Due to the coronavirus pandemic, college students across the globe are being sent home to social distance themselves. This includes North Harford alumni who just recently left the Nest.         

       Majoring in Political Science and minoring in Biology at York College of Pennsylvania, Tanner Russell was sent home to Harford County after the governor of Pennsylvania mandated the closure of schools and issued a stay at home order. The freshman was unable to bring all of his belongings with him and knows “a lot of others who didn’t because [they] originally thought [they’d] be back in like four weeks or so.”

     The student wishes “that professors would cut down their work load because no one signed up for online learning, and he know[s] many capable students who are struggling.” He describes his learning situation as being more difficult at home than in college because his professors are adding more work than normal.

     Likewise, Exercise Science major at Salisbury University, Kyle Russell agrees that professors should stop adding extra work. In contrast with his brother, he was able to take his belongings home from school because he “had a good feeling that [he] wasn’t coming back so [he] packed up all of [his] stuff before spring break.” 

     Additionally, the elder Russell agrees with Salisbury’s handling of the pandemic even stating that they were “proactive.” “They also provided times where people could come back and get their stuff and spreaded it out enough to where you couldn’t come in contact with others.”

     Communications major at HCC, Kailey Jourdan is also appreciative of how her college handled the situation saying, “they are doing an amazing job supporting students through this situation by offering many resources students can utilize to help supplement the things they would normally get on campus.” 

     Jourdan is also part of the Sexual Assault and Violence Education project as a peer educator. She is working to do online presentations on Microsoft Teams and Zoom however she misses “being able to support students face to face.”

     Aerospace Engineering major at University of Maryland College Park, Emmie Catrambone discusses the events leading up to leaving school. She stated that “leading up to coming home, everything was pretty normal. We still had classes and nothing was restricted. Towards the end, there were definitely a lot of rumors going around that students or professors had the coronavirus, but none of them were actually true. I don’t think any of us understood the severity of the situation until we heard that other schools were closing.”

     The student explains the differences between in person lectures and online learning. The student is part of an Engineering living-learning community, and “there was always someone to ask questions to – [they] always did homework together!” 

     In regards to money towards room and board, Catrambone states that UMD is refunding students however she is unsure if they are getting all of their money back. The same is true for her sister, Lizzie Catrambone who is a Kinesiology major at University of Maryland. 

     The student describes her learning experiences stating, “I feel like I’m still learning the material I need to, but the scheduling is really weird. For example, for my bio class I just have all the material for the unit and I can complete it whenever I want before the test, which I don’t really like because I feel like I just rush through concepts… the change is a lot to adjust to.”