The Senior Living Management class at Washington State University focuses on preparing students for work in the senior living industry. Earning an ALFA 2012 Best of the Best Award, participating companies Emeritus Senior Living, Áegis Living, Merrill Gardens, and Leisure Care worked hard to make the program a success.
ALFA 2012 Best of the Best Winner
Despite the tremendous growth of the senior living sector and the wealth of management opportunities for promising new talent, the nation’s business and hospitality schools have been slow to catch on.
Last year, four senior care providers in the Seattle area turned that shared lament into lemonade. Working together, the four companies contributed time, expertise, and resources to create a semester-long course at Washington State University’s School of Hospitality Business Management on managing a senior living community. WSU’s program makes an especially auspicious match; the third-oldest hospitality management program in the United States also is one of very few housed in an accredited college of business.
The 13 college seniors who signed up were treated to an eye-opening introduction to senior living by the chief executives of all four companies, who co-taught one of the sessions. They also received a grounding in all major aspects of the business in three-hour weekly classes taught by panels of senior-level professionals. “This was an absolute joint effort on the part of all four companies,” says Granger Cobb, Emeritus president/CEO.
The companies paid for the students to take a three-day field trip to Seattle to see senior living communities in action, and mentored a small breakout group of students as they developed a business plan for a senior community styled after that company’s particular operational model. At the end of the semester, the students presented their business plans to company executives; four top students won $2,500 scholarships.
Campus buzz about the course has quickly grown; the number of registrants doubled after the first semester. “It’s just been amazing,” says Nancy Swanger, director of the School of Hospitality Management. “I had several comments from the 13 students last semester that it was truly the best course they’d taken.”
Two graduates even landed jobs with one of the companies. “It has provided a whole new opportunity for career development and advancement for students that we’d never really thought about or promoted or done anything with previously,” says Swanger.
The above best practice was recognized as an ALFA 2012 Best of the Best Winner. Do you have a best practice, product, service or solution at your community or company that is advancing excellence in senior living? The Call for Nominations for the ALFA 2013 Best of the Best Awards will begin in November. Visit ALFA.org/bestofthebest to read more best practices.
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