During COVID-19 especially at the start, 22 million jobs were lost which made it all around hard for many people. We even came to the point America started cutting stimulus checks. This can be hard for many adults most clearly but wha tabout college students?

Many young people have simple first jobs like working afast-food joint or a target. This means many of the jobs come to find out are non-essential.

Looking at some college students we will see if we can find advice through their situations.

First interviewed was Brian Benjamin. He had worked part time for Panera Bread and had worked there throughout all high school.

“It was an easy and simple job that worked for the time being,” he said. When corona had hit, and the country startedto shut down he realized how dangerous working a food chain might be during apandemic. Panera had shut down and he decided to leave it at that along with few coworkers. He stayed home often afterwards like everyone else but as normal heneeded to work again to keep an income.

“I debated going back to Panera but didn’t really want back in the food business and didn’t want to wait. So instead Itook up landscaping with my Dad,” he said.

He then explained that he and his family believed it was a safer route working there instead of up close with hundreds of people even with the precautions.

This way it was a smaller group with his father and him being able to work safely the way they wanted. This job has also been considered essential which was a huge plus that led to his friend Danny Wezeza, a fellow NECC student to join along in the work.

Kolbe Powell has been an assistant manager for years at Market Basket and has loved it, making friends and new relationships. He took a year away due to going to Umass Lowell for his freshman year but is coming back and going to NECC due to the pandemic. When COVID-19 hit it was different for him because Market Basket did not close but rather cut down onhours. He found himself working less then he used to with this and fear of the pandemic due a close person he lives with having heart issues.

He stuck it up and has been focusing on towards school even more then he was with freed time and has been doing well.

But as others such as Benjamin, he knows you should start saving money when you are young without many bills.

“I think I’m going to be taking off the following semester to start building up again at my savings account especially with the need of a new car and my future. Whether it is at Market Basket or elsewhere I have to figure out,” he said. Without corona, taking time away from school would not have been necessary.

The last person interviewed was Sara Levesque. Before coronavirus, she had worked at Plaistow Pizza and as a home health aide.

When corona kicked in the pizza restaurant  shut down and cut down on hours big time due to having way less people work at once, so she quit.

She did not want to take the big cut on hours or run the risk of the virus with having a rare heart problem herself.

She began working as a home health aid full time all summer and even throughout school.

Working this job was perfect for her because it was with one person who does not leave her family or home health aide.

Also, it gave her plenty of time for schoolwork with having free time on the job to do all her online work. “I found the perfect opportunity for me during these hard times and I’m glad I did,” she said.

People have struggled during these times but it is not about being knocked down its about getting back up.

These college students have found their own ways to work with the pandemic and you will find yours if you have not yet.

 

There are many aspects that come into play with today’s changes in learning due to the pandemic that everyone wants to see the end of. Some believe the online changes are for the better and some do not.

Three Northern Essex community college students were interviewed on the topic at hand.

Alicia Russell, is a mother of 3 and currently in the nursing program at NECC.

Her perspective was different and unique compared to the normal community college student entering after high school due to the changes in learning over the years and her busy schedule she is used to.

She reported that it is actually better for her learning online for multiple reasons. With working overnight shifts at a hospital and helping her youngest son Max Russell in second grade she finds there to be not much time to herself.

With everything being online she has a better time doing things on her own time usually “during when work is dead and or around the afternoon when everyone in the family is all set.

” “It is good that I am able to work around my own schedule and not on the schools preset schedule every week,” she said.

This understandably makes sense for any mother putting herself back through school and throws a different perspective of a college student into the mix. When asked if she struggles with not being able to succeed without face to face learning she stated “most teachers nowadays simply throw a power point up and read it to the class while we take notes. I feel I can do that on my own no problem online unless the teacher decides to put some more thought into the lecture, but beside that I’m all set.”

She did state that for certain classes she took in the past of pre-covid-19 that she enjoyed the face to face help as she did in her anatomy class with a “wonderful teacher” by the name of Professor Noel Ways.

The second person interviewed was Brian Benjamin who has just graduated high school and is taking communications at NECC in hopes of one day becoming a sportswriter.

Him being from a different generation and having different responsibilities gives him a different perspective. He does not very much enjoy the change to online schooling but prefers it to the remote learning that some other colleges are taking the opportunity to pick instead of taking class online in zoom.

When asked why is online learning better then remote learning he stated that learning through zoom can at times be “annoying staring at a computer for that long trying to pay attention to a lecture about a power point I can read on my own time.”

He also stated that “at least with just online learning I can take a break, so I don’t have to burn my eyes out.”

While making the situation comedic during the interview he speaks facts while “growing up people have always been told not to stare at screens all day.”

Staring too long at screens can cause eye strain, headaches, and even neck pain, etc. The next question was as to why just regular online learning is worse than in person and he stated multiple reasons. The first being that when attending a class teachers are there to remind you as to when something is due and you will always be there in class to get that reminder while as to online you have to keep up to date with course announcements on your own which makes it a little harder to remember.

“I can remember I had to do something for a certain day when I have to actually physically show up to class with it,” he said.

Another reason he stated put simply was just that he is a face to face learner as many are. Some people just cannot read something and be ready for a test, some need the in person teaching to help them get through something.

Lastly, Sara Levesque of Northern Essex is taking accounting. She is another fellow 2020 high school graduate but is trying to get a very different degree then Brian Benjamin. Most of her classes will involve math while most of his writing. She on the other hand enjoys the online learning. She enjoys this due to being able to do her work at her own pace with assignments being posted ahead of time more often then not to get them out of the way. She also had said that she considered herself to be a “self-learner in high school behind the computer so I’m fine with it now as well.”

If she has any problems with the work, she already had taken online to it anyways, she said.

These 3 people had very unique answers to each other due to different backgrounds and considering very different majors between all three and one being an adult mother student taking classes once again. This affects whether you like or dislike the online learning and shows three good angles of such to consider for what position you are in as a college student.