Serve to Learn: Where Generations Meet at Estia South Morang

A Visit Worth Waiting For

Every Thursday, a group of residents at Estia Health South Morang waits for a familiar sound: our students coming through the door. Through Serve to Learn, our Thursday elective, Plenty River College students spend time with the residents, and the visits have become the highlight of the week for everyone involved.

The residents look forward to it. Some are already seated and waiting when the students arrive. Faces light up, names are called out, and the room fills with conversation. For a few hours, the lounge becomes a place of laughter, music and connection.

“We learn from serving others. We gain more than the residents.”

– The Serve to Learn motto

Stories, Songs and Plenty of Laughter

No two visits are the same. Students sit with residents and share stories, listening to memories from decades ago and talking about their own lives at school, at work and at home. Some afternoons are spent singing old favourites together, and residents often know every word.

Karaoke has become a firm favourite, with students and residents taking turns at the microphone and cheering each other on. There have even been belly dancing sessions, with students and residents up on their feet, clapping and laughing together. On quieter days, students simply sit and watch TV with residents, enjoy an ice cream, or work side by side on crafts and colouring.

Many of the activities are planned and run by the students themselves. They organise games, music sessions, craft afternoons and themed celebrations, taking responsibility for everything from the idea to the set-up and pack-up.

One of the most meaningful projects has been the students’ documentary films about the residents’ lives. Students interview residents about their childhoods, families, work and the journeys that brought them to where they are today. They then film, edit and produce short documentaries that capture these stories. The finished films honour each resident’s life, give families a lasting keepsake, and teach students real skills in interviewing, storytelling and digital media.

It is often the simplest moments that matter most: a shared joke, a handheld during a song, or a resident asking a student to come and sit with them again next Thursday.

The Young Learning from the Old

Serve to Learn is about more than giving our time. Our students come away having learned as much as they give. The residents carry decades of life experience, and they share it generously: stories of growing up, of work and family, of migrating to a new country and building a life from nothing.

As one student put it:

“Every Thursday I look forward to this, as I am learning how the real-world works.”

– Serve to Learn student

For students, these conversations build skills no classroom can fully teach:

• Patience and listening – slowing down, giving someone their full attention, and hearing a story through to the end.
• Empathy and respect – understanding what ageing, loneliness and loss can feel like, and responding with kindness.
• Confidence and communication – starting conversations, leading activities and connecting with people of different ages and backgrounds.
• Perspective – realising that every resident was once young, with dreams and adventures of their own.

These are the qualities that make good workers, good neighbours and good people, and they are growing in our students every Thursday.

Lightening Their World

For many residents, the weeks can feel long and quiet. The students’ visits bring energy, youth and laughter back into their days. Residents feel seen, valued and remembered, and they know that someone is coming back for them next week.

The connection works both ways. Our students arrive to serve, and they leave having been changed by the people they meet. In the lounge at Estia South Morang, generations meet, stories are passed on, and friendships grow that neither side expected.

That is the heart of Serve to Learn: young people giving their time, older people giving their wisdom, and everyone leaving a little richer than they arrived. We thank the staff and residents of Estia Health South Morang for welcoming our students so warmly, and we look forward to many more visits to come.

-Sahar Ghaly