20/08/2026
This summer, 42 learners from across China came together at NYU Shanghai for The Human Experience of Aging, a four-week course exploring aging through social work, public health, medicine, family relationships, social policy, and ethics.
For many students, the conversations were deeply personal. One learner joined the course after caring for her terminally-ill father, hoping to better understand how to “say goodbye well, and how to live well.”
Others brought what they learned home with them—scheduling dental checkups for older family members, adding more exercise to their routines, and thinking differently about healthy aging.
As people enjoy longer life spans, more people are pondering the question of how to best spend their older years. It is a question that touches us all, as people consider everything from how to best care for aging parents to how to best prepare for a healthy retirement.