International Programs in Agriculture

How have you stayed connected during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Story by Nyssa Lilovich
July 28, 2020

International Programs in Agriculture at Purdue, like departments and units throughout the university, has paused normal activities such as travel and in-person meetings. In March 2020, the IPIA team migrated to virtual meetings utilizing the Zoom platform to continue to stay connected. IPIA staff have been meeting weekly since mid-March. The virtual meetings are not what you might imagine an all staff meeting would normally look like. Lead Administrative Assistant, Lynn Cornell, has worked to make each weekly meeting light-hearted and fun. Meetings begin with an overall update from Associate Dean and Director of IPIA Jerry Shively, a quick go-around for staff reporting on work activities, and an open discussion about issues, challenges, and solution strategies. After these updates, IPIA staff members partake in a new game every week. Cornell has been the main planner and implementer for games at each weekly meeting. The group utilizes the breakout room feature in Zoom to work together as pre-determined teams. Each week, IPIA team members engage in friendly competition with each other in games such as Scattergories, Pictionary, Head Drawing, Trivia, Name that Tune, and Family Feud.

“Playing these games virtually has helped us to maintain connections with each other as well as relieve some of the stress associated with working remotely. In fact, I think these weekly gatherings that combine serious work and some lighthearted fun have actually brought us closer together as a team, which is perhaps a silver lining to the pandemic cloud that hangs over everything.” – Jerry Shively, Associate Dean and Director of IPIA

IPIA Zoom call — IPIA team happy hour after playing a weekly game. From left to right: Ruth Ann Bowles, Nyssa Lilovich, Lonni Kucik, Lynn Cornell, Trish Sipes, Julie Hancock, Kara Hartman, Peter Hirst, Kashchandra Raghothama, Amanda Dickson, Carole Braund, and Jerry Shively.

The Purdue IPIA team playing the ‘head drawing’ game in which everyone tries to draw the same picture—on a paper plate placed top of their head!

The IPIA team showing off their masks. Left to right: Kara Hartman, Julie Hancock, Trish Sipes, Nyssa Lilovich, Lynn Cornell, Jerry Shively, Amanda Dickson, Carole Braund, Kashchandra Raghothama, and Ruth Ann Bowles.

Team playing Pictionary — IPIA team playing Pictionary. Team members are privately messaged something to draw. Each team member then utilizes the white board function to draw while the group tries to guess what they are drawing.

Featured Stories

Four people in a greenhouse stand next to a lush growth of petunia flowers.

Plants employ rare method to produce valuable chemical compound

Land plants have spent nearly half a billion years honing a vast array of metabolic skills that...

FEMI team for Java House project in lab by coffee makers they tested.

Brewing up safety: Purdue Food Science and the Heartland Food Products Group team up to revolutionize coffee cleanliness

Coffee makers are everywhere — from kitchens to office break rooms — brewing up...

Virginia Akins in the Biochemistry building

Building community starts in the lab

Ask Purdue biochemistry students in the College of Agriculture about their experience and their...

Woman in a grocery aisle reviewing the labels.

Shop smarter this summer: An ag economist's guide to smarter grocery shopping

By learning how to cut through the hype and focus on what truly matters, you can shop smarter...

Global analysis network provides leverage for new Thompson Chair

Channing Arndt, research professor in agricultural economics and director of the Global Trade...

Electron microscopy close up of cotton fibers in gray scale

Mapping the development of cotton fibers through multiomics profiling

Daniel Szymanski and his former postdoctoral scholar Youngwoo Lee, lead author on their paper...