Covid-19 has changed the world as we know it. Most developed countries have been able to get a hold of the virus and implemented strategies to slow the spread as well as administer vaccinations. Although it took the United States longer than it should have for the majority of people to take the virus seriously, we have ultimately reached a point where people have accepted they must wear masks and social distance in order to protect not only themselves but other members of their community as well. States have slowly implemented stay at home mandates as well as curfews and restrictions on large gatherings in public. Unfortunately, there are still a few states like Texas that have decided to open up completely which is putting their citizens at risk. It’s a very difficult situation for all countries of the world to balance maintaining a strong economy and protecting their citizens health. In a country like Puerto Rico, there are less resources from the government for communities to get the level of support they need to stay safe. In many places, people are forced to go to work and continue life as it was before the pandemic, even if it puts them at risk of contracting the virus. From our meetings with our clients at Caras con Causa I’ve seen that they are taking the virus very seriously by wearing masks when they are near other people and closing schools until they figure out a viable plan that allows for everyone to be safe. Covid-19 has had a significant impact on the project my team is working on. To start off, last year’s group was planning on photographing important places at Caras to include in their marketing materials. Unfortunately, they were unable to travel to Puerto Rico during their spring break. This caused them to adjust their scope of work and limited their ability to complete everything they had planned at the beginning of the semester. Furthermore, there was a plan for a pilot run to be conducted by students at Pitt during last summer. Again, this had to be cancelled because of Covid-19 and all the information that was going to be gathered was not available for my group this semester. Covid-19 has made it very difficult for our project in terms of gathering information from the specific site in Puerto Rico which is vital for creating marketing materials and helping Caras attract other universities to partner with. We are hopeful that a mixed student and faculty group from Pitt will travel to Puerto Rico next spring in order to conduct a pilot run of a study abroad trip and collect important information for next years group.
I think that we should be very grateful to have access to technologies such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. These two technologies have allowed our group to work smoothly with one another, with our mentors at Pitt and our clients at Caras con Causa. I think that being able to talk “face to face” over Zoom is really the next best thing to being in person. Of course, there can be technical difficulties and times when we have to ask people to repeat themselves, but this is all part of becoming a better communicator. I think my group is lucky to be learning how to communicate virtually with people because this is an important skill that future employers will want you to know how to do. I would say that the largest challenge so far from working virtually is the limited access to our clients. We’ve only met with them two times so far and our only way to communicate outside of the meetings is through email. However, working virtually has allowed us to complete our tasks on our own time. This is very helpful especially for busy college students with different schedules and different free time. I have enjoyed being able to check in with my group and holding each other accountable virtually to complete our goals and get closer to our final deliverables.