Class of 2020

Not everyone got forced into accepting a study delay. Those whose courses could all be transferred online could continue with their studies as planned. And of those, the ones who only had this semester left can still graduate this year.

Of course, that’s great news! Graduating is a huge achievement.

Unfortunately, graduates‘ last few weeks at uni were probably not what they were expecting, and the grand finale might not end with the big celebration they deserve. And once graduated, the job hunt starts – a field the coronavirus hasn’t left alone either.

I spoke with Nicole about this. We met roughly four years ago during my semester abroad at Furman University in South Carolina, USA. By now, she has finished her program and obtained her bachelor’s in psychology. Under normal circumstances, her graduation ceremony would have taken place in early May. After that, Nicole was considering applying her skills to real-life and either work at a university or receive training to become a licensed therapist.

But the precautions around the coronavirus have impacted all of these aspects.

Before diving in, I would like to mention how much I admire her positive attitude. Despite the challenges she expects to be dealing with, she kept emphasizing how fortunate she was in the grander scheme of things.

How did learning change for you?

I was getting used to remote learning. Furman adopted Zoom. So some of my lectures were over video conferencing. Others were just YouTube videos posted that we responded to in the comments. Educationally, I feel like the experience has been replicated as much as it could be.

And how did online learning go?

I had senior seminar; a big part of it was group discussion, so doing that in a digital space was odd. I think it brought me a bit of sadness I didn’t expect, to see all of these people in their homes in their pajamas with their dogs… it’s a weird sense of intimacy I never thought I’d have with near-strangers.

It’s almost like when everyone goes to college again, like starts college, and you’re all in the same boat, and you’re all scared. We had presentations and people were more engaged than they ever would have been, because I think they understand it’s a difficult time.

In my classes, it was a nice way to see the kindness of my peers and the kindness of my professors. They’d been really working with us and checking in on us emotionally and saying how are you, is this feasible, we can change it.

How do you feel about not completing the final semester of your senior year in person?

I don’t really feel cheated out of it just because I have gotten 3 ½ years of the in-person experience. I feel more of an absence in terms of the social implications. I definitely would’ve cherished those last few months if I had them just to see my friends and hang out with them. You just can’t replace those things in a digital way.

What is happening with your graduation?

At the moment it’s just been postponed. And they said we’d do something special, but we haven’t really heard what.

How do you feel about that?

Unfortunately, now, graduating very much feels like a task. Like something to check off the list. My high school graduation meant nothing to me. I did not care. But I’ve had a crazy four years. I don’t think I realized how much it mattered to me until it got pushed.

I would say it matters more to my parents though. It’s very much: ‘I put my kid through school, this is the big milestone we’ve been waiting for’. I feel bad that they’ve kind of been deprived of that.

Of course, it’s a public health measure. I understand why we’re not having it. I think sometimes I try to minimize my feelings on it, and I’m like ‘what good is there to feel sad about it?’ But I AM upset about it. It does suck.

What are your plans post-graduation?

Even figuring out what that could look like is difficult, because I’m sort of torn between working at a university and student success and working in an in-patient facility to ultimately become a therapist.

What would these paths entail?

The first path would be working a year or two at a university either maybe creating a student program or helping maintain a program. The world of higher education is so broad… I could end up working in housing, I could do career services. It would really be getting my foot in the door. My ultimate goal on that side of things would be helping first-year students: connecting them to on-campus resources, organizations, communities, as well as anything off-campus that would be helpful for them. Like a student case worker, essentially.

With the other path it would be working, ideally, at an in-patient residential facility or intensive out-patient, just to get some experience in the community, and then go to grad school and take an exam to be a licensed therapist.

How could the measures around COVID-19 impact those paths?

I have no idea what the need is right now is at an in-patient facility. It would be sort of a breeding ground. The normal routine would be meals together, groups together… But now, I don’t know if there’s that same sense of gathering and working on skills together. If they’re thinking ‘we try to continue as normal’ or ‘we’re trying to just prevent the spreading of sickness’.

At the same time, most universities I’ve seen have a hiring freeze going on. So in terms of me getting a position there, it would be more difficult if not impossible.

I think the nature of planning the next step is always full of question marks. But those are exacerbated now.

How are you dealing with the current situation and future outlook?

I think my way of dealing with it is that I’m trying to give myself stuff to look forward to. It’s just difficult in an uncertain time. So sometimes my thing to look forward to is a Zoom call with an old friend. It’s getting to a basic level of things I can control and can guarantee. But I feel like that small structure has mattered now more than ever. Because the scale of things I can control shrunk a lot.

As for the future, there are sort of worst-case scenarios, like getting a job completely unrelated to my field for a couple of months and reevaluating. I’m luckily at my parents’. I’m able to stay here and have housing and all that. With that being a possibility, I have to fight the feelings of incompetence that come with that. Because in my head it’s like ‘well, you’re home with your parents and you’re unemployed, so that means you failed’.

But if that is my only option, then it’s not really a failure on my part, it’s just the reality of the world.

The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.