 I'm Grace Lottick, and this is Educating Ourselves in These Difficult Times on ThinkTec Hawaii. Today, we will be discussing the challenges facing the college class of 2021 in the wake of the pandemic. My guest today is Danielle Schum, a senior at Concordia University in Irvine, California, who was raised in Hawaii graduating from high school here. She is a history major with a minor in theater who is also working toward her secondary school teaching certification. She will be sharing how coronavirus has impacted her role as a college student and give us an inside view on what graduating in the class of 2021 looks like today. Thank you for being on my show today, Danielle. Of course, Grace. It's a pleasure to have you today. So to start off our show today, I'd like to give some context for our viewers about what your experience has been like in the wake of the pandemic. Could you give us an overview of what Concordia University Irvine is like? Concordia University Irvine on a normal, everyday kind of life is a small, private, Lutheran institution in Irvine, California. It is a private campus, so it takes stopping at a gatehouse to get on campus. You can't just walk on campus. So it's not like our neighborhood school, the University of California, Irvine, where you could just like walk on the campus and it's a public university. So we're set apart on a hill, which has its benefits and downsides. Class sizes are around 15 to 25 students, maybe 30, but they purposely try to keep it really small so that professors and students can get a lot of interaction between themselves. Yeah, so could you give us an overview of what your average day-to-day life was like as a college student prior to the pandemic? Prior to the pandemic, I was very busy. I was working three jobs. I was in six-ish classes. So life was pretty busy. I was taking all major classes. So I was in four upper division history classes and two education classes. I was involved in the Hawaii Club, which is Hawaii students and people who are interested in learning about Hawaii, so it's a chance to like teach people. I am on a theater and hand-belt music scholarship, so I would have rehearsals or I'd be working on a show. I lived in our apartment-style dorms with two other girls. And my three jobs, I was working with our Office of First Year Experience in order to help pick our orientation leaders, which we call peer advising leaders, also known as PALS. And then this summer we'll be working to help plan the fall orientation this upcoming fall. And then I also worked our residential office front desk, so I help our resident directors, which are staff members, set up meetings and do office work, things like that for them. I was also a core history tutor, so I would tutor fellow juniors like myself last semester in their US history class, basically. Wow, it sounds like you had a very full plate prior to the pandemic. Could you share with us a little bit about what Concordia did once the news was released about coronavirus? Did you guys switch to an online setting for your classes? And if so, how did that feel different from an in-person classroom setting? Concordia was on spring break when a lot of things started to come out about coronavirus, and then we were back on campus for about four days before they went online. They decided to go online just to help protect the students, and it was going to be up to the professors a lot about how they conducted online, like if they were going to use Zoom or Blackboard Collaborate or nothing at all. And it really depended on your professor's ability to use technology. So that made the experience of a lot of students like myself in the history department very different from how that classes we were in would be taught in regular in-person class settings. And then about four days after they decided to go online, they decided that they would need to close the residence halls. And I think it was during that news that everyone started to really feel the stress about having to move off campus, or if you really needed to, you had one day to appeal to stay if you couldn't go home for some reason. So it took about a week before most professors had anything ready for us because they needed some time to convert everything that we had been doing online. And then they also wanted to give us time to like move out, find places to be settled, and get settled before they just started back up with the work. I had some professors who made the workload a little bit easier, so like instead of a 20-page paper, we'd be writing a 10-page paper. But none of them wanted to do online classes face-to-face. So I would just listen to podcasts, watch videos, write reflection papers that were anywhere from 3,000 to 3 pages, or 3,000 words to 3 pages rather. And then for my education classes, I was in the middle of doing 20 hours of observation, and I had two hours left when the Irvine School District decided that they would be moving online. So I was unable to finish my hours, but I will have to make them up again when everything is back open. And our classes also didn't meet in person. We just would continue to do work shoots online. For the most part, it sounds like people have been making accommodations for you beyond the teaching observation hours. But you also mentioned earlier that it sounds like it's been a very stressful time, a lot of frenzy, and a lot of students have been feeling overwhelmed. Has Concordia or any of your professors provided resources for handling stress and perhaps offering any coping mechanisms for this difficult time? Our professors have been directing us to the Wellness Center, which has been offering resources. I personally did not utilize any of those resources, but I know that they would post on their Instagram stories, post on the university Instagram stories to try to give people quick tips. And then they would also point us to their resources and such. I think the hardest part, though, for students was losing that ability to just go drop by your professor's office during office hours. Not every professor continued to have office hours, especially if they weren't the biggest fans of meeting online. Of my four professors, only one still continued to do office hours. And I think because Concordia is such a small school with 1500 undergraduate students, not being able to do the jobs they've come to love was probably the most challenging part because, especially as a student leader, you get comfortable being able to go in to our Center for Student Leadership and Development and pop down and do some homework. There's a lot of shifts in there. It's always really fun to see what your new task is going to be for the day. And so losing things like that really made the stress weigh in. I had frequent bi-weekly one-on-ones with my supervisor just because I liked having someone to talk to, but she couldn't pay me for any of it like she normally would. Campus life definitely is a valuable part of a college student's experience, and I think that the loss of that has definitely caused students to sometimes feel like they're not getting the full college experience. During this time, how have you continued to stay connected to campus life and maintain the relationships that you've created during your time at college? A lot of my friends and I, we will FaceTime and text and things like that, or we'll share those things for your Instagram story where you can do a bingo card or this or that just to keep up with each other's interests, I guess. But I think one of Concordia's biggest strengths in these times was our student government, known as ASUY. They immediately were able to pick up events and make them online. So our student weekly newsletters would still come out with links to virtual hangouts that we could attend for various cultural events or workouts or hangouts with certain professors. And things like that. And so having never had to transition to something like that, I think they handled it really well to just be like, okay, we're going to pick it all up, move it online and still make it fun for students. You mentioned earlier that you also work for residence services. Exactly what was the protocol for Concordia once the pandemic announced that students would have to have a shift to online classes? Was everybody forced to have to leave the dorms or were they able to make accommodations? When we first went online, the residence halls were to remain open. That was their initial plan. And that really gave a lot of students peace, because then it was more of their choice. Like if they wanted to go home, they could, but if they preferred campus or they lived far away, they could stay. And a lot of supervisors at that time were going to keep their jobs open. So like I still would have been able to work the front desk because I can answer phones, answer emails and things like that. If in case we needed to be quarantined on campus for any amount of time, they had resources like toilet paper that they could give one role to students who came in who were going to be staying. Unfortunately though, there was a decision that had to be made and it took them a, like the weekend and then two days after that to release that the residence halls would be closing. There was an appeal process. As there was an appeal process for summer housing, but they had to be very choosy because they were only going to be able to put students in one building in order to still be able to follow the rules that we have for living on campus. Just to like be able to supervise all of them. And when students were moving out, they were helping to provide boxes or work with students to be able to find options for storage and things like that. But unfortunately that's all they could do in those times. What did you choose to do once they announced that you would have to be leaving the dorms for the remainder of the school year? I was graciously offered the chance to stay with my boyfriend's family since my family is out of state and I didn't want to have to travel to go back to them just because everything was very fresh with the virus. And so things like airplanes probably weren't the best idea. And so I've been in San Diego now since we went online, just doing online classes, staying in a guest bedroom, things like that. That's definitely sweet that they were able to accommodate you during this time. You mentioned earlier that you also have jobs in peer advising and planning for the upcoming semesters. Can you give us an overview of what Concordia is going to look like for the summertime and the fall semester as well? So for the summer, most summer classes that are being offered, especially in the School of Education, have been moved online, which I can't imagine just because online classes for education are so helpful when they're in person because you get to watch someone do the job that you would like to do in the future. But in terms of student workers, most student workers that would get to work for the summer have either been cut or moved remotely and have decreased hours. Or if you were working with university services just on upkeep for the campus, then you were allowed to stay. So there's those three kinds of categories. I'm in the category of working remotely with decreased hours, which is going to be very interesting because they haven't made any decisions yet about whether we will be opening or not for sure in the fall. Their plan is to open, that is what they would like to do, but there are many committees that are working to be able to have backup plans in place. So we have to open, but we have to do it with masks on and even smaller decreased classes, then they will have a plan already in place for that. My job's biggest concern will be having to plan orientation. So our boss has not been able to give us any specific information yet. We start on Monday, so that's when I will be getting more information, but we were prepped to be prepared to have to plan two orientations, one in person and one online. Wow, that's surely a challenge to have to plan two orientations versus the original one. And for sure it's hard to not have the certainty of what the future is going to look like. Danielle, actually in a moment we will be taking a short break. Again, I'm Grace Lottick and you're watching Educating Ourselves in these Difficult Times on ThinkTech Hawaii with my special guest, Danielle Schum. We will be back shortly. Aloha, I'm Krista Stadler, the host of Nonprofits Mean Business 2 on ThinkTech Hawaii. Nonprofits Mean Business 2 investigates the operational challenges and costs related to managing nonprofit organizations while encouraging our viewers to find a nonprofit organization that you're passionate about in our community. We are streamed live on ThinkTech Hawaii bi-weekly at 12pm on Thursdays. Thank you so much for watching our show. We look forward to seeing you then. Mahalo. Welcome back to Educating Ourselves in these Difficult Times with my guest, Danielle Schum, senior at Concordia University Irvine. Danielle, prior to the short break, you mentioned that you wanted to be a teacher. I would like to expand a little more on your student teaching experience as well as how your education classes have been conducted with the shift to an online class. What sorts of experiences do you think have been detracted from you learning how to be a teacher as a result of the shift to an online class? I think that with everything going on and where I am in the credentialing program, it was one of the best times to have us go online because we're not in the secondary methods class, which is where you get all of the information for teaching in a high school or middle school. We're still in that phase where things are just general information. The hardest part was just not having that interaction with other students who want to be teachers because those are the people that are going to be there to support you and know exactly what you're going through and be going through it with you. My class was doing a lot of blackboard responses to discussion board posts just to try to interact with each other still, but it just wasn't really the same as being able to present our work to the class and then hear their feedback because nobody really knew exactly how much to say or what to talk about when responding. There's no watching your professor get to do their job. I'm not sure how a lot of the upper division education classes were conducted just because I'm not in them. In terms of observation hours, this was the first set of observation hours. To obtain your California teaching credential, you do 20 hours and then 40 hours and then student teaching, which is you being the teacher and conducting class. Thankfully, I was not there. 20 hours is much easier to manage and make up, but it was weird going from seeing my cooperating teacher and being like, yeah, we're still on for school right now. They haven't said anything and then all of a sudden it was, hi, we just went online like three hours after I talked to you. And the state wasn't going to count hours that were done online for observing. So even if I had jumped in on some of their Zoom classes, it just wouldn't have counted. So in that regard, it was hard to just sudden like from something to nothing transition. As someone who is studying to become a teacher, how do you think that education will be transformed as a result of the pandemic? And how would you feel if as a teacher you yourself would have to continue to conduct online classes? There is so much value both from an intellectual and a social standpoint from being in a classroom, especially in high school when you're like really building those skills that you're going to end memories that you're going to remember throughout your adult life. And so I would be very disappointed if I still had to conduct online classes, especially if I was teaching my high schoolers. Just because I see those benefits and so much of education is focusing on how to make the experience in the classroom beneficial, like the atmosphere of the classroom and the things that you do and having your students interact. And it's totally different not being able to have them break into groups and sit and work and you being able to supervise them. And I can't control every single student's home atmosphere and school can be a safe place for students who don't have a good home atmosphere. So yeah, I would be very sad if we had to continue online classes. I think there is so much benefit to being in the classroom. I love how you mentioned that the home atmosphere surely does influence what a student's school experience is like. And I believe that having that in-class experience is crucial for some students who may not necessarily have the most stable home life. We also talked about earlier that you're on a couple scholarships for school. You mentioned that you have a theater scholarship as well as being a theater minor and you're also on a hand belt scholarship as well. I understand that these activities tend to be within larger groups of people with a cast, a crew, and an audience. How are these activities conducted once it was announced that school would have to switch to an online setting? It was a little sad. All theater and music events were canceled. So thankfully in terms of my theater life, when you're on a theater scholarship at Concordia, you just have to work on two shows, whether you're acting or working backstage. And so I had signed up to work the first show of the year back in January, so got that out of the way. I was all good. But there was a show that was about to open that weekend right after everything went online and it was canceled. The students and director chose to have their invited dressed on Thursday night because everything was canceled for the following Friday and beyond. So they were able to record that performance and send it into the theater judging pool that looks at shows from all across the country and picks the best actors from each show to go and compete later on. So they were able to get that in. Their plan is for the fall to have that show that was first canceled be the first show that they do in the fall. And so anybody who will still be on campus still has their role. Any graduating seniors from that show can either come back to do the show or they'll just be recast. And I think that's really awesome for the theater department to have thought ahead and to have recognized all those work or all that work that the students have done and still find a way to honor them if everything goes to plan. And I know that they are working to find a way to make sure that they will be able to have those performances, even if there is a limited audience. In terms of the music department, though, we were supposed to go on Handel tour to Colorado at the beginning of May after school was finished, but that was of course canceled. Our church addings were canceled. We do invitations with different high school students were there. They get to come and play with us on a mass piece and all of those were canceled, and we get to play pieces for them. There was a thought when everything first got moved online before the residence halls closed that they would be able to conduct social distancing rehearsals, because our tour didn't get canceled until about a month after everything went online. But once the residence halls closed and people started to go home or had to leave campus, there was just no way that you can each have your own set of handbells at wherever you're staying and be able to play together, because the lag between video cameras would just be an impossible barrier to overcome. So I know a lot of music students felt a great loss because all of their work has to be done in community. But just like with other classes, they are working to see how they would be able to do social distancing rehearsals in the fall. So they have great amounts of hope for what is to come, and I hope that it goes the way that they would like. In instances where students were perhaps not able to meet their teaching observation hours or student teaching, or weren't able to fulfill the requirement for a theater minor, for example, acting as crew member for a show. Did your school make any accommodations allowing them to graduate in spite of the fact that they didn't meet these requirements? Because I was a junior when all of this happened, I'm not sure what other students who hadn't done the requirements, yet I'm sure that they waived it because there was nothing they could do. In terms of the teaching requirements, however, it's not the university that institutes them. It's the state of California. And so when the classes from K through 12th grade were all moved online, observation hours could not continue. I mean, like I said earlier, unless you were able to jump on the call, I know that they weren't counting that for my program. So I'm assuming that they weren't for others. Student teaching, I imagine that they would be able to just continue as regular other teachers would but I'm not exactly sure. I know that for observation hour requirements, they will be made up when schools are back open and in public or in face to face again. So next fall I will go back in for my last two hours. I think that much of the media has focused on how drastically the class of 2020s experience has been with coronavirus. Yet I think that the class of 2021 as well will also experience a drastically different senior year than most college students have. As we begin to wrap up your college career, how do you feel about the workforce that you're about to enter into? Many statistics have suggested that the economic recession of coronavirus will be just as bad, if not worse than the 2008 and 2009 economic recession. So how does that make you feel about your future and your job prospects? To be honest with you, Grace, it makes me feel really nervous. I mean, thank God that like students still have to go to school until a certain age like that can't just go away. And so there will still be schools and there will still be teaching opportunities. But if schools will be hiring, it will probably greatly depend on teachers retiring and with the economics of it all, they might not want to retire when they plan to do anymore. And I also agree with you that there has been a lot of focus on the class of 2020 and my heart goes out to all of those students who did not get their graduations. I'm very proud of my university because instead of just canceling it all, they moved it to August to be able to try to host that ceremony that is so important to the students to give them that closure that they deserve. I'm not sure what guidelines they'll have to follow yet. California has been making some strides that are very hopeful for the people, especially in San Diego County. Thinking about the possibility of not getting to have a senior year at all on campus or in person is terrifying because at least those seniors got their first semester as opposed to class of 2021 which might not get it at all. If everything remains online, we might just never be able to go back, which would be, which would be really sad, but I am crossing my fingers that that is not the case. And I feel for anyone trying to get a job right now for their summer plans or their next year, I think it will depend a lot on how quickly the United States as a whole is reopened in order to decide what the job market will look like. And I don't think anyone will be able to predict it until decisions are made and seasons come and go. I think that staying hopeful, as you mentioned, is absolutely essential during this time as we walk into an environment that many people have never walked into before. But I believe that as we continue to adjust to this new normal and keep a positive attitude, I'm sure that both you and I and many other people in the class of 2021 as well will get through this challenging time. This actually wraps up our time for today, Danielle, but I just wanted to thank you again and thank you for watching Think Tech Hawaii. We hope that today's program shuts some light on the unique challenges presented by coronavirus for college students and gave you a better understanding of the experiences of the class of 2021 during this challenging time. Again, I'm Grace Lodik and see you every other Thursday at noon. Aloha.