Love in the time of COVID-19: The ARMY Academy Way
COVID-19, Education, and the ARMY
The past few months have felt like a scene from an apocalypse movie. People are fighting for their lives. Streets that were usually busy are now empty. Everybody is staying in their homes, never daring to go outside. Truly, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected plenty of people’s lives. From the world’s economy to medical facilities, numbers are slowly decreasing, all but the number of people falling into the COVID-19 pit.
The COVID-19 pandemic has not only affected a lot of lives but also different sectors of countries around the globe. One of the hardest hit is education. Schools, universities, and colleges in various parts of the world had to close. UNESCO reported that about 73.5 percent of the world’s student population was impacted by these closures. Most schools even had to cancel their graduation ceremonies.
Known as a fandom that gives their all to help other people, ARMY stepped up their game and organized activities for students during the quarantine. ARMY Academy, an ARMY organization that offers free tutoring services for ARMY 24/7, led the fandom in spearheading projects that helped students’ learning more fun and bearable during these challenging times.
#ARMYStayAtHome
Students are not exempted from the COVID-19 stress. To help students cope during the pandemic, ARMY Academy created the “BTS & ARMY HOME” Project. The fan organization constantly receives lots of requests to create a Discord server where ARMY students can talk, share tips, and de-stress. Through this server, ARMY Academy also holds activities such as cooking, work out sessions, arts and crafts, Netflix parties, and book debates that will help students hone their talents.
Spine Breaker Yin Yoga Session
Aside from the BTS & ARMY HOME project, ARMY Academy also initiated a Yin Yoga session to help ARMYs de-stress before their online finals. Aside from the reason that Spine Breaker is one of BTS’ songs, spine also means “the part of a book’s jacket or cover that encloses the inner edges of the pages, facing outward when the book is on a shelf and typically bearing the title and the author’s name.” In a way, we are breaking the stress ARMY students experience because of their finals and the quarantine. This project also features threads that will help students #BreakTheStress, such as tips on how they can handle their finals week, snack suggestions to help boost memory, and the types of studying that is best fit them.
Showing Love by Helping Students
During these trying times, most people show just how much they care for one another virtually. ARMY Academy is no exception. The fan organization continues to strive better in order to help students amidst the health crisis.
One of the main projects ARMY Academy has been carrying out since 2018 was the Language Practice GCs. This idea came from a personal experience from ARMY Academy’s founder, where she attended conversation groups in which they are required to talk using a specific language. The project kicked off when there was a high number of requests for a Korean course. In the Language Practice GCs project, ARMY Academy had set up group chats on Twitter where people can converse in languages they want to practice. It started with approximately 166 students and only with three languages: Spanish, English, and Korean. ARMY Academy has launched the Language Practice GCs two times, and for this month there will be a new structure and a new name: ARMY Talk, with Korean, Spanish, French, Japanese, and various other languages!
What makes ARMY Academy even more exceptional is the willingness of ARMY to help out ARMY students. With over 40 volunteer administrators and over 400 volunteer tutors spread in different subjects, ARMY truly has the heart to help ARMY students even during the COVID-19 pandemic. There was even a slight increase in the number of tutors after the virus outbreak — showing that even during trying times, ARMY are still helping people in need.
Serving as a platform for ARMY who needed extra help with studies and cannot afford to have private tutoring, ARMY Academy has established itself in the ARMY fandom. Somehow, it was ARMY’s way of showing love to their fellow BTS fans. Imagine devoting your personal time handling projects and tutoring students over the Internet — it’s no easy feat. Yet, ARMY Academy proved that it can be done.
During this challenging time, ARMY Academy shows us that ARMY never really walked alone. In the rocky road of education, there will always be ARMY willing to help out.
Teamwork makes the dream work indeed.
