Recent Alumni Find Purpose and Balance Post-Pandemic Despite the pandemic, or perhaps because of it, recent University graduates have found purpose, flexibility and balance in their young careers.
Anna Giannantonio ’19, G’20 is just one of many recent graduates beginning a career in a post-pandemic world.
College students and graduates all over the world were thrust into a labor market disrupted by COVID-19. Some of the best-laid plans — internships, first jobs, graduate school — went awry, but many young Scranton alumni adjusted — even benefitted — from having time to think deeply about what came next.
Uncertainty Turns to Certainty Emilie Tronoski ’19, a seventh-grade math teacher at Pope John Paul II Regional Catholic School in West Brandywine, began her teaching career in 2020. Just months later, she found herself teaching pre-algebra from her dining room table to students on a screen. 32
THE SCRANTON JOURN A L
“I was already overwhelmed and unsure of what I was doing,” she said. “I had to essentially reteach myself how to be a teacher in this new virtual world. The career I signed up for changed completely.” The year left her frustrated and full of uncertainty but dealing with the disruption taught her flexibility. “I have always been someone who needs a schedule. If things digress from that schedule, I can recover but don’t love when things change,” she said. Now, she understood, “Anything and everything can change at, literally, any moment.” When she returned to the classroom, she said she was certain that the profession was for her, but perhaps, one day, she’d
