerontology, Purdue University When did you come to Purdue? August 2003 Why did you choose Purdue? I wanted to work with Dr. Kenneth Ferraro, a well-known scholar in medical sociology and gerontology. Also, Purdue offered unique opportunities for service-learning. Specifically, Purdue partnered with a retirement community to foster greater interaction between gerontology graduate students and older adults. As part of this program, I lived in a retirement community for two academic years and carried out a research project while living there. What are you currently working on in your research? Currently, I am working on two main projects. First, for my dissertation, I am studying social integration among older adults in retirement homes. Second, Dr. Ferraro and I are co-authoring articles on social inequality in access to medical care, specifically, how race and racial discrimination affect access to and choice of medical care. What’s your favorite part about Purdue? I appreciate the supportive atmosphere that is fostered by the faculty of Center on Aging and the Life Course. The interdisciplinary approach that Purdue provides makes learning very exciting and provides opportunities for greater collaboration/networking with faculty in different disciplines. |
The most frequently asked questions we've gotten so far: Q: How many other grad. students are in the CALC program? A: between 30 and 40 Q: How often do you see the other gerontology students? A: If we are in the same classes, every week. But if not, we usually see each other once a month at the symposiums or other CALC social events. We've developed into a really tight group of friends. And even though we're from different departments, it's amazing how much our grad. school experiences are the same (like the fact that we're all Starbucks coffee adicts). Q: What do you think makes CALC so unique? A: Most of us came to the program already interested in aging, and now that we're involved in CALC, we see how much broader of a scope aging is. It is not just about older adults; it's the study of aging throughout the life course. Babies are aging, cancer cells age, animals age, you age and I age. |