Dr. John Scott, Co-organizer

The Institute for Learning in Retirement (ILR) is a cooperative venture among Oak Hammock, UF and Elderhostel. Continuing education programs are presented by University of Florida professors,  as well as experts in particular fields of study – and classes are held on the Oak Hammock campus. For many years, the ILR has showed substantial support for research and training in aging at UF. The ILR sponsors annual mentor and student research awards.

Student paper competition

This year, ILR invited students and emerging professionals (graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and possibly undergraduate first authors) to present at the "ILR/UF Student Research-on- Aging Symposium" on Tuesday March 15. All research presented was expected to address topics related to aging, late life, adult development, and/or associated age-related conditions/phenomena (e.g., dementia, physical disability). The twelve student papers presented were selected from a larger set of outstanding submissions; those selected for the program received top scores in the areas of scientific merit, clarity, and interest to a lay audience.

Judging of spoken presentations

A panel of three judges, comprised of ILR members, evaluated all presentations. Dimensions judged included: Aging relevance, clarity of topic/application, originality and organization, depth of understanding, visuals, oral skills, vocal clarity, professionalism, acknowledgement of collaborators, response to questions.

The presentations were uniformly excellent, and ILR members indicated that it was likely they would host an event like this again in a subsequent year. Presentatins were interesting and, per the ILR judges, highly relevant to our late-in-life experiences. Judging the presentations by three ILR members was not an easy task as all presentations were very worthy. 

The three highest ranked presentations were:

• Meagan Farrell,The Influence of Phonology on Age-Related Changes in Word Retrieval
• Torrance Higgins, Evaluation of Self-Efficacy and Anxiety on the Use of Compensatory Strategies 
• Jared Tanner, Dissociating Gray and White Matter Contributions to Verbal List-Learning and Memory 

A copy of the full program, with abstracts, may be found here.  The images below capture snapshots of this special day.

	Speaker	Title	Other Authors / Mentors
	Bell, Heather	Relationships in Mid-Life and Older Women's Team Sport	Heather J. Gibson
	Cannell, Michael	Severity of Disability May Lead to Increased Risk of Cognitive Decline	Bouldin, ED;Akhtar, WZ; Andresen, EM
	Oh, Hunhui	Wisdom in Life: Searching for the Roots of Positive Human Development throughout the Life Course	Monika Ardelt
	Farrell, Meagan	The Influence of Phonology on Age-Related Changes in Word Retrieval	Abrams, L.
	Jordan, Lizabeth	Blunted Emotional Memory in Parkinson's Disease Patients	Bowers, D.
	Higgins, Torrance	Evaluation of self-efficacy and anxiety on the use of compensatory strategies during daily tasks among pre-clinically disabled older adults	Janelle, CM, Naugle, KM, Knaggs, J, Hoover, BM, Manini, TM
	Burns, Margaret	Evaluating Self-Performed Acupressure for Sleep and Chronic Pain in Older Adults	Yoon, S.
	Hernandez, Anne	Driving missing events in persons with dementia	Buckley, A., Rowe, M., Greenblum, C., Seale, J.A.
	Tanner, Jared	Dissociating Gray and White Matter Contributions to Verbal List-learning and Memory	Price, C., Towler, S., Moran, S., Libon, D.
	Latham, Kenzie	Nursing Home Stays and the Pace of Severe Disability Onset	Peek, C.
	Lee, John	Fractures in Elderly Emergency Department Patients	Stead, LG; Nayfield, S
	Bennett, Crystal	Effects of Line Dancing on Balance in Older Adults with Mobility Difficulty	Roberts, B.