Five High Schoolers Awarded 2024 OMEGA Scholarships for Intergenerational Efforts

The MIT AgeLab awards annual scholarships to high school students who lead or develop intergenerational programs — initiatives designed to bring together younger and older people — in their communities. In September 2024, with support from AARP Massachusetts, $5,000 OMEGA scholarships were given to high school students across the United States. An additional $1,000 was awarded to each winning intergenerational program to help sustain and grow the students’ efforts.

The scholarship awards come prior to the AgeLab's annual OMEGA Summit for teens interested in intergenerational connections and careers in aging, which will be held on October 26th. Learn more and RSVP here.

OMEGA, which stands for Opportunities for Multigenerational Exchange, Growth, and Action, develops programming and offers scholarships to facilitate intergenerational connections between younger people and older adults in their communities. Intergenerational programs help to strengthen social ties within communities and facilitate knowledge transfer between younger and older adults.

The five scholarship winners and their winning programs are:

Aaron Smolyar of Fort Myers, Florida, currently a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania, was awarded for his co-founding of the Computer Literacy Education Outreach (CLEO) Initiative. The initiative began as a school club in which students made weekly visits to a local retirement home to provide technology support to residents. These visits not only allowed older adults to ask questions and navigate issues related to their smart homes and computers, but they also spurred close friendships between students and residents over time, with teens working to coordinate additional opportunities for engagement—such as bus rides for residents to join students as spectators at their high school’s football games. Over time, the initiative has grown into a multi-state, chapter-based nonprofit organization, with several student clubs engaging more than 1,000 older adults across Florida as well as throughout the U.S.

Avery Liddicoat of Kewaskum, WI, now in her first year at University of Wisconsin-Madison, was awarded for her contributions and leadership of Kewaskum High School’s Kettle Moraine Gardens Volunteer Group. Avery joined this school-based club early on in high school, participating in weekly visits to a local assisted living facility. In her junior year, Avery stepped up as the group supervisor, overseeing the club’s weekly operations and serving as a liaison between the club and the facility. Wanting to expand the program’s impact, Avery spearheaded an effort to organize an annual Prom Dance event for students and residents. The event has been a massive success over the past two years, helping to deepen connections between residents, students, and even residents’ family members.

Charlie Martin, currently a senior at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, MD, was awarded for his contributions to the Bethesda African American Cemetery Coalition. The coalition aims to end the desecration of the historically Black Moses African Cemetery and preserve the history of the Black River Road through community action, education, and support. In his role as a youth member of the coalition, Charlie has worked to strengthen the intergenerational nature of the coalition’s work and bridge the gap between older members of the coalition and local youth by recruiting local students from across the county. Charlie has also worked to preserve older coalition members’ personal narratives through the creation of oral histories and worked toward the future creation of a local historical museum.

Claire Jiang, currently a senior at Pace Academy in Atlanta, GA, was awarded for her co-founding of Sketching with Seniors, a national community-based initiative that aims to connect younger and older community members through student-led art workshops at local senior centers, retirement homes, and assisted living facilities. The initiative began in early 2023 when Claire partnered with a local assisted living facility to lead free weekly art workshops for residents and classmates. The workshops fostered close friendships between students and older adults as they drew and painted alongside one another. Following local expansion and widespread interest, Sketching with Seniors quickly grew into a national, chapter-based organization, with Claire implementing a curriculum to enable high school students from across the country to create their own local chapters and host workshops. Claire has also led art supply kit drives and distribution events to expand access to the initiative.

Mirei Saneyoshi, currently a senior at Lexington High School in Lexington, MA, was awarded for her founding and leadership of Chinese Games for Seniors (formerly Learn Mahjong Club), a school-based club in which students visit Greater Boston-area older adults and veterans to teach and play Mahjong, a Chinese game. Mirei has developed training for students not only in Mahjong play, but also the cultural significance of the game and strategies for teaching each partner site’s unique audiences. The club has established strong partnerships with organizations including the Lexington Community Center, the Chinese American Association of Lexington, and Bedford Green (Veterans Affair housing facility). Mirei looks forward to using the match award to purchase additional Mahjong scorecards for partner sites, enabling veterans to play the game on their own without the time constraints of the club’s weekly sessions.

The AgeLab’s OMEGA program works in a variety of ways with students to develop their intergenerational programs, including chat hours, events and tables at high schools, and the AgeLab’s annual OMEGA Summit.

On Saturday, October 26th, 2024, the AgeLab will hold the virtual OMEGA Summit virtually for teens interested in intergenerational connections and careers in aging. Learn more and RSVP here.