Ascend Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update
As of March 25, 2020

The world is a different place than it was just a week ago. During this extremely difficult situation with the coronavirus (COVID-19), our commitment to the health and safety of our community remains our top priority. We will provide regular updates and share available resources regularly as keeping our community connected is particularly important while many of us are working remotely.

With the U.S. “15 Days to Slow the Spread” guidelines put in effect on March 16 and the CDC guidance for postponing mass in-person events consisting of 50 people or more throughout the United States, Ascend has postponed our in-person events or converted the events into virtual gatherings over the next few months. We encourage you to engage and explore these new formats, continue to learn, and stay connected.

Many of our major cities across the continent have implemented Shelter-in-Place orders, a remote work model, and shut down many public gathering places. We ask that we heed the guidance provided to help keep everyone safe and well. Check cdc.gov for more information. During this time, we have asked our leaders and our constituents to stay connected and provide assistance to each other, particularly to our student chapters members who may have been displaced during the shutdown.

It’s important to remember that Ascend is an organization that cares. We will continue to communicate and work to support each other. Together, we are determined to ensure that we stay resilient and strong during this extraordinary time and we encourage everyone to follow the advice of our public health professionals.

Please take care of yourselves, your family, your friends, and your colleagues.

Ascend Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update
As of March 12, 2020

We at Ascend are deeply concerned about the rapid spread and impact of COVID-19 on human health and wellness in the United States and the world. With the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring the COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, Ascend will follow recommended guidance set forth to combat this virus. To this end, our chapter leaders and I continue to closely monitor the ever-changing status of this situation and prioritize the safety and well-being of our community members.

At the time of this writing, our near term in-person events are being postponed and we are working on contingency plans for those events. Ascend is actively working to assess the impact of this outbreak on its national and chapter programs, holistically, including contingency plans for events which may need to be postponed and rescheduled. One option under preliminary review is to convert select future events into virtual offerings and move forward with planned virtual events in the coming months. We continue to explore other possible solutions as well.

While we understand that these and other measures will cause some disruption and inconvenience to our community, we believe that actions taken now will have the greatest chance of decreasing risk, and that the potential consequences of not taking action could far outweigh these short-term disruptions.

As this situation evolves, we aim to be proactive in implementing measures that limit the spread of this disease and respectfully ask that you reconsider attending scheduled events if you feel unwell or have recently traveled internationally. We also urge you to follow widely accepted hygiene protocols and will continue to monitor federal, state and local agencies for recommendations related to self-quarantine, public assemblies, and travel guidelines.

We find the following websites helpful for the latest and most important information and guidelines:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

As an organization that is a recognized leader in corporate and civic realms, we remain committed to providing timely communications as we move forward in our shared efforts to ensure the health and safety of our community members and of the general public. Our resolve to ensure that we continue to deliver on high impact programming demonstrates the resiliency of our community and the Ascend organization at large.  

Thank you for your patience, partnership and support as we work together through this challenging and uncertain time.

Anna Mok
President, Ascend