The dining room of a retirement community might seem an unlikely place for a teenager to discover her life's calling. Yet for Amanda Young, wiping down tables and serving meals to older residents in Baltimore became the genesis of a career dedicated to reimagining how America cares for its aging population. What began as a high school job has evolved into a mission that sits at the intersection of compassion, policy, and practical problem-solving in the field of applied gerontology.
Young's path into healthcare was paved early. Her mother worked as a nurse, giving her a front-row seat to the rhythms and rewards of caring for others. "I knew I wanted a job where I could help people," Young recalls, but the specificity of that help remained unclear until those formative afternoons among the retirement community's residents. There, in conversations over coffee and the quiet dignity of daily routines, she found her passion. "My motivation now is all about how I can make the lives of the older adults I serve better with what I do with my work," she explains, a purpose statement as straightforward as it is profound.
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Today, Young works in continuing care at home, a relatively young field within applied gerontology that seeks to keep older adults in their communities rather than institutional settings. It's demanding work, the kind that tests resolve on difficult days when solutions feel elusive and systems seem intractable. Yet Young has developed her own metric for success, one that has nothing to do with policy briefs or program outcomes. "Every time I hear positive feedback from the older adults I work with, it reaffirms my purpose," she says. "It can be as simple as a thank you and sometimes a resident will make you an entire scrapbook of your time at their community. Those are the 'gifts' that keep me going."
These scrapbooks represent something larger than gratitude. They are evidence of connection, of lives touched and dignity preserved. For Young, they serve as tangible reminders during the inevitable moments of doubt that plague anyone working in a field where the challenges often seem to outpace the solutions. The healthcare professional's journey, she has learned, requires equal parts skill and stamina, expertise and empathy.
To those considering a similar path, Young offers counsel born of experience. "Always continue learning even when your schooling is over," she advises. Formal education provides foundation, but the field of gerontology evolves constantly as demographics shift and new models of care emerge. Just as important, she emphasizes, is maintaining focus. "Keep those you serve at the center of your purpose and job." It sounds simple, but in the machinery of healthcare systems and the pressure of administrative demands, that center can drift. Young also stresses the practical importance of internships, volunteering, and networking. "I have advanced in my career because of the connections that I have developed over the years," she notes, a reminder that in healthcare as in many fields, relationships often open doors that credentials alone cannot.
When Young reflects on what being a healthcare professional means, her definition expands beyond clinical care into something more expansive. "It means being a problem solver, a fixer, an educator, and a shoulder for those to lean on when they need it," she explains. "I think it means connecting with people on deeper levels than most other careers allow. It is making an impact on someone else's life no matter how big or small." This conception of healthcare work as fundamentally relational rather than purely transactional distinguishes the professionals who sustain long careers from those who burn out. For Young, the privilege of connection outweighs the burden of responsibility.
Yet connection alone cannot solve the systemic challenges facing America's aging population, and Young is clear-eyed about the policy changes needed. Her vision for the future centers on expanding options for aging in place and making long-term care affordable for everyone who needs it. The statistics are sobering. As the baby boom generation ages, demand for long-term care services is projected to overwhelm existing infrastructure. Currently, the cost of such care bankrupts families while the workers providing it struggle on wages that fail to reflect the skill and dedication their work requires.
"We need more people to want to work with older adults and in this field of gerontology," Young argues. The workforce shortage in eldercare represents one of the most pressing challenges facing American healthcare, yet it receives a fraction of the attention devoted to other specialties. Young believes the solution requires addressing multiple pressure points simultaneously. "We need to bring attention to the issues that so many older adults face in this country and push for real actionable policy at all levels to improve the long-term care landscape." Her policy wishlist is comprehensive: livable wages for caregivers, support for family caregivers who provide the majority of long-term care in America, immigration policy that expands the pool of care workers, and mechanisms to make long-term care accessible and affordable.
These are not abstract concerns for Young. They are the daily realities she witnesses in her work with continuing care at home, where families navigate impossible choices between providing care themselves or paying for services they cannot afford. The current system, she has seen, fails both the people receiving care and those providing it.
What distinguishes Young's approach is her refusal to separate the personal from the political, the individual act of care from the systems that make such care possible or impossible. That teenager in the retirement community dining room is still present in the professional advocate, but her understanding has deepened. She has learned that transforming the experience of aging in America requires both the scrapbook moments and the policy fights, both the compassion to listen and the determination to change structures that no longer serve their purpose.
From Baltimore, Maryland, Amanda Young continues her work at the front lines of America's aging crisis, armed with the conviction that grew from those early encounters with older adults and sustained by thank you notes and homemade scrapbooks. In a field that often struggles for visibility and resources, she represents the kind of committed professional the future of eldercare desperately needs. More importantly, she demonstrates how a career in healthcare, particularly in working with older adults, offers the rare opportunity to make a difference that is both deeply personal and broadly systemic.
The dining room where Young first found her purpose has given way to the complex landscape of continuing care, but the fundamental drive remains unchanged: making the lives of older adults better through dedicated work and unwavering focus on the people she serves. In that constancy of purpose lies both her personal success and a model for the next generation of gerontology professionals America urgently needs.