 I'm Grace Loddick and this is Educating Ourselves in These Difficult Times on ThinkTech Hawaii. I am a communications major at Hawaii Pacific University and intern here at ThinkTech. In my series I cover the unique challenges presented by coronavirus and how it has impacted education. In today's episode we will be discussing the challenges facing the high school class of 2020 in the wake of the pandemic. We will explore how high school social events, extracurricular activities, classroom experience, senior thesis, graduation, and college plans have been affected by COVID-19. Today my special guest is Lauren Baker, senior at Trinity Christian School and incoming freshman at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona. She will be sharing how coronavirus has impacted her role as a high school senior and give us an inside view on what graduating in the class of 2020 looks like. Thank you for being a guest on my show today Lauren. Thank you so much Grace. Of course. So to help provide some context for our viewers today, could you describe what an average day-to-day life looks like at Trinity Christian School for you? Absolutely. So attending Trinity Christian is like being a part of a family. I come from a small school, small private school in Kailua, and the average class size is around 12 to 13 students. And so my graduating class is a class of 12. And it's interesting because the teachers know us personally and I know my classmates like family as well. And so it's just that personal bond that I have both with my teachers and with my classmates. It definitely sounds like a wonderful experience that provides both the best of academics and having a tight-knit social circle. So for today's discussion I'd like to be focusing on how coronavirus has changed those academic and social aspects of high school for you. So overall, could you give us an overview of how the classroom experience and feel has changed from you once it went from an in-person setting to an online setting? Absolutely. So it was tough to transition to online school at first, especially during my senior year when I have my senior thesis coming up and then also with just finishing my senior year with all these capstone experiences such as states for speech debate, senior thesis, and all these other activities that comes with being a senior. And so giving up those experiences was tough at first, but it came a lot easier with the support of my teachers knowing that they still cared for me and that I could always reach out to them online via email, text, and whatever. And then also just through my classmates as well, knowing that I'm not the only one going through this, that there's so many other seniors experiencing this loss as well and that no matter what I still get to graduate high school regardless. I think that's great that you're keeping a positive mentality that despite it all, you still will be able to finish. What sort of coping tactics have you been using during this stressful time and what strategies have you found have been most helpful in receiving support from others? Yes. So a few things that I've been doing to cope with coronavirus and the loss of experience from my senior year has been through talking with my classmates, talking with my friends through FaceTime, texting, also just hanging out at home has been great too. I've been baking a lot, which has been very therapeutic and it's just been great to connect with my family more as well as, you know, I'm still connected with my family, friends and classmates as well through social media and texting. Do you believe that the coronavirus pandemic has somehow negatively affected your social life and experience with connecting your classmates? Like I understand that senior year is often a time where we feel like we need to hold on to these very last moments that we have with these people that we've been attending school with for quite some time. Has that been the experience for you? Yeah, it's been tough spending the last two months of my senior year at home and away from my classmates and my family really. And it's just been tough because, you know, we have this vision for our senior year where we have prom, where we have graduation commenced in ceremonies, where we have senior thesis, senior soak day, senior ditch day and all these experiences that we've been looking forward to for four years, even more than four years and to not have them has been hard. But I've found healing and I've coped with that just honestly knowing that I'm not the only one going through this time. I think that's definitely the ideal mentality to have. I think that we can often hold on to experiences and the loss that comes with sudden and unexpected situations like this. But that's definitely reassuring to hear that you found a way to cope with it. And I think that's definitely inspiration for other seniors going through this difficult time as well. So for your class schedule for this last year, what types of classes have you been taking and what have been the challenges of converting specific classes to an online format? I would say the most daunting class that I took this year was senior rhetoric and rhetoric class for seniors at Trinity Christian School is when all the seniors have to present a senior thesis. So that's a 20 minute memorized speech, well researched, passionate, as well as a defense for 20 minutes in front of a panel of judges. And so it was tough to transition into an online format, mainly because at the time where we had the stay at home order where we can no longer go to school was the time where we started actually presenting our senior thesis and really memorizing it and making sure that our blocking, our presentation was to the best of our abilities. And so what we had to do instead of presenting in front of our teachers and our classmates in person was record ourselves in our homes and send them into our advisors and our teachers as well. And that was interesting because, you know, my family would be hearing my senior thesis every day. And then my teacher would be hearing my senior thesis once a week when it should be vice versa, really. I think it's great that you were still able to at least have that feedback from your instructors and your family and to be able to practice your senior thesis. But what was presenting your actual thesis like? Was it different from the usual format of presenting it in person? So I actually presented my senior thesis yesterday. Congratulations. Thank you. And it was interesting because, you know, normal classes would have a large audience watching at our campus in front of the typical four panel of judges. And then this year it was a minimal audience. So around under 10 people in the room that we were presenting the senior thesis. And so it was me and then the three panel of judges as well as just a few guests that I had. And then how we did it this year to still receive the wide audience was Trinity Used Facebook Live. And then our Trinity community could still come in and watch all of us seniors present our senior thesis and what we've been working on for this whole school year and still receive the questions, the feedback and the encouragement just on an online setting. I love that they were still able to somewhat retain some of the classic experiences of being able to give it to a large audience, at least through using Facebook Live. I know that perhaps it feels a little different, but it's definitely the gesture that counts. Since you had to convert your senior thesis to a bit of an alternative format, did teachers make any changes to the grading scale or make any exceptions for the circumstances? No, actually, the teacher still held us to the standard for our senior thesis of making sure we were off-scripts, that we knew our research and that we were well prepared for the Q&A and for defending our senior thesis as well. I think the only difference was really the lack of audience that at first seemed like a little bit of pressure off of us, but then knowing that we still had an audience from Facebook Live still added the pressure and maybe the fear factor into presenting our senior thesis. You mentioned earlier that you were also an active participant in speech and debate throughout high school, and I'm sure that definitely helped you in your thesis as well. Could you give us an overview of how the speech and debate season was altered as a result of the pandemic? Yeah, it's a little bittersweet. I've been competing on Trinity Speech and Debate Team for all four years, and after we finished our normal qualifying season for the state tournament, we finished all of our normal tournaments, and the last tournament right before states was our last tournament, and so after that would have been the state tournament and it would have been done for me and for all of my other competitors in the Hawaii Speech League. And unfortunately, because of coronavirus, we had to cancel speech and debate, but the National Speech and Debate Association is having an online national tournament, as well as a senior open for all of the seniors who want that sense of closure for their speech and debate career. Wow, so will you be participating in the national tournament sponsored by the NSDA? I will not. I decided that it would be better for me to focus on my senior thesis and to have that focus on my senior thesis instead of doing the open speech and debate tournament with the National Association. However, I know that there are people that did the tournament of champions online and are still going to nationals or doing the senior open, and I wish them really the best of luck. Wow, so for the senior national open championship, did they divide it up by states, just having competitors compete against others in their state or was it open so that competitors from Hawaii, for example, would be able to compete with people from California? Yes, it was the senior open tournament, and so Hawaii decided not to send any qualified people to nationals just for a sense of maintaining fairness in our speech community in Hawaii, but instead they invited the seniors to participate in the senior open, so that was just an opportunity for all seniors in speech and debate to do this online tournament format as a sense of closure to perhaps have a friendly competition with people from or students from around the country. So you talk about how speech and debate has allowed you to have some sense of closure for an activity that's been very important for you throughout high school. I understand that other high school experiences, whether it be drama performances, sports, tournaments or prom are also events that many high schoolers enjoy and would like to participate in, but unfortunately those experiences have been stripped away as a result of COVID-19. Did you participate in any other activities in high school and during your senior year that provided a similar opportunity for closure? I would really say I did cross country in the fall season, which was really fun. Actually, I did get to finish that, which was exciting. However, every May at the end of the sport season for Trinity, we have this thing called athletic banquet and that's when we recognize all of the athletes that have participated in Trinity athletics for that past year. And so participating in cross country for all these years and not having that last athletic banquet to recognize the seniors and for their participation in athletics for all these years that we were at Trinity was tough. However, we made adjustments to the athletic banquet and instead the coaches and teachers made videos for us recognizing our seasons as well as the seniors to say goodbye and that they enjoyed having us on their sports teams. That's definitely amazing that they were able to make those changes for you and still keep some of that experience of feeling like you're being celebrated and recognized for your efforts in the sports team. Lauren, actually in a moment we will be taking a short break. Again, I'm Grace Lodik and you're watching Educating Ourselves in These Difficult Times on Think Tech, Hawaii with my special guest, Lauren Baker. We will be back shortly. Hello, I'm Lillian Cumick, host of Lillian's Vegan World, the show where we talk about veganism and the plant-based diet located in Honolulu, Hawaii. I'm a vegan chef and cooking instructor and I have lots of information to share with you about how awesome this plant-based diet is. So do tune in every second Thursday from 1 p.m. Aloha. Welcome back to Educating Ourselves in These Difficult Times with my guest, Lauren Baker, high school senior at Trinity Christian School. For the last segment of our show, Lauren, I'd like to be focusing on prom as well as graduation and how COVID-19 has affected your future plans for college. So first, I'd like to talk about prom. I know that this is an event that many high school students look forward to, spend countless hours planning the perfect dress, your date, how to get to prom, food, venue. How did Trinity alter their prom plans for this year since I understand it typically takes place during this month? Right. So I am fortunate enough to have loving and supporting parents that have lobbied to actually push back prom to June. And we're having prom at Mid-Pak Country Club and it is still on, especially since coming from a small school provides us the ability to maintain social distancing, I guess. And we can still have prom. I still get to find the dress. I still get to go with my friends and still have that experience of having my senior prom, really. That's so fun. I guess that being in a small school really did pay off in a certain way because it enabled you to still have a prom because there's so few people. I understand that graduation is also a huge hallmark event to help culminate your senior year. Has Trinity helped create a different graduation plan than what is usually planned? Right. So usually graduation at Trinity is, the seniors go up on the stage and then they have a typical wide audience. All your family, friends, your community show up and watch you walk the stage to get your diploma. This year for graduation, we are doing an outside private ceremony where the seniors will be on our athletic court and then the parents will be in a car on the parking lot by the sports court watching the ceremony from Facebook Live. And then once we have our private ceremony, we'll have a social distanced lay reception where all the seniors will spread out along the sidewalk of our parking lot and cars will be able to pull in into our parking lot and drop off a lay at our table or stand and then a designated person will be able to give us the lay. That's so sweet. I love how Trinity has still made such an effort to help retain so many of the experiences that high school students look forward to for the end of their high school careers. We actually just got a question from one of our live viewers. They wanted to know more about your senior thesis topic. What was your senior thesis on? My senior thesis was about how pornography and prostitution actually contribute to sexual violence and forms of sex trafficking. Wow, that is definitely a deep topic. Could you perhaps tell us what was the inspiration behind choosing to create your project on this topic? I am a strong advocate for rights, for human rights and to bring justice for people that are victims of these forms of violence. And I wanted to really have a challenging thesis not only for myself, but also for my community to show that perhaps our choices and how we view people as maybe objects sometimes can contribute to a larger scale problem of sexual violence and ultimately sex trafficking. I think it's vital and I love how you took the time to shed light on an important topic in our society. I think that people often don't think too deeply, just clicking on a website in their free time and they don't realize how it really does contribute to a larger problem at scale. So I definitely congratulate you for taking this stride and taking the challenge to help cover an issue that's so pervasive in our society that perhaps many of us don't even realize. Is this area perhaps something that you'd like to go into in college to study more in depth or pursue as a career? I plan on attending Grand Canyon University, right? And I'll be majoring in government with an emphasis in legal studies and then minoring in communications. And so it is my dream perhaps to maybe be a attorney for women in Hawaii specifically that have been victims of domestic violence. So perhaps a family or marriage attorney would be my dream job. Wow, you are an inspiration, Lauren. I think that that's definitely a challenging career that many people feel hesitant to pursue just because of the extensive education and knowledge required for it. But I love that you're still taking the time to pursue that despite the fact that it may be a challenging career path, albeit rewarding, I believe. So for your future plans at GCU, will you be able to attend classes on campus for the fall or has GCU arranged a different plan for incoming freshmen? Right, so as GCU is leaving it optional to students to go back onto campus, personally, I do plan on going to GCU in the fall. I'm really looking forward to it and having that fresh start and meeting all these new people in Phoenix. And hopefully with the coronavirus curve staying flattened, we could truly go back onto campus without any fear of COVID-19. In the light of the pandemic, has that affected your college decision or your college planning? I would say so. In a sense of money, obviously, college is already expensive and wanting to make sure that college could be as affordable as possible in the wake of our economy going on a downturn now because of coronavirus. And GCU did give me the best opportunity that was economically reasonable. It gave me the best package really. And coming down to it, GCU did offer me the community that I wanted at a cost that was reasonable. What were the main aspects of GCU that stood out the most to you that caused it to be a college of interest for you? Right, so GCU offers me a large campus experience. Actually, they have 20,000 students on campus, large campus, always in development, clean and safe. And that is what I was really looking for in a university is somewhere where I could be in a larger setting, especially coming from Trinity, where I could expand my comfort zone a little bit but also be somewhere safe. Those are definitely important aspects to be looking for in a college. So what inspired you to pursue a major in government and legal studies and also minor in communications as well? Right, so I think it's speech and debate that really influenced that passion for going into law and going into communications is because I believe that just thinking about how the world and how politics works is just so interesting and fascinating to me and to really learn how to speak up for things that really matter in our community is what has fueled my passion for going into law. Speech and debate sounds like it's been an essential part of your high school experience. Do you plan on continuing pursuing speech and debate in college as well? Yes, I was just accepted onto the GCU speech and debate team. So I'm really looking forward to being able to travel around the country to California to participate in speech and debate tournaments and to really continue my passion for it. Congratulations, Lauren. Have you decided what categories of speech and debate you would like to participate in in college? I think this time going into college, I want to try definitely new categories that I didn't do in high school. So in high school, I did a lot of platform speaking as well as a lot of debate categories while in college, I would like to try more of the acting in the theater side of speech definitely. So to expand my comfort zone a little more. For some of our viewers who might not be familiar with the world of speech and debate, could you tell us what platform speaking is and explain what the types of categories of debate you participated in were? Right, so platform speaking in the speech and debate world may look like original oratory which is a passionate persuasive speech. We also have informative speaking which is just a 10 minute informative non-persuasive speech. And then on the debate side, I competed in the categories of public forum which is a quick and heated debate about current events as well as policy debate which is a in depth year long resolution topic addressing a change in legislation or policy. And then I also competed in Lincoln Douglas debate which is a debate more about values and morals. Those sound like perfect categories to help you prepare for a career in law in the future. It's great to see that you've been taking the time to help to prepare yourself not only for college but for the years beyond as well. I think that many high school students don't necessarily think about how they can be taking steps during their high school years to help prepare themselves career wise but it's inspiring to hear that you've been taking the time to invest in yourself and to do so. At GCU for the acting type of speech categories, do those categories have specific names? I believe they're called like duo interpretation, program oral interpretation, dramatic interpretation and what these more theater oriented categories look like in collegiate speech is where you take scripts from publishings and then you create it into a script really. So program oral interpretation for example is you take multiple genres of literature so that could be just articles, play scripts and poetry and they all have one general theme and then you combine them all into a cohesive script and the presentation should look a bit schizophrenic in a way but then it all goes back to this general theme and thesis that you're fighting for. What inspired you to take the leap of change from doing more policy and philosophy oriented topics to taking a more artistic and theatrical approach to speech in college? Right, so I think I just wanted to expand my experience in the speech and debate world a bit coming from at Trinity, competing in speech and debate was definitely more debate oriented, more platform speaking oriented and I always wanted to try a more theater approach to speech and debate and so just going to JCU and having that fresh start and that ability to perhaps expand my horizons in the speech and debate world is something that I'm looking forward to. I'm happy for you that you're taking charge of your education and expanding your horizons to try something new that perhaps you haven't before and I hope for you that that helps to lead you to experiences that you may not have otherwise had in high school. This actually is the end of our show, Lauren, but I just wanted to thank you again for being a guest on my show today and to thank you for watching Think Tech Hawaii. We hope that today's program shed some light on the unique challenges presented by coronavirus for high school students and help to give you a better understanding of the experiences of the class of 2020 during this challenging time. Again, I'm Grace Loddick and see you every other Thursday at noon. Aloha.