K Week 2020

 Welcome back! This post is going to be talking about my experience with K Week 2020!

I had the privilege of being a K Crew leader for incoming UK students this year. K Week is almost like a few days before the beginning of a school year where events are happening on campus that new students go to and make new connections before they get started with their first year at UK. A K Crew leader is in charge of introducing a group of new students to the campus and being the bridge for them to become acclimated to everything happening on campus before the first week of school, as well as being someone on campus the students can meet and connect with, almost like a reference guide. A few responsibilities of being a K Crew leader includes taking the K Team to many of the events, such as the new student induction ceremony, Campus Ruckus (where many student organizations are in one area - Kroger Field - and the new students can talk to representatives of the clubs and organizations and find out about many of the different things that the University has to offer), and classroom tours (where the K Crew leader can take the students around the campus to help them find buildings their classes will be in (if they aren't online, like most classes are this semester). 

This is a picture from the first time I met my K Team, at the K Team meeting, right before the New Student Induction Ceremony. Of course, everyone had to wear masks and try to socially distance as best as they could, but it was still really fun to get to meet and interact with my team! Go K Team 227 and Go CATS!!!

COVID on Campus

Before the students came onto campus for the Fall 2020 semester, the University came up with a plan to start operations on campus, found here.

Part of the first phase of this restart plan, the students either had to submit a file to the University 14 days before arriving on campus of a COVID test they took (within the 14 days). If they hadn't taken one before arriving on campus, then they had tot ake one withing the first week of arriving to campus. Lucky for me, I was one of those students that got to take one when arriving to campus. 

On August 12, I had to take a COVID test, where they took a swab and rotated it in my nose for 5 seconds on each side. It wasn't too much fun, but it definitely cleared me out. Below, I've inserted a picture of my test tube while I was waiting for my turn.

                                                       

To make things even better, I got my results back a few days later, and it was negative! :)

Will COVID Close Campuses?

 So the ultimate question I myself and everyone else on campus has this semester: will everyone be sent home due to a second coronavirus outbreak and will all classes go online, or will we be able to finish this semester on campus, the same way we started? Personally, I think with everything going on, I have a feeling we will eventually be sent home and finish all of our classes online for the rest of the semester, at some point. Based on what I've seen, I know that the University, does, in fact, have positive cases, and a positivity rate of 1.2%. However, I know this will change, so here is a link to the frequently updated page of coronavirus cases that have impacted the campus up until this point.

Knowing what I do right now, I've heard of there potentially being a second outbreak of COVID coming this fall, along with the recurring flu season, which might make things messier than they have been due to the fact that it'll be harder to diagnose two different viruses and it might be harder to manage everyone on campus with a second outbreak. Because of the fact that we are still trying to take control of the virus right now, I think we will end up going all online again sometime this semester. When there were no positive cases on campus in March, we were still sent home and went completely online (I plan on making a post about this in the future), so I feel like if cases increase and it becomes a bigger threat to everyone, they will make the decision to go fully online to keep everyone safe. Hopefully everything works out and we can finish the semester the way we've started it, but hindsight is 2020 and all we have left to do is keep doing what we are, and find out when the time is right.

UPDATE 9/4: It seems as though some colleges have already closed due to COVID and are having trouble with keeping the number of cases down to a manageable number, and I've embedded a video about that below.

This video shows how different colleges in the US are struggling with handling the COVID outbreak and how some of them have closed their campuses due to the increase in cases.

Introduction

 Hello Wildcats! If you're reading this, you've probably found out about the impacts of the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2020 and decided to do some research. Lucky for you, I have made this blog to inform you of what it was like to go to college at the University of Kentucky during this pandemic. But before we get straight into it, I'll introduce myself. My name is Hannah Hundley and I'm from Louisville, Kentucky, which is about an hour drive from UK. I'm a sophomore here at UK, majoring in Human Health Sciences on the pre-optometry track. So far, my experience with COVID-19 hasn't been too extraordinary. Other than having relatives who are high risk, nothing with the virus aspect of the pandemic has affected my family in any way. I have some friends who had family that have been affected by the pandemic, but it hasn't been too much of a burden for my family. I believe the closest COVID could have come to me would be at my summer job at Kentucky Kingdom. During the last month or so, it was found that some of the ride operators were positive for the virus. I'm in a different department than rides, but I work close to the rides management, which is a bit scary to think I may have been exposed to it at some point. However, other than what I've said, and apart from the necessary restrictions caused by the pandemic (i.e. social distancing, mask mandates, online classes, etc.), the pandemic hasn't yet impacted my life much. With that said, I will keep posting on this blog to keep track of how my life changes this semester in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Welcome to my blog, and enjoy!