Serena Lin ’25 is passionate about bridging the gap between people. So much so that she created a toolbox called “Uplift Notes” to bring people together in conversation.
Since January 2024, she has sold over 200 boxes. But what sets her product apart from the many other conversation starter games on the market?
“It’s evidence based,” says Lin. “It’s developed by a neuroscience major and is built to have some cognitive benefits. And it has been tested by several hundred people to make sure they actually want to answer the questions.”
Lin tested her questions with people of all ages and especially wanted her prompts to appeal to older people. The generation gap is one she is most eager to bridge.
During the pandemic, Lin, a high school senior at the time, began volunteering with senior citizens, joining a weekly social hour over Zoom.
“Many of them really miss being with their grandchildren or other family members and having to be very isolated,” said Lin in a featuring her work with elders, “and they’re having to cope with that loneliness and with the days blurring into each other.”
Since arriving at Pomona, Lin has homed in her neuroscience studies on Alzheimer’s disease. Watching her great-grandfather struggle with and ultimately succumb to the illness as well as her great-aunt currently experiencing it have been hard, Lin says.
But the knowledge she has gained through her classes has empowered her. Treatment for Alzheimer’s patients, she says, “is not just about what you eat or what kind of medications you have; your social engagement is also really important.”
During her sophomore year, Lin enrolled in a at , a design center at The Claremont Colleges. This class, and the mentorship of Fred Leichter, executive director of The Hive, provided the support to create Uplift Notes to help facilitate this kind of critical social interaction.
To develop the product, Lin consulted with several faculty and alumni experts, including Professor of Neuroscience Karen Parfitt, who researches Alzheimer’s, and Daniel Gibbs ’73, author of A Tattoo on my Brain: A Neurologists’ Personal Battle against Alzheimer’s Disease. The toolkit went through multiple iterations before it was released earlier this year.
Since then, Uplift Notes has been used at a campus faculty-staff mixer, 鶹Ӱ’s Alumni Weekend and Bridging the Gap, a program Lin participated in that addresses religious and political polarization.
Now, Lin is working on a version of the toolbox specifically for individuals with neurological challenges such as with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The 2.0 edition will be the outcropping of her senior thesis, “Social Engagement for Alzheimer’s Patients and Their Caregivers.” Her thesis research will test how the toolbox improves participants’ mood, helps them feel less anxious, and eases their loneliness.
“I’m hoping that it can be used as a supplement for someone if they’re caregiving, in conjunction with other Alzheimer’s treatments,” says Lin.
Lin’s ultimate desire is to get the toolbox into the hands of as many Alzheimer’s support groups, hospitals and senior centers as possible.
But she also hopes that people of all ages, backgrounds and levels of extroversion will make use of Uplift Notes.
As she touts on the product’s website and passionately believes, “Increased social engagement is good for your wellbeing, longevity and brain health.”