3 The RAPS Sheet January 2022 RAPS Scholarship recipient focuses on end-of-life care THE RAPS SCHOLARSHIP FOR 2021-2022 has been awarded to Jett Koda. She is in the final year of a three-year program leading to a master’s degree in social work, with a concentration in health across the lifespan. Koda’s area of particular interest and expertise has been hospice care. She worked in this field as a volunteer prior to the pandemic, and seeing the need she decided to become a social worker. Her current internship is with Care Partners and Palliative Care, where she is co-facilitating grief and family caregiver support groups. During her first year in the social work program she interned at Disability, Aging and Veteran Services in Washington County. There she had opportunity to work with Death Café and Age Café. I didn’t know what those programs were; I had to look them up on Google. There I learned that in a social setting (tea and cake in the original British café) participants discuss death as a means of appreciating and maximizing their experience with life, and normalizing death. I am eager to learn more from Jett. Perhaps she will be our guest at the President’s Luncheon in the spring, and we will all have a chance to chat with her. Her work is distinguished; she reports that “as a part of the LGBTQ+ community, I developed, hosted, and facilitated LGBTQ+ Death Café in a virtual setting. I had the distinct pleasure of presenting at last year’s PNW Social Work Conference on Death Café: Normalizing Conversations on Death, Dying, Grief & Loss. Continuing to find ways to bring conversations around death, dying, grief, and loss is important to my work in this field.” Following are excerpts from her thank you letter. “I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the scholarship for my study of aging. I am so grateful to be a recipient and the investment you are making in my future. “I expect to graduate in June of 2022 and am interested in licensing as a medical social worker as well as pursuing my Ph.D. in social work research with a focus on hospice, end-of-life care, and complementary therapies in health care. As an alternative health practitioner for the last 25 years, I am interested in the current growth of complementary care and discovering ways to create access for patients within the health care system. “Our role as social workers is to find ways to support vulnerable populations in a model that is often burdensome for families and our service users. I hope that my work in the field of aging and end-of-life care contributes to the aid and support of those in need. The scholarship I have received helps to fund my continued work and educational goals. Again, thank you so much for your support!” —Joan Shireman The RAPS scholarship is awarded each year to a student whose work focuses on an aspect of gerontology. Recipients in past years have worked in a variety of fields; some have focused on health care, others on the economic and social challenges of old age. The accompanying article describes this year’s recipient, her rather different focus, her many years of volunteering, and her sense of mission. You have been very generous in the past year, and the recipients of the scholarship thank you. —Joan Shireman, Chair, Scholarship Committee The Treat Table at the Holiday Brunch, held December 9 at Augustana Lutheran Church, netted about $300 for the RAPS Scholarship. The table is a regular feature of the brunch, and this year’s table featured yummy baked goods, toys, and even a food processor.
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