Items

• 
  2020-09-01

  Every story matters - Student's perspective

  Classes in Fall 2020 were either fully virtual or hybrid. In hybrid classes, the professors would have to put the projector with some students being on zoom. This was a good idea because it helped students be safe and at the same time learn. It was also challenging because sometimes professors would pay more attention to the students that were in the classroom and not the ones on zoom. I took this picture a year ago to show my parents how classes were working. This was something my parents appreciated because they saw that St. Mary’s University was using all their resources to help students continue their studies. They liked seeing me continue my college experience in a different way but not fully virtual. I saved this picture for over a year to see the changes the world was going to have during the pandemic. I am glad we are finding new solutions and making changes with still being careful with COVID-19 guidelines.
• 
  2021-08-17

  I have to do WHAT to my syllabus???

  This is a screenshot of my theology class syllabus including the newly included "face mask policy." I think this is important to include because even though all professors need to include the same information about mask policies, there are some who have just included what needed to be and other who have mentioned it in other areas of their syllabus. It's also interesting to see that this could be the first major change made to some of the professor's syllabi in some time. I submitted this item because it's a part of people's reaction to this pandemic and it heavily influenced changes in our "first-day of class routine." Coming back to school in-person after a whole year online, it was interesting to see how professors were now sharing more personal details about why they are being more careful, checking that students are wearing masks correctly, and some professors being more strict or lenient with the food/drink policy.
• 2020-03-19

  Pandemic Smells and Silence

  When the pandemic became widespread enough for schools to start shutting down, it seems that’s when life really changed. I remember - it was March 2020 - and my school district had just gone on spring break. It was still uncertain whether teachers and students would be returning to their classroom after break’s end. We were asked to come into our classrooms to gather any teaching supplies we might be able to use to teach virtually in the event that we would be told to remain at home. When I arrived at school, it was so quiet. There were a few cars parked in the parking lot, but no people to be seen. The usual student chatter, catching fragments of conversation as they walked by, the bustle of cars parking was gone. As I entered my building, a wave of chemically cleaned and sanitized air blasted my nostrils. The smells of bleach and whatever other industrial cleaners schools use wafted through the halls. They had recently been cleaned - I had never seen them so pristine. A few custodian cleaning carts were scattered nearby, but still no one to be seen. Every footfall seemed louder against the backdrop of silence. The deserted hallway and the chemical smell assaulting my olfactory system had turned my second home into something sterile and unwelcoming. Entering my classroom, I noticed it, too, had been sanitized with heavy chemicals and a jug of hand sanitizer had unceremoniously been plopped on my desk. I surveyed my classroom, nostrils burning from the bleach again, grabbed what I needed and went home. It would be the last time I would see my classroom for a long time. The memory of that shining, white hallway and the burning air of “purification” has stayed with me.
• 
  2021-10-11

  HIST30060: A Secondary Teacher's Chronicle

  This is an image of a week from my mother's chronicle. She is a secondary teacher in regional Victoria who primarily teaches Theatre Studies, Drama and English. During the time that the photograph was taken (October 2021), the school she is working at decided to stagger teaching different year levels to reduce the threat of a Covid-19 outbreak in the lead up to VCE exams. As highlighted in the chronicle in different colours, some classes would be taught in-person and others online in one day. As my family does not live in the same town that my mother teaches in, she would often have to stay at school the entire day regardless. Due to the nature of rapid changes in health information and additional directions from the school itself, every week in the chronicle looks very different to the next. The image shows an element of the chaos that is present in the everyday lives of individuals during covid and the ability for plans to rapidly change from day to day.
• 
  2020-03-12

  Quarantine Life

  I am submitting a small glimpse of what life was life for me during Covid 19 and quarantine
• 
  2021-09-06

  Empty Classrooms: An Uncertain Future

  When COVID hit and schools were forced to shut down, education had to transform in many ways. Students began remote learning through video conferences and online tools like Google Classroom. Moving online not only took away a lot of the personal interaction and connection between students, but it made learning the content even more difficult. Students were less motivated, it was more difficult for them to ask questions and get their questions answered, and many students began to fall behind. Transitioning back into the classrooms has helped students begin to pick back up from where they left off with their class content, but there are still so many absences daily in classrooms all across the country. This article discusses the issue of how future generations will be impacted by the COVID education crisis.
• 
  2021-01-25

  Returning to school in a pandemic

  Teachers all over the world had their entire profession change when Covid-19 struck. They had to take on more roles and wear new hats. This article shares the story of three teachers and their experience with remote learning and thoughts on returning to school.
• 2020-05-11

  COVID Graduation

  The day I had worked so hard for had finally come, and I sat on my couch to celebrate. Years of dedication, essays, long lectures, early morning lectures, scholarship hunting, and finals stress had all amounted to me celebrating my graduation in my pajamas. It didn't feel real. I cried for a while, and I think it was okay to cry. COVID-19 took away special things from everyone. It has taken away special loved ones, special plans, and special events/celebrations. For me and so many other college students, it took away a very special moment--the pride, sense of accomplishment, the payoff. Colleges around the country tried to imitate graduation the best they could with virtual ceremonies. Some ceremonies featured pictures and quotes from students, and most colleges provided an online commencement. I was too sad and frustrated to watch my commencement on the day of my graduation but watching it back has made me realize how much more my degree means to me.
• 
  2021-10-09

  Graduation 2020

  For my graduation ceremony in the summer of 2020, my school only allowed the students to attend the ceremony without bringing friends or family to watch the ceremony. Instead, my school decided to do a LIVE broadcast of the ceremony through their page on Facebook and their channel on YouTube. With that being said, my graduation party was kept small since this was midsummer. Through this, I was not able to bring my friends and family to campus for the ceremony in order to share with them that experience.
• 2021-10-09

  Final Semester as an undergrad student

  When the pandemic started a year ago, I was a residential student at my college. The news that we had to move out of the dorms was hard since we would have to pack everything up. The second half of the semester was all virtual with zoom meetings and not having that in person experience for the classes. Having to do that means not being able to see the friends that we have made on campus daily or being able to have study sessions together in small groups.
• 
  2020-12-16

  Distance Learning Craziness

  Distance Learning was not for the faint of heart. My very social daughter struggled with distance learning because she needs people. This picture I posted on Instagram. Her teacher was a saint to be able to reach the kids even though he knew full well they were going a bit crazy at home.
• 
  2021-10-08

  Lone Star Covid Archive

  My name is Cardin Madera I go to Lone Star Middle School, and I enjoy school. I would describe the start of this school year weird because it has been a long time when I last went to a full year of school and I am not into the routine yet, so it makes it weird. Last year is similar because we still must sanitize our hands to keep us safe. Also, the staff are still not messing around about Covid-19. If you were to tell a joke about Covid, “saying this kid has Covid” and it is a lie you would get in trouble. It is different than last year because we do not have to sanitize our hands as much. Then we get to have our masks off the entire day if you want and it is not like we have half of the school students at school and the other half at home. There are somethings that changed between 4th and 7th grade because during 5th grade we were almost done with the school year but then covid hit and we had to do online for the rest of the school year. Then in 6th grade at the beginning of the school year we were doing online for a long time, and it was not helping a lot because I really could not ask questions about the assignment we are doing and about the lesson.
• 
  2021-10-08

  Covid-19 experience

  My name is Annabelle Leal, and I go to Lone Star middle school. I’m currently in 7th grade. I enjoy shopping and eating out with family. The start of the school year has been mostly normal. At this point everyone either has covid or has already had it. Numbers of positive covid tests were low in the summer but when school started the numbers quickly began to rise again. I wouldn’t be surprised if we had to go back into lock down by December. Last year I was doing online learning because of the virus, but I guess it's like this year because I could talk to people online, and most of my schoolwork is online. It's different from last year because I have been able to go back in person. I was completely isolated last year. No friends, no social life. A lot has changed from 4th to 7th grade. Like my personality, being home with my brothers and parents has helped me learn to be more patient with people. Another example would be that I'm in middle school now. I have opened up more to people because I have a lot of classes around a lot of them. Lastly, I wanted to say that using computers has become a big part of our education.
• 
  2021-10-08

  Lone Star Covid Archive

  This text is important to me because it tells me how hard life was during the pandemic. Everything was just restricted and I was not able to do the things I wanted to do. I signed up for flag and it was my first ever time playing football but when Covid hit or submission got canceled. Looking back at this moment in time helps me think that life is better than it has seemed before.
• 2020-03-19

  Life during Pandemic

  Life during pandemic has been crazy. From schools getting shutdown mid semester to half of the population in the world getting laid off from their job. The pandemic for me started when the schools got shutdown mid semester. University's and colleges went online during pandemic but high schools got shut down till the end of the year. I was a high school senior when the pandemic started. I was really happy at first to get a couple of days off from school, but the couple days turned into weeks and eventually in months. This would have been my high school graduation, the moment I had been waiting for years. But because of pandemic, almost no one from class of 2020 get to celebrate their graduation, the way they wanted. A couple of months after graduation, i went to start university. But it was not the university experience I imagined for myself. ASU went all online with zoom classes from home. I tried getting involved to see if that can make a difference in my college experience, but the involvements were also all online. One thing I learned during this whole pandemic was how important in person learning was. I did hear a lot of people complaining about not learning anything though zoom, but It actually happened to me. I had to use twice as much time going over lectures and quizzes than I would usually do. Because I would get distracted easily. On the other hand, during pandemic I also had a part time retail job. Even though half of the population in the U.S got laid off from their job, I actually worked double the shift during pandemic than I would normally work. I started working full time since the pandemic started till last month august, when the classes started in person. I did get to save tons of money to buy a car for myself. Thankfully during pandemic, no one from my family got covid-19, and we were all really safe. Overall, the pandemic was a crazy yet really wonderful experience for me because I not only learned importance of small things in our lives but also learned to always stay in touch with our family member and friends because you never know what will happen next.
• 
  2021-10-03

  Ending High School at the Beginning of a Pandemic

  All of the fun memories that are normally reminisced upon later were replaced with stories of disappointment. My last two months of high school were basically stolen from me. COVID-19 stole the fun events that I deserved and worked twelve hard years for. A time that should have been filled with excitement and fun-filled memories with friends turned into memories of disappointment and separation. Everything that I was looking forward to at the end of high school was canceled. There was no in-person school, all sporting events, senior trips, prom, and graduation were canceled. The world turned virtual. I spent my days attending classes through Zoom not being able to truly interact with my classmates. I missed going out to get lunch with my friends and walking down the hallways talking about how much homework we got. I could not leave my house until the day came where we had to wear masks and social distance. My “prom” consisted of taking pictures with my friend and eating dinner at home rather than dancing the night away. My final goodbye to my teachers consisted of a drive-by car parade where we decorated our cars and were cheered on from afar. My graduation turned into a silent, empty auditorium allowing one parent or guardian to record me walking across the stage and receiving my diploma. I was extremely jealous that my Class of 2019 friends, just the year before, got the opportunity to experience all of the things that I didn’t. As a junior, I assisted the senior dessert and I remember how excited I was to be able to participate in it for my senior year. The disillusionment hit me when my senior dessert was driving to Crumbl Cookies, grabbing my cookie, and going home. All of these activities should have happened in-person surrounded by the smiling faces I’ve spent four years seeing, but instead I got a pandemic.
• 2020

  Finding Time

  Over the last five or so years, I've been dreaming about some event that would stir up some excitement in New York City, preferably some good event, but an event nonetheless. Never did I dream that it would actually come true, unfortunately in the form of a worldwide pandemic. Why couldn't it be something more fun, like aliens (although it seems like we might be getting there)? While the pandemic didn't bring anything exciting per se, it brought some change with it. When it began to be taken more seriously last year (2020), when all the shutdowns began to occur, I saw a major change in my day to day life. From being laid off of work, not being able to go to classes in-person anymore, and not being able to see any friends in person either, the normal, repetitive life that I had gotten so used to had disintegrated within just a couple weeks, if not shorter. It forced me to look at things in a different light, and as I was forced to be by myself for most of it, as we all were, I felt as if I needed to find some positivity and motivation in the few things I could do and had control over. I finally had time to focus on myself and made sure things like my physical/mental health and education were a priority. I took up cycling, as it was one way for me to be active and remain safe because it's not really something you need to do with others, and that opened the world up to me, especially with how empty the city was. Even my quiet pocket of Queens got quieter as barely anyone was outside, so while it did feel a bit post-apocalyptic out sometimes, it also gave me a sense of peace and freedom. Also, with having so much more time at home and not having to commute, I took advantage of online-learning to really give myself as much time as I needed, instead of the previous sense of rush and urgency I used to feel when it came to assignments, and actually turned my grades around pretty drastically. While the pandemic has been horrific on most fronts, by working my hardest to make the best of it, I've been able to better myself as it's given me time to enact real self-care. Something I've never taken the time to do before.
• 
  2021-09-27

  COVID-19, College and a Pandemic Puppy

  I was attending Estrella Mountain Community College at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. When we found out that we were going to have an extended spring break it seemed like a much-needed break at the time. Nobody knew it would change our lives forever and it especially changed mine. During the beginning of the pandemic, I completed my Associate Degree completely online and it would convince me to continue my bachelor’s degree completely online through ASU. I was able to experience this new way of learning in college and I really liked it. A lot of my peers in college have said how much they dislike online learning, but during the pandemic I learned how much I prefer online learning to in person learning. This pandemic has been one of the worst experiences I have had in my life, but it also taught me so much about myself. Another milestone during the pandemic was my family got a new puppy named Loki. She was really the highlight of our days during quarantine and gave us something to look forward to everyday. I work at an elementary school in the after-school care program, so at the beginning of the pandemic I was able to stay home and still be paid. When August 2020 came around, we had to go back to work, and it was terrifying at first. All the adults and kids were wearing masks, so it felt a little safer, but it was still very scary. The feeling of so many unknown things during this pandemic was really the worst and it just brought anxiety with every day. This pandemic also highlighted some issues that we have within our society. Things like access to covid tests and vaccines were highlighted within our society as issues. People living in less wealthy areas of the world did not have the same access to covid tests and vaccines as everyone else in the rest of the world did. This allowed the virus to spread even more than it should have already. Another big issue in our society during the pandemic was the mask debate. The virus continued to spread due to people refusing to wear masks and infecting people when they were not wearing masks. The mask debate is still ongoing because the pandemic is still not over. A huge issue we have in our society right now is the argument about whether vaccines are safe and if masks are effective. The only way we are going to end this pandemic is if everyone gets the vaccine and people continue to wear masks. This pandemic has been ongoing for almost a year and a half, it is time that we try as a society to end this pandemic.
• 
  2021-09-24

  COVID-19 Archive Project

  Two students interview each other about the pandemic and how it affected their life.
• 
  2021-09-15

  COVID-19 Archive Project Interview

  [Curator's Note] Two persons interview each other about their experiences during the COVIS-19 pandemic. They both lived in different countries when the pandemic started, as one of them lives in Singapore and the other in India.
• 
  2021-09-21

  Being a student during covid 19

  I am sharing my experience as a college student during the pandemic.
• 
  2020-03-07

  Strengthening friendships and learning new hobbies

  When COVID-19 hit the states back in March of 2020, I was a freshman in college. I was sent home to and had to take the rest of my classes from home, for what we thought would be two weeks. Boy, was I wrong, two weeks turned into the longest and most memorable summer vacations of my life. When we had been sent home me and my three best friends wanted to make the most out of the time we were given, so we turned to our hobbies, which was fishing. Ever day I woke up earlier than I would have while at school. I found myself to be busier and more active during the pandemic due to all our fishing adventures. My relationships grew plentifully with my friends, and I was able to do well in school all at the same time. Throughout the pandemic I consider myself to be very lucky and blessed to not know anyone personally who had died from COVID-19, and I am beyond grateful for that. Not everyone is able to say the same. Even though I was active during the pandemic does not mean I did not take it seriously, we made sure to wear our masks, and practice social distancing. My friends and I decided that fishing would be the perfect activity to be safe while all still being together. We fished 7 days a week and gained so many new insightful skills and memories during our time. One fond memory that I have from the pandemic is when my friends and I went into a lagoon in the beginning of May when the ice had just melted, and the water was unbearably cold. At the time we didn’t have waders so we went in with whatever boots that we could find from home the water was much deeper than we had anticipated, by the time we made it through to our location that we wanted to fish in all our pants were soaked to our waists but that didn’t stop us from making it to our destination. I will never forget that day because it was a Tuesday in the middle of the day and we all had classes. It’s a great memory and I will never forget it because it was so unique compared to anything we have ever done in our lives prior to.
• 
  2020-03

  Life of a College Student During a Pandemic

  The COVID-19 pandemic has affected so many people all across the globe in many different ways. One of the big groups of people that have been affected in the United States is college students. I was a semester and a half into my freshman year here at Duquesne when everything began to take a turn for the worse. Looking back to then, I was still finding my way and learning what it was like to be a college student at the time, just beginning to become familiar with the lifestyle. The past year and a half as a college student has been a long and hard process of transitioning into life as a college student during a global pandemic. Simple things like going to class in person, to eating with my friends in the dining hall were not as simple as they once seemed. Many students, like myself, struggled with being as involved in online classes like we were during in person classes. Along with that, I struggled with retaining a lot of the information given to me by my professors during class time, communication between student and professor was not as easy as it used to be. But not only has the education aspect of college changed drastically, there has been a huge change in the social aspect of college as well. Simple things like meeting with some friends to go get dinner after a long week of classes was not as easy as it once was. Looking back, freshman year now feels like an eternity ago, a lot about my life as a college student has changed due to this pandemic. Certainly, things are becoming better, and we are getting closer to normality, but the pandemic still affects me as a college student till this day. Still having to wear masks on campus as well as getting a COVID test when feeling a little bit sick are some things I have had to deal with recently. Life as a college student is ever changing during the pandemic, it has been very hard at times, but it is certainly something I will never forget.
• 
  2021-09-20

  Wake Up Call

  I was nineteen years old, now soon too be twenty-one, when news started circulating about a new virus that was spreading around in China. Personally, I thought the whole thing was just a bunch of fear mongering being played up by the media for clicks. In March of 2020 my theory would turn out to be drastically wrong. Slowly the spread of this new virus became worse and worse and before I knew it, everything was shut down and my family was in lockdown. My in-person classes at Duquesne University were all cancelled and moved to online conference calls over Zoom. For the first time in my life, a global event was having a real, tangible effect on my life. Being born in December of 2000, I have already lived through some world events that will go down in history. Wars in the Middle East, the Housing Market Crash, 9/11, the rapid advancement of computers and technology… all things I was alive for but either to young to remember or to ignorant to see the significance. For the first time in my life, I was seeing a major occurrence in the world directly impact my life and was able to comprehend the seriousness and significance. The object I have loaded is a picture of the Ferris Wheel my family owns and potentially one of the last times I will ever have seen it up and running. Hundreds of thousands of small and family run businesses have either been shut down temporarily or shut down for good because of the pandemic, my family business is no exception. My family runs Reinhart Amusements, a business that provides rides and games to Parishes around the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area for their summer festivals. I’ve been working for the businesses since I was fourteen and started helping long before then. Like many others, we too had to shut down because of the pandemic. My family does not rely on this business financially like my grandfather did. For my parents and many in my large family, it is more of a self-fulfilling hobby. I’m very lucky to get to say that my father and his father have put smiles on the faces of kids and adults alike all around the Pittsburgh area. It is now September 20, 2021 and we have not been able to partake in a festival for over 2 years now. It is sad to say, but after talking with my father and if we are unable to open back up in 2022 then we never will. I don’t know what the future holds with this virus and the world. What I do know is that though the pandemic may take away my family business, it will never take away my own and many others happy memories of it.
• 
  2020-03

  March 2020: A Life-changing Month

  The year 2020 was looking to be much like other years that I spent in college. I was going to be going to classes, meeting up with friends, and working out most days. As March approached, my excitement grew. Spring break was coming, and I had a scheduled trip to Cancun, Mexico. There was talk of a virus spreading through China, but it was very unknown to us. Prior to our trip, we joked about contracting the virus. Little did we know, that would be the week living in the world the way we knew it. My trip to Mexico was everything I wanted it to be and more, but I was ready to come home and finish the semester. We came back from Mexico, and I returned to Duquesne. Within one week of my return, everything changed. Universities around the country started to close for, what we thought at the time, two weeks. Duquesne followed suit. School did not return that semester and the entire country began to shut down. There was a lot of fear and unknown. One minute I was having the trip of a lifetime, and the next minute I was at home with my family only leaving to get groceries. We began using masks everywhere we went, using hand sanitizer many times a day, and staying as far away from others as possible. Although life felt like it completely stopping, the pandemic allowed my family and I to experience something that we might never get to experience again: over a month of quality time together. I was now doing school via zoom and my father, brother, and uncle were home from work. During this time, my family spent a lot of time together. My father and I would find interesting ways to work out every day since our gym had been shut down (see artifact image for a picture of my watch after completing a weighted vest walk. We began these weighted vest walks during the pandemic.). We would watch Netflix series as a family, do puzzles, and even play board games together. I will never forget these memories, even though they were accompanied by fear of the Coronavirus.
• 
  2020-05

  The Class of Covid(2020-21) [MISSING MEDIA]

  The picture above that I have chosen for the archive was taken around May of 2020 which is a few months after Covid-19 started spreading very quickly around the United States of America. This was the very start of online school and the era of Zoom. For future readers, Zoom was the company that acted very quickly during the start of the pandemic and made virtual meetings the most convenient and efficient for schools, companies, and friends who could not see each other in person. I personally had many online meetings with my friends when our parents would not let us out of the house in fear of the treacherous Covid that we might bring back with us. In the picture, the very last high school class of my career was over Zoom, and I could not hug or see my close friends, classmates, or teachers before graduating. My private school went from kindergarten to 12th grade in high school, so some of these people I have known for more than 8 years, and Covid prevented me and many other students across the nation and the whole world from having that sentimental last day being able to say goodbye to our favorite teachers or seeing some acquaintances before heading off to college. It is just crazy to think that it will be a very long time before another graduating high school class is forced online or in the near future when online class is just a foreign thought that would baffle kids or young adults that hear about it.
• 
  2021-09-16

  Assignment for Literature and Cultural Analysis Seminar

  I'm sharing an assignment sheet for my "Literature and Cultural Analysis" class at Vanderbilt University for the Fall 2021 semester. The class, themed "The Archive," is designed to encourage critical thinking around the concept of the archive and its material practices and embodiments. While we think of the ways in which archives enable research and help to cultivate new knowledge and stories, we also consider how archives encode structures of power and act as sites of forgetting as much as remembering. I've asked my class of twelve students to contribute to the COVID-19 digital archive as their first writing assignment for the semester. This assignment is designed to introduce them to an existing and regularly updated archive and ask them to think critically about processes of archiving and the decisions that go into selecting, categorizing, and framing the importance of a cultural artifact. My students have been asked to choose 2-3 items from their experience of the pandemic year to share in this public forum. Their contributions will be tagged to sync up with this assignment sheet.
• 
  2021-09-09

  A whole new world

  After being in school for 12 years you get use to the way things. Once covid had hit it was a whole new change and something to get used to. The desk had all been separated from each other, lines in the hallway telling us where to walk to divided us so we weren't so close. Only so many students going on one day to school and the others on the opposite days us. You kind of felt like a freshman in that sense.
• 
  2020-05

  Golfing in a Pandemic

  What seemed to be a nice two-week vacation in the middle of March of my senior year of high school was nothing what I thought originally. The last 18 months have been everything but easy for everyone in the United States. The problems that an election year bring on top of a pandemic is very stressful. People had their worlds flipped upside down and backwards, nothing was predictable, and everyone now understood that fact after a few short months into the pandemic. For me I was only a senior in high school so there were not a whole lot of care and stress at the time this pandemic hit. My senior high school self, saw this time as getting out of certain things at school such as finals and getting fitted for a tux for the prom and all the annoying last couple days of school. While we were trying to shift to all online high school at the end of winter there was a saving grace for me. I had always enjoyed the game of golf, watching, and playing. There were a few long weeks until the Pennsylvania weather was going to break and be enjoyable to golf in. The stress of doing school online, being locked in your house, not seeing your friends besides on zoom, and bad weather would get to be too much to handle at times. Once the weather would be anywhere above 40 degrees, I would find myself out on the golf course. I played competitive golf all through middle and high school, so I was always used to playing golf with people. The first couple weeks it was an adjustment when just playing a round by myself. Golf is a very mentally challenging game, but I found it to be an escape during these brutal COVID days. You do a lot of thinking when by yourself, playing golf by myself really slowed me down and made me take a step back and realize how serious this entire situation was. Those “little” events that I missed in high school my class will never get to experience, all the memories that were supposed to be made in the last three months of school were instead replaced with zoom meetings. In the moment they looked “little” but they were major events that I got robbed of. We were known as the “class without a graduation,” looking back on that now leaves a very unsettling feeling in my stomach. The game of golf really helped me to cope and understand many different things in life, like it did with the pandemic and the events that it took away from me and my peers. The game of golf might not be for everyone, but it is a place where I feel at ease and a game that helps me to better myself and really think about how I can be the best person I can be.
• 
  2020-09-08

  From always on the go to no where to go.w

  Before the pandemic had hit the United States my family and I had always been on the go between work, school and sports. A father who works crazy shifts a mother who works your typical eight am to five pm shift for her company then going to pick up her children for any after school activity that may have been going on at the time. We had family time but not enough, not like we had during the beginning of the pandemic. Once we were put into lockdown both my sister and I had been stuck at home, no more sports or clubs. While my mom also started working from home and still is today. It was kind of a blessing with the fact she wasn't driving an hour back and forth everyday. But my dad was still working. Even though my father had still been working on his days off, we had played many uno games, my sister and I had also learned how to play scatt a card game. But overall covid did bring us closer as a family, giving us time to really focus on each other. The photo I chose to send in is a photo of my sister on her first day of high school. High school to a ninth grader is already an unknown territory but going to classes through a computer at your desk at home is not ideal. Which I do have to say she handled it like a champ but it was something new, something so scary. From my experience it was unsettling to never know truly when you were going to go back to the classroom. The lack of interaction too just makes things worse. We got better as time went on but the Pandemic definitely had changed things, some things for the best and some for the worst.
• 
  2020-08-24

  Adventures in Virtual learning

  I’m in grad school now for the second time. I got my B.A. in 2009, and since it was right after the recession and collapse of the loan market, I panicked about jobs and went straight to an M.A. program. It wasn’t the best fit for me professionally or academically, but I didn’t have the life experience to identify that at the time. However, it was still valuable, and I met some of my best friends and professional connections I maintain to this day. Starting in 2012, I left academia and worked in a variety of jobs and fields before realizing I wanted to engage with archives and public history academically again. I found out I got into my dream grad program in late January 2020, and I was elated! Almost a decade after leaving my first graduate program, I was ready to start the next step of my educational and professional career. The excitement of a new city, new colleagues and friends, and fresh intellectual challenges awaited. More than anything, I was thrilled that my program wasn’t online, as that is not my preferred mode of learning. I don’t remember the precise dates, but COVID-19 came onto my radar around then. I know I tracked its progression through Washington state and then its spread to the rest of the country. Finally, it came to my town, and everything shut down. I ended up moving cross-country during the pandemic (another story entirely). Then, horror of horrors, classes began—online. The classes I’d been so excited for were moved to Zoom, my new classmates and colleagues nothing more than little squares. Some of them had pets, which was exciting, but in many ways, it felt like a waste of a year in terms of networking and developing camaraderie. Shifting to what is essentially a virtual, full-time job was a unique challenge. I wore pajamas most days, which was fun. I read all the advice telling me to put on clothes that I’d wear to the office or to campus, but I struggled to summon the motivation to do so when I knew I wouldn’t be going outside. My schedule was interesting, at least until I got a teaching assistantship gig that required more set hours. (The sleep inversion that occurs when the only things you’re required to be at are evening classes is incredible.) However, the lack of oversight meant some really great things! For the first time in my life, I was able to develop a reading/writing schedule that worked well for me. I had to, so I did. I was also able to put Netflix on in the background or play podcasts while I worked. Most importantly, I conquered my unease with online education. While asynchronous courses are still not my preference, over a year of remote learning means that Zoom is old hat. I, an introvert, also have a much easier time reaching out to strangers or new acquaintances. As we’ve met in person over the last month, some of those people have become great friends! While virtual learning and teleworking still aren’t my ideal, I love the new possibilities they offer for more accessible work and educational opportunities. [cat pictures] My coworkers were pretty great, and they miss me a lot now that I’m back working and studying in person. I still see them, but it’s just not the same.
• 
  2021-11-24

  Walking at Bear Hole with Dad

  I took this photograph with my dad when we went for a walk one day at Bear Hole, the reservoir in my town. Since the pandemic started, my dad and I would go for walks with each other, exploring new places and talking about life. My dad had recently gotten laid off, and I had made the decision in early October to study remotely instead of on campus, so we both had some extra time on our hands. We had our set of usual places that we would go to walk, but the pandemic allowed us to venture to some new spots. Even though we knew Bear Hole was so close by, neither one of us had gone to explore it much. We would plan our walks around my class and work schedule, being sure that we made time for each other a few times a week. Although making the decision to study remotely was a difficult decision because I was a senior and would be away from my friends and professors, I got to spend time with my dad in a way that we were never able to before.
• 2020-04-01

  Finishing my Undergraduate Degree during the Pandemic

  I was starting the last semester of my undergraduate degree when the pandemic hit the globe. At this time (around March 2020) I was planing to work on my senior honors thesis and happy to start my master's degree in October 2020. But in order to finish my thesis, I had to do some intensive research first: my plan was to visit a big German archive in Berlin and also to do some research in a couple of libraries. But just before I could do so, all German institutions went into lockdown and closed for months due to health precautions. As somebody who studied History and had to visit an archive for my thesis, I felt like I was totally stuck in my academic studies. I felt like it was impossible to finish my studies in the scheduled time, and for months I didn't know how to continue my academic work. Luckily, my university was considerate enough to extend the submission date for my thesis. After a couple of months of not knowing if I could start my master's degree in time (and in general not knowing how my academic and financial future would look like if I didn't finish my undergraduate degree in time) the archives and libraries opened up again, and I could continue my research and finish my thesis.
• 2020-06

  A Community Coming Together for High School Seniors

  As COVID began taking effect and schools started switching to virtual classes from home, one of my siblings became extremely upset. This was to be their senior year, and suddenly senior trip, prom, and graduation were being taken away from them. Such sentiments were shared throughout their entire class, and even gained attention through high school seniors at a national level. Inspired by similar movements across the country, however, parents and leaders across the community decided to act for these seniors. Out of nowhere an "Adopt a Child" movement began, and nearly a thousand of those within the community all contributed to giving these students gift baskets full of gift cards, apparel, and so forth. Businesses were even a major part of this movement; for example, a few pizza places offered to give out hundreds of free pies to students at extremely reduced prices for the parents sponsoring them. While nothing could likely make up for all that they had lost, this situation not only alleviated some of the sorrow amongst my own family members, but it demonstrated to me how strongly we can come together when those in our community need it.
• 
  2020

  Exploration Camp Main Page

  This is the main page on the Golden Gate Area Council website about Exploration Camp, which was a virtual merit badge camp offered in the summer of 2020. The session information on the side notes the camp ran from June 15 to August 7.
• 
  2020

  Exploration Camp Class Catalog

  This is the catalog of merit badges offered at Exploration Camp, a virtual replacement for Wolfeboro in 2020 offered by Golden Gate Area Council. Some traditionally-offered badges couldn't be done online, like many nature-related badges. However, the online format made it possible for other badges to be offered, like Genealogy or Game Design, that aren't offered at Camp Wolfeboro.
• 
  2020-10-08

  Covid and the Impact

  the pandemic although is horrific and affecting many people can have a positive impact on some
• 
  2020-06

  BSA SAFE RESTART Checklist

  This is a checklist made by the Boy Scouts of America to guide adult leaders in resuming in-person activities. The checklist is split into four parts: Supervision, Assessment, Fitness and Skill, and Equipment and Environment, which together make the acronym "SAFE". The document additionally has a list of things to consider while planning in-person meetings and during meetings. The Golden Gate Area Council Summer Camp 2021 Combined Leaders’ Guide recommends that each unit (troop) completes the checklist prior to attending any camp, including Camp Wolfeboro. A note on the bottom of the checklist says the document is from June 2020.
• 
  2021-05-14

  Golden Gate Area Council Summer Camp 2021 Combined Leaders’ Guide (Version 2.1 - May 14, 2021)

  This is a document from Golden Gate Area Council that provides a variety of information on the council's Scout camps, including Camp Wolfeboro. The guide is made for Scoutmasters and other adult leaders, hence the name of the document. Page 1 provides a summary of changes made to camps for the 2021 summer. Some of the changes the documents discusses for the 2021 year include: Page 10: Troops cannot arrive to camp early, on Saturday instead of Sunday. All troops must arrive on Sunday. Page 13: "ALL Campers must show proof of either a valid vaccination for COVID-19 (both doses of either the Moderna or Pfizer with at least two weeks of elapsed time after the second dose or two weeks of elapsed time after the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine) or a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of arrival at camp." Page 14: Dining halls at camp would be at 50% capacity, with outdoor seating available. Page 14: Wednesday meals will not be given to troops to cook, but instead will be served in the Dining Hall like all other meals (specific to Camp Wolfeboro). Page 15: Visitors are not allowed at camp. Pages 20-21: Explains COVID-19 procedures before camp and at camp, including vaccination or testing requirements found on page 13. Page 24: All campfires are prohibited, except for propane- and butane-based firepits. Page 45: The Lifesaving merit badge will not be offered at Camp Wolfeboro in 2021. Page 49: The Adventures Connection Experience (ACE) program will not be offered (specific to Camp Wolfeboro).
• 2021-08-06

  Times of Covid-19

  When Covid first started and we got the news we had to leave school for 3 weeks at first it was exciting because we just thought that we were getting extra fun weeks of spring break. After the three weeks, we didn't get to come back to school and it was rough because none of us knew what we were doing, we kinda had to learn by ourselves. All of my grades and begun to drop and it was not a fun time I would have rather been at school than that. Now a year later I have had and still have to retake classes to earn my credits and it really honestly sucks. Other than that literally right before school started we had taken a trip to Tennessee so that my younger sister and I could meet our older sisters and because of Covid we didn't get to go down there again until August of 2019 which was a whole year later.
• 2020-06

  my covid times

  what covid was like for me was mostly just sleeping i slept through like 70 percent of it but other than sleep i did football over that summer of 2020 and starting that school year with full in person school and we then went full virtual which messed my grades up really bad due to how bad i was at getting out of bed and then hybrid practically destroyed my grades because my body and mind just couldn't handle going from sleeping in two days in a row then waking up early for school
• 
  2020-05

  Colorado Academy student prompt

  Description of assignment prompt given to Colorado Academy 6th grade students by instructor Eric Augustin- May 2020
• 
  2020-12-07

  Back to School

  This year has been hard for a lot of people. Like many others during quarantine, I decided the jobs that I had were not right for me. Almost by chance, a friend of my wife's told her about this program for a Graduate Certificate in Archival Studies at LSUOnline. It was designed for people who already had a master's degree, but were looking to get into the archival field or further their specialization. It seemed like a good fit for me. I have an MA in history and experience working in archives, so with everything shut down it seemed like the right time to do it. It has been tough, but I'm nearing the end of the program. One of the hardest parts for me has been that I have not been able to be as excited as I normally would be about this. I am experiencing a great deal of burnout with work, the program, and various COVID related things, but overall, I have been fortunate through this whole pandemic, and me finishing this program is proof of it. But so many people close to me are front line workers who are mentally struggling to get by from day to day. It is hard for me to post updates on my COVID success story on my social media, when my closest friends are burnt out and were not in as fortunate a position as I have been. For me, it has been hard to celebrate my triumphs when I see some of my closest friends reaching their breaking points and feel completely helpless.
• 
  2021-07-27

  The years of struggle!

  In 2018 I had to face a lot of emotional traumas in my life. These traumas made me a single mother of my 3 children. I was having a hard time adjusting to being the sole provider and the only person my kids could now rely on. I had never been to fond of school but with my new life I had been contemplating going back. After a lot of support of my family I decided that it would be best for me and my kids if I went back to school. I joined an Associates degree course for Social work and human services. I felt like I was thriving in school for the first time. Then the pandemic hit and my world changed again. Now I had all my classes online as well as homeschooling and raising 3 children on my own. At times I felt like the universe was truly against me these last few years. At the end I have just realized that nothing is to hard for me to overcome. I'm so grateful for mine and my families health at the end of this pandemic and I'm grateful for experiences and lessons learned.
• 
  2020-11

  Growing up online

  In September of 2020 mid pandemic, I decided to follow my heart and quit my food service job to work with children. I was hired at a daycare, my expectations were drastically different than what I walked into on my first day. As I walked into the building I saw coworkers shuffling from laptop to laptop helping children log into Zoom, Microsoft, and Google classroom. My headteacher joked that within a month I would be able to memorize every student's laptop password and zoom log in, I laughed it off and went to the binder that held all the information. By the time October rolled around I was able to log in at least 20 children into their classes and knew their teachers as well as what their missing assignments were. I was also able to see the children's excitement for school fade from their eyes. Some children mentally checked out and fell asleep, some punched their laptops till they broke, and some left theirs at home purposefully. The pandemic was undoubtedly hard on adults, but have we forgotten the pure bliss that comes from making your first friends in Kindergarten, or even the comfort of a kind teacher? Seeing these children struggle was hard but knowing the daycare that I worked at was stepping up and helping with late assignments, communicating with teachers and parents, and offering the sense of community when all felt lost was really what kept all of us going. Community is all we have and it's all we need even if it is socially distanced.
• 
  2021-07-27

  The years of struggle!

  In 2018 I suffered from many personal traumas that led me to be a single mother of three littles ones. I found it very challenging to now be the only one who provided for my children and the only person they could rely on. With this new huge adjustment I made the decision to finally go back to school. I have never been very good at school or interested in furthering my education. With a little help from my family I was able to overcome my fear of college. I felt like I was finally thriving in school and I was coming to term with being the only role model in my children's lives. Then suddenly my classes shifted to online courses due to covid-19. I now had a whole new set of fears and distractions to go along with my new life as a single parent of 3. These terrible times have taught me that I can accomplish anything and I will keep pushing forward no matter what the universe throws at me.
• 
  2021-07-24

  Janine Brown. Oral History, July 24, 2021

  In this two-part interview, Ashley Tibollo interviews Janine Brown on how her life was impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. In the first part of the interview, Brown discusses how her last year of college was impacted and about her transition to remote teaching. She discusses her fears of the Delta variant, what sources she uses to get her information and what her feelings are regarding government action. She also discusses family life and how she was affected by the quarantine. She ends this part with her hopes for the future. In the second part of this interview, Brown discusses her decision to move in with her boyfriend right before quarantine and what it was life navigating a new relationship amidst a pandemic. She also discusses her pets and how their moods changed as her life changed. She discusses the difficulties of house hunting and the ways that the pandemic has affected the market.
• 
  2021-07-23

  Canine classmates

  I was grateful to be able to do my martial arts classes through Zoom. My dogs, though, didn’t know what to make of it. Daisy, my young lab mix, consistently tried to participate in the classes. She seemed to love the group dynamic, even though most of it was on screen. Zoey, my older dog, needed to be in the room with me and often made appearances on screen. During such a trying time, these small moments brought a lot of joy.
• 
  2018

  Work from home, with some help of course

  Have work to do? Not on Romeo's watch!! While we have been working and learning from home, Romeo loves to sit on our laps in front of the computer and help us with our work. The video shows what he does nearly every time someone in the house is typing on a keyboard.
• 
  2020

  Humorous Memes About Quarantine and Covid

  During quarantine I collected many humorous memes about staying at home and the problems that brought. All sorts of subjects were covered: cooking, getting along with your spouse/roommates, homeschooling the kids, learning to bake bread, being stuck at home, sanitizing, facemasks, people hoarding toilet paper, boredom, effects of isolation, etc. Here are a few of those memes.