Students share their excitement, or disappointment with their first spring break in two years
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — With the first true spring break looming on State College in over two years, many students have an increased interest in taking the opportunity in full force while others seem to be more disappointed in their plans.
The last time that students had a full spring break was in 2019, with the 2020 spring break being overshadowed by the pandemic and with the 2021 spring break not happening at all. In 2020, the university announced that classes would be going online due to rising COVID-19 cases, and then subsequently was followed by the entire semester going online. And then the 2021 semester spring break was scrapped for “wellness days” through the semester.
Students are more interested in traveling due to this and seem to be very excited for the upcoming break from class.
Fabi Acevedo (sophomore-political science and history) is going to the beach in Puerto Rico this spring break. “I’m really excited because my roommates get to come this year,” she said.
Acevedo did end up going on spring break last year to Colorado, despite there being no week off of classes. “I just did classes online in the mornings,” she said.
Not all spring break trips are going as planned, however. Hailey Laugerman (junior-secondary education) planned on going to Poland over break as a part of one of her classes, but due to the Ukrainian invasion and war, they decided to cancel the trip for students safety and instead she will be going home to hang out with her family, crochet, and do school work.
“I was very excited for Poland since it would have been my first time going to Europe,” she said. “I am still excited to go home and relax with my family.”
Laugerman isn’t completely upset about her sudden change of plans and is just excited that there will be a break this year. “I think my level of excitement comes from the lack of a proper spring break since my freshman year,” she said. “I feel like it will be a nice reset to finish out the end of the semester.”
Unlike Laugerman, Savannah Heiden (freshman-animal science) doesn’t find seeing her family all that exciting. Heiden lives in southeast Michigan which is about six hours away according to her, and will just be working and seeing her family over break. “I’m not too excited due to being stuck at home with them for the past two years anyway,” she said.
While, unfortunately, some students like Laugerman will be unable to go on their spring break trips, other over break trips are continuing. Like Lexy Leidlein (senior-broadcast journalism) who is going to Scotland for an international reporting story about the Scottish Football League owners.
“I’m very excited,” she said. “I am traveling abroad for the first time, with lots of my classmates, and experiencing once in a lifetime experiences.”
With the welcome change of a full spring break, it seems that many students will be enjoying their ability to have the break fully uninterrupted — or in general.
