MAKING UP FOR LOST TIME
BY SYLVIE AUGUST
On March 11, 2020, President Eric Barron announced that Penn State would be shifting to online learning with plans to return to in person classes two weeks later. With no understanding yet of how the pandemic would impact their lives, some students rejoiced at the announcement and celebrated an extended spring break. As it became clear that students would not return to in-person instruction for the rest of the semester, so many factors in student lives — school, family, friends, career — began to seem cripplingly uncertain. With a future so unpredictable, a time machine would have been the best tool to see how the pandemic would play out.
MARCH 2020 As students celebrate their “extended spring break,” people all over the world shuffle into their homes in hopes to stay inside for two weeks to “flatten the curve.” The beginning of the pandemic symbolized a time of loss for millions of people. “I just had no idea what was happening,” says second-year elementary education student, Alexandra Gurski. “School felt almost insignificant.” “Nobody knew what was happening, and nobody knew how to handle it.” As flowers bloom in the spring, quarantiners try out new hobbies like baking bread, watching “Tiger King” and whipping coffee. Two weeks pass, summer starts and COVID-19 cases continue to rise. Trying to get people to flatten the curve simply turns into trying to get people to wear a mask. So, what does this mean to students?
AUGUST 2020 Under the late August humidity and sun, Penn State students wonder how a “hybrid” semester will be at Zoom University. Violet Zung, a senior studying digital & print journalism, reflected on her experience throughout the pandemic as an international student. Zung was a sophomore when the pandemic began. “I was worried that I might not be able to come back,” Zung says. “As an international student, I would not be able to be in the country [if class was on Zoom.]” Fortunately, Zung was able to return to University Park for the semester, but she found that Penn State was not the same as she left it. “I went in for one in-person class for fall semester,” she says. “Even that class, after a while, the professor decided to put on Zoom.” When freshmen came to campus in August, some students felt that moving into college for the first time did not live up to their expectations. Everyone was required to wear masks everywhere, and students were not permitted to go into dorm buildings that
