Tellegacy is honored to announce a new partnership with the UCLA Center for Community Engagement for Spring 2026. Through UCLA’s 195CE internship structure, Tellegacy will serve as an internship site for students seeking meaningful, supervised community engagement and research experience rooted in service, reflection, and real human connection.

This partnership matters because it brings together two priorities that deeply belong together: supporting older adults through intentional intergenerational connection and preparing students for work that is thoughtful, practical, and socially meaningful. At a time when loneliness, social isolation, and disconnection continue to shape the lives of many older adults, partnerships like this create a stronger bridge between higher education and community impact.

A New Chapter with UCLA

The UCLA 195CE model gives students an opportunity to participate in nonprofit based internships while engaging coursework, written reflection, and guided mentorship. Tellegacy is proud to now be part of this learning experience.

For Spring 2026, UCLA students will have the opportunity to engage with Tellegacy through a structured internship model that blends community engagement, research support, and reflective learning. This is more than a university placement. It is a shared investment in the next generation of leaders who understand that health, dignity, and human connection are deeply linked.

Why This Partnership Fits Tellegacy

Tellegacy was built on a simple but powerful belief: conversation has value, story has value, and older adults deserve to be seen, heard, and honored. Our work has always centered on connection across generations, especially in ways that strengthen dignity, reduce social isolation, and help people recognize that their life stories matter.

A UCLA partnership is a natural fit because the 195CE framework values reflection, scholarship, and community engagement. Tellegacy values those same things. We believe students grow when they are invited into work that asks them to listen well, communicate thoughtfully, and understand older adults as whole people with wisdom, memory, resilience, and lived experience.

That kind of learning stays with a person.

What Students Will Be Doing Through This Partnership

One of the most exciting parts of this new collaboration is that it is already tied to real learning and research activity. Through this internship model, UCLA students can contribute to Tellegacy’s work in areas related to older adults, social determinants of health, social isolation in healthcare, intergenerational connection, and cross cultural communication.

Depending on the needs of the project, student work may include literature reviews, synthesizing findings, research support, administrative coordination, outreach activities, data related tasks, and exposure to the grant writing and IRB process. This gives students a much richer experience than observation alone. It allows them to contribute to meaningful work while building confidence in academic writing, research methodology, project management, and initiative.

That combination matters. It means students are not simply learning about community engagement in theory. They are practicing it in a structured setting with real expectations, real mentorship, and real purpose.

A Human Centered Internship Model

At Tellegacy, community engagement is never treated like a box to check. It is a relationship to build.

The UCLA internship structure aligns well with that philosophy. Students are expected to engage the work seriously, reflect consistently, and grow through guided experience. Tellegacy, in turn, provides a supervised environment that values feedback, communication, and meaningful contribution.

This is the kind of learning model that helps everyone involved. Students receive stronger mentorship and more grounded preparation. Community based work receives thoughtful support. Older adults benefit when the people entering this work are better trained to listen, respond, and engage with care.

Why Intergenerational Work Still Matters in 2026

There is growing national attention on loneliness, aging, and the need for stronger community ties. Even so, many older adults still remain unseen within everyday systems. Many students also move through their education with too few opportunities to build meaningful relationships outside of their own peer group or discipline.

Intergenerational work helps close that distance.

It creates room for wisdom, reflection, patience, humor, and mutual learning. It helps younger adults grow in empathy and perspective. It helps older adults feel remembered, valued, and connected. It also strengthens the foundation of professions that depend on trust, communication, and human understanding.

That is one reason this UCLA partnership carries such real promise.

What This Means for the Future of Tellegacy

This partnership reflects where Tellegacy continues to grow: at the intersection of healthy aging, workforce development, research support, relationship centered care, and intergenerational innovation.

It also reflects a larger vision. We believe universities can play a powerful role in reducing isolation and strengthening communities when students are invited into meaningful work that connects learning with lived human need. Partnerships like this help make that vision more concrete.

We are grateful to UCLA for the opportunity to collaborate in a way that supports both student development and community impact. We are also excited about what this can make possible moving forward, not only for one student or one quarter, but as part of a broader model for intergenerational learning and community engaged scholarship.

Looking Ahead

Spring 2026 marks an exciting step forward for Tellegacy’s university partnership work. We look forward to supporting students who want to grow as leaders, advocates, investigators, researchers, writers, and community minded professionals while also contributing to work that honors older adults and strengthens human connection.

Conversation still matters. Story still matters. People still matter.

That is exactly why this work continues.

Next Step!

If you are a university, community organization, or aging services leader interested in building a more meaningful intergenerational partnership, we would love to connect. Tellegacy continues to grow through collaborations that strengthen student development, healthy aging, and community well being.

What could become possible if more students were trained through real relationships, real stories, and real service?