{"id":13275,"date":"2020-04-09T12:35:08","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T16:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?p=13275"},"modified":"2024-03-28T10:58:43","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T14:58:43","slug":"coronavirus-front-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/coronavirus-front-lines\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Braves Coronavirus Front Lines"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Maddie
Maddie Odom ’20 sent this selfie to Visiting Professor of Biology Sara Tanis this week. It was a response to Tanis’ text asking whether Odom was doing OK while volunteering at a coronavirus testing site at the former Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At least one Kalamazoo College student is serving on the front lines in the world\u2019s fight against COVID-19, comforting those who fear they might have coronavirus.<\/p>\n

Armed with three years of experience as an emergency medical technician, Maddie Odom \u201920 is volunteering at a drive-through coronavirus testing site at the former Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit. There, Odom volunteers for more than nine hours per shift, six days a week, to serve as many as 800 people a day through the Coronavirus Community Care Network, a coalition of local governments and health services.<\/p>\n

Volunteers like Odom are serving people experiencing multiple symptoms of coronavirus such as a persistent cough, a fever of at least 100 degrees, a sore throat and shortness of breath. They also have a prescription from a doctor to receive a coronavirus test.<\/p>\n

Odom said as many as 42 percent of the people receiving services on a given day have tested positive, and the care network expects to perform about 14,400 tests through May 8. Detroit has drawn international media attention for recording nearly 5,500 cases of COVID-19 as of April 7.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone I work with is pretty exhausted, but it\u2019s pretty rewarding,\u201d Odom said. \u201cWorking together, we know what we\u2019re doing is helping in some way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lacrosse
Maddie Odom has been a two-sport student-athlete at K in soccer and lacrosse.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Soccer
Maddie Odom ’20 has played women’s soccer and lacrosse at K.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Odom\u2019s regular duties have varied from testing patients to directing traffic and checking IDs \u2014 on top of carrying her spring term course load as she prepares for graduation.<\/p>\n

Many might consider Odom to be a hero for her volunteerism and bravery while facing a pandemic, although she sees it as community service enabled by her health, her training and the fact she currently lives alone so she doesn\u2019t have to worry about taking the virus home to her family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it\u2019s a time when people feel kind of helpless because you can\u2019t leave your house,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m just glad I can do something to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sara
Visiting Professor of Biology Sara Tanis has a special message for Maddie Odom ’20 in response to her public service at a coronavirus drive-in testing site in Detroit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Odom expanded her passion for public health when she took a public health course at K led by Director of Careers in Health and Medicine Karika Parker. Separately, Odom has pursued emergency medicine as a wilderness first responder, a summer camp nurse and an EMT for an ambulance company. Since, she has decided to seek a career as a physician\u2019s assistant.<\/p>\n

Now, Odom relies on faculty members such as Visiting Professor of Biology<\/a> Sara Tanis and students such as her K women\u2019s lacrosse teammates for support. Together, they collect goody bags that contain items such as hand sanitizer and treats for health care, sanitation and shelter workers in the Detroit area to supplement Odom\u2019s efforts.<\/p>\n

“For me, one of the very best part of teaching is watching my students evolve into strong and vibrant members of their communities,” Tanis said. “Maddie has taught me so much over the last year about perseverance. Even when she’s in a situation where most people would give up, she just keeps pushing forward. Here’s to you, Maddie. I’ve never been more proud.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At least one Kalamazoo College student is serving on the front lines in the world\u2019s fight against COVID-19, comforting those who fear they might have coronavirus. Armed with three years of experience as an emergency medical technician, Maddie Odom \u201920 is volunteering at a drive-through coronavirus testing site at the former Michigan State Fairgrounds in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":13281,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[231],"tags":[52],"post_formats":[],"class_list":["post-13275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-students","tag-biology"],"yoast_head":"\r\nCoronavirus: Student Braves COVID-19 Front Lines - News and Events<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At least one Kalamazoo College student is serving on the front lines in the fight against the coronavirus at a drive-in testing center in Detroit.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/coronavirus-front-lines\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coronavirus: Student Braves COVID-19 Front Lines - 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It was a response to Tanis’ text asking whether Odom was doing OK while volunteering at a coronavirus testing site at the former Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>At least one Kalamazoo College student is serving on the front lines in the world\u2019s fight against COVID-19, comforting those who fear they might have coronavirus.<\/p>\n<p>Armed with three years of experience as an emergency medical technician, Maddie Odom \u201920 is volunteering at a drive-through coronavirus testing site at the former Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit. There, Odom volunteers for more than nine hours per shift, six days a week, to serve as many as 800 people a day through the Coronavirus Community Care Network, a coalition of local governments and health services.<\/p>\n<p>Volunteers like Odom are serving people experiencing multiple symptoms of coronavirus such as a persistent cough, a fever of at least 100 degrees, a sore throat and shortness of breath. They also have a prescription from a doctor to receive a coronavirus test.<\/p>\n<p>Odom said as many as 42 percent of the people receiving services on a given day have tested positive, and the care network expects to perform about 14,400 tests through May 8. Detroit has drawn international media attention for recording nearly 5,500 cases of COVID-19 as of April 7.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone I work with is pretty exhausted, but it\u2019s pretty rewarding,\u201d Odom said. \u201cWorking together, we know what we\u2019re doing is helping in some way.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_13284\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13284\" style=\"width: 193px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-13284\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/04\/Lacrosse-Maddie-Odom-300x442.jpg\" alt=\"Lacrosse Maddie Odom\" width=\"193\" height=\"279\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13284\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maddie Odom has been a two-sport student-athlete at K in soccer and lacrosse.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_13287\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13287\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-13287 size-medium\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/04\/Soccer-Maddie-Odom-300x211.jpg\" alt=\"Soccer Maddie Odom\" width=\"300\" height=\"211\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13287\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maddie Odom ’20 has played women’s soccer and lacrosse at K.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Odom\u2019s regular duties have varied from testing patients to directing traffic and checking IDs \u2014 on top of carrying her spring term course load as she prepares for graduation.<\/p>\n<p>Many might consider Odom to be a hero for her volunteerism and bravery while facing a pandemic, although she sees it as community service enabled by her health, her training and the fact she currently lives alone so she doesn\u2019t have to worry about taking the virus home to her family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know it\u2019s a time when people feel kind of helpless because you can\u2019t leave your house,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m just glad I can do something to help.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_13292\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13292\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13292\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/04\/Sara-Tanis-thanks-Maddie-Odom-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Sara Tanis thanks Maddie Odom\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13292\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Visiting Professor of Biology Sara Tanis has a special message for Maddie Odom ’20 in response to her public service at a coronavirus drive-in testing site in Detroit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Odom expanded her passion for public health when she took a public health course at K led by Director of Careers in Health and Medicine Karika Parker. Separately, Odom has pursued emergency medicine as a wilderness first responder, a summer camp nurse and an EMT for an ambulance company. Since, she has decided to seek a career as a physician\u2019s assistant.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Odom relies on faculty members such as Visiting Professor of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/programs\/biology\/\">Biology<\/a> Sara Tanis and students such as her K women\u2019s lacrosse teammates for support. Together, they collect goody bags that contain items such as hand sanitizer and treats for health care, sanitation and shelter workers in the Detroit area to supplement Odom\u2019s efforts.<\/p>\n<p>“For me, one of the very best part of teaching is watching my students evolve into strong and vibrant members of their communities,” Tanis said. “Maddie has taught me so much over the last year about perseverance. Even when she’s in a situation where most people would give up, she just keeps pushing forward. Here’s to you, Maddie. I’ve never been more proud.”<\/p>\n","comment_info":"No Comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13275"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22035,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13275\/revisions\/22035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13275"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_formats?post=13275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}