Item
Cam Burke Oral History 9/20/2020
Media
Title (Dublin Core)
Cam Burke Oral History 9/20/2020
Description (Dublin Core)
In this interview, Cam Burke, a current freshman at Northeastern University, shares his personal experiences with covid-19. Burke expresses his feelings dating back to the begining of the pandemic, and explains how it has impacted him leading up to today. As a high school senior and rising college freshman during the height of the coronavirus, Burke offers the unique perspective of someone who had to live through the virus during such an important coming of age period of his life.
Recording Date (Dublin Core)
09/20/2020
Creator (Dublin Core)
Joey Atallah
Cam Burke
Contributor (Dublin Core)
Joey Atallah
Partner (Dublin Core)
Northeastern University
Type (Dublin Core)
Interview
Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)
English
Education--K12
English
Education--Universities
English
Government State
English
Social Media (including Memes)
English
Technology
Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)
virtual work
technology
mask
summer camp
social interaction
Contributor's Tags (a true folksonomy) (Friend of a Friend)
student
story
COVID experience
Date Submitted (Dublin Core)
9/20/20
Date Modified (Dublin Core)
11/19/2020
2/3/21
04/16/2021
5/22/21
08/29/2023
Date Created (Dublin Core)
9/20/2020
Interviewer (Bibliographic Ontology)
Joey Attalah
Interviewee (Bibliographic Ontology)
Cam Burke
Location (Omeka Classic)
Boston
Massachusetts
United States of America
Format (Dublin Core)
audio
.m4a
Language (Dublin Core)
English
Duration (Omeka Classic)
00:06:24
abstract (Bibliographic Ontology)
In this interview, Cam Burke, a current freshman at Northeastern University, shares his personal experiences with covid-19. Burke expresses his feelings dating back to the begining of the pandemic, and explains how it has impacted him leading up to today. As a high school senior and rising college freshman during the height of the coronavirus, Burke offers the unique perspective of someone who had to live through the virus during such an important coming of age period of his life.
Transcription (Omeka Classic)
Joey Atallah 0:00
Hello, this is Joey Attalah. Today I'll be interviewing Cam Burke, a freshman at Northeastern University. Before we get started, Cam, do you mind consenting to be interviewed for the COVID-19 Archive project today?
Cam Burke 0:16
I do consent to being a part of the COVID-19 Archive project.
Joey Atallah 0:19
Okay, and if you will, can you please state the current date and time.
Cam Burke 0:24
It is September 20th at 4:21pm.
Joey Atallah 0:29
Okay, let's get started. Um, so what were your initial thoughts about the Coronavirus, I guess before the big outbreak?
Cam Burke 0:40
Um, so my initial thoughts were that it was like, you hear the classic excuse, it'll just be like the common cold or like, it's not anything to worry about. I distinctly remember having a conversation with one of my teachers. And it was like, that's how we opened class. I feel like every, the beginning of every class the week of like, like around like March-, like March 11th, like a couple days before school got shut down on March 13th, I feel like everyone was talking about that, like talking about the virus and saying like, “Oh, we won't actually close,” and, but it was something that everyone talked about being such something that wouldn't affect us in any way. And then, and I feel like we just didn't, didn't have a sense of how large this really was.
Joey Atallah 1:31
Yeah, of course. I think a lot of people had that. But in that case, when did it kind of hit you that this was going to be a real issue?
Cam Burke 1:40
Um, I think it seems like it finally hit me when, when the governor of Massachusetts, Governor Baker, announced the, announced the closure of all, all schools in Massachusetts. I think that was in like, the middle of May. I remember, it was like a, it was a big, monumental thing. A big, big announcement that by then, we were doing, like a lot of remote learning. But it was, it was a large announcement that we have to do that for the rest of the year. And yeah.
Joey Atallah 2:21
Yeah, so that that quarantine was a pretty long period of time. So how did it impact you personally, like what did you miss out on?
Cam Burke 2:29
Um, so one experience that I missed out on was I was supposed to work this summer at a summer camp. That summer camp did not run because a lot of it was in person activities, and a lot of moving and mixing of groups. And at that, at that time, it was identified that it's working like, children were at a higher risk of getting of getting Coronavirus, and also, they had harsher symptoms. And so it just wouldn't have been safe to put on any campers or counselors in that situation. And so, but fortunately, for me, I got to, I got to work with the same group of people. And I got to promote our virtual camp activities. And so I worked the camp director and created a Facebook and Instagram marketing campaign to promote our virtual activities on Zoom. And there was also, some of our counselors made YouTube videos to have the kids interact with us where they could have the same camp experience, while from home and in a safe environment, which was, which was I thought a great, great example and agree.
Joey Atallah 3:49
Yeah, and if you don't mind me asking, how do you, how did you feel about that transition to a virtual work experience, especially with something like a summer camp that is so reliant on in person, like contact and connection?
Cam Burke 4:03
Um, I think it was, it was difficult, because you didn't have the same feeling, you didn't have the same reaction of seeing, working with kids face to face, but as a teenager, and someone who is so used to using this technology, and like working with Facebook, and Instagram and YouTube, it was, it was easy for, you could tell the difference between, it was easy for the younger like counselors, but like the camp directors who were like maybe like, like, middle aged, it was harder for them to, to get into the groove of using all of this new technology. I think this generation is definitely, definitely lucky to have grown up with the internet and using all of our resources. And so this transition to a very virtual and virtual society is, is, is almost second nature, which I think is great.
Joey Atallah 5:04
Yeah, I think a lot of us in the younger generation forget that, that we have that privilege of being tech savvy and accustomed to such a advanced lifestyle. So I guess I'll finish off with what do you miss most about pre-COVID life?
Cam Burke 5:24
Something I miss the most is the, is the face to face interactions. But now we just call them mask to mask interactions. But there's definitely a different feeling you get when talking to someone and like interacting with someone especially like, especially with when I worked with younger kids, it was um, you had to, it was, you had that like a gut feeling when, but I definitely do miss like seeing people and especially like being a university student. I think a lot of the social opportunities are juts not the same on virtual, like virtually. And so I think in person, social activities is one thing that I missed the most.
Joey Atallah 6:10
All right, well, thank you for sharing your experiences today, Cam. I'm sure that COVID-19 Archive project will, will love it.
Cam Burke 6:21
Thank you.
Hello, this is Joey Attalah. Today I'll be interviewing Cam Burke, a freshman at Northeastern University. Before we get started, Cam, do you mind consenting to be interviewed for the COVID-19 Archive project today?
Cam Burke 0:16
I do consent to being a part of the COVID-19 Archive project.
Joey Atallah 0:19
Okay, and if you will, can you please state the current date and time.
Cam Burke 0:24
It is September 20th at 4:21pm.
Joey Atallah 0:29
Okay, let's get started. Um, so what were your initial thoughts about the Coronavirus, I guess before the big outbreak?
Cam Burke 0:40
Um, so my initial thoughts were that it was like, you hear the classic excuse, it'll just be like the common cold or like, it's not anything to worry about. I distinctly remember having a conversation with one of my teachers. And it was like, that's how we opened class. I feel like every, the beginning of every class the week of like, like around like March-, like March 11th, like a couple days before school got shut down on March 13th, I feel like everyone was talking about that, like talking about the virus and saying like, “Oh, we won't actually close,” and, but it was something that everyone talked about being such something that wouldn't affect us in any way. And then, and I feel like we just didn't, didn't have a sense of how large this really was.
Joey Atallah 1:31
Yeah, of course. I think a lot of people had that. But in that case, when did it kind of hit you that this was going to be a real issue?
Cam Burke 1:40
Um, I think it seems like it finally hit me when, when the governor of Massachusetts, Governor Baker, announced the, announced the closure of all, all schools in Massachusetts. I think that was in like, the middle of May. I remember, it was like a, it was a big, monumental thing. A big, big announcement that by then, we were doing, like a lot of remote learning. But it was, it was a large announcement that we have to do that for the rest of the year. And yeah.
Joey Atallah 2:21
Yeah, so that that quarantine was a pretty long period of time. So how did it impact you personally, like what did you miss out on?
Cam Burke 2:29
Um, so one experience that I missed out on was I was supposed to work this summer at a summer camp. That summer camp did not run because a lot of it was in person activities, and a lot of moving and mixing of groups. And at that, at that time, it was identified that it's working like, children were at a higher risk of getting of getting Coronavirus, and also, they had harsher symptoms. And so it just wouldn't have been safe to put on any campers or counselors in that situation. And so, but fortunately, for me, I got to, I got to work with the same group of people. And I got to promote our virtual camp activities. And so I worked the camp director and created a Facebook and Instagram marketing campaign to promote our virtual activities on Zoom. And there was also, some of our counselors made YouTube videos to have the kids interact with us where they could have the same camp experience, while from home and in a safe environment, which was, which was I thought a great, great example and agree.
Joey Atallah 3:49
Yeah, and if you don't mind me asking, how do you, how did you feel about that transition to a virtual work experience, especially with something like a summer camp that is so reliant on in person, like contact and connection?
Cam Burke 4:03
Um, I think it was, it was difficult, because you didn't have the same feeling, you didn't have the same reaction of seeing, working with kids face to face, but as a teenager, and someone who is so used to using this technology, and like working with Facebook, and Instagram and YouTube, it was, it was easy for, you could tell the difference between, it was easy for the younger like counselors, but like the camp directors who were like maybe like, like, middle aged, it was harder for them to, to get into the groove of using all of this new technology. I think this generation is definitely, definitely lucky to have grown up with the internet and using all of our resources. And so this transition to a very virtual and virtual society is, is, is almost second nature, which I think is great.
Joey Atallah 5:04
Yeah, I think a lot of us in the younger generation forget that, that we have that privilege of being tech savvy and accustomed to such a advanced lifestyle. So I guess I'll finish off with what do you miss most about pre-COVID life?
Cam Burke 5:24
Something I miss the most is the, is the face to face interactions. But now we just call them mask to mask interactions. But there's definitely a different feeling you get when talking to someone and like interacting with someone especially like, especially with when I worked with younger kids, it was um, you had to, it was, you had that like a gut feeling when, but I definitely do miss like seeing people and especially like being a university student. I think a lot of the social opportunities are juts not the same on virtual, like virtually. And so I think in person, social activities is one thing that I missed the most.
Joey Atallah 6:10
All right, well, thank you for sharing your experiences today, Cam. I'm sure that COVID-19 Archive project will, will love it.
Cam Burke 6:21
Thank you.
This item was submitted on September 20, 2020 by Cam Burke using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: https://covid-19archive.org/s/archive
Click here to view the collected data.