Student Voices

STUDENT REFLECTIONS CHOOSING RESILIENCE IN UNCOMMON TIMES

Students rise to the challenge of the pandemic, and show us how we can, too.

Each St. Andrew’s student has their own story to tell about their life during the COVID-19 pandemic. When it comes to their school life, many miss the same things.

It’s hard to remember the last time they could squeeze into a lunch table with their friends in Mac Hall, or the afternoons when they would wait for the 6 p.m. bus just so they could spend a few more hours studying and socializing together.

Now, their teachers are no longer in the hallway to exchange a good morning, or in their office to answer a question. Teachers can no longer catch a student at lunch to remind them to turn in an assignment or compliment them on a great answer in class. Those vital moments of interaction that happen in a brief second and help build a rapport between student and teacher must take on new and different forms.

Through it all, our students have demonstrated remarkable resilience, creating their own solutions to the questions that many adults still wrestle with: How will I get through this? What will I learn from this time apart? What will the world be like when this has passed?

Here are four student stories that answer those questions. Perhaps they will help us answer our own.

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Zoie Walden ’23 has volleyball on the brain.

During a typical fall, she would have just wrapped up a season of serving and spiking for the Lions in her second year on the varsity team. For now, she’ll be waiting until February at the earliest to get back on Lions Court.

Tryouts for her club volleyball team took place in November, but it wasn’t clear if she would make the cut. Limited capacity in gymnasiums means that fewer players can take the court, so even though she played last year, older players may have been first in line for those spots.

A postponed sports season and an uncertain club season, however, didn’t stop her from making volleyball central to her distance learning success strategy this year.

Attending school from home means sitting in front of a laptop screen for hours. Taking deliberate brain breaks and playing volleyball with her dad made a difference.

“Going outside was just a mental reset and refresher as I was getting used to virtual learning,” she said. “After going outside and having that break, it helped me focus much more during class.”

Her family is cautious and limits their outings. She’s seen friends while wearing face coverings and social distancing, but misses going to the movies and walking around the mall.

Until she’s back on the court, her focus will be tackling a more challenging course load, which includes AP European History, Honors English, and Algebra 2.

“It’s a change in the workload, so it’s challenging, managing all of that work with also staying sane and doing normal things,” Zoie said.

For Hannah Newman ‘22, this year was meant to be one on the move —

a summer away in a Spanish immersion program; a fall cross country season; road trips to her top choice colleges, just to see what it would be like to study there long before she needed to apply.

Instead, much of her year has been spent sitting still, learning from a distance in her bedroom. Rather than resist the change, Hannah chose to examine it, not just from her own perspective, but also from the perspective of those who do not choose to be homebound.

This summer, Hannah became a teen ambassador for Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland, a non-profit organization that provides meals and support services to senior citizens. In addition to meal packing, she learned about non-profit leadership during webinars and, as a final project, organized a wax candle sale fundraiser for Meals on Wheels.

“There are even more people who have become homebound (because of the pandemic),” Hannah said, noting how she still feels the effects of her own experience with self-isolation. “Meals on Wheels is such an essential service that provides these people with meals and companionship.”

Before she was able to return to campus for hybrid learning, Hannah found ways to bring some movement to her day. Socially distant picnics and runs made a difference, as did a consistent morning routine.

“It seems kind of trivial, but putting on a cute outfit, something you feel confident in, can make a difference,” she said. “Just being in your room and having the change of, getting up and getting dressed and doing your hair and physically moving your location from right next to your bed makes such a big difference.”

Andrew Saavedra ‘24 thrives when he is creating and

that’s one thing the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t taken away from him.

As an artist, Andrew knows that he works best when he has a specific objective: sketch “this” still life, or draw “this” portrait. But these days, as boredom sets in during times when he would typically be at swim practice or hanging out with friends, rather than picking up his phone, he picks up paper and pencil.

“Doing art, it’s helped me be more calm and it lets me express how I’m feeling during this time,” Andrew said.

He’s grateful for the relationships he developed with his classmates and teachers throughout middle school, which have continued as he transitioned from distance learning as an eighth grader to distance learning as a freshman in the Upper School.

“The eighth-grade step-up assembly brought everyone together,” he said. “To be able to see all of us together moving on and transitioning, that was a big thing.”

He’s able to create deeper bonds with his friends through group texts and massive Zoom calls, sometimes spending three hours at a time catching up and laughing with friends. Knowing how much he thrives from seeing his friends in person, he finds himself wondering if, when “this” is all over, if school will ever be the same.

“For me, seeing friends everyday, that pushed me throughout the day,” Andrew said. “Knowing I would have them in my next class would make my day more fun.”

Alex Myler ‘23 had just started solidifying his friendships and

building a rapport with his teachers when St. Andrew’s campus closed. Not only was it his freshman year, but it had also been his first year studying in the United States, having moved here from Australia last year.

As a member of the Upper School’s FIRST LEGO Tech Challenge Robotics team, Alex is comfortable with engineering solutions to new challenges, and that’s exactly how he turned distance learning into a growth opportunity.

“I take as many notes as I can and get creative with my notes, and that would keep me attentive,” he said. “When a teacher asks a question, I’ll be the first to answer. I interact with the class, and help other students if we’re in breakout rooms.”

Distance learning taught him that he works better in groups than on his own. This summer, even when he was at home tinkering with the team’s robot, devising how it would drive and complete tasks for the 2021 competition season, he did not work on the project alone.

“We’re all contributing to what the robot is going to look like, how it’s going to work, how different parts of it are going to run,” Alex said. “We’re taking everyone’s ideas and implementing them in the robot’s design.”

He is still able to row with his crew team, although members are now racing individually, a change that was not a hurdle for Alex, who had raced on his own in Australia. In addition to crew, Alex has stayed connected to his friends via social media and playing video games.

He worries about how his friends and family in Australia are faring with the pandemic, even as the country has reigned in the virus.

“Being on the other side of the world and being worried how they're doing, you never know the conditions and if they’re doing something that might get them more exposed,” Alex said.

Annabel Resor ‘20 is spending a gap year exploring Ireland as part of an experiential learning program. 34 SAES.ORG