The Current | Vol. 31 Issue 11

October 20, 2020 | nsucurrent.nova.edu 3 News News Briefs Get the scoop on events happening on campus and around campus In Her Shoes: Event on domestic violence On Wednesday, Oct. 28 from 12 - 1:30 p.m., the NSU branch of the American Association of UniversityWomen (AAUW) and Women in Distress of Broward County will hold a virtual event over Zoom about domestic violence. The event is being showcased to raise awareness for Domestic ViolenceAwareness Month and will include a discussion on important information about domestic violence as well as how to use the interactive educational tool “In Her Shoes.” Those interested in the event can register on the AAUWw ebsite or at this link. Success workshop series The academic success coaches from NSU’s Tutoring and Testing Center will host their last success workshop event, titled “Trick or Treat your Memory,” on Tuesday, Oct. 27 at 5 p.m. Students interested can attend the event with the Zoom meeting ID: 926 5189 4995 and passcode: 692831. If anyone is unable to make the live event, or is interested in the past three events in the series, all four workshops can be found on the Tutoring and Testing Center’s website. Chat with NSU alum about a position at Google On Thursday, Oct. 29, the Center of Opportunities in Research and Technology Emerging Experience (CORTEX) at NSU and the NSU ehackers will host a chat with NSUalumni andGoogle employeeAdedayo Adepoju from 5 - 6 p.m.. Adepoju will walk through his experience of landing a job at Google and other roles he has held. Along with his experiences, Adepoju will discuss the application and interview process for Google. Those interested can register via Handshake. Rock your LinkedIn profile The College of Computing and Engineering at NSU will host a virtual training session to help students boost their LinkedIn profiles on Wednesday, Oct. 21 from 12 - 1 p.m. The session will be hosted by Jen Cassidy, senior customer success manager at LinkedIn Learning. Attendees are expected to walk away with the knowledge on how to build a profile that attracts employers, expand their network, search and apply for jobs and publish content on LinkedIn. Those interested can register for the event via Handshake. NSU for Veterans event On Wednesday, Nov. 4 from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m., NSU’s Veterans Resource Center will host both an in-person and virtual event for members of the NSU community to write letters to troops serving the country. Those on- campus can stop by Flight Deck in the University Center to write their letter and those off-campus can write their letter virtually via the following link: TinyURL.com/NSUforVeterans. The Veterans Resource Center encourages students and staff to share the link with other members within the community. Serving your community from home: Sharks and Service COVID-19 in the news: Understanding viruses NSU offers many opportunities for students to give back to their community. The Office of Student Leadership and Civic Engagement offers the Sharks and Service program, a series of trips, which students can sign up to attend and serve their community over the course of a week or weekend. However, this year, Sharks and Service is adjusting their format because of the pandemic. In the past, Sharks and Service allowed groups of students to travel locally, nationally and internationally to learn about and assist in service surrounding social issues. However, with COVID-19 restrictions in place, group travel is suspended. As students returned to school, the leaders of Sharks and Service were still determined to provide opportunities for students to give back to their community in a meaningful way. Sharks and Service is offering a few experiences per semester that students can Since early 2020, COVID-19 has been on the front page of news outlets across the globe, and for good reason. As of Oct. 11, the disease has cumulatively infected 37,109,851 individuals worldwide and caused over one million deaths, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Oct. 12 weekly epidemiological update. Mark Cayabyab, associate professor in the department of oral science and translational research with the college of dental medicine, explained “this [SARS- CoV-2] is an interesting virus because it is so infectious, most likely because of the way it’s transmitted. It can be transmitted person-to-person via [respiratory] droplets, and now the CDC thinks that it’s also sign up to attend from either their home or in person. According to Concetta D’Alessio, the assistant director of the Office of Student Leadership and Engagement, oversees Sharks and Service, they are more of an experience instead of a single trip, and each experience ismade up of threemini activities. “The experiences we’re offering this semester are focusing on disabilities and COVID-19 as it relates to healthcare. Participants will go through three mini sessions, which can be attended in person or through Zoom. We’re going to have community partners that join us virtually in those experiences as well,” said D’Alessio. After attending two mini sessions, students can choose from a number of different ways to complete their service experience. The different options to complete the service experience depend on the subject that the experience is focused on. “For example, for our experience focusing on disabilities, students can work airborne. Any airborne viruses are highly infectious… So, when the virus infects respiratory epithelial and endothelial cells, or blood vessels, it causes a lot of damage to the host.” With a disease as prevalent as COVID-19, there can be a lot of public health-specific jargon used by experts and officials that can be difficult to fully comprehend.While staying educated and up- to-date on the disease, you might repeatedly run into some specific words when reading the news. Below is a compiled list of some terms associated with COVID-19, along with their definitions and links to resources to learn more. together to assemble mental health kits for other students or they can make sensory boards for those who might have seeing challenges or things like that. Even if a student is off campus, we still plan on providing them the tools and resources to complete the project,” said D’Alessio. Not only will students be able to give back to their community and serve their peers, but if they attend all three mini sessions, they will receive an ExEL credit for their work. While D’Alessio hopes that Sharks and Service will return to being an experience that can bring students to new places to learn about social issues, she and the Sharks and Service site leaders have worked hard to develop a program where students can still give back to their community while staying safe and socially distanced. “We came up with this Sharks and Service 2.0 hybrid experience, which I would say still stays pretty true to our values: By: Sofia Gallus Arts & Entertainment Editor service, education, leadership and community,” said D’Alessio. Current and future experiences for Sharks and Service can be found on SharkHub, but spots are filling up quickly according toD’Alessio. Students can RSVP for experiences up until the date they are scheduled and can find all of the information for the sessions on the SharkHub page for each respective experience. “While our fall trips are filling up quickly, students should be on the lookout for four more experiences next semester. The four areas focus on education, global climate change, hunger and homelessness and immigrant youth. These experiences will all happen between January and April next semester. If students aren’t able to sign up for any this semester, just be sure to be on the lookout for those next four,” said D’Alessio. Words you’re seeing and what they mean Check out the hyperlinks for more information regarding each of these terms. Virus: As defined by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Genome Research Institute, a virus is a “small collection of genetic code, either DNA or RNA, surrounded by a protein By: Madelyn Rinka Co-Editor-in-Chief coat.” Viruses must use host cells in order to replicate themselves. Coronavirus : The following is the CDC’s definition for coronaviruses: “Coronaviruses, named for the crown-like spikes on their surfaces, are a large family of viruses that are common in people and many different species of animals, including camels, cattle, cats and bats.” COVID-19 : COVID-19 stands for coronavirus disease 2019. SARS-CoV-2: SARS-CoV-2 is the name of the particular coronavirus that causes COVID-19, not to be confused with SARS-CoV , the virus that caused the viral respiratory illness, SARS, outbreak in Feb. 2003. SARS stands for severe acute respiratory syndrome. Epidemic/pandemic: According to the CDC, an epidemic is “an increase, often sudden, in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected in that population in that area,” while a pandemic is defined as an epidemic that has “spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people.” Hotspot: Merriam-Webster defines a hotspot as, generally, “a place of more than usual interest, activity or popularity.” A hotspot is a word applied to many different topics — in the case of the pandemic, it is likely referring to a geographic area, such as a country or state, with a high number of cases or cases per resident. However, a study published by The National Center for Biotechnology Information, a branch of the NIH, stated that “the precisemeaning of ‘hotspot’ varies widely in current research and policy documents.” Quarantine: Quarantine is separating someone who was exposed to a disease to monitor their symptoms in case they do get sick. Isolation: An individual who is sick with a contagious disease is told to isolate, or separate themselves from others who are not sick, to limit the risk of spreading the illness. Vaccine: A vaccine is “A product that stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from that disease,” according to the CDC.