On the big screen in her small apartment, a soccer match plays silently, above the shelves where family photos remind Millie Van Schooneveld of William, her husband of 52 years who died two years ago at 103.
They connected when Millie was a single mom of two working at a bank and he was quite a bit older, a retired Marine who ran his own accounting business in the same Englewood building. Love at first sight grew to include his affection for her kids. And when she had problems collecting child support payments from her ex, William simply said, “Just forget it. We don’t need him. I will take care of the kids.”
They golfed together. A lot, until he could no longer stand up. At 86, as a self-described sports junkie, Millie still loves watching the game; a televised tournament can carry her through an entire weekend. There’s football, of course. And now, soccer — France is playing Morocco, a match that inspires no rooting interest, but holds her attention nonetheless.
Reclining in her chair, her walker within reach, she pulls a purple blanket over her legs. Millie has settled comfortably into the MorningStar assisted living facility, where she occupies her own unit and enjoys the activities of the resident community and regular visits from family.
Still, there are gaps. On a hot summer evening, Riley Tippit stops by to fill one.
For the University of Denver student, it’s the latest visit in a recurring series of meetups organized by Perfect Pair, a nonprofit that matches college students with older adults to bridge generational gaps and provide an antidote to social isolation that often accompanies aging.
DU’s Perfect Pair chapter, launched in 2023, was the first in Colorado since the national organization’s founding in 2020, with a second launching recently at Colorado School of Mines. Tippit, a 23-year-old master’s student in social work, found her match with Millie after both answered surveys to home in on common interests that could foster connection. This evening, she came prepared with an idea for a craft activity — and having absorbed a quick sports tutorial.
“I always talk to my dad before I come here,” Tippit says, settling into a chair beside Millie, “because he watches probably as many sports as you watch. He preps me and then you fill me in on all the details.”
Millie acknowledges that interactions with new people have sometimes been a struggle that seems almost built into her personality.
“I’ve always been this way,” she says, “really quiet and to the side. I can’t tell you why, but it’s been that way all my life. I’ve always been more of a loner, so this has been good for me.”
Riley Tippit, right, pays a visit to Millie Van Schooneveld at MorningStar at Observatory Park in Denver. Tippit is a University of Denver student volunteer with Perfect Pair, a nonprofit that matches college students with older adults. (Kevin Simpson, The Colorado Sun)
Tippit comes to this opportunity having volunteered with a hospice organization in her hometown near San Antonio, Texas, after graduating from high school. At first, she did it to accrue volunteer hours to bolster her college application, but then found she really enjoyed it. It was a simple concept: Meet regularly with someone and engage in an activity they enjoyed.
“Mainly,” she says, “to combat loneliness.”
When she enrolled at DU to start working on her master’s degree, Tippit looked for a similar outlet through the school’s club offerings and discovered Perfect Pair. The organization currently has about 15 student volunteers, from which it has produced nine matched pairs. Participation fluctuates as students graduate, but the chapter has featured as many as 20 matches with the MorningStar residence, and hopes to add a second facility for the upcoming school year.
“The No. 1 question when people join us,” Tippit says, “is, ‘What do I talk about? I don’t know what to say.’ But every single time, once I have my first meeting, it usually goes really smoothly, and we have lots to chat about. People just want to be in community.”
In Michigan, an origin story
Emily Lerner grew up in Michigan, the daughter of a single mom who worked with assisted living communities. She often tagged along, and soon her circle of friends and mentors came to include older adults — even beyond two sets of grandparents with whom she’d grown close.
By high school, Lerner realized her social experience differed significantly — in a good way — from most of her classmates. So when she started college at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Lerner not only missed her family, but also the older acquaintances she’d come to value. Looking to fill that void, she started volunteering at an assisted living community near campus.
Over the course of four years, it dawned on her that some of the folks at the facility would absolutely love her college friends. They’d spent lives as artists or veterans or simply had rich experiences that would dovetail nicely with her peers who might be pursuing similar paths.
Emily Lerner, right, poses with one of Perfect Pair’s first matches while she was an undergraduate at the University of Michigan. Lerner founded Perfect Pair, which has grown to more than two dozen chapters around the country — including at the University of Denver. (Photo courtesy of Emily Lerner)
From that epiphany, Perfect Pair was born. And once she got students paired with the older adults, another dynamic appeared: Some of the younger people found themselves less lonely as well.
“College is kind of a weird time where you’re an adult for the first time, but you also leave your entire community behind,” Lerner says. “College students are oftentimes going to feel depressed — you don’t have your family, and you also only have 18- to 22-year-olds around you. Just having someone that has been through a little bit more life, has a little bit more perspective that things are going to be OK, they found to be pretty helpful.”
Lerner notes that while the Colorado chapter at DU works mostly through assisted living, other chapters pair with older adults in their own homes — sometimes the matches connect via virtual visits, while others feel more connected in person. Some chapters also work with memory care communities.
The program has particular resonance in Colorado, which ranks as the third-fastest aging state in the nation. More than a quarter of the state’s population will be over the age of 60 by 2050.
While Perfect Pair offers an activity catalog with resources for everything from photography to learning a new language to art projects to book clubs, most of the time the pairs prefer to just talk, Lerner says.
The student volunteers go through extensive training and screening — both by the organization and often by the assisted living facility — with additional training for students connecting with someone in memory care.
But often the most difficult part of the process comes when a student graduates and can no longer officially remain enrolled in the program. Often, students will stay in touch, but if that’s not possible, the older adult can be matched with another volunteer. Although people in their 30s to 50s have expressed interest in volunteering, the organization set parameters (undergraduate or graduate students only) so it would remain truly intergenerational.
Lerner, 27, got her undergraduate degree and attended medical school at Michigan, but now oversees the program from the University of Washington, where she’s doing her three-year residency. She plans to go into geriatric medicine and mix clinical practice with continuing to expand Perfect Pair.
Initially, the program grew by word of mouth, as student volunteers told friends at other college campuses who then launched chapters. In 2022, Lerner started doing outreach in earnest. At the end of 2025, Perfect Pair listed 26 chapters across 17 states, encompassing 630 student volunteers.
“In recent years, we’ve actually slowed down our expansion,” she says, “and our goal in the next couple of years is to really deepen the communities and the college campuses that we have.”
A Denver chapter takes root
Growing up in Putnam County, New York, about an hour north of Manhattan, Teagan Weindel enjoyed a close relationship with her grandmother, who in her later years moved in with the family so they could care for her as she dealt with Alzheimer’s disease.
While Weindel was in high school — and once the pandemic had subsided — the family moved her grandmother into a memory care facility for additional help as she declined. But Weindel also looked around and noticed so many others who, at a very vulnerable time in their lives, seemed to have few visitors.
Teagan Weindel, right, president of the DU chapter, dances with Dr. Kim, one of the Perfect Pair matches, at a “prom” event held in February at MorningStar at Observatory Park. (Photo courtesy of Riley Tippit)
“So I would also go and chat with other residents,” she says. “And so many of them had such beautiful stories, and had lived incredible lives and had incredible advice to give. That was a very vulnerable time of my life — and sad. But it was also very beautiful, and I think definitely fueled my passion for improving the overall well-being and social aspect of assisted living and connecting with the older adult community.”
Weindel helped found the DU chapter in 2023 and has served as president for two years — a decision she says was largely influenced by her relationship with her grandmother.
“I do it in honor of her legacy,” Weindel says. “For our student volunteers, having a perspective and a friend in a different generation is so helpful, especially in an era when we are — at least my generation, specifically — so phone driven, social media driven. It’s such a beautiful thing to kind of disconnect and then connect in a meaningful way.”
While each student and their older adult find connection in part through topics revealed through the survey that precedes their pairing, Weindel has found that sometimes the process just moves organically. The organization’s partnership with MorningStar, whose Observatory Park facility is just a block away from the DU campus, gives the volunteers walking-distance access — and even a conversation starter.
“Sometimes they’ll ask what I go to school for, and I’ll tell them, and then ask them what they did,” Weindel says. “I always try to find something that we have in common or something that they’re passionate about.”
Some members meet up and just chat, or maybe have dinner together or stroll nearby, while others engage in crafts, games or some of the facility’s planned activities. They’ve put on group activities, like a garden party and a “prom.” And occasionally there is music — whether by invited performers or, sometimes, by one of the student volunteers.
A musical interlude
Joey Uyemura slides onto the piano bench and deftly coaxes the first languid bars of “Georgia on My Mind” from the baby grand just off the main lobby at MorningStar. It’s a Sunday, and for the last two years, he has shown up as often as he can to perform his instrumental renditions from a catalog of favorites.
Some he remembers from his childhood. Others he gleans from old song books.
He weaves standards like “You Are My Sunshine” with an old Bee Gees favorite, “How Deep Is Your Love.” Then he sprinkles in an original composition and shows off his dexterity with “Maple Leaf Rag” before returning to a familiar playlist.
“That was ‘Country Road’ by John Denver,” he says to an audience who over the next 30 minutes will peak at five residents who stroll into the seating area. “I think I’ll do a Beatles song now …”
And he launches into “Yesterday.”
In one chair, a woman smiles and nods her head to the gentle rhythm. In another, a man closes his eyes.
For a student like Uyemura, about to start his senior year as a recording and production major, the fact that two of his closest friends launched the DU Perfect Pair chapter provided him all the reason he needed to join. But like Weindel, his connection to an older population ran deeper.
University of Denver student Joey Uyemura plays “Leaving On a Jet Plane” for a small but appreciative audience at MorningStar at Observatory Park assisted living facility. (Kevin Simpson, The Colorado Sun)
Growing up in small-town Wray in northeastern Colorado, near the Kansas border, Uyemura became familiar with the world of assisted living facilities through his father, a family physician. With a deep love of music, family members would periodically visit the local facility and play bluegrass for the residents. His uncle also played in a band that entertained there, and Uyemura would occasionally fill in for him during holidays.
“I would say I have a unique ability to communicate with them through music,” he says, “but I think probably it’s more like music has a unique capability to bring people together. It’s always gratifying when you have a song that you remember from childhood, and you play it, and they recognize it. It’s a connection that you don’t always get through just introducing yourself and asking questions.”
His involvement with Perfect Pair originally included a traditional match with a resident, but she moved to another facility (they still keep in touch). So while awaiting another match, he continues this informal musical residency. On each visit, Uyemura’s first stop is on the building’s second floor, memory care, where for about 30 minutes he plays tunes on an electric keyboard before making his way to the facility’s theater and settles in at the baby grand.
He encourages residents to sing along, if they like, tap their feet or make requests.
“It’s always a good feeling when I start playing a song and I can hear one or two people singing along,” he says. “But I also think the alternative for me would be to play the piano with no audience. I’m just grateful that I have them there. It’s really underrated to have an audience who is really interested in what you have to play.”
On one previous visit, he noticed a resident lingering around the piano. He asked her if she’d like to play. She sat down and, despite a bit of a tremor, performed a tune.
“It was just all muscle memory,” he says. “It surprised me, coming out of the blue.”
On this Sunday, Uyemura leaves the residents with a tender rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Then his small but appreciative audience claps politely and ambles away, though not before one resident offers a glowing review.
“Better than sex,” he winks.
For students, perspective on aging
Although Perfect Pair receives funding through grants, individual donors and some peer-to-peer fundraising through its Givebutter site, it recently got a big boost from a new “premier partner,” the Government Employees Health Association, a nonprofit benefits provider serving federal employees, military retirees and their families.
No dollar amount has been released, but the infusion is designed to bolster programming and support additional volunteers at five existing chapters — including DU’s — and help launch new ones in Baltimore, Miami, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Washington, D.C.
“DU was a really strong chapter of ours,” Lerner says, “and we thought it would be really nice to be able to give them some extra support and funding to continue to grow that work.”
The organization counts one part-time employee and is preparing to hire its first fulltimer. Internal surveys show that the program has had significant impact on both older adults and the younger volunteers.
On a personal level, Lerner has officially had to withdraw from being part of a pair since she left school in Michigan, but she says she hasn’t missed a week connecting by phone with the match she grew to know over a year and a half.
“There’s just a lot more similarities than differences across ages that I feel like people don’t really know about,” she says. “And those friendships are just as important, or even more important, than friendships within your own age demographic.”
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Of course, that age disparity inevitably leads to some difficult realities, such as when an older adult dies. The national organization has a system in place to support the student volunteers, but also coaches them on how to reach out to the family of their match.
Weindel, the DU chapter president, notes that she had such an experience her sophomore year, when her pairing with a man came to an abrupt end. She had also nurtured a connection with his wife, and they’ve kept in contact ever since.
“One thing that always stuck out to me was, even in such a vulnerable spot in his life, he was always so genuinely concerned that everything was going well for me,” Weindel says. “To see that care be so selfless and so deep has always surprised me and been so, so meaningful.”
Though she allows that she’s obviously focused on launching herself into the early stages of adulthood, Weindel finds that interacting with older adults has made her feel less anxious about what, for now, seems an abstract vision of aging. Her match reinforced that thinking, reminding her how much lies ahead while also subtly noting that age doesn’t have to determine anyone’s impact.
“It has made me feel a little bit less existential about the whole thing, because there’s so much beauty in that chapter, even though so many of us fear it,” Weindel says. “As much as I love my youth — and I’m not rushing time — it’s been really beautiful to reflect on that.”
