Several weeks ago, the Vandal Health Clinic (VHC) announced a contest for University of Idaho students to submit content depicting their interpretation of UI and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines regarding COVID-19. The winners of that contest were announced Sept. 12 on the Vandal Health Ed Facebook page, along with posts showcasing their submissions.
Sonia Ortiz, a senior accounting major, and Olamide (Lami) Olorunkosebi, a second-year architecture graduate student, submitted images and a video respectively.
“Help promote Healthy Vandals and protecting yourself and others,” the submission page stated. “Winning submissions… will be used to create the next Healthy Vandals video to help spread the message that we all have a role to play in normalizing face coverings, social distancing, staying home when sick and practicing basic hygiene strategies.”
Olorunkosebi used to make skits and videos. His entry is a bit of a return to that practice, he said.
His 30-second video depicts himself getting ready to leave for class. Going through the essentials, he washes his hands, grabs his keys and wallet and heads out the door. It isn’t long, however, before he realizes he left his mask in the house. Quickly, he grabs it and heads back out the door.
“I did have a ton of ideas I was going to shoot, but work and class wouldn’t really let me do that,” Olorunkosebi said. “I just knew that I was always forgetting my mask every single time. Every time you’re out (for) work (or) going somewhere it’s like, ‘Oh, my mask! I have to go back and get it.’”
Olorunkosebi suggests bringing a mask everywhere and putting masks in several convenient locations, like a backpack or car.
Ortiz submitted photos of herself in a UI-themed mask while out on a hike.
Ortiz said two of the photos were inspired by recommendations to go hiking instead of participating in other social activities during the pandemic, since hiking not only maintains social distancing guidelines but is a fun local activity. Her third photo is of herself wearing a mask provided by UI along with other Vandal merchandise, captioned with the hashtag “Vandalized.”
“I think everyone’s been handling (COVID-19) pretty well,” Olorunkosebi said. “I think (UI) has done a pretty good job testing, but I think it would be great if we got another round of testing (as soon as possible) because people are traveling regardless.”
Ortiz has noticed good compliance with face covering rules specifically.
“Everybody I see that’s on campus is doing really well with wearing their masks, so I think the community is really banding together to keep everyone safe,” Ortiz said.
This article has been updated to correct formatting errors.
Carter Kolpitcke can be reached at arg-news@uidaho.