Being a College Student in a Pandemic

In American media, college culture is shoved down your throat almost as soon as you start consuming it. Ranging from the last season of Hannah Montana to almost every teen drama ever, many kids are anticipating their college experience way before they’re even in high school.

For those who attended college at any point during the coronavirus pandemic, the experience was heavily discombobulated from the traditional expectations. For myself, COVID-19 hit the spring of my freshman year, so I experienced a little bit of college prior to the pandemic, college through the heat of it and college now, in what feels like an awkward in-between.

For the seniors who are wrapping up their degrees and walking across the stage, I know this was not the ideal college dream. I know many sacrifices were made and desires were given up along the way. While you deserve to grieve the experiences that this pandemic took away from you, I hope you have found some peace with the situation now, being a little over two years since the start.

In March 2020, I left campus for spring break excited to be flying to New York City for a conference with three of my closest friends in just a few days. The night before the trip we received word that New York was being heavily impacted by this new disease rampaging through the city and we should not attend the conference. A few days later, the Centers for Disease and

Control declared the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Looking back, lockdown was, for lack of a better word, interesting. Seeing everyone I know cope with the unprecedented times in different ways showed a lot about how even throughout shared experiences, as individuals, we make different decisions.

In no way do I want to judge or invalidate how anyone chose to deal during all of this. All of our unique home, health and other circumstances played into our situations, and I’m proud of all of you for making it out.

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CAROLE COOK (CEO) ‘83

LEILA DOUCET (FINANCE DIRECTOR) ‘83

LEE TRACY (SALES ENGINEER) ‘88 IN MEMORY OF EUGENE ARP ‘67

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Academically, there is no doubt that transitioning from regular and fully in-person schedules to all online courses wasn’t difficult or uncomfortable. Honestly, some courses just weren’t designed to be taught through a screen and when there is no other option, it’s very valid to have flet struggle through that.

Socially, the pandemic might have brought you closer to your friends. It might have dragged you apart. Maybe you weren’t able to make the connections you wanted to in the classroom. Maybe you found