Franke Tobey Jones Offers New Scholarship to Physical Therapy Students

Graduate students of geriatrics and adult neurology are eligible for award

TACOMA, Wash. – Seniors and youth have a common interest in Tacoma: creating more opportunities to educate young people to provide health care for the aged.. As a step toward this goal, University of Puget Sound and senior retirement community Franke Tobey Jones are announcing a new scholarship focused on excellence in senior health care.

Franke Tobey Jones is generously offering an annual academic scholarship to University of Puget Sound physical therapy graduate students who specialize in geriatrics or adult neurology. The first award was made recently to Makiko Sato ’12 of Etna, Calif., who earned her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree in May this year. Future awards will be made to ongoing or incoming students.

Jennifer Hastings, director of the School of Physical Therapy, said the growing importance of these two areas of study is reflected in the addition of new geriatric courses to Puget Sound’s curriculum and in the students’ creation of a special interest group that discusses neurological physical therapy.

“We are thrilled to receive more support for students interested in these branches of physical therapy,” Hastings said. “With the expanding elderly population in the United States and rising overall health care needs, it is important to encourage young people to work with these populations.”

Sarah Idstrom, senior director of development at Franke Tobey Jones, said the group’s community outreach fund is being focused on meeting the critical needs of seniors. Encouraging future geriatric caregivers is a key element in that plan. One qualified student each year will receive a scholarship to apply toward their tuition.

University of Puget Sound and Franke Tobey Jones have long shared the resources of their campuses. Puget Sound, through its community outreach program, the Civic Scholarship Initiative, is one of the partners in the Franke Tobey Jones Senior University, which offers classes at no cost to residents and the local community. Classes taught by Puget Sound professors and staff have covered topics including extraterrestrial intelligence, the politics of aging, Shakespeare, financial investment, the arts, and health care.

Residents of Franke Tobey Jones, in turn, provide Puget Sound students with the opportunity to get involved in their local community. The seniors and college students share afternoons of tea, music, and conversation during holidays such as Martin Luther King Jr. Day and during the college’s spring and fall breaks.

Probably the oldest tie between the two institutions is the philanthropic couple Mrs. Franke Tobey Jones and her husband Charles Hebard Jones. Jones Hall, the oldest building on Puget Sound’s current campus and its main administration center, was built in 1924 with a major gift from Mrs. Jones, in honor of her late husband, a lumberman and soldier of the Civil War.

The Franke Tobey Jones nonprofit residential community was also built in 1924 with the aim of providing high-quality services, care, and housing in an elegant and home-like setting for seniors. Mrs. Jones donated a four-acre building site and a gift that paid for the first homes, which enjoy views of Commencement Bay and Mount Rainier.

Photos on page: Top right: Physical therapy students at work at Puget Sound; Above left: the new physical therapy and occupational therapy room at Weyerhaeuser Hall, by Ross Mulhausen; Above right: Senior University class at Franke Tobey Jones, by Flora Wong.

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