feature
M AY 2 1 , 2 0 2 0
Helping Hand COVID-19 encourages socially conscious behavior among students, community LEAH TAN STORY
P
rior to the spread of COVID-19 in the United States, Janvi Bhatia, Carmel Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) activities co-chair and junior, said she frequently volunteered at hospitals. However, since the first restrictions were imposed, Bhatia has been unable to physically volunteer there. This, however, has not stopped her from helping. “I volunteered at Community Health Network for about two and a half years, but once (the) COVID-19 stuff started, volunteers were restricted from com-
CANCER FIGHTERS: Janvi Bhatia, Carmel HOSA activities co-chair and junior, poses with her sister, sophomore Rhea Bhatia, and Ty Talatin at a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society event. This was prelockdown. JANVI BHATIA SUBMITTED PHOTO
ing to the hospital; however, I’ve been able to help in different ways by making face masks with other HOSA members,” Bhatia said. According to Bhatia, HOSA is an international student organization geared toward promoting career opportunities in the healthcare industry, and she thought it would be an ideal group to target for this project. “Part of HOSA’s goal is to help with community service,” Bhatia said. “So with this pandemic we’ve been able to redirect community service to also help with that. With our project, we’ve seen some people make any number of face masks from three to 130, and it’s really great to see so many people help contribute to solve this issue.” Bhatia is not the only one who has been taking initiative. Nicole Segaran, student group coordinator for Amnesty International and senior, said she has been using her position in the Carmel chapter of the international organization to spark conversation and encourage positivity. “The purpose of Amnesty International in general is to promote human rights across the globe, so we’ve been interpreting that as how to bring up more of these conversations in the community in a non-partisan, healthy environment,” Segaran said. “There are a lot of human rights issues that have really come to life during this pandemic. For example, (Chinese) censorship has become an even bigger problem during this pandemic as it has stopped the flow of information to other governments. We need to be
taking steps to continue these conversations with this pandemic.” All of the initiatives both Bhatia and Segaran have taken in light of this crisis are known as “prosocial behavior.” According to William Graziano, a professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University, prosocial behavior is behavior motivated to bring benefits to other people or to oneself. “It can take many forms including cooperation, gratitude, volunteering, tolerating and working to bring benefits to others,” Graziano said. Despite Bhatia and Segaran consistently helping the community even before the COVID-19 crisis, both said they have observed others expressing more prosocial behavior since the pandemic. “It’s interesting to see how many more people are reaching out and becoming a lot more thankful during this time,” Bhatia said. “I’ve
I just wish that people won’t stop what they are doing once this is over... we could be stronger than ever. JANVI BHATIA, CARMEL HOSA ACTIVITIES CHAIR AND JUNIOR
