About Bright Futures with Seniors
Bright Futures with Seniors is an intergenerational volunteer program in Florida that addresses two urgent challenges: rising loneliness among seniors in residential care and increasing isolation among high school students.
Nearly 60% of nursing home residents experience moderate to severe loneliness. Many speak only to staff performing clinical tasks throughout their day. They receive care, but connection often remains out of reach.
We create structured opportunities for Florida students to earn Bright Futures Scholarship volunteer hours through genuine connections with older adults. These aren't task-based visits. They're guided relationships where students learn communication skills that shape how they connect with anyone, anywhere—and where seniors share wisdom, stories, and perspective that only a life fully lived can offer.
What Makes Us Different
Many student volunteer opportunities for Tampa students feel transactional. Tasks get completed. Hours get recorded. Everyone moves forward unchanged.
We've designed something different. Our curriculum teaches skills that colleges seek and employers value: emotional intelligence, cross-cultural communication, patience in complexity. Students develop these capabilities not through lectures but through lived experience with people whose backgrounds, perspectives, and life stages differ dramatically from their own.
For seniors, the difference is equally significant. Our students arrive trained to listen, not just to help. They're taught to see whole people with rich histories, not patients with limitations. This approach honors dignity while creating space for authentic friendship.
Our Founders
Bright Futures with Seniors was born from a conversation between two people who understood that life's unexpected challenges often redirect us toward our most meaningful work.
Ashlen DiCicco, Executive Director
In 2015, Ashlen was pursuing her lifelong dream of becoming a nurse. Midway through nursing school, her chronic condition, juvenile myoclonic epilepsy, changed everything. The intensity and frequency of her seizures meant she could no longer continue in the nursing program or pursue the career she'd worked toward for years.
The news was devastating. More than anything, Ashlen wanted to help people the way others had helped her during difficult times. What could have been the end of one dream became the beginning of something entirely different.
Ashlen has always loved spending time with older adults. Understanding the value of intergenerational friendships, she wanted to continue her passion for serving older adults in a new way.
Today, Ashlen serves as Executive Director, bringing her background in Business Management and Law to the operational leadership of Bright Futures with Seniors. She lives in St. Petersburg with her service dog, Bodie, while completing her studies.
Eric Pogue, President and Chairman
When Ashlen's father talked to Eric about her diagnosis and career change, Eric saw an opportunity to channel Ashlen's passion for helping others into something transformative.
Eric brings decades of executive leadership experience, having served as CEO and CFO in various organizations and currently serving as Vice President of Strategy and Finance at Formetco. His background in organizational leadership and his heart for service provides Bright Futures with Seniors the experience to grow responsibility and the will to constantly persist through challenges.
But beyond credentials, Eric brings optimism and a commitment to mentorship. He's a husband to Heidi for 23 years, father to daughters Ella and Audrey, and a believer in developing programs that create genuine impact.
Together, Eric and Ashlen created Bright Futures with Seniors, a program ensuring that the 100 volunteer hours Florida students need for scholarship funding become truly meaningful time spent making real differences in the lives of both students and seniors.
Board Members
Alex Chamberlain
Madeline McCarthy Anderson
Keith Mastorides
Al Cole & Jill Smith
The Story Behind Bright Futures with Seniors
In August 2025, Ashlen, a young woman with a heart and an innate connection with seniors, faced a painful turning point. Diagnosed in 2015 with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy, her life has been difficult, yet she pursued her passion to become a nurse so that she could care for people, just as people have cared for her throughout her challenges. During her second year in the program, she received devastating news that due to her disability, she would need to change career paths and lay down a dream she had carried for years. She called Eric Pogue, a lifelong friend and mentor, to share the news.
Ashlen’s story, however, is not defined by defeat, but by her willingness and ability to move forward. Through the years, she has endured multiple concussions, broken jaws, and has suffered through the many physical and emotional challenges that accompany epilepsy, including hair loss, weight changes, mood swings, and more. Yet through all of this, she has chosen optimism over bitterness. She gets back up every time life knocks her down and understands there will be good days and bad days. She lives unafraid, with a steady, and resilient spirit that consistently moves upward in love, laughter and purpose.
Those who know Ashlen see someone who cares deeply, especially for all people but has a unique ability to connect with seniors. She has a gift for making others feel seen, valued, and loved. She approaches life with a smile that is hard to resist and has a remarkable ability to bring out smiles in others, even when they are lonely, hurting, or discouraged.
Seeing this strength, courage, and empathy, Eric and his wife Heidi believed that Ashlen could do extraordinary work leading an organization that exists to connect students and seniors. Together, they began to imagine a new path — one where Ashlen’s heart for seniors and her resilience could shape an entire movement of intergenerational connection. In January 2026, that vision became reality when Bright Futures with Seniors was officially launched and Ashlen became its Executive Director. Together, Eric & Ashlen, along with the talented and passionate members of the Bright Futures with Seniors Board of Directors are pursuing their mission.
Our Vision
We're starting locally, perfecting our model through careful implementation and continuous learning. Every student-senior pairing teaches us how to do this work better.
But our vision extends beyond individual connections. We're building a replicable program that can eventually serve dozens of locations, hundreds of students, and thousands of seniors across Florida and beyond.
The loneliness epidemic won't be resolved through individual acts of kindness alone. It requires systemic solutions delivered with genuine care. That's what we're creating.
Get Involved
Students seeking volunteer opportunities in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, and surrounding areas can apply here. Senior living facilities interested in partnership can contact us to explore how the program might serve their residents. Donors who want to support this work can fund student-senior pairings, with individual and corporate sponsorships available.
This isn't charity. It's an investment in two generations simultaneously—helping students develop into empathetic leaders while ensuring seniors experience connection, not just care.
Ready to learn more? Contact Executive Director Ashlen DiCiccio at ashlendicicco@outlook.com or 813-614-3294.