At the relatively-young age of 27, Zachary Fleck knows more than most people his age about what it's like to be old.
For the past four months he has been living at Gateway Lodge where he has been taking notes and making friends while earning credits towards a degree at the University of Northern British Columbia.
Among the things he learned was that Gateway is a pretty good place to be.
"We talk about aging in place and staying where we've lived but there is a tonne of upside to moving into a place like this," Fleck said.
Fleck was engaging in what is called experiential learning. In addition to dealing with the rest of his course load, he devoted 10 hours each week to spending quality time with seniors living at Gateway.
"Eating meals, doing activities and just sort of hanging out and talking," he said.
Fleck is in his third year at UNBC where he is working towards a degree in international studies. He took the course because his grandparents are moving on towards assisted living.
"So I thought it would be a really good opportunity to come in and learn about what the assisted living situation looked like and to be able to learn from all the residents here," Fleck said.
He was also obligated to organize some activities. Playing Wheel of Fortune and music trivia and watching movies were some of the pastimes he came up with.
Among the most popular was show and tell.
"It went a lot better than I thought it would because you'd think show and tell, it's supposed to be for kids so it could be kind of patronizing, but everyone actually really, really enjoyed it," Fleck said, noting one resident showed up with a $100 Confederate bill.
Residents "absolutely loved to tell their stories," Fleck also said.
Among those who relayed their experiences was 92-year-old Rose Dorish who for years operated House of Flowers and was instrumental in establishing AimHi in the mid-1960s.
Fleck won her seal of approval.
"He was wonderful," Dorish said. "He just loved to listen. In the end, you could feel and see that he was (interested). He wanted to know all about you."
Fleck is third student to participate in the course, which was launched last fall and is part of a larger study into the interactions between old and young being conducted by UNBC professors Shannon Freeman and Dawn Hemingway.
"We're talking to the residents, we're talking to the staff, we're talking to the students," Hemingway said. "Just tracking what kinds of things residents want to do."
They hope to produce some initial findings this summer and embedding students for a whole academic year is also on the agenda.
With an abundance of baby boomers now entering their later years, taking care of them will likely become a career path for more and more young people. Whether he is among them remains to be seen, but Fleck said he's become more secure about getting old.
