College beginnings
On top of the coronavirus, Northview alumni adjust to newfound freedoms and responsibilities.Krystal Wu, Staff Writer & Bedansh Pandey, News Editor
Northview alumna and college freshman Kristen Harriott shares her college experiences in a new, unconventional environment.
Photo courtesy of Kristen Harriott
There are many moments in life when people must reflect upon themselves and decide how they wish to move forward, and many categorize the transition from high school to college as such. It is a time when others stop teaching people and people learn to teach others, when life takes off the training wheels and suddenly the direction to steer becomes a choice, and the ability to remain on a smooth path becomes a struggle. On top of this coming of age, alumni of the class of 2020 must combat the pandemic sweeping the nation. With this predicament, there are alumni who choose to safely study online, to jointly study online and socially distanced in-person, or to study in-person full time.
“Harvard is completely online this year,” Kristen Harriott, a Northview alumna, said. “We have to conduct our classes remotely from our dorms, but only freshman are allowed on campus right now. When I first moved in, we had a seven-day quarantine.”
Taking the leap and moving into college dorms, Harriott pursues an independent lifestyle in preparation for her future. Being on campus with other new college students creates the chance to familiarize herself with current conditions. It produces opportunities to join new clubs, create important connections, and make a mark on the world.
“I organize my own schedule for when I want to study and where I want to study, so there is a lot more independence when it comes to college. As for the coronavirus, there is a lot of responsibility to ensure you are wearing a mask etcetera,” Harriott said.
Life is no longer full of assignment reminders and unenjoyable lectures because what one studies is ultimately their choice. Harriott describes her ability to organize and maintain herself with self-governance. In high school, many fret and fill their time with needless extracurriculars, pressured by demanding college applications. However, in college, there is a prospect of finding your passion and pursuing your interests.
“During quarantine, the pandemic has allowed me to spend time by myself because I did not know what I was going to do with my future,” Harriott said. “Having time off to be able to spend time with my family before moving out, organize my life, [and] figure out what I am passionate about helped me a lot.”
College sophomore Amanda Beard, like many students across the country, navigates through a mix of online and face-to-face classes.
Photo courtesy of Amanda Beard
Perhaps the pandemic brought a slight blessing to some, as Harriott highlights this time as a discovery of passion. Harriott’s case is somewhat unique, though. With her college being strictly online, it is much easier to stay organized with very little uncertainty in her schedule. For Amanda Beard, another Northview alumna and student at Georgia College and State University, the adjustment has been more challenging because her school is a hybrid with both in-person classes and online classes.
“I expected this year to be completely online, so in some ways, I’m grateful that we’re still able to have a little bit of a college experience, but it’s definitely been a learning curve to try to balance hybrid classes.”
“I’m not in campus housing, but I am living in an apartment near campus, so I’ve been able to just go and live in my own house and attend class if I feel comfortable,” Beard said.
Aside from the general changes Beard has experienced on campus, there have been a number of more elaborate changes as well. For example, her college has instituted a checkpoint system to mitigate the on-campus spread of the virus. Every time a person holds an event, they must notify the college with information regarding the size, location, mask mandate, and the number of people for the event. Then, the college will assign a certain number of points to the person depending on the safety of the event. If a person crosses a certain threshold of points, he or she cannot hold the event.
Though the college’s use of strict metrics to identify and prevent super-spreader events have been effective, they have entailed difficulty with Beard’s extracurricular involvements.
”I’m a part of our school’s Wesley Foundation, which is a college ministry. That’s honestly probably been the thing that has been the hardest to adjust to because you want to jump back into those groups and hang out with your friends,” Beard said. “But because there are sanctions on certain things, you have to follow the guidelines.”
Compared to her time at Northview, Beard’s belief is very similar to that of Harriot’s–––college has enabled her to have more time to pursue what she is truly passionate about as opposed to taking multiple AP classes and involving herself in numerous sports and other extracurricular activities.
“College has been more about delving into what I’m passionate about and being a master of just a few trades [rather] than a jack of all trades,” Beard said. “My heart was more into peoples’ stories and peoples’ lives and learning the ins and outs of people and the decisions that they make. That’s what fueled my passion for psychology, and now that I’m taking classes that allow for me to learn more about it, I love it so much.”
While Beard’s college has opted to give students the choice to either attend in-person classes or be in remote learning, other schools have been stern on mandating students to resume in-person learning despite the rising number of coronavirus cases in Georgia. Less than 60 miles away, in the dynamic, college-town life at the University of Georgia in Athens, students are returning to college. Samay Patel, a freshman at UGA and an alumnus of Northview’s class of 2020, attests to the rather lackadaisical restrictions on the student body despite the mandate of in-person learning.
“Staying on-campus is without a doubt a risky affair. Though the university has taken it upon itself to institute restrictive measures on the students, there has been very little follow through with these plans,” Patel said. “It’s funny, almost, to see people roaming around without wearing masks or social distancing, almost as if I’m in a different world where there isn’t a global pandemic.”
Patel is enjoying college life, despite the circumstances. He, like Harriot and Beard, is of the notion that college is when one can let their wildest passions and curiosities run free without having to worry about whether or not it looks good on one’s resume.
“I’m on the pre-med track, so while it is challenging to learn organic chemistry all from scratch, it’s something that I’m interested in,” Patel said. “It’s also different from high school because I can focus on solely that rather than physics or math like high school.”
Coronavirus has hit everyone at different stages of their lives, some more affected than others. Fresh out of high school, now college students, alumni embark on an exploration of their passions and freedoms. While the start of their adulthood is not the most conventional, the mark they make upon the world will be undoubtedly successful.
