Students at Arizona State University (ASU) now have an intergenerational program at their fingertips to help them feel less isolated and lonely. The Friendship Bench program connects students with local senior citizens, giving them an opportunity to talk and interact.
Pencie Culiver, a local 80-year-old who attended ASU in the 1960s, shows up every Tuesday afternoon, sitting at her campus bench with a big “I’m all ears – Talk to me about anything” sign festooned with a cute elephant. She welcomes students to sit for a chat with some staying for a few minutes while others perch for longer.
Even though she’s not a professor or licensed counselor, Culiver said students talk with her about all sorts of things: “Financial problems, roommate problems, girlfriend problems” and even “How do I meet a friend that is like my friend’s girlfriend?” She told ASU News, “I find it energizing, and I feel like I’m helping them. One girl told me, ‘I’ve only been here 15 minutes, but I feel so much better.”
“Just sitting down and talking is great,” ASU student Shafa Zeid told AZFamily. “Just connecting with someone; it’s nice.” “I think it’s great,” said sophomore Gabriel Athouguia. “I think we need people to talk to and she [Culiver] needs people to talk to.”
Not a Counselor
As students talk with her about concerns, Culiver is clear that she’s not there to advise them on serious topics requiring professional guidance. “I’m not here to solve problems,” she said. “I’m here to send them to people that can solve problems.”
Friendship Bench participants attend training before being deployed to their campus benches, according to ASU News. Aaron Guest, a gerontologist and inaugural assistant professor of aging at the Center for Innovation in Healthy and Resilient Aging in the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation, leads the program.
“Many students are not around older adults,” he said. “It's very easy on a campus to become age segregated and forget there's a world around us. This provides an opportunity for students to have a listening ear to process things that they're going through, but also to meet someone from another generation and to engage with them.”
Sources: AZFamily.com, 1/15/25; ASU News, 1/10/25
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