A unique course, focusing on aging from infancy to death, is being offered for the first time this semester by NIU Professor John Stolte.

“Social Structure and the Life Course,” part of NIU’s gerontology program, deals with all the stages encountered during a person’s lifetime, not just the adulthood stages.

“This is a life course, not merely a course dealing with adulthood or old age,” said Stolte, who helped develop the course and the gerontology program.

Social and cultural conditions which affect a person during various life stages, and how they affect that person, will be emphasized in the course, he said.

Stolte, a sociologist with a special interest in social psychology, believes that gerontology is a growth area in his field because society is aging. Even though a large amount of literature exists on the aging process, no course had been offered at NIU specializing in it.

The gerontology program offers an interdisciplinary undergraduate minor and an interdisciplinary graduate option. Currently, 14 students are enrolled, according to Kenneth Ferraro, NIU sociology professor and coordinator of the program.

A variety of courses are integrated into the program, including human family resources, anthropology, biology, political science, psychology and sociology courses.