{"id":108767,"date":"2020-04-27T11:35:05","date_gmt":"2020-04-27T15:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767//?p=108767"},"modified":"2022-06-14T14:17:54","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T18:17:54","slug":"from-intern-to-emergency-team-leader-for-seminole-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767//from-intern-to-emergency-team-leader-for-seminole-county/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767//","title":{"rendered":"From Intern to Emergency Team Leader for Seminole County"},"content":{"rendered":"
Since Andres Acosta/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/u2019s first day at Seminole County/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/u2019s Office of Emergency Management, his internship experience has been anything but ordinary./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/n
He began in the middle of hurricane season, just as the emergency operation center was activated in preparation for Hurricane Dorian. Now, he/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/u2019s working full-time as a manager in charge of a team of 10, who spend their workdays contacting all the households in the county with confirmed COVID-19 cases and with individuals who are awaiting test results./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/u201cOnce COVID-19 started, everyone/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/u2019s day-to-day roles and responsibilities changed into specific roles that were needed in order to respond to and mitigate the impact of the virus on the community,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/u201d says Acosta, who graduates this May with his bachelor/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/u2019s degree in emergency management./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/n Acosta was promoted to emergency management associate in February, moving him from unpaid to paid intern. Not even a month later, after finishing an active shooter exercise at a local elementary school, the department learned of Seminole County/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/u2019s first confirmed positive case of the new coronavirus, so the emergency operations center was activated again./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/u201cI think the impact this experience will have on my career will be massive./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/u201d – Andres Acosta, UCF student/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/n The activation means that everyone is assigned additional duties, some quite different than their normal roles, in an effort to cover all the needed areas for whatever the hazard or emergency might be. In Acosta/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/u2019s case, the team realized they needed to set up a call center. Quickly adapting to the new position, Acosta was promoted to a managerial position after only a couple days; he now oversees the Well Check Unit and will continue to work for the department after graduation./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/u201cI wasn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/u2019t planning to have him keep that position,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/u201d says Alan Harris, chief administrator of Seminole County/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/u2019s Office of Emergency Management. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/u201cBut he has done so well, we are keeping him./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/n Every morning, Acosta arrives at the office by 7:30 a.m. He then organizes the call logs for the day, dividing up all the households by jurisdiction. The team calls all the households in Seminole County with confirmed cases of the coronavirus, households where an individual has been tested or has reported coronavirus-like symptoms to the Department of Health, and households where individuals may have been in contact with COVID-19 positive cases, explains Acosta. They call to collect temperatures, make sure the people in the household are okay and ask about their needs./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/108767/n