I come from a low income family, so that
has always been an issue, not having a lot of
money, but then COVID took that to
another level. That was really, really hard.
Thankfully, my parents weren’t laid off, but
it was very hard to see them go out there
and risk their health for us and my siblings
and try to get the resources that we needed,
paying over-priced toilet paper and stuff.

Lesley Reyes ’22
Undergraduate Student
There are definitely days where I didn’t talk to anyone and it was just me sitting alone and I still had to work through stuff, but I couldn’t just tap someone on the shoulder.

Priest Cross ’21
Undergraduate Student
Not really being able to do much
in college and not really getting to
meet that many people.

Luke Vacha ’24
Undergraduate Student
Finding motivation to get up even
though I knew I wasn’t going to
leave the house that day.

Isabella Africa ’22
Undergraduate Student
Being as flexible as I could with
students in trying to meet their needs
and also to be attentive to what their
needs were, whether financial or
mental health.

Susan Clampet-Lundquist Ph.D.
professor of sociology
Going to college during the pandemic as a freshman. I had a lot of
expectations coming in because I
have two older sisters so I wanted to
know what to expect but everything
changed. I had to learn everything on
my own about college in this.

Lily Santi ’24
Undergraduate Student
I think the biggest challenge would have
to be parenting. It was very different with
my son being virtual when at home and
me teaching virtually and not having a
clear distinction between work and home.

Morgan Bryant Reeder, Ph.D.
assistant professor of marketing
Biggest challenge was my sanity. Not even joking, it was just
the stress levels and my mental
health is my biggest priority.
My biggest challenge is getting
my mental health in order.

Zavon Sample ’21
Undergraduate Student
Definitely not getting the chance to be able to see some of my friends, or even my family, before I moved 11 hours away for college.

Emily Siler ’24
Undergraduate Student
We didn’t have a playbook for how to
deal with COVID. We had emergency
plans and, actually, a pandemic plan,
but not with isolation and quarantine.
The challenge was just trying to anticipate the unknown and then being able
to react to what we didn’t know.

Cary Anderson, Ed.D.
associate provost and vice president of Student Life
One hundred percent online school. I am
very tedious when it comes to my grades,
school was a big part of who I am, and
I’m not very accustomed to the technology, Zoom and learning virtually.

Samantha Kovacs ’23
Undergraduate Student
COVID hit around March, and since then I
haven’t been home. Normally I go home once
or twice a year, in the summer and in the
winter, so I couldn’t go home in the summer,
and then I couldn’t go home for Christmas.
My brother and his wife had their first baby in
October, so that’s been hard. I’m the only one
that hasn’t met the baby

Rebecca Lane ’19
student assistant coach of women’s lacrosse
Certainly a sense of discomfort and disconnect from other people, that’s been
challenging. A sense of isolation, that’s
been challenging. And a recognition
that my ability to even speak to you in
this way about the direct effects of this
global pandemic on my life.

Richard Warren, Ph.D.
professor of history
Trying to stay alive. Once the
pandemic really got started, a lot
of paranoia and fear kicks in with
everybody. So everybody’s afraid.

Maurice Davis
food service worker in Campion Dining Hall
The biggest challenge I would say
[of] the pandemic year has been
managing more people working and
learning all from the same house in
a house that has basically four rooms
in it

Christopher Close, Ph.D.
associate professor of history
Staying in touch with people that I
wasn’t already very close with, people either we’re friends with or just
people I want to get to know better,
but anyone outside my direct close
circle, I’d say keeping them in my
life is very challenging.

Mike Szewczak ’21
Undergraduate Student
My biggest challenge of the pandemic was trying to survive with
my mental health. The classes
were very difficult because I was
not ready for the online switch.

David Cook ’22
Undergraduate Student
Really focus on yourself. I feel like
it was very hard on me, I fell into
a little bit of a depression, but you
have to do things that you love:
work out, go for a walk, listen to
music, find a hobby.

Emily Bendock ’21
Undergraduate Student
I feel like my biggest challenge
is being able to trust people, like
knowing [if] they’ve been around
someone who’s exposed. Have
they been cautious?

Abigail Staiger ’21
Undergraduate Student
When you’re a working parent, worklife balance is always precarious and
difficult, but parenting school-aged kids
took it to the next level. I was essentially homeschooling three children who
didn’t have aftercare anymore and didn’t
have babysitters anymore.

Kristen Grimes, Ph.D.
associate professor of Italian and modern classical languages