agers implemented Hanson’s ideas and saw a dramatic reduction in lost items. Wilson said that she knew nothing about
the senior living industry before she un- dertook the internship, but the experience made her a convert. She graduated this May with a degree in healthcare adminis- tration and is working toward an MBA at Lewis University outside of Chicago. “Prior to my internship, I had no experi-
ence in this industry at all,” she wrote in an e-mail interview. “I went in completely blind and was hoping for the best. Through this internship, I ended up finding my passion for working with seniors in this industry.” She said that none of her friends knew
much about the senior living industry, but that she would recommend her internship experi- ence to anyone else thinking about doing it. Natalie Cardenas, HRA’s manager of as-
sociate growth and development, says that HRA has since taken on additional interns and hopes to ultimately place those who de- cide to return and who complete executive director-in-training programs in markets where it’s hard to find candidates.
Education Benefits Many leading workplaces also offer finan- cial assistance to help their workers further their education. Brandywine Living, for example, currently
offers its associates a $2,000 annual stipend for approved academic courses relevant to their careers. It also offers a scholarship of $7,500 a year for nursing school. Eligible employees must be full-time workers. Those who take Brandywine up on the offer must make a two- year commitment to stay on at the company. The luxury senior living provider is think- ing about restructuring the program, how- ever, since turnover among its nursing staff is extremely low. Instead, it’s examining whether it should
increase the general stipend to $3,000 or $3,500 and eliminate the fixed, annual $7,500 nursing scholarship. The company also works out customized
scholarship programs for staff across the company depending on the circumstances, said Pamela Hernandez, Brandywine’s vice president of human resources. “So if we identify somebody who works
in dining, for example, and they might show leadership potential, we’ll have that conversa- tion with them about the potential of send- ing them to culinary school,” she said. “They
Kensington Johnson started working for Brandywine 15 years ago as a dishwasher while still in high school. He used Bran- dywine’s tuition reimbursement benefits and worked his way up to food services director at Brandywine’s Moorestown Estates.
might not even have realized that as an option. We will put them through culinary school, and we’ll hire them as a food services director.” Brandywine also pays for certificate
courses for staff that want to gain exper- tise in a field that interests them that they could move to within the company. The company is also looking at partnering with Rowan University in New Jersey where its staff could take courses for credit as part of their internal company training. The company likes to grow its own tal-
ent. In a recent new managers meeting, she noted, 25 of the 30 staff attending had been promoted from within. For its part, Ebenezer offers $5,000 to
$8,000 annual stipends for staff that want to strengthen their credentials. In some cases, the company will also buy down some of its staffs’ student loan debt—up to $6,000 per year. Only four percent of companies offer a student loan repayment assistance benefit, according to the latest annual survey by the Society for Human Resource Management.
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