JEP Alumna Returns to Launch “Live Your Legacy,” a Program Exploring Life After Retirement

Some projects begin with an idea. Others begin with a person.

For Haylie Wong, former JEP Program Assistant, “Live Your Legacy” began long before it became a workshop series. Now a doctoral student in Occupational Therapy at College of Saint Mary, Haylie returned to USC, and to JEP, to bring that idea to life through a student-led program focused on retirement transitions, identity, and purpose.

Developed in partnership with the USC Emeriti Center, “Live Your Legacy” is a series of workshops designed for retiring faculty and staff, grounded in occupational therapy principles and centered on reflection, connection, and meaningful life transitions. Each session explores themes like purpose, identity, health, and connection, creating space for participants to consider what comes next, and what matters most.

While many of JEP’s programs focus on connecting USC students with K–12 classrooms, “Live Your Legacy” brings that same spirit of learning and connection into a different stage of life. By creating space for conversations with retiring faculty and staff, the program expands JEP’s work beyond traditional classroom settings and highlights the idea that learning, reflection, and growth continue well beyond any one phase of life.

The program itself is deeply personal. “This is something that I’ve been sitting on for years,” Haylie shared. As she developed her doctoral capstone project, Haylie drew from her own experiences watching both of her parents transition into retirement. With the loss of structure, routine, and built-in community, she saw how quickly a sense of purpose could shift.That perspective took on even deeper meaning following the passing of her father, a longtime USC professor.

“I wanted to make this my tribute to him,” she said. “Even if it was only this semester, I wanted to put my whole heart into it.”

What has taken shape is a space for conversations that people don’t always pause to have. Conversations about identity, about change, and about what it means to move into a new chapter of life.

Each session brings together USC faculty and staff alongside undergraduate students, creating an intergenerational environment where participants learn from one another. Similar to JEP’s service-learning model, where undergraduate students bring what they are learning in the classroom into K–12 settings, student facilitators in “Live Your Legacy” guide discussions rooted in their own academic work, translating those ideas into conversations with retiring faculty and staff.

For many of the retiring participants, that space has been meaningful in unexpected ways. “They’ve shared that these are conversations they didn’t think to have before,” Haylie explained. “Now they’re getting the chance to put themselves first.” That impact extends beyond the retiring participants themselves. The student facilitators, many of whom initially felt unsure about leading conversations with and guiding older adults, have found their own perspectives shifting.

“They’ve told me these conversations are shaping how they want to live themselves,” Haylie said.

Having attended one of the workshops, it is easy to see why. What begins as a simple exercise, introducing yourself in just a few sentences, quickly opens into something deeper. The ways we describe ourselves, the roles we hold, the identities we carry, all become part of a larger reflection on who we are and who we want to be.There is no single takeaway. Instead, there is a sense of pause, of consideration, and of being seen.

For Haylie, that sense of connection has been one of the most meaningful parts of the experience, not only in the space she has created for others, but in her own life as well. Her mother has attended the workshops, and the two have found new ways to reconnect through the conversations and practices explored each week. “It’s been one of the most meaningful parts of this experience for me,” she shared.

As the program continues, Haylie hopes it will grow beyond a single semester. Plans are already underway to carry the work forward, with new student leadership and continued support. But in many ways, the foundation has already been set. When asked what she hopes for the future, Haylie reflected on what it means to leave a legacy.

“It’s planting a seed in a garden you may never see grow,” she said, referencing a line from Hamilton.