Graduating senior Megan Rogers is leaving one last impression on WCU’s campus before leaving in May. This week the WCU chapter of the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America was recognized as an official organization by the Student Government Association (SGA). Coincidently, the day the organization became official was also the third anniversary of the death of Rogers’s grandmother, who was a huge inspiration for her to bring the foundation to WCU.
It was when Rogers was applying for scholarships her senior year of high school that she came across a scholarship through the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. Unfortunately, she was not awarded the scholarship; however, Sherri Chang of the foundation emailed Rogers in October 2017 asking if she would be interested in starting a chapter of the organization on WCU’s campus.
Rogers was immediately interested, as she understood from her own experience why bringing andorganization like the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America was worth the effort to be established on WCU’s campus. “When I came to West Chester as a freshman my grandma was sick with Alzheimer’s, it was our sixth year taking care of her as a family and I didn’t really have anyone else to talk to about it … here I didn’t know anyone. So that really was sad for me because I didn’t know who to turn to,” explained Rogers. “There is a lot of guilt associated with taking care of someone with Alzheimer’s because it’s like, ‘I’m really frustrated with you, but is it okay because you aren’t going to remember it?,’ but no it’s not because that is someone you love … and it’s hard to know that you or your parent or someone in your family is going to develop this disease as well,” said Rogers.
With nine steps to fulfill in order to make the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America a recognized organization on campus, Rogers knew that she may not be able to fulfill the requirements until the spring semester. The first step would be getting an advisor to oversee the organization. Luckily, it just so happened that Rogers was taking a course with Dr. Roman, a professor in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department, who is currently working on memory research. Rogers asked if Dr. Roman would be interested in advising the organization and he enthusiastically agreed.
The next step was to reach out to President Ryan Long and Vice President Tyler Lonergan of the Student Government Association to see who to contact next. Long and Lonergan then provided Rogers with a list of all of the health science-related clubs on campus. Rogers then reached out to the presidents of those organizations to see who may be interested in helping her form this new organization. She was met with positive responses almost immediately.
With board members established, the next step was to create the official bylaws for the WCU chapter of Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. “I sat down with Jenny Yost, who helps with new student organizations and she helped me a lot. I’ve been talking to the Parliamentarian of SGA, Elizabeth [Gibson] pretty much every day for the past couple of weeks. She reviewed my bylaws with me,” said Rogers.
After all of this hard work, Rogers was not sure she would see the day when the organization would be officially recognized by SGA. It seemed that SGA was booked solid for the remainder of the year and there were no available meeting times before her graduation. Despite the setback, Rogers kept a positive attitude about it. “I told them that if they could do anything that it would be great, and they said, ‘We will do whatever we can’ and sometimes people can’t present at SGA meetings,” explained Rogers. Luckily, Rogers was contacted on Friday, March 30, that a spot had opened up on Tuesday, April 3, just four short days later.
Rogers said that she felt somewhat nervous and unprepared to get everything together in just a few short days. “My E-board members have been so supportive through everything and it has been great … and today I got the email that [Alzheimer’s Foundation of America] is a recognized organization,” said Rogers.
“The three things we are going to focus on are education, advocacy and a support group. The Alzheimer’s Foundation of course mainly focuses on Alzheimer’s, but there are other memory loss-related diseases, like dementia, and there are different types of dementia and there are different risk factors for that, so it is important to know what those things are, so that is the education aspect,” said Rogers.
Rogers would love to have the club volunteering off campus as well as holding a healthy aging day in which the club shares ways to preserve your mind. Things like doing crossword puzzles and using your non-dominant hand help to make new connections in your brain. These are just a few examples of what Rogers would like to see the organization do.
This project has become her baby this semester ,says Rogers. Despite graduating in May, she will only be a short distance away in New Jersey and would love to come back a few times a year to check in and see how everything is going. “I’m going to miss West Chester a lot, so I think this is a nice way to still be connected,” said Rogers.
Reflecting on her family and all of the hard work she has put in the last few months, Rogers recalls the most meaningful part of the journey: “Today is actually three years to the day since my grandma passed away, and today is the day my club got recognized, so it means a lot to me.”
Kaitlin Brinker is a fourth-year communication studies major with a minor in journalism. ✉ KB835149@wcupa.edu.
