Late last year I worked on a couple assignments for long time client the Chronicle of Higher Education. The first piece was about the issue of schools failing to accommodate students who are among the growing number of young adult family caregivers. To illustrate the issue we took a day-in-the-life approach to telling the story of a former Cal State Northridge student named Andrew Rahal, 27, who is the primary caretaker of his 77-year-old grandmother, Elizabeth, who suffers from Alzheimers and dementia. While he’s happy to do it, the time taking care of her demands caused him to fall behind in some of his courses due to regular tardiness and missed exams. Inflexible to his situation, his professors wouldn’t allow him to make up for missed time, which of course led to poor grades. There are an increasing number of young adults in his situation. Some 10 million young adult family caregivers between 18 and 34, many of them students, are taking care of a loved one due to a number of factors, including an aging baby boomer population, a caregiver shortage and the prohibitive cost of long term care. The two were incredibly sweet to one another and Andrew works incredibly hard to make sure his grandmother is well taken care of. It was a pleasure tagging along as they went through their day, which included getting ready in the morning, working on memory and physical exercises and then hopping around town to doctors appointments, with a stop for lunch at a favorite diner along the way.
The second story was about an expanding on-campus student rehab program called the Haven, which is at a number of schools around the country. My part focused on Sophie Pyne, the national director of university programs for the program at USC, who, while a student a few years ago, was also a client. Sophie was very open about her personal story and very accommodating during the shoot at the facility, which is