This week, rising-sophomore Vivian discusses how she’s spending her summer and the impending school year. With school opening plans in the air, she’s in the same position as millions of students across the country—wondering how COVID19 will impact the next school year.

Now that the school year has come and gone, what would you say was your biggest challenge while distance learning?

The biggest challenge I faced while distance learning was finding ways to stay “active” and find activities that balanced out the aspects of school that we didn’t get to experience, such as retaining a social life, or finding ways to keep myself stimulated. 

Looking back, what could have teachers done to make distance learning easier? 

My teachers were doing their best to stay organized for us and make sure that we had access to all the materials we needed, but it was annoying to have so many different communication/education platforms to manage on top of getting used to online school (Microsoft Teams, Powerschool, Outlook, etc.).

How do you keep up with academics over the summer? 

During the summer, I meet with a tutor each week to prepare for next year’s math, since it challenges me the most. In addition, I complete Cambridge summer homework and try to make progress every day.

Right now, I am working on a world geography research project. I have always loved geography, and the extra time allows me to develop research questions and explore my world map in depth.

Beyond that, I take weekly online homeschool classes in subjects that interest me. At the moment, I’m studying art history. Soon, I will begin courses in anthropology, culture, and ancient history.

How have you been staying in contact with your friends from school?

I’ve been staying in contact with my friends from school through groupchats and Zoom calls, though it’s not always consistent as we have to accommodate everyone’s individual schedules.

What do you think about going back to school in person in the fall? Would you prefer in person or online classes? 

At first, my district offered two options for the 2020-2021 school year: fully online or hybrid (3 days online and the other two days in person), and I was really excited about the hybrid option since I would get to see my friends, but the district announced this past week that the first semester will be fully online, which was disappointing, but safety is the absolute priority.

Are you doing back to school shopping like other years? 

I don’t think I’ll really need to do back to school shopping since my classes will be online, which is kind of disappointing because back to school shopping is super fun. I have a lot of supplies already and an organization system that I’ve perfected this past year, so I might need a few notebooks to have hard copies of my notes, but other than that, I won’t be doing any shopping.

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