Search Results

< Back Katerina's Story Katerina’s reflection on how repeated experiences with her father’s and uncles’ cancer shaped her relationship with guilt, grief, and appreciating life. 00:00 / 03:53 Interviewer: Tell me about something that’s changed your perspective in life. Katerina: For me, there is no single event in my life that changed my perspective. It was rather a series of events. When I was in middle school, my dad was first diagnosed with cancer. My parents sent me away the weekend of his surgery. They didn't really want me exposed to what was going on. I always had the sneaking suspicion that something wasn't right. After I found out, I was upset with my parents that they didn't tell me. I know they were just trying to, like, protect me. What I knew about, it was the only thing they had control of still at the moment. Thankfully, my dad was okay. But he was not the only one in my life that was struggling with that. My Uncle, Tony, he had been diagnosed with cancer around the same time my dad was. He fought off for a long time, but then everything all at once seemed to come crashing down again. My uncle on my mom's side, my Uncle Vasili or my Uncle Billy, out of the blue, he had been diagnosed with a rare blood cancer. At the same time, my Uncle Tony's cancer had come back. And I remember visiting my Uncle Tony in Florida, and my mom had put him on the phone with my Uncle Billy so they could talk about their experience together. And neither of them knew each other very well. And I just remember them reassuring each other that each other would be okay and they are fighters and they would fight it together. Unfortunately, both of them passed on, and I just felt very stuck and I felt guilty. I hadn't been able to say goodbye to either of them, or I was so sure that they would be okay after that. I remember both of them fondly. I was just very upset that I wasn't able to not even attend the funeral for my Uncle Tony cause he was in Florida. And it was just a sad time with things that seemed to keep happening. Then this past summer, I took a big trip to Europe with my friends that lasted about five weeks. We hit five different countries and it was actually very fun. And I knew my parents would be upset when I told them because I'd never done much without them. But when I told them, my mom was particularly angry for a bit, but then she mellowed out and was saying things like, it's okay. You need to enjoy life and enjoy these moments because they're rare. So I went. When I came back, my dad asked me to go for a ride in the car with him. It was the middle of summer, right before my birthday. That was the car ride where he told me he was sick again. Now my mom's angry reaction and then her sappy things kind of made sense to me. He told me not to cry or be sad because I was a strong one and he would be okay. I remember I started to take more pictures of my dad, had a full head of black hair and it even survived his first round of cancer. So I started taking pictures, cause I want to remember what he looked like before things changed even more. So much changed, both with him physically and with things in my family dynamic. I noticed how weak and sick he was. My mom's tremendous levels of stress. When you told people how, like, pitiful they would be. I was forced to pay attention to my own guilt. I remember I felt guilty for even going on my trip, and I felt guilty for celebrating my birthday, and I felt guilty to even tell people, and then I felt guilty for coming back to school. I think my family was used to dealing and guilt. So much has happened in our past history with illness and death. It has become something I become accustomed to, feeling guilty for being happy and living life. While so many people are struggling, it's not easy to enjoy and remember that good things are still happening. I think that's changed my perspective on life, because while I had felt guilty for so long, no one wants anyone to feel guilty for enjoying things. It's not like their whole life was just this event. They had a whole history of good things that happened to them. And they want me to make those memories too. And my dad is okay now, thankfully. He had his surgery, and he is okay. Currently, as I'm about to graduate, very stressed about finding a job, very much in my head, um, about leaving my family. I need to remember not to worry so much about what could happen. I've learned to be very appreciative of every moment and life as I have it. Previous Next

< Back Mary's Story Mary, motivated by her retirement and the loss of her husband's sister, decided to run a breast cancer marathon in Jacksonville, Florida, which was something she’d never done before. She trained in Antigua, and when her race day approached, her husband warmly rallied up her nieces, daughter, and grandchildren to cheer her on with signs and bells, which gave her the final push to be able to push through to the finish line. She felt an intense sense of pride and joy crossing it, and it made the whole moment even more memorable and sweet, having her whole family beside her to celebrate. As she’s now approaching her 80s, she has sight of winning her age group in the half-marathon and running a 10k alongside her granddaughter. 00:00 / 03:16 Previous Next

< Back Mary Young's Story Mary Young describes, in an interview with Hellen Muma, the cast-off treasures she discovered as a kid—and how those experiences turned her into a life-long collector. She shares a lesson learned from Louis Armstrong’s white handkerchief and remembers a great-aunt who influenced her with the gift of a corrugated gift box. 00:00 / 02:19 So, I know you have a lot of collections, and you keep creating new ones. What are some examples and what made you become a collector? I remember really clearly we lived in a sorta like actually my father taught in a boys boarding school so we lived in a dorm and you would take ethe trash all the way down to the basement to put it in these bins and I was old enough to take the trash down I guess for my mother So i as taking the trash down I went down to the trash room and I saw all this stuff and there was an older couple who worked was on the faculty and they were downsizing and they had piles of stuff and I was immediately really interested in it that was my earliest memory of finding extraordinary things in the trash and I’ve never stopped ever since When I was going through my paternal grandmothers stuff Among all the other stuff I found was a box of buttons I mean some of them were really old some go back to the 19th century and some buttons from when my grandmother during world war 2 was a part of the red cross ambulance driver corps ya know outside of Boston she didn't drive ambulances really but for some reason these women trained for that there were just and there were buttons they came from all different types of people now just women but mostly women the family and ya know from generations of all different people and I think I was already collecting antique buttons and I kind of dumped everything together and I would come up with some buttons from my mother and I’d put those in there and to me it's like this ocean of family history particularly for me of women history and it just is like it all flowed together into this soup and i just love that ya know I have made some things with the buttons like I've decorated some pillows with them I was thinking of framing some maybe I'll do it maybe I won't It's such an immediate connection to generations of women and its different as if I just got something from a tag sale cause this actually had to do something with people in my family who knows what but that's one example of potentially thousands I can tell. Previous Next

< Back Lexie's Story 00:00 / 07:08 Previous Next

< Back Chad's Story Chad discusses his struggles in elementary school with learning disabilities and how it led him to the development of Sudbury Valley Schools and to the career path of community development. Chad talks about how important being a part of a community is, and how important it is to feel heard and respected in a group. 00:00 / 02:58 The first question that I have for you is: What was the most difficult part of school for you? You know again there was no special ed then, saying from the front of the room “Ok Chad what’s the answer to number 2? What’s two times nineteen” and I would get red in the face and now, all the other kids are whipping their heads around looking at me, so it was the kids too so. The hardest part was, I guess you would call it sticking out or the change, the change from fitting in and community, to sticking out as there’s something different here, what’s going on. You know, I was called lazy and a lot of those kinds of things until around 13 years old or something, when they diagnosed a bunch of learning disabilities. You know, it’s like any health diagnosis, somebody could take the diagnosis, let’s say alcoholism, they could take that and say “Oh my god I’m broken! This is never going to get better.” Other can take that diagnosis “Hey, now I know I need to watch out for this, how can I work on that.” So as soon as the mind makes that turn, that change, there is benefit. So, by the time I hit high school I had dropped out so, joining that new school in Framingham was the best thing that could have ever happened. I was accepted for who I was no matter what that small part of me was about. I was kind of, I guess you could call it sitting at the boundary. I was neither at the public high school nor at the prep school, but once I started that new school with the others, I was back in the arms of the community. I mean the Sudbury Valley School prepared me for being a member, you know, being someone who had something to give. “We want to hear from you, what’s your take on this, now what about yours.” And I think being a member of that warming school, and the specific model of the school formed a lot of the rest of my life. Previous Next

< Back Carol's Story Carol talks about her experience traveling to Europe her junior year of college after realizing that she needs to go out of her comfort zone. With support from her friend and her parents, this trip changes her perspective on the kind of person she wants to strive to be, for her career but mostly for herself. The European mindset is what influences her to do things that make herself feel whole like slowing down her day with journaling and yoga. This trip has inspired her to travel for nursing and even ignite the courage to solo trip alone someday. 00:00 / 03:22 Interviewer: Can you tell me about an experience that influenced your life a lot that you felt that you learned something? Carol: I went a trip abroad last year during the spring and before going on a trip abroad I never thought I could do anything like that just because I'm a homebody, I like my own friends and family. And it was a fall semester of my junior year. I realized that I really needed to go out of my comfort zone in order to grow just because I've been so used to being surrounded by my friends and not really branching out. So I decided mid fall to go and before that I was absolutely not going anywhere. I was just going to stay at UMass Amherst and something came over me. One of my friends said to me, you will never be this young and be able to travel the world again and I decided that I really should be able to do that and if I have the opportunity to I would be stupid not to take it. I got on my flight to Barcelona, it was January 11th, and I was so nervous. I remember the week before that, I was crying to my mom and dad. They just kept saying, you are going to have the time of your life. When you come back, you are gonna be a changed person. And I was just like, oh my God, they're not being serious. Like, I'm not gonna be a changed person. But they were right. I was with my two friends, which I know it's not really out of my comfort zone, but it's the best I could get. And we went to 11 different countries and we just traveled the world together and experienced all these different cultures, new friends, and the lifestyle there is quite different than here. It's really relaxed and laid back. There was a saying that I read that people here work to live, but in Europe, people live to work. I think that is so true. When I was there, people were on the street at 12pm, people would be out drinking coffee, enjoying their time with their friends and family. And here, you never really see anybody drinking coffee. They're mostly running to work, getting coffee for work or running back to work. And I really realized that I need to enjoy my life and I don't need to constantly be working, constantly be doing something that leads to work. I need to enjoy it. And these experiences are really what shaped me to who I am. Work won't shape me to who I am. Only the experiences do. So when I came back from abroad, I really decided to live my life and look at my life in a different perspective. I decided to do new things every day that I enjoyed. I tried to put more time for myself into my day-to-day life. And before that, I was just working, constantly doing homework, constantly doing something that will help my future. Even now, I still obviously do that, but now I do more things for myself. Like I meditate each morning. I go to yoga, I journal. And I realized that definitely helped me a lot to become a happier person, just because I saved more time for myself. And I also have gotten more out of my comfort zone. Like now I wanna do a trip alone. I also am going to travel nursing. So I would love to travel alone and work in a different hospital all by myself. I think exposing myself to a different culture and exposing myself to a different country all alone has definitely helped me get out of my comfort zone and try new things. Previous Next

Listen to hear Olivia share her experience taking a gap year after highschool and traveling overseas with a program called ARCC Gap Year. Olivia's Story Listen to hear Olivia share her experience taking a gap year after highschool and traveling overseas with a program called ARCC Gap Year. Olivia's Story 00:00 / 03:18 I had the idea in my junior year of high school. I didn't know what I was interested in. I mean, for a lot of people, I felt like they knew that they wanted to go to college. And I had another idea that I didn't know was another path for me. And so I thought of taking a gap year and not continuing my education right after high school. I really wanted to go to Thailand. I feel like something just sparked it in me. Second semester of my gap year, I went in the beginning of the pandemic. So I went with a program called ARCC Gap Year, and I went with a group and yeah, it was an amazing experience. I do have a special needs sister that makes it kind of challenging to travel. So I never went on really extravagant. vacations. I've only kind of stuck around like the New England area when we travel as a family. And so I think this was a big step for me being away from my family for the first time. And I think it was like the first ever like brave act that I've ever done in my life, especially at like a young age, I think I was 19. You kind of like put a lot of trust in yourself when you're traveling too. And like, since I went with a group, relying on those people that you're traveling with. I did have challenges with health problems a little bit so being able to speak your needs to the group and making sure that you're well, and you're taken into account for. I think I always knew that I wanted to do something that helped people in a way. But I didn't know exactly how I wanted that to look for me. When I went overseas, it translated there too. When I was in a different culture, being with a group especially, I found my sense of community with them and being able to trust them too along this journey and we're all there for like the same situation and same experience too like making memories and experiencing a different culture. And like learning along the way, like learning about a different culture. Yeah, so I think that really translated to when I was overseas. And yeah, I'm really glad I took that initiative to take that leap of faith too, especially. And I mean, I got so much opinions on my, what I was gonna do after high school and especially going out of like the norm of like not going to college right after high school. I got a lot of criticism, especially from family members too, about it. But I knew like within myself that I was doing the best thing for me and that, you only live one life and I think that you should experience all the things you want to experience in this life because you'd never know when a pandemic is going to hit! Previous Next

In the News Our project has been featured in several news articles and videos. Check them out below! New England Public News Feature Dr. Gloria DiFulvio, as well as two participants in the project, Hellen Muma and Johnathan Daube, were featured on New England Public Media's "Connecting Point" to discuss their experience. Dr. DiFulvio also discusses the goals of the project, and what it was like to partner with Northampton Neighbors for this intergenerational storytelling endeavor. Experiential Learning Builds Connection Across Generations - UMass Amherst Feature The course, titled "The Epidemic of Loneliness: On Connection, Belonging, and Public Health," was also featured on the UMass Amherst website. Several other participants were interviewed for the piece and asked about their experiences. Tell Me a Story: Building Connections Across Generations Dr. Gloria DiFulvio was featured on the Northampton Neighbors Speakers Series to discuss the Epidemic of Loneliness course and lessons learned about the meaning of connection over the course of the project. This College Class is Bringing Generations Together To Reduce Loneliness - CoGenerate Feature This piece features participants in the project, Liya Liang and Nina Kleinberg, who discussed what the storytelling project and the course "The Epidemic of Loneliness: On Connection, Belonging, and Public Health" have taught them.

Tell Me A Story: Building Connection Across Generations A Project of University of Massachusetts Public Health Sciences Program and Northampton Neighbors Everyone has a story to share... Public Health students at UMass Amherst paired up with Northampton Neighbors for this storytelling project. We hope you enjoy their stories. Click on the names below to hear their stories. To view more stories, click the tabs in the menu above. You can see stories told by each cohort of students & Neighbors. To listen to the full interviews, click here! New Stories! Ryann's Story Ryann shares how her early love for dance was overshadowed by a highly competitive studio environment where favoritism and pressure made her feel inadequate and disconnected from her passion. Over time, this experience diminished her confidence and enjoyment, leading her to step away from dance after high school. However, upon joining a more supportive and inclusive dance program in college, a teacher helped her rediscover her confidence and love for dance. This renewed encouragement allowed her to see her potential and inspired her to pursue dance more seriously as a future career. Listen Bob's Story Bob discovered a love for education and the performing arts in high school, but took a long detour in life, even considering a career in construction at age 45. A chance encounter with a friend introduced him to the idea of creating an arts school, which aligned perfectly with his lifelong passion. Over 15 years, he built and led the school, which continues to thrive and produce successful graduates. His story emphasizes the importance of staying open to unexpected opportunities and following your true passions. Listen Sally's Story This is the story of Sally's grandmother, a woman who continues to inspire her every day. She has played a vital role in Sally's life, raising her with care, guiding her path, and shaping who she is. Her unwavering dedication, deep compassion, and strength deserve to be recognized. Through her passion and perseverance, she has become not only a role model to Sally, but a symbol of selfless love and resilience. Listen Mary Ann's Story Mary Ann reflects on a life shaped by early loss and resilience, following the sudden death of her father, which forced her family to quickly adapt and develop survival skills. A pivotal moment came when her future husband encouraged her to pursue a long-held but unimagined dream of becoming a doctor. Today, she looks back on a rich, unexpected life filled with family, professional accomplishments, and personal fulfillment, appreciating the support and opportunities that helped shape her journey. Listen Marisa's Story Marisa shares how her mother’s cancer diagnosis and subsequent passing profoundly influenced her life and career aspirations. Witnessing her strength and the care provided by nurses inspired her to pursue nursing, initially through fundraising and advocacy, then by formally studying healthcare. Though faced with challenges in transferring and entering a nursing program, Marisa used the opportunity to study kinesiology and public health, gaining foundational skills for her future practice. Now preparing to enter an accelerated nursing program, she is committed to providing compassionate care in honor of her mother’s legacy. Listen Ralph's Story Ralph reflects on how his understanding of “home” evolved from a physical house to something much deeper and more expansive. While his house feels like home through safety, creativity, and memories, he realize that home is also found in meaningful human connections, whether on a subway, in a restaurant abroad, or within a close-knit community. Through these experiences, he came to see home as something he carry within himself, shaped by relationships, kindness, and shared moments. Ultimately, home is not a single place, but a feeling rooted in connection and belonging. Listen Amelia's Story Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the end of high school, she felt like it held her back for a long time. She pushed herself, though, to run for the first time and hit four miles. Mentally, things shifted, and she realized that diabetes doesn’t have to hold her back. She joined her college’s running club, found her close friend there, who was also her training partner. They completed the Vermont City Marathon together, which was the hardest thing she’s ever had to do physically. In the end though, when she crossed that finish line, she cried tears of happiness with her family by her side, and that moment when she gave her mom a big hug and gave her dad a big hug meant everything to her. Listen David H's Story David describes how his autodidact tendencies and lifelong “obsessions” with computers, photography, biking, and astrology have shaped his relationships and sense of connection to others. Listen Sophy's Story Sophy recalls a dramatic encounter with a ghost in her Brooklyn apartment that left a lasting impact on her life. Listen Elsa's Story Elsa reflects on the lasting impact of her grandfather, who was known for his kindness, empathy, and ability to make everyone feel truly seen and valued. Rather than specific memories, what stands out most is how he made people feel and how he carried that warmth into all his relationships. After his passing, Elsa grew to appreciate him even more through shared stories and the community he touched. Inspired by his legacy, she hopes to carry forward his spirit by creating that same sense of belonging and care for others. Listen Owen's Story Owen describes how becoming a single parent forced him to confront complex feelings of frustration towards his son, and how overcoming these feelings led to their strong friendship today. Listen Emma's Story Interviewed by Linda, Emma discusses the different types of families she grew up with. She reflects on the family she gained throughout her childhood, while also delving into some of the hardships she faced. Emma explains how her family circumstances have truly shaped the person she is today. Listen

< Back Caroline's Story Story Coming Soon! Scroll to listen 00:00 / 02:45 Previous Next

< Back Leslie's Story In this clip, Leslie shares her passion for improving the quality of life for people with disabilities with a specific focus on young children and families. 00:00 / 04:07 Leslie: So my passion has been improving the quality of life for people with disabilities with a particular focus on young children and families in my professional roles. When I was a teenager, I became interested in what we called at the time, “mental retardation”, today known as “cognitive impairment” or “developmental disabilities”. One of my first professional jobs was working in a grant funded program for visually impaired children and adults in a state institution. I was fortunate to be part of the movement in the 1970s to expose the abuses of these institutions and improve the conditions as a result of state and federal lawsuits with subsequent funding. Leslie: As we developed this new program and learned about the ravages of trauma and deprivation of institutional life on those children and adults, we understood that we needed to develop relationships with many other staff. Including those in direct care roles who had been there for generations and were wary of so many new young professionals. When I left that position a few years later, I knew I had learned a lot understood, that I had cultivated some good advocacy skills and appreciated that teamwork was a very powerful approach for effective change. Working in that state institution was a jarring and humbling experience. When I left the position, I was aware that many of the people I had worked with had no one to advocate for them. Leslie: I subsequently became a legal guardian for a woman, Diana. She had been born in the institution to her mother, another resident, who had been abused and suffered from syphilis. Subsequently, Diana was deaf limited vision in one eye. I was able to use my knowledge and relationships with staff to improve the quality of Diana's life, first in the institution, later in a group home. Leslie: In contrast to my first position at the institution, I was honored to be part of the progressive approach to including these children and their communities and supporting parents in providing for their child's needs. Service delivery was based on interdisciplinary teamwork, including parents, educators, nurses, social workers and speech occupational and physical therapists. Our philosophy had that parents and families were the most important members of that team and without their investment, we professionals would not succeed. I often tell the story of one of my first home visits with Bonnie, our team nurse. I remember sitting on the floor observing and interacting with the baby while Bonnie was sitting on the couch talking with the mother. Initially, I was annoyed that Bonnie wasn't assessing the child's needs, but quickly recognized that the conversation and relationship with the mother was the most important part of the visit. Leslie: When I moved into an administrative position in the public schools in the early 2000s, I worked collaboratively with guidance counselors in the high schools for students with disabilities could have more equal access to academics and extracurricular activities. In these public schools I thoroughly enjoyed my role as a team leader, facilitating meetings with parents and staff to create appropriate educational programs for each student. Leslie: The teamwork during my early intervention years and some relationships built at that time remained today. There have been several reunions over the years. We rallied over Zoom during the beginning of the pandemic to honor our colleague, Bonnie, who had passed away and had been a mentor for many of us. We recently had a physical reunion just a couple of months ago, about a dozen women, some from out of state. In addition to discussing everyone's current activities and families, the conversation always comes back to what great work we did in those early years and how important that teamwork was to our success. Previous Next

< Back Savannah's Story Savannah speaks with Dennis about her experience living and working in Washington, DC the summer after her freshman year of college. Savannah discusses her determination to experience somewhere new, and how she was able to make it happen for herself. In her story, she touches on themes of loneliness, independence, family and friendship. Savannah reminds us that while independence is a virtue, we can all use some support to get where we're going. 00:00 / 03:57 So when I was looking at colleges, UMass was just sort of what made the most sense. But I also don't think it was expecting to have, I guess, the tough year that I did. I think UMass is a very big school. And it's an easy place to sort of get lost in. And I was really used to being at home in my hometown in my community that was so familiar. And I had a good group of friends and a good kind of support system. And I kind of went from that to go into this big place that was super vast, where no one's really keeping track of you or worrying about you. And I definitely felt lonely. So at the end of that year, I kind of knew that I had to do something different with my summer, I knew that I needed something that was a little bit more of a leap for me something that was challenging and new. And so I was like, okay, great, it's time to figure out how I'm going to spend the summer. So I ended up applying to an internship program in Washington, DC and spend two months of my summer living there is a really well set up program. And I think what draw me what drew me to it was it was pulling students from across the country around the world to which was really exciting to me. And I think the concept of the program gave me a little bit of the community that I knew I needed. And so once I kind of set my sights on that, at the end of my freshman year, that gave me a little bit of vigor, a little bit of excitement that I think I needed, then it was just time to kind of decide and figure out how I was going to make that happen for myself, I knew that this was going to be a good program, but I had to, like pay for the housing, I had to pay for some of the programming fee and things like that. My next kind of step was I have to find scholarships, I learned quickly that there's money floating around universities and floating around for a lot of the things that you want to do. People just tend to not know that those scholarships, those grants, those things are there. And so they don't look for them. So I made it my goal to find this funding to get me to DC. So that's what I did. I ended up applying to so many scholarships, writing so many essays, and all these different things. So I did get there, I always remember just like sitting on the plane and like taking a breath and being like, Wow, I can't believe I can, if I pull this together, it's amazing. And so from there it was, it was a really wonderful experience. I loved DC living there gave me kind of my first taste of like, what you would maybe call adult life. But I kind of got all I think the best parts of it. I think reflecting the important parts were the social parts and getting to be somewhere new and getting to kind of fulfill the plan that I had for myself, I think maybe twofold. I think I came back with some confidence. And I definitely learned that I had the ability to kind of dictate my environment and kind of get myself out of the funk that I was in, I think was really important. I can definitely see that I've grown in that way. I definitely hold on to that determination that I had and know that it's like still in me, how are you feeling about this next transition? And what do you see is coming next. So I've definitely been pretty stressed about my next transition. I think part of it is because this is something that I never would have, I think believed my freshman year but I have such a good and rich life here at UMass and in Amherst, that I think it feels intimidating to think about moving that somewhere new and even meeting new people. I think I am so kind of comfortable where I am. So I think making that transition is a little bit scary. But I also know that I have done it before when I went to DCA essentially picked myself up and moved to a new city for a couple months. And now it's just kind of doing the same thing, but for a little longer. And so I think I'm trying to harness that sort of can do attitude that I lose a little bit sometimes. And so I kind of try to take that from my summer, and I'm trying to kind of be hopeful and positive and excited. And I think that will serve me well. Previous Next