The Temple News asked students about how they feel looking back on the fall semester and about approaching the new year.
How do you feel Fall 2020 went?
Chloe Getz
Freshman pharmaceutical sciences major
“With how much there’s been in regards to the election and COVID, and not being necessarily on campus and having the challenges of having to go through that, not even just in academics, but having to deal with that in your actual personal life, whether that’s actually working or just dealing with it with even having family members who work on the frontlines, or just seeing like, actual parents deal with it, with not having jobs or stuff like that, I think it’s definitely how you make of it. So how I have personally have even just made of it for myself is to try and make myself readily available, to still be connected to other people and to still be open to meeting new people, even though it’s probably most likely online.”
Jordan McCarley
Junior psychology major
“I definitely learned how to handle my mental health better because added stressors with the election, the pandemic, working, online school, it was a lot just at once. And I think that going to therapy and taking time and learning how to like, handle everything at once was a lesson for me during this time.”
Emma Keats
Junior public relations major
“I’ve definitely become more aware, I guess, of what’s going on globally as well as just like, in our country with so much political movements happening and just change in presidency. And also, just learning how to pivot and keep pushing through like, school, since normally we are in person and then we switched to online. It was a big change, so I think that’s definitely helped me grow a little bit, just being able to switch gears and continue forward.”
Charles Henry
Junior computer science major
“I think it went good. I think the online classes made it a little bit easier in terms of schoolwork, but social life got a lot harder because [COVID-19], right? Like, it’s harder to make friends and to keep friends and to, you know, have a healthy life at home apart from school.”
Rachel Tuli-Babunga
Senior construction engineering technology major
“It was kind of like, a rocky start, just because even though we did have kind of an online semester last year, it was just hard to go from in person to online, like off the bat. I think that, I don’t know, just not having the ability to come to campus and really, like, go throughout the day of like, moving from class to class and just kind of staying in the room or like in the house is just kind of hard to deal with. Especially academically, just because it’d be from Zoom meeting to Zoom meeting and hours would pass, and then it would just be like, still in the same spot, still very stagnant. We’re done with it.”
Evan Murphy
Senior marketing major
“My life as a student has changed every year in some way, definitely this year the most though. I typically like, the last few years, I’ve enjoyed the aspect of being a student at Temple, the aspect of being with people, generally, which I know isn’t a thing right now. But whether it’s at work, in class, you know, in groups at a party, I just enjoy being with people. And simply being around productive people makes me more productive, makes me happier, it makes me more energetic. So I’ve had to adapt this semester, in terms of my life as a student to, you know, stay successful in class, and also to, you know, maintain good mental health outside of class. So taking walks, I have a bubble of friends that I spend time with, you know, just kind of feeding off of one another’s energies, I guess, has contributed to my life as a student now, in ways that I guess I was a little different a year ago.”
Santosh Adhikari
Sixth-year physics PhD student
“We had a baby in April, and our parents were supposed to come, but due to the [COVID-19] cases rising, they were not able to come and so we had hard time. So in that regards, and apart from this, even in our home country, the cases are rising very much. And since the family is not around with us, it is slightly disturbing.”
How do you feel about Spring 2021?
NORAH SHEEHAN / COURTESY
Norah Sheehan
Freshman visual studies major
“I’m really hopeful that I’ll actually get to live on campus more than two weeks and that I’ll be able to actually like, interact with some of my peers that aren’t people I already knew from high school. And yeah, I’m pretty hopeful that we’ll have at least a somewhat better outcome, even if the virus isn’t gone completely.”
| ABBY ERRICO / COURTESY
Abby Errico
Sophomore visual studies major
“I wouldn’t say I’m nearly as excited about my classes as I would be if they were in person. I’m feeling not really super optimistic about having another online semester. But I’m a little bit more comfortable with it now, at least. So it’s not ideal, but I plan on continuing just because at this point, I already have my apartment lease for the rest of the year. So there’s really no reason for me to not be there and working at school.”
Nicole Dietzen
Sophomore journalism major
“I’m looking forward a lot more. Because I think that now that I’ve had a semester of struggling, I’ve been able to struggle and fail and figure out what I need to do to work with the system that we’re given. So, you know, I cut down my classes, and I’m gonna have my priorities a lot more straight, so I’m really excited to start the next semester. And now that I’ve been able to adapt to online learning, to really take charge of it, you know, now that I’ve been given the time to.”
Emily Herstine
Junior political science and global studies major
“I’m definitely looking forward to new classes in terms of like, schoolwork and like, a nice, fresh start in that sense. Hopefully, everything with the vaccine will like, maybe bring new, or like, less restrictions.”
David Shin
Senior management information systems and accounting major
“I think it’ll be more or less like the fall semester. I try to go to campus as often as I can, just to sit outside and try to do work. Basically, I try to do the functions that are similar to what I did in previous semesters, like studying on campus, grabbing food when I can, supporting local businesses. So I’ll try to return to normalcy, but obviously, that’s not possible.”
Dana McKay
Senior political science major
“I’m going to try to have the lowest expectations possible and just kind of try to catapult off from there and see what happens. And I think it’s really just like, humbled us a lot, and we can kind of just try to be grateful for what we already have. And, you know, I’m lucky that I have had so much experience at Temple already and have had a great experience that, you know, was a little bit cut short, but looking into 2021, hoping to just like, stay safe. I’m actually going to stay on campus and just work a little bit from home remotely and just kind of keeping an open mind because so many things can change.”
Ousmane Niasse
Senior communication studies major
“I feel very nervous. I feel very, I don’t know, just anxious because I hope it goes well. But I think this semester, I kind of learned how to, how I should be and not procrastinate so much. But it sucks, because online, when classes are online, it’s hard to keep yourself structured, and like, on a schedule, because everything’s online, there’s so much life going on and stuff like that. So I don’t know, I think I just need to plan better and just try my best, I don’t know. So hopefully it goes good. I’m not too worried. What happens, happens. So, we’ll see.”
Austin Miller
First-year law student
“Optimistic, I guess. I mean, it seems like with the current environment with the pandemic, that it’s gonna get at least better as far as like, the long-term outlook is concerned.”
