How COVID-19 has been hurting Generation Z
The toll the coronavirus is having on students who are losing jobs and adjusting to online learning.
The coronavirus has impacted the entire world, classifying it as a pandemic. In the United States companies such as AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson are pairing with the National Institutes of Health to find a vaccine for the virus, as many are staying home from work.
Students of all ages are staying home, from elementary to college. Since this is something that all schools are enforcing across the country, it requires classes to be conducted through remote learning. The shift causes students to wonder how the rest of their academic year and future learning will unfold.
Students are losing jobs, missing out on spring break, in-person learning, on-campus living privileges, and graduation ceremonies have been canceled.
I understand why these precautions are in place and the nation is doing its best to stop the spread of the virus, but this is such an unexpected issue. The temporary closure of many businesses and restrictions on hours has put many people out of work, including myself. The store where I work, Burlington, has closed due to the virus. On the flip side, there are also grocery stores such as Publix that are trying to hire more people because they are trying to clean and stock faster.
Grocery stores are rapidly hiring, but some employees that work at them are concerned about their health. Whether people are working from home, or in-person, many are worried about what comes next. This has caused the largest amount of people in United States history to file for unemployment, which currently stands at over 30 million.
The government has changed some of the requirements for those that are unemployed, as even part-time workers can receive some benefits. There is a stimulus package for adults that give them $1,200 each and up to $500 for each child. In addition, the federal government is offering $600 to those that are unemployed through the CARES Act.
The joy of going to paradise during spring break was destroyed this year. This week off of school is something that college students look forward to as they plan their vacations to South Beach in Miami, or Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, or wherever they desire. This week is just a great way to burn off steam, but because of the coronavirus many missed out on this experience. They lost the opportunity to go wild and enjoy a week in the middle of the semester with nothing to do but have a good time.
Students are learning remotely over video conferences. This is a completely new concept for both students and professors. There are students that have never even taken an online class before, let alone attempted to adjust to an online class in the middle of the semester as a result of the coronavirus.
Many people are working from home, causing their Wi-Fi to crash and get kicked out of their online classes. There is also a lot of lagging for these conferences, as students like myself struggle to get every word from a lecture.
Many professors are trying to work with their students, as we all are coping with the pandemic, but there is only so much that they can do. Some professors are posting the lectures on the school’s website where assignments are uploaded and grades are submitted. For FAU’s Dr. Eric Hanne this is the case.
Dr. Hanne is a history professor at the university, and has done his best to adjust to teaching from his house. He posts his lectures online for students to view after it is over in case they miss something due to a technical issue with the internet. However, this only helps so much, as students may have questions.
If students are unable to ask questions in class because of internet connections they must send an email to the professor and await a response. For a class of over 200 like Dr. Hanne’s, he then becomes bombarded with emails.
Many college students were given a notice that they had to move out of their dorm rooms in a given time, as if they were being evicted from their homes. Because of the coronavirus, some students had no place to go after they were kicked out of their dorms.
NPR reported how students at Berea College in Kentucky are struggling and may face homelessness due to leaving school. Many of them come from low-income households and a lot of them are eligible for the Pell Grant.
Those that have been kicked out of their dorm rooms have wondered if they will get a credit towards next semester, or a refund if they are graduating. They were forced to leave because very few people are allowed on campus, except for those considered essential by the president of the campus are permitted to stay. This is a huge change that college students were not expecting, it is unfair.
For seniors that are supposed to graduate, they will not have the honorable moment of walking across the stage during graduation. This is something that they have been working toward for a long time, yet they do not get a celebration for it. Commencements should not be canceled, they should just be postponed.
Due to the coronavirus many things have been ruined, and there is no end in sight. This has caused many issues for students.
This is an unfair way of learning, but universities are doing their best to accommodate the students. Many universities like FAU, FSU, UCF, and others have given students the option of pass/fail for the semester. This is on a “course-by-course basis” for most universities implementing this. This may affect a student’s GPA, but the university is allowing students to select this option for certain courses.
We need to figure out how to fix this for students that cannot handle the change, and find a solution for as many issues as possible. This may also create a smaller incoming class for college students, as high school seniors may want to figure something out beside college. After a vaccine is created for the virus, complete normalcy seems unlikely as this will always be in the back of our minds.
