{"id":8915,"date":"2020-05-26T14:56:11","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T18:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/news\/?p=8915"},"modified":"2020-06-01T14:41:04","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T18:41:04","slug":"during-the-covid-19-pandemic-i-see-hope-for-my-college-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/news\/2020\/05\/26\/during-the-covid-19-pandemic-i-see-hope-for-my-college-students\/","title":{"rendered":"“During the COVID-19 Pandemic, I See Hope for my College Students.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brigid D’Souza<\/a>, assistant professor of accountancy and business law at the Frank J. Guarini School of Business, recently wrote this opinion piece, which garnered coverage by media outlets across the nation. The editorial highlights the grit that can be found in Â鶹ÊÓƵ\u2019s students and how the experience with coronavirus, COVID-19 will make them stronger in their future experiences.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There are times when the mundane must be wrangled to make space for the profound. The COVID-19 pandemic is one of those times, and I feel it acutely, each day, in my role as a college professor at Â鶹ÊÓƵ\u2019s University. Over the past two months, I have pushed my course forward \u2014 the syllabus, lectures over Zoom, homework assignments and exams \u2014 amidst\u00a0unprecedented isolation. Yet as dark and uncertain as this moment feels, I see light, and hope, in my students.<\/p>\n

I am moved by how my students are persisting through this moment defined by human disconnectedness, fear\u00a0and uncertainty. I believe we can, and should, help our young adults recognize their own courage in this moment, and how much this crisis \u2014 and their persistence through it \u2014 can help inform them of their potential in the years ahead. Future employers should recognize that today\u2019s cohort of college students will be among the most-tested candidates in years, in terms of demonstrating mettle and fortitude through an unprecedented pandemic that may stretch on for months.<\/p>\n

I realized soon into this health crisis that the teaching challenges were much broader\u00a0and deeper than I had initially assumed. To prepare for virtual instruction, I sent out a survey to my students with three simple questions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Do you have access to a computer\/laptop off campus?<\/li>\n
  2. Do you have access to internet from home\/work (ie while NOT at school)?<\/li>\n
  3. Are you able to remotely access an online meeting \/ webinar during our scheduled class time?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Student feedback helped inform a new reality.<\/p>\n

    I learned that some of my students who worked wage-earning jobs in essential retail \u2014 grocery stores, hardware stores, pharmacies \u2014 had to take on extra shifts for various reasons, cutting into both our virtual class sessions but also into time for them to focus on schoolwork. I learned that some students needed extra shifts at their jobs \u2014 which took them away from my class time \u2014 because they were now sole breadwinners for their families due to parents experiencing COVID-19 related layoffs. I learned that some students had employers, who upon finding out that school had been physically closed, added new or different shifts to the students’ schedules to make up for employee shortages. And I learned that some students lived with larger extended families, thus had to help manage and monitor younger siblings or struggled to find space in the home to focus, uninterrupted. Within a couple of weeks, I would learn of students who began to lose loved ones to COVID-19.<\/p>\n

    As I gleaned insight about what my students were going through, I began to see my rosters as a mosaic of character and grit. I realized I had a privileged vantage point; as their professor I could see many individuals struggling; they, however, were studying and working in isolation.<\/p>\n

    I teach 80 students across four classes, meeting with them three times a week. It\u2019s been an informing journey, transitioning from live classroom instruction to Zoom virtual instruction. What I miss most is the most basic human connectedness that comes from being present, in the same room, with my students. So I tried to picture, in my mind\u2019s eye, my students in their homes or at their jobs: I imagined one student caring for younger siblings in a crowded house, unable to focus on homework until the late hours of the night. I imagined another student sitting at a desk, head in hands, worried for a family member who was developing an unnervingly loud cough. I imagined another student who finally found a quiet moment after a long day of work or of worrying about parents who were recently unemployed \u2026 and I asked myself: What does that student most need out of that respite, that quietude?<\/p>\n

    I had a gut sense of the answer: The mundane must be wrangled. Routine and structure were still critical, but adjustments were also needed to make space for more profoundly important challenges that were unfolding for many of my students.<\/p>\n

    So I built considerable slack into my remaining semester deadlines by slimming down my homework assignments and spreading out the due dates. I began to communicate with my students about the gravity of what we found ourselves in; I named the moment as a crisis, inside my class, to help connect the events unfolding in the outside world with the pace and expectations of my course. I lifted up my students\u2019 daily efforts as character-building in a time of profound uncertainty.<\/p>\n

    Student feedback helped me respond, and understand, this pandemic more thoughtfully and holistically, which in turn has helped me, on a personal level, persist through the past two months.<\/p>\n

    I\u2019ve watched my students continue to attend my Zoom lectures, push through their homework\u00a0and remain in touch despite the extraordinary difficult challenges they are experiencing. I am proud of them and grateful for them. And as this semester draws to close, I want them to feel pride in themselves; that they didn\u2019t just finish the semester but\u00a0learned, and persevered, through COVID-19. I\u2019m grateful for their example and I am hopeful about the future these young adults will help shape in the years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Brigid D’Souza, assistant professor of accountancy and business law at the Frank J. Guarini School of Business, recently wrote this opinion piece, which garnered coverage by media outlets across the nation. The editorial highlights the grit that can be found in Â鶹ÊÓƵ\u2019s students and how the experience with coronavirus, COVID-19 will make them stronger […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":8928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3,5,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-current-students","category-faculty-staff","category-future-students"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n"During the COVID-19 Pandemic, I See Hope for my College Students." - News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/news\/2020\/05\/26\/during-the-covid-19-pandemic-i-see-hope-for-my-college-students\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"aboyer1\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/news\/2020\/05\/26\/during-the-covid-19-pandemic-i-see-hope-for-my-college-students\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/news\/2020\/05\/26\/during-the-covid-19-pandemic-i-see-hope-for-my-college-students\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"aboyer1\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/0e6cac7c1e5bde0788515bdfe0adea4b\"},\"headline\":\"“During the COVID-19 Pandemic, I See Hope for my College Students.”\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-26T18:56:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-06-01T18:41:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/news\/2020\/05\/26\/during-the-covid-19-pandemic-i-see-hope-for-my-college-students\/\"},\"wordCount\":936,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/news\/2020\/05\/26\/during-the-covid-19-pandemic-i-see-hope-for-my-college-students\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/230\/files\/2020\/05\/Brigid.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Alumni\",\"Current Students\",\"Faculty Staff\",\"Future Students\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/news\/2020\/05\/26\/during-the-covid-19-pandemic-i-see-hope-for-my-college-students\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/news\/2020\/05\/26\/during-the-covid-19-pandemic-i-see-hope-for-my-college-students\/\",\"name\":\"\\\"During the COVID-19 Pandemic, I See Hope for my College Students.\\\" - 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