EXPERIENCE
The Pandemic Through the Eyes of OSU Parents WRITER: Adriana Gutierrez PHOTOGRAPER: Aaron Sanchez
If there’s one thing we’ve learned during the COVID-19 pandemic it’s this: everyone is experiencing it differently. Yes, we all have to wear masks in the grocery store, carry hand sanitizer and have become masters at all things zoom. But, what if while acclimating to this new way of life, you were also caring for a child? For many Oregon State University students, faculty and staff, the acclimation is still ongoing. I spoke to a variety of different parents to see what aspects of parenting during quarantine they’ve mastered, and what parts of a remote lifestyle still find themselves working through every day. Like many parents, Olga Loza, salesforce developer and analyst programmer for OSU E-Campus, said she found the initial transition to remote schooling for her nine-year-old son the first and most important issue her family had to tackle last spring. “My husband made him a desk that he uses for school in the living room, and I get the office and there’s a door in between, so that helps,” Loza said. “Also, my work pays for noise cancelling headphones which I’m late to the party for… I’m actually able to really block out all of the kids in his zoom and focus on my own zoom really well. We don’t interfere with each other.” Loza’s son is currently a third grader at Adams Elementary and has worked remotely since the pandemic began last spring. She explains the transition period as “chaotic” but was grateful for the summer off in order to recuperate and set a steady game plan for the upcoming school year. Now, he is able to handle the difficulties of online schooling, and even likes the remote methods 1 of learning more than in-person activities.
“I would be fine staying at home this whole year because I also realize how hard it would be for [teachers] to teach a classroom where 10 kids are in person and 10 kids are on zoom,” Loza said. “They’ve figured out a system now, and it’s working and all of the sudden for the last two, three months they’re going to have to reconfigure the system, and I just don’t see that working.”
