Students in the health care field have a new internship opportunity.

The College of Public Health will be offering students work experience with Dominion Senior Living in Richmond.

Dominion Senior Living of Richmond is currently under construction in the Heritage Place subdivision and will open in a couple of months, according to a press release. The community will have 60 memory care and assisted living apartments.

The partnership came about through meetings between Dominion representatives and College of Public Health Associate Dean for Practice and Workforce Development Angela Carman and professors Beth Hunter and Graham Rowles from the UK gerontology program.

Both groups wanted to allow students to assist those at Dominion with assimilating into their community while also learning about the aging process, Carman said.

“We are anxious to become a teaching community and to welcome students at every level,” said Tina Newman, executive director of Dominion Senior Living. “The students come in and have fresh eyes and ideas.”

The internships will be available in the fall and spring semesters. Patient care is not a part of the internship; rather, it focuses on forming a friendship between the community of Richmond and the Dominion facility while also nurturing knowledge of the aging process, Newman said.

“We hope our involvement will promote the mental, social and physical well-being of Dominion Senior Living residents by encouraging their integration into the larger community, while giving our students the practical experience and empathy required to work with an aging population,” Carman said in a press release.

Dominion Senior Living is also hoping to develop internship programs with other higher education institutions, as well as to foster the atmosphere of learning and community with students for many years to come, Newman said.