From nursing to teaching, North Park alumni have moved boldly to the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Two of them, Sommar (Johnson) Otfinoski C’13 G’20 and Kelly (Sladkey) Vetter C’11, spoke about their days as, respectively, an Intensive Care Unit nurse and a Chicago Public School teacher in an NBC Chicago series, “Coronavirus in Illinois: A Day in the Life During the Pandemic.”
C’13 G’20
Using her phone to record herself, Otfinoski tours the ICU of Swedish Hospital, where she spent the height of the pandemic, often working three 12-hour shifts in a row.
“A typical day in the ER does not exist,” Otfinoski says before she begins a tour of the hospital. “We are very busy, and they just keep coming. It’s a lot of work, but we’re slowly trying to help these people.”
Despite the challenges, Otfinoski, a third-generation North Parker, smiles at the end of her shift, showing off a “Covid Hero” pin that is affixed to her scrubs.
“I feel like a Covid Hero,” she jokes before signing off.
Meanwhile, Kelly (Sladkey) Vetter C’11, another third-generation Viking, was featured in a separate video, talking about her dual roles as a teacher and stay-at-home mom to two small boys.
“I always love days where I can actually meet with students,” Vetter says in the piece. “Even though it’s meeting virtually, it reminds me of what I really love.”
Vetter currently teaches science and social studies to seventh- and eighth-graders. As a special education teacher with CPS, Vetter is passionate about co-teaching in an inclusion setting.
The piece also shows her juggling work while caring for her two boys, ages one and three: As her baby sleeps, she engages her toddler while also developing remote learning plans for her students. Later in the day, Vetter perches her laptop on a box containing toddler supplies while reviewing vocabulary words with a student.
Meanwhile, North Park nursing professor Heather Duncan was also on the frontlines of the Covid-19 outbreak, treating some of the most vulnerable Chicagoans. As a nurse with Lawndale Christian Health Center’s Mobile Health Team, she risks her own safety every day to care for the most underserved among us.
The team houses and cares for more than 100 medically complex homeless patients, to try and keep them out of the hospital, which would add another burden to the medical system. The lack of affordable housing in Chicago, a long-entrenched problem, has only made things harder during the pandemic.
“Despite the uncertainty and potential infection, we are committed to our patients,” Duncan said. “Lawndale’s motto is ‘Loving God, Loving People.’ This was our primary goal; to protect the least of these.”