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Moderator: Thomas Kling, Bridgewater State University

Student Leadership in Emergency Response and Recovery: From Category 5 Hurricanes to COVID-19

Michele Guannel, Assistant Professor of Biology, University of the Virgin Islands

Deanna Hunt, Peer Instructor / Service Learning Coordinator, University of the Virgin Islands

Since Spring 2018, over 100 undergraduate students have led service learning projects within a general education science course, Science 100, at the Historically Black College/University, the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI). Initially, student projects focused on community recovery from the Category 5 Hurricanes, Irma and Maria, that hit the Virgin Islands within two weeks in 2017. Projects have included distribution of donated goods, light restoration of hurricane-damaged homes, community and home garden creation, mangrove restoration, and community education regarding Caribbean natural hazards such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunami waves. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, student projects have surpassed the initial ideas and suggestions of instructors. We see enhanced creativity and more student-led projects, whereby coordination with instructors and cooperation with other students occur online and virtually. The past three semesters have included projects involving COVID-19 response, such as the creation and distribution of protective supplies (homemade fabric masks and hand sanitizer), social media platforms for education on natural disasters and mental wellness, and interview-based projects to understand the human element in crises such as COVID-19 and major hurricanes. These transdisciplinary high-impact practices - bridging natural and social science to address such “wicked problems” – seek to improve recruitment, retention, and persistence in STEM and resilience-related pathways at UVI. Further, we look towards building a cohort of resilience leaders who are best equipped, through their lived experiences, to support their small island communities throughout both the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as well as increasing threats of climate-change-intensified hurricanes.