Post Covid for Students

The Covid-19 pandemic effected the mental health of students as things unexpectedly changed.

In 2020 people’s life changed tragically due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As of July 6th, 2021, the CDC reports a total of 600,000+ deaths in the U.S alone.

Post Covid-19 and long term affects on students.

After a year and a few months after quarantine, life is starting to go back to normalcy after the release of the Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson vaccine that was released in early 2021. Along with social distancing and other practices, it helped the ability for Covid-19 cases to go down.

Covid-19 restrictions are being lifted, people can gather in places if they are vaccinated, and schools are opening back up for the upcoming fall semester for face-to-face classes. Although things are going back to normalcy there are long-term effects due to the pandemic for young adults that go to school.

Students were stuck at home during the pandemic to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and schools and universities closed leaving students to attend classes online only. Seniors in high schools and universities graduated without a graduation ceremony due to Covid-19 restrictions and events were canceled during the summer of 2021.

A high schooler wears his cap and gown over a zoom call in Houston, Texas, May 2021. Covid-19 restrictions prevented students to walk on stage in the summer of 2020 and 2021 and left schools to hold their graduation ceremonies over zoom calls instead. (Left). A student types an essay on their laptop in their bedroom. The pandemic forced schools to switch to online learning, which meant students had to do their schoolwork and homework at home (Center). 14 year old, Sayuri Guadarrama, and her summer class at home on her laptop in Houston, Texas, on June 21st, 2021. The epidemic forced classes that are originally meant to be face-to-face to turn into online classes, making students stressed out with the transition (Right).

Front entrance of Pasadena Memorial High School in the summer in Pasadena, Texas. In May 2020, students thought they were going to come back from an extended spring break, but ended having school canceled that semester and ended up having the next fall semester online only (Left). An empty conference room with a laptop with the Zoom application open at city hall in Houston, Texas. During the pandemic, important conferences that go on such as in the city hall in Houston had to transition from in-face conferences to online conferences (Center). Microsoft team application running on a student’s laptop. Microsoft Teams was widely used during the time when the country went under quarantine. Students also use the app for online classes and graduations (Right).

An iPhone and laptop all in one corner of a room. During quarantine, students around the country used technology to stay in touch with their friends and teachers (Left). A student writes an essay on a piece of paper. Once Covid-19 restrictions started to drop, students who chose tostay at home did all of their schoolwork at home while the students that chose to go to school did their classwork at school with other students (Right).

Senior year cancelled for High Schoolers.

17-year-old Arturo Reyes, a recent graduate from Pasadena Memorial High School, commented on his experience being a high school senior during a pandemic and sharing how he felt when Covid-19 restrictions were strict and didn’t allow events at school and spent his last year at high school stuck at home.

“I had a few plans for senior year and that was mainly to have normal events going on, have a decent prom, and being with people who I care a lot,” Arturo Reyes said. “But I feel like all of that went down the drain like my social life wasn’t as good as it used to be”.

One year later, different mindset.

Not only did students miss out on opportunities, but their mental health changed as well. Students were unable to see other students or have normal campus life and it changed the way how they went with their life.

Freshmen who started their first year in universities got a different welcoming experience than what a normal school year would look like and gave students a new mindset.

“Honestly I believe that the covid-19 epidemic pushed me into who I am supposed to be as a person”, Andres Guzman commented. “Now it gave me opportunities to be who I wanted to be and grow as a person”.

Andres Guzman, a student at Sam Houston State University, not only started his freshmen year at his university online but also graduated high school without enjoying his senior events as well as graduating without a ceremony leading him to grow up and think differently than how a regular school year would have pushed him to be.

Guzman also states that since he started his freshmen year at his university during the pandemic he’ll “never know the difference because of the pandemic or if that’s just how college is”. Guzman started his first year at Sam Houston State University in August 2020 with only online classes, but still dorming at the Universty that semester.

The pandemic didn’t only take away opportunities for students, but it also gave students a new perspective benefiting them due to the pandemic limiting their abilities to go out with friends and only have school online.

“After all this time I feel like I’m more capable of managing time,” Rivera said. “And just overall more responsible when taking care of things”.

21-year-old, Oswaldo Rivera, is a student at San Jacinto College and took in a brand new perspective during the Covid-19 restrictions.

Although Rivera’s mental perspective didn’t change from a negative point of view it did give him a new perspective to be more responsible since classes shifted online during the pandemic requiring him to be more aware of his classes without a class full of students reminding each other what is due before class.

As the fall semester nears Texas isn’t requiring students to be vaccinated to go back to school and the University of Houston will be going back to the traditional in-person instructional class schedule in the upcoming fall semester and will continue to monitor the CDC and state guidelines.