MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — Whether it's picking up and delivering meals or calling to check in on students, Georgia College staff members have stepped up to be a part of the school's COVID-19 Care Response Team.
"We have about 45 staff members who are part of the team. Thankfully, our case load has gone way, way down as our students are returning to campus and we have much fewer cases, but at any given time a staff member would have 10-15 students on their case load," said director of Parent and Family Programs, Emily Jarvis.
Jarvis and Jennifer Graham, the director of the Womens' Center, helped put vice president Shawn Brooks' idea into motion by gathering staff members to assist students who are quarantining.
"Check in and make sure that they're doing okay while either they're sick or they're isolating. Be able to provide needs for them, so if they need technology needs or assistance reaching out to faculty members or making connections or if they needed assistance with getting food and making sure they had things to eat and those sorts of thing while they're isolating then that's a piece of what what we're doing as well," Graham said.
Graham says the program helps build connections with staff members and students, especially for freshmen who had to start their college experience off in isolation.
"For some of them whom got very sick, that was especially a concern, of being able to stay caught up and how am I going to be able to do this?," she said.
"Students that we've reached out to have overwhelmingly been just thrilled that someone is calling them and checking on them, and I think surprised that someone would bother to do that, so it was really nice to hear just how happy they were that someone cared enough to see how they were doing," Jarvis said.
Volunteers from the Gift Center offered to deliver food for the students who are on the meal plan.
Students are connecting with their response team member through phone calls, texts, and email.