Program Makes Mentorship a Two-Way Street Between UMD Students, Older Adults

In a bright classroom at the Universities at Shady Grove (USG) campus in Rockville, a group of students sit in a circle, sketching “wireframes” on a whiteboard to plan out apps and other digital products. Across from them, an older adult leans in, offering feedback and sharing real-world experiences and stories that could make their designs more useful.

This is a typical session of TechBridge, an innovative intergenerational mentorship program where students teach older adults about digital technologies while the seniors help students develop communication and professional skills.

Led by University of Maryland College of Information (INFO) Senior Lecturer Galina Madjaroff Reitz, director of the B.S. in Information Science program at Shady Grove, TechBridge has become a transformative experience for both students and older adults. Over the past five semesters, more than 200 students have participated, collaborating with seniors on projects ranging from mobile app development to business plans.

“I’ve always been involved in intergenerational activities,” said Reitz, who has involved older adults in her research for a decade. “I’ve seen how powerful these connections can be.”

The program began as a partnership with Empowering the Ages, a nonprofit that connects older adults with K-12 students. Reitz saw an opportunity to expand this model to the university level. Each semester, she pairs 15 older adult volunteers with student teams in her classes. The projects vary—last semester, they built a mobile apps together.

“The students teach seniors about design thinking and wireframes, while the seniors provide feedback and collaborate on the project,” Reitz said. “At the end of the semester, they present their work together.”

The program’s structure is carefully designed to maximize engagement. Students alternate between learning technical skills and meeting with their senior volunteers in highly interactive sessions.

“When we have the volunteers in the classroom, they disperse into different rooms and talk through the project,” Reitz said. “It’s a lot of face-to-face interaction, which really helps both sides.”

To address initial challenges with engagement, Reitz introduced aging sensitivity training to help students understand how volunteers might view them being constantly on their phones or not making eye contact. Ultimately, students and older adults approached the collaboration with patience and mutual respect and discovered rewarding collaboration was possible across generations, said information science student Adriana Saavedra ’26.

“Our senior volunteer played a big role in helping develop our school-based mobile app to help current and future USG students navigate events, resources and extracurricular activities,” she said. “From the beginning, our volunteer was engaged and curious, asking thoughtful questions that helped us refine our concept. She watched us construct our wireframe through Figma, offering valuable insights along the way. Her encouragement and support motivated our team until the last days of the semester, where she sat front row and clapped for us the day of our presentation.”

For the older adult volunteers, the program is a chance to give back. For instance, educational consultant and children’s book author Margi Kramer worked with a team developing a social-emotional growth app for elementary school students. “This group was very diverse in terms of personalities, but they all stepped up to the plate,” she said. “I incorporated learning styles when I worked with them. At the beginning, we talked about their strengths and areas they wanted to improve.”

Kramer emphasizes the mutual benefits of the program. “I love working with younger people,” she said. “It gives me insight into where they’re at in life. These are the people who will be leading us, and I want to understand them. Hopefully, they felt what I added was helpful.”

The volunteers have also helped students develop essential skills for the tech sector. “Any exposure to someone with industry experience is invaluable,” Reitz said. “It helps students build confidence, learn how to present themselves, and develop project management and communication skills.”

One of the program’s biggest successes is the lasting relationships it fosters, with plenty of repeat volunteers—even requests from older adults to work with the same students again, she said.

As TechBridge continues to grow, it stands as a testament to the power of intergenerational collaboration. “It’s not just about technology,” she said. “It’s about building bridges between generations and creating meaningful connections that enrich everyone involved.”