In 10 years, what will you tell people about what it was like to be at St. Joe’s during the pandemic?

Reporting during a pandemic

From left to right: Opinions Editor Tayler Washington ’22, Staff Writer Kaylah Hernandez ’23 and Copy Chief Cara Smith ’21 report at a protest at Malcolm X Park in West Philadelphia.

Nick Karpinski ’21 Managing Editor

COVID-19 is obviously at the center of everyone’s lives. It’s also at the center of the reporting process. I won’t soon forget holding a six-foot, socially-distant boom pole in one hand and a notebook in the other trying to record video all while staring at a camera through my all too commonly fogged glasses. I’ve come to the conclusion that every mask will fog my glasses, which is of course a fair trade-off.

Jackie Collins ’21 Senior Editor

When I used to conduct in-person interviews, I would draw inspiration for my story through my observations of the space I entered into or even through the body language of the source I spoke to. Those little things would help my story come to life. Zoom interviews and phone interviews during the pandemic did not afford me the same experience in the reporting process.

Cara Smith ’21 Copy Chief

After being on The Hawk for a year and a half prior to the coronavirus pandemic, adjusting our production schedule to abide by COVID-19 protocols was initially heartbreaking. The newsroom served as my “place” on campus and it was difficult to adjust my reporting and publishing practices while maintaining my excitement for my senior year. However, throughout this year, The Hawk not only gave me the skills I need to succeed in the start of my professional journalism career, but also gave me comfort throughout a tumultuous time. I am continuously inspired by the dedication of my colleagues over the past two semesters despite facing seemingly insurmountable challenges every week. The Hawk (Newspaper) Will Never Die!

Nenagh Sheehan ’21 Assistant Features Editor

I started working for The Hawk in my News Reporting class during my junior year before the pandemic. I would mostly interview students, faculty and staff in person to voice record them and take notes. After my News Reporting class, I began working as the assistant features editor when the pandemic started to get bad and reporting drastically changed. Due to social distancing, I had to start reporting and interviewing people over Zoom and over the phone, which became exhausting because of Zoom burnout. The majority of my classes are online, so I spend most of my time sitting on Zoom all day staring at a computer screen. I also enjoy connecting face to face with people on campus, so when reporting became remote I felt like I lost that sense of personal connection.

Ryan Mulligan ’21 Editor in Chief

The pandemic made me completely rethink how I reported. My favorite part of the reporting I have done has been going into new spaces, gaining new experiences and writing about the people I meet along the way. During the pandemic, those experiences have been limited, and when they do arise, it’s difficult to fully concentrate on doing your best work with the constant worry of getting COVID-19 in the back of your mind.

Mitchell Shields ’22 Photo Editor

Giana Longo ’22 Features Editor

One of the things that I love about journalism is that as a reporter you get to meet so many interesting people. Interviews shed light on not only information in stories but also details about a person and their life. I think that it is one of the things that was initially “lost” when the pandemic first hit, especially in features. It becomes really hard to profile someone well or to do a story justice when you can only interact with someone via Zoom or emails. Sitting in a room with someone allows you to see body language, tone of voice and environmental engagement. You do not get the same energy talking to someone over the phone as you do in real life. Adjusting to this has been a challenge, but over time I think we all learned that even over the phone, you can still have a great interview with someone. While writing can be done at home, and interviews can be done over the phone, photography does not have that luxury. The pandemic took a hit on what I could do as a photographer in order to get meaningful photos. Photos tell people’s stories and you have to meet people to get them, which is hard in a pandemic. I regularly had to think of new and creative ways so my staff and I could tell stories safely. While the pandemic has been a hurdle, it has allowed us to capture how a society reacts to an event that affects everyone. It is quite remarkable how a microscopic virus can make a visual effect on the macroscopic world.

Devin Yingling ’22 News Editor

It’s strange to think that I came to love this work because of the connections I made with people while reporting, and now the connection that seems to matter the most is that of my computer to the internet if Zoom is the interviewees preferred platform. However, I certainly don’t love this work any less—in fact I think I love it more. In a time when we are all supposed to be apart, I’m lucky to work in an environment where staying apart simply isn’t an option. While I’ve had to get more creative in my methods for getting to know people and finding stories to tell, that only shows just how valuable journalism during a pandemic really is, no matter how small the paper.

Tyler Nice ’23 Assistant Sports Editor

Reporting during COVID-19 is all that I’ve known. I started writing for The Hawk last February, right before the pandemic. The first two stories I wrote were the only two in which I’ve done in-person interviews. While I do think that doing interviews virtually or over the phone gives greater flexibility in scheduling the interviews, I am ecstatic to interview my sources in person when the time comes. I feel like it will capture the essence of people I report on a lot more.

In 10 years, what will you tell people about what it was like to be at St. Joe’s during the pandemic?

I would say people were anxious, people weren’t generous like they used to be. So hostile, not patient with other people. Manners went out the window and people were scared to help one another. -Tanya Heard desk attendant in Post Learning Commons The first day I Zoomed with my students from my living room, I literally started to cry because I didn’t realize how emotional it was going to be to see their faces over Zoom. I was so relieved to see that everybody was safe and everybody was healthy. In 10 years from now, I will look back on this and go, “It was a chance for me to really be a teacher.” -Theresa Crossan, M.A. adjunct professor of chemistry

I will tell them how tiring, mentally draining, and difficult it was to sit in online classes every day. -Connor Reagan ’22

This is 10 times worse than actual school. The only good thing that came out of it was being able to roll out of bed in your pajamas and go to class. -Elizabeth Donnelly ’24

I am so proud of my St. Joe’s students who rose to the challenge and came to classes virtually even with masks on because they couldn’t even be somewhere where they were alone. -Gabrielle Miller adjunct professor of film

I admire students, in particular, St. Joe’s students, who have been able to do these hybrid forms and be back on campus and really adapt in the way that St. Joe’s is adapting. -Richard Gioioso, Ph.D. professor of political science It was something that probably no one ever is going to experience. Then the people that were in it knew that it was really crazy. It ruined a lot of the year but it was something that we all had to work through and adjust to. -Micaela Salerno ’21 This honestly shows you the real world because all the stuff that happened during this pandemic, so many events leading up to it and so many events that happened during it, honestly changed and shaped our world. It made me realize what our world is and I guess it just really opened up my eyes to different things in different perspectives. -Amanda Boehme ’24

It was hard. It’s hard not being able to be in class because in-person classes are way easier. You get to learn much more. Having classes online, you don’t get the exact same focus you had interacting with the professor. -Oscar Colon ’23

Interviews by: Kenzie Allen ’23, Mary Comerford ’22, Henry Berg ’21, Jenna Quigley ’22, Matt Charleston ’22, Gabby Bekoka ’23, Dan Ciocca ’21, Matt Miller ’21, Matt Popeck ’22, Nick Detulleo ’23 Some good things that came out of it was a sense of shared purpose and shared community like we are all in this together and we were all supporting each other and being kind to each other. -Martha Easton, Ph.D. assistant professor of art history

I have learned as a teacher, over the last five years especially, to recognize that my students are more than that. During the pandemic, that knowledge, that understanding has been so crucially important because it helped me to know when I needed to step in, when I needed to check in. -Amber Abbas, Ph.D. associate professor of history

We learned to make the best possible decisions with the information we had and to be comfortable with cognitive dissonance, uncertainty and contradiction, which are among the critical thinking skills that a foundation in liberal education provides for our students. -Shaily Menon, Ph.D. dean of College of Arts and Sciences

It wasn’t too hard, just because of being online, but I feel like I’ll say that I missed out on the college experience, especially as freshmen because we were only there for a half a year. And I’ll probably talk about the fact that I feel like there’s so many people that I didn’t meet, but I probably would have had we not had a whole pandemic that sent everyone home. -Mallory Grossman ’23

I would say that online teaching is both more possible and more difficult than any of us thought. I had to learn to adapt but I’m so excited to be in the same room as you all again. -Steven Hammer, Ph.D. associate professor of communication and media studies

I think one of the main things I noticed was the students’ mental health. I have students in my classes or my colleagues’ students whose mental health was taking a real beating. -Jason Mezey, Ph.D. professor of English

The college experience changed. I think a lot of it, pre-pandemic, was about social interactions, which is significantly more limited now. Our understanding of college has become a more academic focus, which for some people isn’t what they wanted. -Luis Nunez ’21

Being a high school student in the very beginning of the pandemic was definitely the greatest experience of my life because I went from having to go to school to literally playing video games with my friends all day. -Carter Karpinski ’24

Before the pandemic happened, if we were to be offered online school we all probably would have been for it because of how easy it was. But when we got into it, we noticed how hard it was to have motivation. -Jordan Freeland ’21 It’s very easy to get distracted when you’re online. When

I’m going on these Zoom calls and have my phone on ,my iPod on, my computer, and I just start browsing, because I think I can multitask, but you’re just not getting that same amount—you’re not absorbing the same amount of information. -Alfredo Mauri, Ph.D. professor of management

Even though it was frustrating, it was sort of beneficial in a way that it helped us learn our strengths or weaknesses especially doing stuff online. I would say it was a time where we discovered ourselves, especially being home being confined to our environment. -Heavenly Perez ’24

It was very, very challenging. School is very hard right now, focusing is hard. It feels overwhelming because we’re sitting at a desk all day long. -Erin Hicks ’21

I would say that it made me realize that the little moments that didn’t really seem that impactful before really mean a lot more to me now.

The pandemic created a sense of fear, aggression. It took the humaneness out of people and I think it really hurt people’s personal relationship with a friend, as well as strangers. People are afraid to socialize. -Vincent Lynch ’22

We’re always gonna have that sense of 'Alright, anything can change in an instant,’ and I feel like we never really had experienced that before so now that’ll always stick with us. We’ll be able to walk out of this being more appreciative even about the simplest things. -Maggie Hallinan ’22 -Raymond Zuhowski ’21

It was probably the most difficult period in modern American history to be a student because of the sudden change from being used to the traditional classroom style of learning to go fully online and try to adapt to Zoom. Trying all that was definitely hard. -Pat Taddei ’22