{"id":59119,"date":"2021-03-16T09:19:09","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T14:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=59119"},"modified":"2021-03-16T09:19:11","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T14:19:11","slug":"international-publication-features-fhsu-efforts-to-get-smart-about-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=59119","title":{"rendered":"International publication features FHSU efforts to \u2018Get Smart About COVID-19\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspired by the success of a social entrepreneurship initiative by Fort Hays State University students, an international online journal asked FHSU to submit an article for publication on the initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Jane Talkington and Dr. Kevin Amidon\nco-authored the article \u201cGet Smart About COVID-19,\u201d which was published in the\nMarch 2021 issue of Solutions. Talkington is interim director of Center for\nEntrepreneurship in the Robbins College of Business and Entrepreneurship\n(RCOBE) and assistant professor of management. Amidon is the director of the\nHonors College and an associate professor of modern languages. Also\ncontributing to the article were Ronald Storrer, a graduate assistant in FHSU\u2019s\nDepartment of Management, and Dr. Nizam S. Najd with Emporia State University\u2019s\nDepartment of Business Administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last fall, Talkington sent the Solutions\neditor \u2013 a former colleague of hers \u2013 a flyer for contact tracing workshops she\nis hosting through FHSU\u2019s Management Development Center and included information\nabout the student initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article describes the pilot program\nwhere FHSU students in the Dane G. Hansen Scholarship Hall and the Honors\nCollege learn ways to apply safety measures from COVID-19 to their lifestyles.\nTalkington and Amidon used a curriculum developed by Johns Hopkins University,\nand at the time Solutions asked for FHSU\u2019s article submission, it was the only\nuniversity in the country known to be using the curriculum from the private\nresearch university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talkington, who became certified in\ncontact tracing for COVID-19 last spring, thought of the initiative as a way of\nkeeping students safe but engaged at the same time. Several FHSU students are\npart of both the Honors College and the Hansen Hall entrepreneurship community,\nso Talkington and Amidon decided to combine efforts for teaching students to\ntake care of themselves while watching out for everyone\u2019s welfare at the same\ntime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe thought that peer-to-peer education\nwould be the most effective way to teach students about COVID, using them as\nadvocates for staying safe,\u201d Talkington said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The curriculum in the six-hour program\nfocuses on the science of COVID-19 science and also includes the principles of\ncontact tracing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the course, the students were\ncharged with building networks \u2013 particularly in rural western Kansas \u2013 to help\nimprove the well-being of themselves, fellow students, and their families.\nStudents completing the six-hour program are eligible for consideration for one\nof three $1,000 scholarships that will be awarded this spring. A committee will\nreview the applicants, who must share the impact this project has had on their\nlifestyle and their greater community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a graduate assistant, Storrer assists\nTalkington with projects through the RCOBE Center for Entrepreneurship, and he\nlives in Hansen Hall, which houses students devoted to entrepreneurial learning\nobjectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A native of Paraguay, Storrer said he\nknew that he wouldn\u2019t be able to work as a contact tracer (international\nstudents cannot work off campus because of their VISA status). Nonetheless, he\nchose to take the John Hopkins course anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to learn more about COVID-19,\nbased on science,\u201d Storrer said. \u201cThere is a lot of information out there, but\nyou don\u2019t know what to believe. With the Johns Hopkins curriculum, you know\neverything you are learning is true.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Storrer said some of the most notable\nlessons he learned were the importance of respecting the 6-foot distance\nbetween people, wearing masks, and getting tested even if you don\u2019t display any\nsymptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haley Yancey, a junior management major\nfrom Liberal, who also lives in Hansen Hall, was impressed with the course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t realize how much I needed to\nknow about COVID-19 safety,\u201d she said. \u201cThis course opened my eyes, especially\nseeing how many people that one person with COVID-19 can infect if they come in\ncontact with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Talkington and Amidon are pleased\nwith the results of the initiative to date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always asking students to link\ntheir education with the careers are seeking, and this is a solution to a\nreal-world problem,\u201d Amidon said. \u201cWe saw this as a learning opportunity and to\nfind a way for students to learn new kinds of campus and community leadership\nwhile fulfilling the mission of the institution and the student groups we are\ncharged with.\u201d\n\nTalkington agreed, stating: \u201cI read the other\nday that learning begins at the edge of discomfort, and our students are\nexperiencing a lot of resilience through this project. I\u2019ve always believed in\nactivism, and this is teaching students how to be active in their community.\u201d\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS Inspired by the success of a social entrepreneurship initiative by Fort Hays State University students, an international online journal asked FHSU to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11722],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-releases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59120,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59119\/revisions\/59120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}