College Life
The New College Life: Reflecting on my Siblings’ Experience with Remote Learning
Students studying abroad during the outbreak of COVID-19 had a unique experience dealing with travel bans and new school regulations. My brother was studying abroad in Italy. Andrea, the youngest, was living in her dorm at NYU.
My other sister, Silvia, was working as a professor at a community college in New York City. Though we all live in separate homes in Westchester County, New York, we all share one major experience: living in the college remote learning environment since the outbreak of COVID-19.
In March 2020, the college life they had always known changed unexpectedly. My siblings and I began to study online. But, their lives changed in a more drastic way than mine. I was used to remote learning; they were not.
I was used to the sedentary home life; they were used to the agitated, turbulent, and exciting life of studying and working in populous cities. My brother had to return from the city of Rome before the semester ended. Andrea left her dorm and her freedom on March 11, when most schools closed due to the pandemic. And, my sister Silvia, stopped commuting to New York City to teach Sociology.
Six months passed, and what they had known of their lives as college students was gone. “Studying in Rome was the greatest and scariest thing of my life,” Angel said. “In Italy, things were getting worse each day. I feel lucky.” Now, Angel gets up in the morning to attend classes in his room where his desk is. “It’s easier to get more distracted when you take online classes,” he said.
Andrea completed her secondary education in Westchester County and was very excited to experience college life at NYU. “I didn’t want to leave my dorm and my school, my friends, but I had to,” she said, disappointed. The college life she dreamed of, only lasted for about seven months before she had to go back home.
Angel and Andrea are among the many college students who began studying remotely since March. “Only one of my seven closest friends will be attending classes on campus,” Andrea said. Universities in the city of New York are giving students the option to either study in person or remotely.
The NYU Office of Admission indicated that most of the school’s current college students take at least one class online. It seems clear, as we look at the people around us, that the world of remote learning has expanded.
Besides students having to adapt to their new learning environment, professors, like Silvia, are also adapting to their new work-life conditions. Many professors like her had no previous experience teaching online.
“Sometimes, it’s difficult for me to keep students engaged,” said Silvia.
She attended virtual trainings by Columbia University that focused on teaching classes online to college students. “It’s important to establish a community in an online classroom,” said Silvia. Building a community is making the class friendly where students feel free to share their thoughts.
The goal of teaching remotely while building a community is for students to feel comfortable enough to reflect on the topics discussed in class freely. “I want to make time and space for them to share their thoughts,” said Silvia determinedly. Since there is less human interaction with remote learning, it is necessary to build a virtual community to keep that sense of human connection.
The community college where Silvia teaches offers both classes in person and online; however, her department, Sociology, will be offering only remote learning. “About 83 percent of students in this community college will be studying online this semester,” said Silvia. Counselors and writing centers are seeing students online only and the library is open by appointments only.
The environment of college life before the pandemic has clearly changed. Yet, in a positive note, Silvia noticed that learning remotely brings flexibility for low-income families. She mentioned that one of her students is a new mother who sometimes asks to shut off her camera to breastfeed her baby.
If there weren’t new opportunities to learn online, there would be less flexibility for her to continue her education. Unfortunately, there are disadvantages to remote learning in low-income families too. Lacking a private space to study and WIFI connectivity are among these disadvantages.
“Some of my students have to go inside cars to find a private and quiet place to learn,” said Silvia.
Recently, Andrea went back to NYU to visit a friend. She realized how much NYU had changed since she left it in March. “There was a COVID Testing Center,” she said surprised. The noisy, vigorous Starbucks was empty.
There are no seating commodities anymore. Students are prohibited to visit another student’s dorm, and as expected, students are mandated to wear masks. She misses the late nights talking with friends, tasting the freedom of college life.
As opposed to the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918, this pandemic came in a good time for education access. The US Department of Education found that 89 percent of all households in the United States have internet access.
About 6.9 million students were taking classes in the Fall semester of 2018. This fall, about 19.7 million students are attending colleges and universities nationwide. We can assume that at least 50 percent of these students are attending classes online.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change,” Biologist Charles Darwin said about his theory on the Survival of the Fittest. As college students pursue their careers online or on campus, they also adapt to be part of a safer future.
Before this time, humanity showed its great resilience to survive wars. Now, college students are fighting a battle against invisible infectious agents. This proves that this generation is tough. This generation fights disease through adaptation. It fights to prevail. It fights for existence.
College Life
30 Amazing Gifts for College Girls in Your Life-The Ultimate 2021 Guide
College Life
10 Reasons Why Being a Working Student is Actually Good
College Life
4 No-Fail Ways to Manage Your Mental Health in College
College students around the world have been severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, both in their academic as well as social lives. Not only have many classes transferred to an online format, but the entire routine of going to class, eating with friends, and going out on the weekends has come to a halt.
College is already a time where young people tend to disregard their mental health, but the pandemic has raised this issue to a new height, by taking away the daily routines that students use to stay healthy and productive.
Despite the plethora of new found obstacles that college students have faced during this pandemic, the resiliency of young people cannot be underestimated. Even when so much has been taken away from the “best four years of their lives”, students continue to find ways to stay optimistic and happy during these trying times.
I interviewed three students at Wesleyan University in order to get a better understanding of how college students are taking care of their mental health and was met with many strategies current students are using to manage their mental health.
1. Self-Care
“Aside from attending therapy once every two weeks, one of the big ways that I manage my mental health in college is through self-care. Self-care looks different for many students, but to me, it’s about taking the time that I know I deserve to relax and turning on some music or spending time with friends,” said Darielis Rivas class of ‘23.
During a time where most people are concerned about catching, and or spreading COVID-19, self-care may seem like an afterthought, but keeping up with our own health outside of the pandemic is essential, and its importance cannot be overstated.
As Rivas states, self-care looks different from person to person, but what it comes down to is finding the activities that allow you to relax, bring you joy, or simply take your mind off what is going on in the outside world. Another student had a different approach towards keeping track of his mental health:
2. Be Active
“My mental health declines whenever I’m not active and just letting myself stew in boredom so I’ve found the best way to cope with that is just to be active and not get stuck in this cycle of boredom where I feel like I’m not accomplishing anything,” said Joseph Seen ‘23.
The boredom that Seen described has been drastically exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic for many students. Yet, feelings of boredom and loneliness have a few solutions. The challenge is to get up and do something––even if the motivation to do so can be difficult to find.
3. Break the Cycle of Routine
“When I feel like I’m being reclusive in my dorm or stuck in some kind of monotonous cycle, I’ll try to do something that breaks that cycle by just getting me out of my dorm or wherever I feel like I’ve been spending too much time like running or going to do something with friends,” said Seen.
In many ways, mental health is all about cycles and patterns that students tend to fall into. Some of these cycles are positive, and we need to motivate ourselves to continue them, and some are negative and we must try to break them, even if this is a daily struggle.
Maintaining positive cycles is most beneficial for some, whereas for others, breaking negative patterns help them the most. The variety of ways that young people are able to maintain their mental health is very broad. It is truly a personal journey that we must all take, to find the things most important to keep, as well as eliminate from our weekly routines.
4. Keep in Touch With Your Loved Ones
“I think being away from home is hard for me, but it isn’t really hard until you find that moment when you’re alone and have nothing to distract you. Keeping in contact with my family is what helps me. Texting and calling or even just seeing their face on video and photos really just helps me emotionally.” said Kelly Nano-Miranda class of ‘23 at Wesleyan University.
As Rivas found comfort in self care, and Seen did in breaking negative habits, Nano-Miranda sees family as the center point for her mental health, in the often lonely environment, that is a college campus during a pandemic.
Whether these responses resonate with you or not, they do prove one vital point, college students cope with their mental health in many different ways, and it’s okay to be unsure of your preferred method. While there is no rush to find a perfect solution, the first step to that solution is being honest with yourself about the state of your mental health.
Reflect on when you are most happy, comforted, content, as well as most sad or stressed, and start to categorize which routines, or lack thereof in your life, tends to make you feel these emotions.