Offering Help During the Pandemic

WHILE THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC CREATED many challenges for both our local community and those we serve abroad, it also created opportunities to help. The students, faculty, and staff of the Judy Genshaft Honors College answered that call for help in a variety of ways.

Honors instructor Raman Sachdev, who teaches Acquisition of Knowledge (AOK), was recognized by the university as one of the “Heroes Among Us” in 2020. Honors students take AOK during their first semester on campus. In this class they explore the different ways in which knowledge is created and consumed. Sachdev was not scheduled to teach a summer AOK course, but volunteered to rearrange his schedule and teach one to help the university determine how to best handle in-person instruction for the fall semester.

In his summer “pilot” course, half of his class was in the classroom with him (socially distanced and wearing masks), and half joined synchronously using the Microsoft Teams platform. This was a new way of teaching, and Sachdev quickly adapted to offer a safe and impactful experience for all of his students. He tested new technology for the university and provided valuable feedback to shape USF’s instruction plan. He also helped train other faculty members to ensure the best possible experience. This included teaching courses and training other AOK instructors on the St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee campuses in the fall. As this was the first semester post-consolidation, the course was new on those campuses and Sachdev served as an important resource.

“Raman’s work this past summer and fall is an excellent example of why our College highlights the need for collaboration and why it is so important in a crisis,” says Dr. Charles Adams, Dean of the Judy Genshaft Honors College. “He was flexible and worked with the facilities, information technology, administration, faculty, and communications teams to create an effective plan for hybrid instruction. Our College is proud to have him represent us in this way.”

Another important part of the students’ partial return to campus (while following all CDC guidelines) was ensuring that the facilities, signage, materials, and communications were all aligned with a safe environment. As a result, Dean Adams organized a College Safety Committee, led by Office of National Scholarships Associate Director Lauren Chambers, who holds a master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Florida. The committee met regularly to create best practices for safe use of the Allen Building, plan for and obtain all the required materials (hand sanitizer, masks, desk partitions, signage, etc.), and communicate policies and practices to the Honors community. Raman’s work this past summer is an excellent example of why our College highlights the need for collaboration and why it is so important in a crisis.” – Dr. Charles Adams “

“I am very grateful to this committee for the countless hours they spent preparing for our return to the building,” says Adams. “It was a smooth process during a difficult and unfamiliar time thanks to their hard work and excellent planning.”

One Honors student who worked hard to help others during the pandemic is recent alumna, Avalon Jade Theisen. During the summer of 2020 she organized the creation and delivery of more than 5,000 “care cards,” cards meant to spread appreciation and positivity during the pandemic. As part of her non-profit “Conserve It Forward,” Theisen delivered the cards to isolated seniors in the community and the essential workers staffing local grocery stores during lockdowns. The local ABC news station covered her work, and when asked why she chose grocery store workers, Theisen replied: “These are the people who are feeding us and keeping us healthy. This was just my way of saying thanks.”

Another example of an Honors student who was called to help others during the pandemic is biomedical sciences major, Maha Uppal. A senior from Fort Lauderdale, Uppal was

Top: In a summer pilot course, Honors instructor Raman Sachdev tested new technology that helped shape synchronous instruction that combined in-person and remote Microsoft Teams instruction.

Bottom: A volunteer models the child size of the clear face masks made at the AMRoC Fab Lab

enrolled in Dr. Lindy Davidson’s “Narrative Medicine” class in Fall 2020. During an office hours visit, Davidson told Uppal of the need for transparent face masks in the hearing-impaired community, and said that she would make some herself except that she could not sew. Uppal quickly volunteered her own sewing skills, and Davidson connected her to the Advanced Manufacturing & Robotics Center (AMRoC) Fab Lab, a nonprofit lab located in the University Mall and focused on project-based engineering education and training.

Uppal met with Terri Willingham, co-founder of the Foundation for Community Driven Innovation, parent company of the Fab Lab, and the two began plans for the clear face mask project. “Although there were a few potential designs on the internet, we decided to create our own prototype so that we would not run into copyright issues in the future,” says Uppal. “Terri let me use the lab’s sewing machines and provided the non-fabric pieces of the masks. I purchased the fabric and got to work making prototypes.” It took Uppal hundreds of volunteer hours and more than 100 attempts to create the final design. She completed it after spending every day of her winter break fine-tuning the pattern. Since then she and other volunteers have been making free clear face masks for the USF audiology department, the AMRoC Pharmacy (for their senior patients), and the Kerolle Initiative (a non-profit in the Dominican Republic).

Uppal, who plans to attend medical school next year to become a neonatologist, says that she was happy to use her skills to make life easier for those who rely on facial cues. “Wearing a facemask can be frustrating for anyone, but for certain populations it causes a struggle to communicate. I am happy to help, and I also think that if we can see someone’s smile through the mask we may be more willing to wear them when necessary.”

These are just a few examples of the good work done by members of the Judy Genshaft Honors College during the pandemic. “I am so proud of these representatives of our College,” says Dean Adams. “As Churchill said ‘never let a good crisis go to waste,’ and these students, faculty, and staff managed to make the world a better place in 2020 despite enormous challenges.”