Matthew Luebke
Matthew Luebke, a junior in the Department of Human Development, will receive this year’s Kendal at Ithaca Scholarship for students interested in pursuing a career in gerontology. The scholarship was established by an anonymous Cornell alumnus living at Kendal of Ithaca, a continuing care retirement community located a mile from the Cornell campus.
Luebke is working toward a minor in gerontology and plans to pursue a career as a geriatric medical doctor or a researcher focused the well-being of older adults.
Since that beginning of the pandemic, Luebke has worked in Professor Corinna Loeckenhoff’s Healthy Aging Laboratory as a research assistant. He also helped conduct research projects about anxiety in recurring cancer scans and disparities in dementia care with doctors from the Weill Cornell Center for Aging.
Now, Luebke is applying to do an honors thesis for the 2021-22 school year. He is interested in studying how virtual interventions can prevent loneliness and anxiety in residents of nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I want to be able to make a direct impact in the lives of the aging population,” Luebke said. “I would like to be the first point of contact for older patients and oversee their health decisions. As the life span continues to grow, being able to manage several facets of a patient’s health will be increasingly important. With graduate school, I hope to be able to pursue studying the aging population within the clinical setting with ideas such as patient health behaviors and interventions for those who care for the aging.”
Luebke’s dedication to the field of gerontology is unique, said Corinna Loeckenhoff, who is also the director of Cornell’s Gerontology Minor Program.
“What’s remarkable about Matthew is that he’s not waiting to finish his education to make a difference,” she said. “He’s already engaged in a range of research, advocacy and volunteer activities that are benefiting the lives of older adults in our community and beyond.”
Luebke has also been involved in fundraising for Cayuga Medical Center during the COVID-19 pandemic, and is planning to volunteer with Project Care, which is a visitation program for older adults in the Ithaca area to assist them with activities of daily living, once the program resumes.
This is the 20th year of the Kendal at Ithaca Scholarship. The donor, who built a career in the corporate world after graduating from Cornell in the 1940’s, first learned about gerontology work at Cornell by participating in a study about the transition to living in a retirement community.
The donor’s goal was to build a lasting link between Kendal at Ithaca and Cornell so that “more students have a chance to learn about the colorful, interesting lives and careers of retirees, and more residents have an opportunity to better understand students of today – their hopes, thoughts and dreams.”
