#FEATURE | Behind the screens: A look into 2021’s virtual senior year
by Kurt Ceballos & Paolo Linsangan
The virtual senior year of 2021 came with heavy workloads, difficulties in communication, and exhausting college applications. “Challenging” would be an understatement.
The workload
The school year started without ceremonies and friendly reunions. The welcomes and orientations were short-lived, leaving little breathing room before the work began. The upcoming workload already looked like a lot. There were a few complaints, but the workload generally seemed to be manageable. At least, they did at first. As the weeks went by, however, all those small backlogs started adding up, eventually leaving students with no free time.
This problem persisted throughout the quarters. Even subjects like Biology and English, which mainly required paperwork, easily overwhelmed any student that fell slightly behind. A worksheet behind the deadline quickly escalated into mounds of paperwork, taking up time that was supposed to be used for rest and leisure.
But the difficulty was most apparent in Research and Social Science, where the nature of the projects were simply heavier than the rest. Such was the experience of Case 3 students, whose projects became unfeasible due to the limitations imposed by the pandemic. With their projects being discontinued, they essentially had to start over. Not only did they have to adapt their previous projects to the virtual setting, but they also had to propose the concept all over again. The situation was worse for projects that couldn’t be converted to digital, statistical versions, where students had to figure out ways to carry out experiments at home. With the limits on communication imposed by the virtual setting, coordinating these projects became a lot more complicated.
Thankfully, the staff periodically checked in with students through online forms, individual messaging, and a lot of other methods in between. This helped pinpoint specific problems with the workload, such as requirements being unnecessarily complicated, too lengthy, or just too many in general. In response, major adjustments were done at the beginning of every quarter, with minor adjustments being done quite often within quarters. Such adjustments included imposing limits on the number of weekly requirements and reducing the difficulty of the requirements. Simpler adjustments like providing deadline extensions also helped a lot.
However, these adjustments weren’t enough for the more complex projects. Research projects simply required more complicated paperwork, careful experiments and rigorous data analysis. While the research teachers did their best to accommodate the students’ needs, there was still a limit on how much of the work could be reduced. The Social Science immersion projects had a different problem: the student projects were too varied. So, the teachers probably found some difficulty in applying a standard adjustment for the project. A tutoring project which required heavy preparations and discussions, for example, needed different adjustments from fundraising projects.
All those complications left the batch with all their hands on the swathes of paperwork and projects. With little to no time left for themselves, not even relief was expected at the end of each quarter. Instead, there were only backlogs and extreme burnout waiting.
And yet, despite all the hardships that came with the workload of the school year, it did not come from a lack of trying from the teachers. The teachers worked hard and they did as much as they could to reduce the stress brought about by the workload and the pandemic; the limitations imposed by the pandemic and quarantine protocols may have just simply proved too much for both the students and the staff.
Difficulties in communication
A common factor that played into all these issues was the difficult communication. This obstacle extended to all sorts of group efforts, including non-academic ones. The virtual setting also made casual communication difficult, distancing peers from each other. One of the major coping mechanisms of high school students was getting to hang out with their friends, and they weren’t exactly able to do that. Although some students have innovated on how they bond together, it can only make students feel connected to a certain extent.
Extracurriculars were also affected. Logistic problems were apparent, as students did not have the same quality of connection. The delayed directions and updates between students resulted in compounding delays over time. This made projects take longer than they should have — and it only became worse when projects involved more and more people. Certain documents were left unsent, and some emails even went to the wrong people. These problems could have proven disastrous to large scale projects, and one such project was the yearbook.
The difficulties reached a new high in the collection and editing phase. Getting roughly 240 people to answer forms and respond to messages, all online, was not expected to play out smoothly. In the first place, reaching out to that many people was already difficult. The Committee also had to periodically communicate with each of them regarding concerns of data privacy, write-ups, and miscellaneous logistics. On top of that, the yearbook committee had to keep track of every piece of information that they requested while taking into account the ones that were left not submitted.
While being in charge of all that would certainly frustrate most people, Cath Baroy, the head of the yearbook committee said: “If extending empathy meant delaying our timeline by a bit, then I would gladly do it.”
This is the main problem with purely online communication. Yes, social media allows us to remain connected, to remain updated with what’s going on in the lives of our friends, and to message and call each other, but honestly ask yourself: do you really know what’s going on behind the screens?
College applications
A huge part of every senior year, virtual or not, is the college application process. What the application experience used to be was an exhausting routine of preparing for entrance exams and submitting forms while anxiously waiting for results. Now, there are no entrance exams, yet the exhaustion and anxiety remain.
The applications were understandably delayed as universities had to figure out the necessary adjustments in response to the quarantine protocols. The solution they came up with was a completely virtual application system; and in anticipation of cases of dishonesty during entrance exams, they had that removed completely. This sudden development came as a shock to the applicants, but even after all the planning by the universities, they still seemed to be unprepared to manage the entire application process.
The virtual application system replaced the entrance exams with a grade-based application — in other words, a lot more paperwork. While the fairness of the entire grade-based application could be questioned, the websites and portals were also poorly made. The process itself was lengthy enough, but the difficult navigation and unclear form updates just added unnecessary hassle.
This time around, the anxiety didn’t just come from waiting for the results, but also from wondering whether your info got through the poorly-made submission boxes.
Even with all those obstacles in the application process, we should consider ourselves lucky as the Guidance & Counseling Unit (GCU) was there to provide useful guidance throughout the process. The sheer amount of steps and required paperwork was incredibly confusing for the applicants, and the university application primers were a huge help in navigating those portals. The GCU was also responsible for coordinating with the different universities in receiving documents like school records and such. Lastly, the GCU was very patient in accommodating any concerns from students that may have come up.
Final remarks
All in all, this school year presented Batch 2021 with numerous difficulties in the middle of an already difficult pandemic. The requirements and the college applications just stacked up with each other, taking up most, if not all of their time during a pandemic that ate away the energy and the mental health of the students. The application process began in the 2nd quarter, the time when students were still recovering from exhaustion, and just added to the workload that they were facing throughout the school year. They already didn’t have much of a chance to rest after the 1st quarter, and didn’t really get any up until the end.
This virtual setting managed to twist everything that everyone knew to be normal, including the college applications. Naturally, some years are harder than others, but this year is an outlier among outliers. Many have expected this school year to give them a sense of finality, to get one last feeling of Pisay in all its flaws and delights. Instead, a lot in the batch just felt glad it’s over.
Simply put, this year was full of uncertainties. And for some, those uncertainties did not turn out so well. It’s okay, a few plans going sideways do not spell the end of the world. Do not be troubled, in this day and age, achieving great things is possible even from behind the screen.
