Program Creates ‘Perfect’ Cross-Generation Connections

Judy Labovitz finds it difficult nowadays to leave her retirement home in East Lansing, Michigan. So when she learned about Perfect Pair, a program that connects older adults with college students, she was eager to participate.

Labovitz, 86, meets every week during the school year with Jaden Klaphake, a junior at Michigan State University who is majoring in social work. The two like to compare books they have read, and Labovitz says, “Most of the hour or hour and a half we spend together gets eaten up with how our lives are going.”

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Founded at the University of Michigan in 2020, Perfect Pair now operates on 35 college campuses across the country, matching older adults and younger people based on interests so they can spend time together.

Emily Lerner, the organization’s founder and executive director, says that because her mother worked in senior care, she felt like she had “40 extra sets of grandparents” while she was growing up. When Lerner left for college in Ann Arbor, she felt isolated and decided to start volunteering with older adults. After graduating, she started Perfect Pair in hopes of giving other students the connections and mentorship she benefited from by visiting with older residents.

For college students away from home, “It can be really isolating only to be around other young people in such a contained environment,” Lerner says.

Isolation can also affect residents in retirement communities, which is why Perfect Pair chapters seek to form relationships with nearby facilities. There are currently 46 pairs at the University of Michigan and 10 at Michigan State.

“It’s really rewarding to talk to someone who has so much wisdom,” says Klaphake, the student who meets with Labovitz.

Forging meaningful connections across generations is key to creating communities that work for all ages, says Sadie Shattuck, staff lead for AARP Michigan’s Thought Leadership Council, a group of young volunteer leaders who help raise awareness of aging-related issues.

Lerner — although no longer a student herself — has kept up the friendship with her match. “She’s lived through a lot more things than I have and has a lot more perspective,” she says. “I hope she gets as much from our friendship as I do.”