Amber Beeson is a BSN student, and one of the center 2025-2026 Healthy Aging Scholars. Her project is on “Analyzing musician perspectives in co-designing music-based memory loss programming”, and her faculty mentors are Basia Belza and Sarah McKiddy.

Why did you choose to go into nursing?

One of the main things that brought me to nursing was watching my family members as they navigated the healthcare system. Growing up, I would go with my mom and my grandma to a lot of their appointments. They speak primarily Vietnamese, but they are able to speak a conversational level of English. They wanted to bring me with them because they were scared they wouldn’t get all of the information. When I did go with them, I noticed that providers would oftentimes default to speaking to me and having me relay information, or asking me information about my mom or my grandma without directly consulting them.

These experiences helped me realize how easy it is for patients to lose their own voice in their care, especially when there are those language barriers. It inspired me to become a nurse who advocates for people, giving them an environment to feel heard, respected, and safe in healthcare.

What interests you about the area of healthy aging?

Going back to what drew me into nursing, the idea of helping people, keeping their voice and dignity in all of their healthcare choices is what also draws me to healthy aging. Growing up, I lived with my grandma my entire life. I watched her over time lose independence, and saw how detached she would get from the rest of us, because of her lack of opportunities for engagement.

I realized that aging is more than managing people medically, but it’s also finding ways for them to keep maintaining their identity, their purpose, allowing for them to connect with the people around them.

I’m interested in finding ways to create environments where older adults are able to be supported, not only physically and medically, but also socially and emotionally.

Have you had past experience working with older adults before starting the nursing program?

I used to work as a CNA in a skilled nursing facility, and I worked in transition care. Working there, I realized how important it is to help these older adults maintain their independence, especially in that transitional care setting, where they’re relearning a lot of things.

Right now, I work as a patient care technician in the hospital. I work float pool, and I realized no matter where you work, every unit I go to, there’s always older adults.

How did your time working a CNA and a patient care technician inform what you’re doing now in your nursing program?

Connecting it to my research project, my research focuses a lot on community-based engagement for older adults. Working with older adults, I’ve developed more of an interest in finding ways to support older adults, both socially and emotionally, and I think one of the best ways to do that is community-based projects.

Could you briefly describe your research project?

Sarah’s work focuses on the establishment of this partnership between the Memory Hub, which is a dementia-focused community center here, and the Seattle Chamber Music Society String Quartet in Residence, in order to help bring music-based programming to the Memory Hub. My project builds off of this, analyzing a focus group that Sarah conducted with the string quartet.

The goal is to understand the perspectives of the musicians in these partnerships and be able to provide recommendations for future collaborations. How we can support these musicians as they’re working with a new population for them? How can we provide recommendations for how these musicians can structure their programming, as well as their rehearsals, to be prepared to work with people living with dementia? How they can adapt their performances to accommodate these communities?

Why is the work that you’re doing on this project important to do?

Although there’s a lot of research coming out explaining the benefits of music-based programming for older populations, I haven’t been able to find a lot of research talking about the musicians and their experiences with this population. I think this project will help fill in that gap in research.

This will help us provide more evidence-based recommendations for how these programs can be structured in the future, not only focusing on what people living with dementia think, but also translating those concepts for musicians to implement them.

Chiayu Chen is one of the de Tornyay Center for Healthy Aging’s 2026-2027 Healthy Aging Scholars. Her project is on “Support Transitions Between Levels of Care at a local retirement community”, and her faculty mentor is Jamie Young.

Why did you choose to go into nursing?

It started with my grandfather, who had liver cancer. During that time, he was very depressed, overwhelmed, and anxious about his diagnosis.

However, the nurses on the medical team were very supportive. They cared not only for my grandfather’s condition but also supported my family when we felt overwhelmed. That was when I realized that a nurse’s job is very meaningful. They are the people who care for patients during vulnerable and difficult times.

What interests you about healthy aging and working with older adults?

I started to get interested in healthy aging because I noticed different health patterns in my family members. For example, my grandfather had an unhealthy lifestyle and didn’t take care of himself. But my grandmother paid attention to her health and stayed active, both mentally and physically, and also volunteered, even when she was already 80 years old. I saw completely different outcomes in my grandparents, so that was when I started to think about what factors lead to healthy aging.

Also, during my clinical rotation, I worked with many elderly patients. They were experiencing life changes and adjusting to new stages of life, trying to build a new identity, and dealing with social isolation.

So both my personal experience and my clinical experience sparked my interest in healthy aging.

You mentioned you’ve worked with older adults in your clinical rotations. Did you have previous experience working with older adults before that?

I have experience caring for older adults, especially patients with dementia, from my time working in an acute psychiatry unit. These patients were often quite challenging because many of them were unable to care for themselves, which placed a significant burden on both healthcare providers and their families.

In addition, I volunteered at an Active Aging Center, where we organized activities such as karaoke, gentle exercise, handicrafts, and even a fashion runway. Through these experiences, I learned that older adults can still be active members of the community, and I also realized the importance of dementia prevention in maintaining their quality of life.

How do you feel like the work that you did with patients with dementia ties into the work that you’re doing now?

Because of these experiences, I became more interested in early identification and prevention. In my current project, which focuses on supporting transitions between levels of care, I’m trying to help staff recognize early signs of decline and respond earlier.

So instead of waiting until patients reach a crisis point, the goal is to support them earlier and help maintain their independence and quality of life as much as possible.

What is the project that you’re doing with the de Tornyay Center Scholarship?

My project focuses on supporting transitions between different levels of care at a retirement community. Currently, they have two sectors: independent living and assisted living.

Right now, they don’t have very clear guidelines for the transition, such as when residents should transition and what the requirements are for assisted living. We also found that many residents have stigma toward assisted living and are hesitant to move forward. Sometimes, they are not aware of their mental and functional decline.

My focus is on educating non-clinical staff to better recognize and assess residents’ functional decline. They are the people who interact with residents most often and can notice changes in their function. I developed a checklist for them and provided examples to help them better understand what functional decline looks like, so they can assess residents and start conversations about transitions earlier.

Why is work important to do?

Currently, there is a gap in evidence. There isn’t enough research on transitions from independent living to assisted living, so it is difficult for facilities to find clear guidance to follow.

At the same time, the retirement community I’m working with does not have structured training or a shared documentation tool for staff to communicate changes in residents’ conditions.

So in my project, I’m reviewing existing evidence and working closely with staff at the site to develop a checklist that is tailored to their needs. This helps create a more structured way to recognize decline and improve team communication.

I think this work also benefits residents, their families, and the community. If residents can stay safe and supported in their current setting, we can reduce emergency visits and medical costs, and also relieve some of the burden on families.

While you’ve been working on this project, has there been anything that surprised you?

What surprised me the most is that there are many issues to address. I see there are opportunities for future students to explore residents’ hesitation about transitions and the barriers to moving between levels of care. So I think there is still a lot we can do, and what I’m doing right now is just the first step.

Michelle Thomas is a DNP student and one of the de Tornyay Center for Healthy Aging’s Healthy Aging Scholars. Her project is on “Improving Timely Colonoscopy Follow-up after Abnormal Fecal Immunochemical Test Results in the Veteran Population.”  Her mentors are Katherine Murrow and Brenda Zierler.

Why did you choose to go into nursing?

I have been a nurse for 15 years and I elected nursing when I was in undergrad.

I’d actually been admitted to the business school, and I intended to become an accountant. Then, once I started my undergrad education, I was surrounded by people who were really passionate about the things that they were pursuing, and I found that was not how I felt about accounting.

I was searching for something where I could spend my life giving back to my community, and I felt like nursing was the way that I was going to be able to do that.

What about nursing made you feel that was the way you wanted to give back?

I liked the challenge of it. I appreciated that there was lifelong learning associated with it, and that I got to engage with people from diverse backgrounds, across ages and lived experience. It aligned with my interest in humanities and the sciences, and interacting with people and supporting people on their own journey.

What interests you about healthy aging?

I’ve been a nurse for quite a while and have seen that, over time, we are caring for people in an older age range that have a higher burden of chronic diseases, who are needing to manage complex medical regimens. I felt like primary care was what was needed to promote vitality, to support their specific goals of aging, and to avoid people getting lost in the world of specialists and ensure that patients’ goals and quality of life and desires are upheld.

What past experience do you have working with older adults?

I have always worked with adults throughout my nursing career. I worked in acute care as an oncology and nephrology nurse. After this, I worked for a long time in endoscopy, which is gastroenterology concerns and liver disease, things like that, which tend to be skewed to an older adult population.

All of those experiences endeared me to people who have lived a lot of life, and have unique perspectives, and have oftentimes a lot of interesting things to share. That really made me want to serve that community.

Can you briefly describe the project you’re working on with the de Tornyay Center scholarship?

My project is working within the VA Puget Sound Health System. The goal of the project is to improve colorectal cancer screening completion rates within the Veteran population in this area. One way we’re looking at doing that is to improve the number of people who get a diagnostic colonoscopy after they have a Fecal Immunochemical Test (FIT)-positive result. A FIT test is a stool-based colorectal cancer screening method.

If you get a positive FIT test, you have to have a colonoscopy. The research suggests that a colonoscopy should be done within 6 months, because the FIT test may indicate that there’s an advanced adenoma that is likely near conversion to cancer. The longer we wait, the higher likelihood that that will convert into a cancer versus a precancerous lesion or a high-grade precancerous lesion. Right now, about 61% of the Veterans in the Puget Sound system with a positive FIT get the screening done within a year.

The VA has gone to a mostly FIT-based screening program, which is unique for a health care system.  The VA also considers colorectal cancer a presumptive condition, meaning they presume it to be likely linked to a Veteran’s service.

My project is looking to improve the way that we collect data, to get a good reporting tool in place, so that we can determine who needs follow-up on their FIT positive results. Then, I’m going do a few education pieces with the primary care providers across the Puget Sound system, and we’re also doing a little side piece of trying to integrate some AI tools that some of the providers are working on to improve our chart review.

Could you talk a little more about education part of your project?

I’m doing a multi-level intervention, meaning, we’re trying to address multiple pieces all at the same time. One thing I’m doing is education with the providers to let them where we’re at as far as colonoscopy completion rates; the goal, which is more than 80%; and the major barriers we are seeing from the data review that are interfering with our ability to meet that goal.

Has there been anything that’s surprised you so far while working on the project?

You would think many of the barriers to care would be easy to figure out. Then, once you get into the data, you really uncover how many people need to be involved in those changes. There has to be system-wide changes, there have to be provider-level changes, and then there also has to be patient-level changes, meaning ways that we can provide education and cultural understanding of what screening even means. There’s a lot more complexity to it.

Li Downs is a DNP in Nursing Science student and one of the de Tornyay Center’s 2025-2026 Healthy Aging Scholars. Her project is on, “Enhancing Education on Post-Intensive Care Syndrome: A Nurse-Led Quality Improvement Initiative in the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit at Harborview Medical Center” and her mentors are Maya Elias and Kristine McGlennen.

Why did you choose nursing?

It’s one of the most trusted professions in the United States, and I wanted to make an impact in people’s lives. I always had a science-based mind, and I was really interested in human anatomy. My aunt was a nurse, and my grandfather was a doctor who were both inspiring and great role models for me.  As I grew up, I was more drawn to the role that nurses have in healthcare and the impact that they have on patients’ experiences while in the hospital.

What interests you about healthy aging and working with older adults in general?

I am very interested in working with the older population, and not just because we have an aging population. Older adults have so much wisdom, so when you’re caring for them, you’re learning from them and their life experience.

I initially wanted to be in pediatrics, because my aunt was in pediatrics. Then, when I started doing my rotations, I enjoyed talking to the people that reminded me of my grandparents. I felt like I could identify with them better.

As I got into my nursing career you start to see trends, especially in the older population, of things that you could work to prevent or have better outcomes. Falls is the big one that I think of that you can do a lot of education and community engagement to prevent. There’s a lot of areas in medicine and community engagement where you can help older adults, make a big impact, and prevent worse outcomes.

What drew you to getting your DNP?

During COVID I was very inspired by the nurse practitioners I worked with, and how they stepped up to help fill the gaps that we were having in patient care. Watching them command a room, make decisions, and drive the management plans inspired me to want to be in that role and be able to step up.

Also, the DNP program gives you the resources to make systemic change in a healthcare system. It helped me feel like I was better prepared to be a leader in the healthcare system. I was actually doing a quality improvement project the year before I applied to the DNP program. The impact of that project really inspired me to apply, because I felt like I could do more of it with this degree, and have a bigger impact on how we change our care policies.

Could you briefly describe what your project is on for your de Tornyay Center scholarship?

The point of this project, and specifically the section that I’m focusing on with the de Tornyay Center, is providing post-intensive care education to nursing staff and advance practice providers about inpatient interventions to prevent post-intensive care syndrome.

Post-intensive care syndrome is this syndrome that develops in ICU survivors, and it has a physical, cognitive, and psychological component. The physical is the muscle wasting, the ICU-acquired myopathies. The cognitive is poor word finding, impaired executive function, difficulty concentrating, and memory issues. And the psychological is depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, sleep problems, and nightmares.

This can develop in 50 to 80% of patients. It can be debilitating and can last months to years. It has a huge impact on quality of life, people’s ability to return to work, their relationships with their families, and being able to walk and eat on their own.

This project is focusing on increasing education, because there’s no formal education at Harborview in any of their ICUs right now. We’re focusing on the neuro-ICU because it’s a very underrepresented population in research. We’re working on increasing education through presentations, a flyer, and general unit engagement.

Our hope is by educating the staff that it will help them think more critically about interventions, what they can do to prevent it, and also help them talk to patients about it.

You mentioned inpatient interventions. What types of interventions are those?

A lot of it has to do with delirium prevention. The ABCDF bundle is a researched, well-known, delirium prevention checklist of things you should be thinking about and checking every day.

The bundle is early mobility; avoiding deliriogenic medications; limiting days on the ventilator; making sure you’re doing your spontaneous awakening trial and your spontaneous breathing trial; treating pain, but not over-treating people with opioids; making the ICU feel as much like home as possible, and this can be through making sure family’s at bedside, having photos on the wall, playing music; and then promoting sleep-wake cycle, like lights on during the day, lights off during the night, limiting sleep interruptions, those kinds of things.

Then, some other interventions that have evidence supporting them are ICU diaries, support groups, and resiliency training for patients and family members– resilience in the sense of, how do you cope with depression, anxiety, and these intense feelings of being critically ill.

Has there been anything that surprised you while doing this project or learning more about the topic?

We just closed our pre-survey to measure the baseline knowledge, engagement, and confidence in the topic. I was really lucky with the amount of staff that were willing to take my pre-survey. There was a lot of engagement. We got almost 50% of participation which, when you think about asking people to do surveys, is pretty good. I was very happy with it. But people were very candid about how little they knew about the topic. I was surprised by how needed this education initiative was.

Fiza Noman is a BSN student and one of the de Tornyay Center for Healthy Aging’s 2026-2027 Healthy Aging Scholars. Her project is on “Unwrapping Bias: Addressing Ageism Towards Older Adults Alongside Racism in Nursing Textbooks to Advance Inclusive Education and Promote Healthy Aging.” Her faculty mentor is Bethany Rolfe Witham.

What made you choose nursing?

I came from Pakistan, where healthcare is not very accessible to everyone. I’ve seen people, back home, who have not received good healthcare, and due to that, they have suffered great loss. So, I’ve always known that I wanted to work in healthcare where I can make a difference.

Ever since moving here, I’ve been looking into professions where I’m part of healthcare and can provide direct patient care. I wanted to be hands-on, where my patients can share their experiences with me, while also providing great care to them.

I started looking into nursing, and then right upon my junior year of high school, I came across UW’s Nurse Camp. That was the main exposure to nursing, and I got to learn more about the UW School of Nursing program and what the profession is like.

What interests you about healthy aging?

I spent almost 4 years volunteering on and off in an assisted living community. Also, my grandparents lived with me for the majority of my time growing up. I knew that I wanted to work with this population because I feel like I can connect with them well, and I want to be there for them.

I also completed an externship this past quarter. It was a long-term care externship. I got to spend some time in other assisted living communities across the Seattle area. Then I completed a quarter of modules where we talked about how care is different for the elder population in comparison to other populations. That was very interesting to me, and it further solidified my interest that this is the population that I want to work with.

How was your experience in assisted living?

I really enjoyed it, because I could see how much of a difference I was making in their lives. A lot of those people didn’t have family, or they hadn’t seen their family in a while. I could see just spending a couple minutes with them chatting with them, how much it made their day. I saw the care that the nurses provided for them, how much it meant for them and for their lifespan as well.

I grew up taking care of my grandparents. When I provide this kind of care, I do it out of genuine empathy for these patients and I know that I’m making a difference in their life.

What is your research project with the de Tornyay Center scholarship?

On REDCap, BSN students can submit submissions of instances of bias and ageism in their textbooks. We look at the submissions, we do data analysis, and then we can, in the end, send those results to the publishers, so they can also make those changes in the textbooks. In the past, publishers have made those changes.

I think it’s important because nursing textbooks are a main resource that you’re using towards your education, and if you’re seeing biases and ageism in it, those stay with you long-term.

Do you have any examples of ageism and bias you’ve seen?

In nursing textbooks, the language can portray older adults as very dependent. They can show aging as a bad thing, as in, if you’re aging, you’re not benefiting from it, and you’re going to depend on someone, and there’s not enough care for it.

I also saw a lot of bias towards the marginalized communities and people of color. I saw in a lot of assisted living how they’re treated differently. And in textbooks, I also saw that there’s a lot of lighter skinned representation, especially for the older population. I think it’s important to have the textbooks also show people of color, and students have submitted instances of that as well for publishers to show more representation.

Has there been anything that surprised you while working on this project?

I thought that I would not find a lot of instances of ageism in nursing textbooks. I thought that it’s a normal process, it’s a lifespan process, and there shouldn’t be any biases around it. But once I started looking at the data, I saw there’s so many instances of ageism that students have collected over the past years. That really surprised me. Why are nursing textbooks in today’s time still showing those? I want to be part of this project so I can start working towards that change.

What interested you about getting involved with this project?

Since I’m  a person of color, I look at it like people from my community might be involved in assisted living communities. I will, sometime in my future, also be involved in assisted living communities. I think it’s important to have representation of people like us.

When you go home as a student, you read through your textbooks, you learn from your textbooks. It’s valuable to see how we can make changes, so students are getting the right education, the right content, so they’re well equipped to work with all populations.

Julia Lee is a BSN student and the center’s 2025-2026 Germain Krysan Endowed Scholar. Her mentors are Basia Belza and Sarah McKiddy, and her scholarship project is on, “Incorporating Dementia-Inclusive Practices to Music-Based Memory Loss Programming in a Cross-Sector Partnership”.

Why did you choose to go into nursing?

Back in high school, I was in a volunteer program at a local hospital. Volunteering in the inpatient units, I realized that nurses were the people in the care team who got to form close relationships with their patients—walking alongside them through every step of their recovery journeys. That connection and trust was what I sought and wanted to provide in my healthcare career.

Did you have a background in healthcare work before starting your BSN program?

I’ve been working as a certified nursing assistant (CNA) for the past 3 years, starting in my freshman year of college. I’ve loved all the experiences that I’ve been able to gain as a CNA.  I work mainly on an inpatient acute rehab unit while also floating to neuro and cardiovascular floors throughout the hospital campus. I work with a lot of older patients there, so that’s where my interest in healthy aging research really started to develop.

What interests you about healthy aging and working with older adults?

In my childhood, I was surrounded by a lot of older adults. There’s not many people in the younger generations in my immediate family, and so I spent a lot of time with my grandparents and other older adults in my family.

My grandparents have always been role models for me in terms of healthy aging. I wish that everybody in my generation had a couple of people who could be role models of healthy aging to them, to show them that aging can be beautiful, aging can be healthy, and aging can be something that is motivating and inspirational.

Right before starting college, my grandmother had a stroke. We were told that her prognosis wasn’t the best, that recovery would be difficult considering her old age. But my grandmother has always been healthy—sometimes I’d even joke that her and my grandfather were healthier than me. She fought and persevered through rehab, and now she’s back to walking a mile every day, going out with her friends, and writing me birthday cards filled with paragraphs of her sweet words and wisdom. She is one of kindest, smartest, healthiest people I know, and she continues to inspire me and my work every day.

Then of course, I started working in the acute rehab unit, and I was working with a lot of older people who had experienced a stroke or other neural injuries. I fell in love with the geriatric population even more. I love the older generation—their perseverance and resilience, their wisdom and rich life stories, and their kindness that shines through despite difficulty.

What’s the research project that you’re doing with the de Tornyay Center?

I’m working with PhD candidate Sarah McKiddy and Dr. Basia Belza, helping with Sarah’s dissertation creating music-based interventions for people living with dementia in the community. We are trying to establish a partnership between the Memory Hub, which is a dementia community center in Seattle, and the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s quartet-in-residence program, where a renowned quartet lives and engages with the Seattle community for 9 months. This year, the Balourdet Quartet has been living just a block away from the Memory Hub, making it a great opportunity for us to create that partnership to develop and offer music-based interventions for the people who come to the Memory Hub.

While you’ve been doing that work, has there been anything that surprised you?

The most surprising thing has been the process of doing qualitative research. I didn’t have prior knowledge about how qualitative data like interviews could be translated into the results that we get in research studies. But going through the process of transcribing focus groups, coding themes, and collaborating with different researchers to get new perspectives while eliminating bias has been really interesting to be a part of.

In terms of what I’ve been seeing in the research itself, doing this work has only confirmed the pre-existing notion that music can be really powerful—not just emotionally, but that it can be a way to possibly improve the health and quality of life of people.

What interested you about working on the project?

Aside from my interest in gerontology and healthy aging, music has always been a really big part of my life. I played violin for 8 years, my dad is a singer, and I have also sung ever since I can remember. As I’ve grown older, I’ve realized how important music is to me. It forms part of my identity, but also it has such a big impact on how happy I am.

Sarah’s dissertation really intrigued me because I wanted to see if that could be translated to medical health. I know that music is important and can be impactful, but can it be something that makes a marked and measurable health impact?

Why is this research important to do?

There’s a need for more effective interventions for people living with dementia in the community. A lot of the negative manifestations of dementia, like agitation, distress, and depression, are currently treated through medications. These medications are often ineffective and can cause a lot of unwanted side effects. Music-based interventions have shown to help relieve or improve a lot of those negative symptoms without any side effects. Music has also shown potential to slow the progression of dementia.

This research is really promising and exciting, but most of the music-based interventions that have been studied have only been in institutionalized settings like in hospitals or care facilities. Most people living with dementia live in the community still, and so we need a way to bring those music-based interventions to them. Our project is aiming to do just that.

Yuni Chung is a UW School of Nursing PhD in Nursing Science student and one of the de Tornyay Center for Healthy Aging’s predoctoral scholars.

What drew you to nursing?

When I was a middle school student, my grandmother developed Parkinson’s disease. She needed assistance, so I was responsible for helping her with activities of daily living. I thought it was very valuable to take care of somebody, so I wanted to become a nurse after that.

What interests you about healthy aging?

I worked on a respiratory medicine ward, where many of the patients were older adults living with chronic respiratory conditions and other comorbidities. A lot of them struggled to change their lifestyle and unhealthy behaviors. After discharge, they often returned to the hospital because it was difficult to manage their symptoms and health at home.

These experiences led me to become interested in chronic disease management and in improving care, especially among older adults. I believe digital interventions can be one way to support healthy aging and better self-management, so I am interested in digital health care and digital technologies.

What do you find most interesting about digital intervention research?

I was always curious about ways to get people to adhere to a digital intervention over the long term. At first, people find it very interesting to use apps or digital devices to manage their health, but eventually they lose interest and they drop out. So, I’m curious to find out how to make them stick to that intervention for a prolonged time.

I did a prior literature search. Small monetary incentives were very effective, but we have limited funding and limited time, so I hope I can find another method.

What made you want to transition from clinical practice to research?

Even in clinical settings, there is a strong emphasis on evidence-based practice, and there were opportunities to participate in research. But as a clinical nurse, I was too busy to fully engage in research projects. I realized I needed dedicated time to focus on research, which is why I decided to pursue a master’s degree in nursing. During my master’s program, I decided to transition my career from clinical practice to research.

At first, I assumed that older adults would have lower levels of digital literacy than younger patients, so I conducted a study comparing digital health literacy between younger and older patients. Surprisingly, their levels were similar. This finding made me think that digital interventions could also be feasible for older adults.

What did you like about your research experience in your master’s program?

It was interesting to use what I learned in class to an actual research setting, recruiting the participants, and using statistical software to analyze my data. And when my first article was published, it was very rewarding.

What part of publishing an article did you find most rewarding?

No single research study is perfect. Many research papers stack together to build a single piece of knowledge. I was happy that I could contribute to that stack of papers.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

I was born and raised in Korea, and although I learned English, this is my first time using it so intensively. I am trying to adapt quickly to academic life and daily life in the United States.

I am also excited to meet people from very diverse backgrounds. In Korea, many people share relatively similar experiences and social contexts. Here, I can meet people from many different places and perspectives, and I feel that this helps me broaden my own perspective as a person and as a nurse scientist.

Jun Heo was one of the de Tornyay Center for Healthy Aging 2024-2025’s Healthy Aging Undergraduate Research Scholars and a BSN student. Heo’s faculty mentor was Anita Souza, and his project was on “Exploring Healthcare and Housing Differences Between Older Veterans and Non-Veterans in Permanent Supportive Housing: Barriers to Healthy Aging”.

What made you choose nursing?

I was a combat medic in the army. I got discharged in 2022, and I was given the perfect chance to choose what kind of field to work in. I chose nursing because I really love to take care of people.

How did how did that experience in the army influence your choice to go into nursing?

Being an army combat medic was definitely a great experience. I got to experience both field care and hospital care. It was a good start, but I realized that in the army, healthcare is more about the speed due to the urgency and the mission. I wanted to take a look at more of the sustained perspective of care.

What interests you about healthy aging?

My family member, my grandmother, she’s the start. She had a stroke, and she had a femur fracture. She spent almost 20 years in bed, and as a kid, I was part of taking care of grandma. So cleaning, feeding, I already had that kind of experience.

Working in the VA Medical Center, I got the chance to connect with the geriatric population. It’s always interesting to listen to their stories. Some people like pediatrics because they’re adorable. I realize it’s great to be there for their beginning. But at the same time, it’s also very meaningful to be there towards the end.

What interested you about doing a research project?

In spring quarter we learned about research as part of the curriculum, and it was really interesting. The beauty of research is that I’m exploring somewhere that other people may or may not have explored before. I wanted to experience that.

Could you briefly describe what you’re doing in your research project with the de Tornyay Center scholarship?

The population of people who experience homelessness is on the rise, and it’s been a huge challenge for many people. For the geriatric population, they’re especially vulnerable to overall health and quality of life challenges when they’re experiencing homelessness.

The veteran population, they have their own unique struggles, like military PTSD and their veteran status, that sometimes cause further blockages to receiving care. I believe there’s no one size fits all solution for each case.

My mentor suggested this topic to me, and I agreed that it was a really nice way to shed a light on this struggle in the veteran population.

How did you start your work on this project?

My mentor introduced me to a couple of veterans that are nowadays doing really great. They previously experienced homelessness, but they’re advocating for their community. They go to school, they’re driving, and I’ve been listening to their stories and asking them questions, and they enlighten me with their experience. That was really valuable.

Where are you at now with the project?

We connected with the key members (housing staff, program managers, and case managers) and, as I previously mentioned, those two veterans. Then through that we were able to develop semi-structured interview questions.

We’re conducting interviews. We’re recruiting six to 10 veterans who are residing in permanent supportive housing. We’ll also record six to 10 interviews from the non-veteran population. We’ll be listening to their stories, what their challenges are, and see what their daily life looks like, what kind of care they’re receiving, and how it’s going to affect their healthy aging.

What’s the importance of doing this project? What impact do you hope it might have?

There’s not much work directly contrasting the non-veteran versus veteran population of people experiencing homelessness. So this qualitative research can be the stepping stone to develop tailored care and support for this population.