I just finished grading an aging and development course assignment for undergraduates and one of the students responded about how generativity (from Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development) is about how those in the middle adulthood are “focused on the well-being of future generations.” Yes, I am in “middle adulthood,” but I have always cared about the well-being of future generations both personally and professionally. I think it is why I value mentorship very much. During my undergraduate and graduate education and training, mentorship has been very meaningful to me because I know that I would not be where I am in my career without the support of my mentors. In particular, I remember after defending my dissertation, thanking my mentor Martha Storandt. PhD, for advising and believing in me throughout my time in the graduate program.
As stated in my president candidate statement, I want to promote mentorship and other types of support for those who go into the fields of adult development and aging, as well as geropsychology at all stages in their professional development. It is also why I have been very happy to co-chair Division 20's mentorship match program for the past couple of years. Mentoring is a meaningful generative activity to support and inspire future and early career psychologists to work with and for older adults. Excitingly, we have plans to have a mentoring event at the next APA conference this August 2023.
Munching with the Mentors is a mentorship meet and greet event with a panel of APA Division 20 Adult Development and Aging and Division 12 Section 2 Society of Clinical Geropsychology mentors answering professional development questions from graduate students and early to mid-career members. Mentors will share insights and advice related to the following mentoring areas: 1) research and receiving external funding; 2) teaching and mentorship; 3) career development, and 4) how to get engaged in APA divisions at all stages of career. The purpose of this event is to support graduate students and early to mid-career members in two interrelated fields of adult development and aging and geropsychology through advising and networking. To facilitate the event, the mentees will be given a survey of questions they have related to the 5 mentoring topics and then summarizes to the mentors to prepare responses. After the panel Q and A, the mentors will be assigned to mentee tables that will be grouped and matched on the listed mentorship areas. There, the mentees can ask the mentors more specific questions. This event will include lunch for the participants. If you are interested in being a mentor for the event, please reach out to me !
Another way to support students and early career psychologists to go into the field of adult development and aging, is by providing more funding opportunities. Under the leadership of 2017-18 Past President Joseph Gaugler, the Executive Committee of Division 20 agreed to establish a fund for Division 20 in collaboration with the American Psychological Foundation (APF) by seeding an initial $20,000 with the intent to ultimately result in a $100,000 endowment fund. This Division 20 Fund will eventually support a number of early career outreach efforts. Specifically, this fund would support graduate students and early-career psychologists interested in adult development and aging via travel stipends, awards, and similar initiatives to better engage the future of Division 20. We hope that Division 20 will become an important professional home so that they can inspire others to be in the field of adult development and aging in the future. Learn more about the Division 20 APF Fund and contributeopens in new window.
These past and current presidential initiatives align well with the mission statement of Division 20 to have “academicians, researchers, practitioners, and students” in areas that “focus on growth, development, and challenges during adulthood and old age.” By providing financial support and mentorship, we are taking concrete actions to meet the “generativity” goal of promoting the “well-being” of future psychologists in aging fields and the “well-being” of our division for years to come.