PORTLAND, Ore. — Starting this week, kids will be heading back to school, and this year most students will be doing that virtually.
Throughout the pandemic we’ve talked to teens involved with Portland Student Pandemic Response, a group of teens who dedicated time to helping the community during the pandemic.
But now with school starting back up, we decided to check back in with them to get their thoughts on this unusual school year.
We spoke to four high school seniors.
Rye Scholin and Luce Seres both go to St. Mary’s Academy. Ishanshi Bhardwaj goes to Sunset High School in the Beaverton School District and Cole Songster goes to Grant High School in Portland.
“I am pretty excited,” said Rye. “I’ve got some really cool classes lined up that I’m really interested in taking and I’m excited to see all my classmates again, even though it’s going to be over Zoom calls.”
“I’m excited to go into the new school year because, in large part, I forecasted for nearly exclusively classes that I enjoy,” said Cole.
Luce said she’s excited to get some schedule back into her life.
“I’m excited to have something to do again,” she said.
But there’s also a fair bit of uncertainty, especially when it comes to some academically harder classes.
Ishanshi said she expected her advanced science classes may be tough over Zoom.
She said one of her biggest concerns was the plan for students in her district to take four classes per semester, where in each class they’ll learn an entire year’s worth of material.
“I just wanna see how that kind of plays out,” said Ishanshi. “‘Cause it’s a lot of work.”
Concerns about distance learning
Then, there’s concern about distance learning.
“For me it’s not that great because I personally find it hard to feel the motivation, at least last semester,” said Cole.
But at least this year, Cole said he’s taking classes he enjoys, which he hopes will engage and motivate him.
“I’m kind of in the same boat as Cole,” said Luce.
“Where at least last semester, I felt like my motivation totally dropped,” she said.
Both Rye and Ishanshi said they feel fortunate that distance learning works for them. They both said that in some cases, they've finished their work early and are then able to dedicate the extra time to things they want to do outside of school work.
College on the brain
The students are also thinking about college.
“I haven’t been able to take either the SAT or ACT test,” said Rye.
“Luckily I know that a lot of colleges are making exceptions for that,” she said.
Meantime, Luce said she’s missed out on some aspects of her research into colleges.
“I haven’t visited any college campuses in person,” said Luce.
Ishanshi has concerns about students who decided to take a gap year. She wondered how that would affect applications for teens in her graduating class.
The worry is that there could be fewer spots available in the fall of 2021.
Cole said he hopes the pandemic will have passed by the time he goes to college, so he can attend an institution in person rather than do more distance learning.
In general, the students we spoke to do feel hopeful about the school year and are just waiting to see how everything plays out.
Final thoughts from the students
Rye, Ishanshi, Cole and Luce had some parting thoughts they hope others keep in mind.
Rye said she hopes people and those who are a part of college admissions understand the position that students are finding themselves in, and to remember that it is different and can be difficult for some.
“It could show in the grades,” said Rye. “It could show in the halting of any extracurriculars that students are spending time on.”
“Understanding that we are trying our best and we will get there but we’re just going step by step right now,” Ishanshi said.
Cole said he hopes school leaders work on making sure the feeling of community is still present.
“For many students that’s what makes them enjoy the time they have in high school,” he said.
Luce encouraged an open mind to recognize that the pandemic is affecting each person from students, to faculty.
“If we can try to be much more considerate of the next person it’ll be a lot easier transition,” she said.