Alyssa Schoettle Oral History, 2021/12/13

An interview with FGCU student Alyssa Schoettle on her experiences with COVID-19.

December 13, 2021 10:15:01

Corey Hendricks

Alyssa Schoettle

Florida Gulf Coast University

Oral History

English Education--Universities

English Home & Family Life

English Health & Wellness

English Online Learning

Social Distancing

Social Interaction

sorority

Florida

community

vaccine

College COVID Stories

12/13/2021

06/21/2023

06/30/2023

07/02/2023

12/13/2021

Corey Hendricks

Alyssa Schoettle

33611

Tampa

Florida

United States of America

Video

English

00:10:20

Alyssa, a college student attending FGCU, describes her experiences with COVID-19. Alyssa describes how the pandemic influenced her education, social life, and family. Alyssa also comments on what she believes are some of the big take-aways from the pandemic

Corey Hendricks 00:01
All right, what is your name, age, and where are you from?

Alyssa Schoettle 00:04
My name is Alyssa Schoettle. I am 21 years old and I am from Palm City, Florida in Martin County.

Corey Hendricks 00:11
What's your full birthday?

Alyssa Schoettle 00:13
I was born September 1, 2000.

Corey Hendricks 00:16
Where were you when you first heard about COVID-19?

Alyssa Schoettle 00:19
I was in my dorm in South Village at FGC University and my parents called me and asked me if I had heard about the pandemic in China, and I said no.

Corey Hendricks 00:33
What was your opinion on it at that time?

Alyssa Schoettle 00:36
I thought it was going to be one of those things in the news cycle that you hear about every once in a while, and that it probably wasn't going to come to America it was just that one thing they kept talking about so they didn't have to talk about other things.

Corey Hendricks 00:51
Were you working?

Alyssa Schoettle 00:52
I was not working at that time, I was doing 15 credits of classwork.

Corey Hendricks 00:58
So you were a student?

Alyssa Schoettle 00:59
I was a student, yes.

Corey Hendricks 00:59
At FGCU?

Alyssa Schoettle 01:00
Yes.

Corey Hendricks 01:01
Okay. Did you move to online or were you in person still?

Alyssa Schoettle 01:01
I did not move online until FGCU made the decision to go online.

Corey Hendricks 01:11
Okay. During the first peak, where did you quarantine?

Alyssa Schoettle 01:19
What is the first peak again? Date-wise?

Corey Hendricks 01:21
So, probably March 2020.

Alyssa Schoettle 01:26
Okay, so I returned home to Palm City and Martin County. You want like a specific road, or anything like that?

Corey Hendricks 01:35
No.

Alyssa Schoettle 01:35
I returned to my parents house in Martin County.

Corey Hendricks 01:38
To your home?

Alyssa Schoettle 01:39
Mm hm.

Corey Hendricks 01:40
What did you do?

Alyssa Schoettle 01:42
I completed my coursework as best I could––none of my professors actually had lectures prepared––so I was just reading my textbooks and trying to get through my assignments as quickly as possible. And that's pretty much what I did the entire time, because I signed up for summer classes. Nine credits immediately in the following semester.

Corey Hendricks 02:02
So how'd you pass the time besides schoolwork? Did you pick up any hobbies?

Alyssa Schoettle 02:07
Um, I was lucky enough that the house had a pool and my dad had a boat and so we were out on the water a lot, and just relaxing pretty much.

Corey Hendricks 02:18
Did you ever get COVID-19?

Alyssa Schoettle 02:19
No.

Corey Hendricks 02:21
How many times would you say that you were tested for COVID-19?

Alyssa Schoettle 02:27
I would say I have been tested for COVID-19 more than 10 times.

Corey Hendricks 02:34
More than 10 times...What kind of precautions did you take, and how do you take them now?

Alyssa Schoettle 02:41
So after I returned to FGCU following the first peak, I was in person and online. Anytime I would return home, I would be tested before I actually entered my house so that there was no chance that I was going to get––be sick and then give it to my parents without knowing. I also made an attempt to not be around people in large social gatherings. Even when I was at class I would sit by myself or with someone I trusted, and then once the vaccine became available, I signed up with the school. Not in the first round. I didn't sign up in time to get like the first slots but that by the time the second round started I signed up for that and was able to get vaccinated in the first––my first shot.

Corey Hendricks 03:29
Did you get Moderna, Pfizer, or J&J?

Alyssa Schoettle 03:33
Pfizer. Yes. I'm putting away until after finals is over just in case there are negative side effects. Don't want to be sick while I'm taking them.

Corey Hendricks 03:33
Pfizer, both shots?

Alyssa Schoettle 03:35
Both shots.

Corey Hendricks 03:35
Are you planning on getting boosted? I feel that. How about masks, did you wear masks?

Alyssa Schoettle 03:49
Yes. So funnily enough, my parents actually bought me a mask and shipped it to me when they first started hearing about it before it even reached our shores, technically, so I just had this mask in my bag before the school even went virtual. It was kind of funny.

Corey Hendricks 04:06
Who did you see versus who did you not see during the pandemic?

Alyssa Schoettle 04:10
I saw my family, and then I had one friend from high school who also had returned home to Palm City, Martin County. So I saw her the most frequently besides my family because our families did similar precautions. So, we would go to the beach together, or she would come over to my house to the pool, or I would go over her house to her pool. And besides that I did not see anybody from FGCU or outside of that.

Corey Hendricks 04:37
So how did you communicate with people?

Alyssa Schoettle 04:40
Primarily through text and FaceTime.

Corey Hendricks 04:43
Did you ever use Zoom Skype, Snapchat, any of the other social media sites?

Alyssa Schoettle 04:48
Um, so Snapchat, Instagram...my sorority actually hosted several Zoom meetings throughout the summ––this, the spring-summer session and also through the fall semester as well. And like they also started like a pen pal program over the summer, which was really fun because you know, snailmail it's fun to get.

Corey Hendricks 05:08
Which sorority?

Alyssa Schoettle 05:09
Chi Omega.

Corey Hendricks 05:11
How was your school life? Did your grades go up? Down? Neutral?

Alyssa Schoettle 05:17
I did not see a change in my grades, they stayed pretty much what they were.

Corey Hendricks 05:22
So, would you say it negatively affected your education, positively, or neutral?

Alyssa Schoettle 05:27
I would say overall, the quality of education kind of declined. I feel that in the spring professors not a lot of the––my spring professors did not make an attempt to stay connected, or even like reach out to students. One professor, I never heard from her again. She's just like, the last I heard from her after literally weeks with no lectures, messages or anything, she's like, "Good luck on the finals." And then, in the following summer Professor––summer, there were asynchronous classes, which, you know, you get what you were expecting from an asynchronous class. And then in the fall, that's when I started seeing, like, more progression of, like, teachers actually knowing how to use Zoom and actually wanting to stay connected with students.

Corey Hendricks 06:11
So what's an asynchronous class?

Alyssa Schoettle 06:13
An asynchronous class is doing it at your own pace. There's no like, assigned lecture periods or meetings where you meet. And it's do it at your own pace, you have pretty much all summer. I had that as a math class, I'm under the impression that it's still offered; was offered before the pandemic and is still being offered throughout the pandemic.

Corey Hendricks 06:37
What do you think you will remember most?

Alyssa Schoettle 06:39
[Laughs] Probably the entirety of it, you know. A lot of people...hmm...let me rephrase that. [Laughs]

Corey Hendricks 06:59
Take your time.

Alyssa Schoettle 07:02
I think I'll remember mostly the stress of trying to get through it and navigating the new situation. Stressing about poten––I was potentially exposed several times. And there was a stress of whether or not I had actually gotten it or not, and the waiting was a lot.

Corey Hendricks 07:24
So, what do you think that your local authorities, politicians, etc., could have done better?

Alyssa Schoettle 07:32
I feel like it was very political from the get go. And I feel like instead of tying it into, like, political attacks or not, there should have been more messages that were either positive, we're gonna get through this, or scientific based, and like, keep your health up, rather than like political attacks on whether it was real or not, were attacking like the science behind it.

Corey Hendricks 08:02
So, what do you think that you learned from the––your time in quarantine and pandemic, and what do you think that others taken out of this experience?

Alyssa Schoettle 08:11
I think a lot of people didn't realize like how to be alone, or like do things without being connected. So I feel like that's a learning space. A lot of people felt very isolated. Um...what was the question again? The first part of the question.

Corey Hendricks 08:33
So, what do you think you learned the most from the pandemic? What did you take away from it?

Alyssa Schoettle 08:42
People are stupid. Any final thoughts?

Corey Hendricks 08:43
[Laughs]

Alyssa Schoettle 08:43
And people are gross. I guess like one of my biggest takeaways is like, how gross things were before the pandemic and like going forward, how much more clean, and like, aware I am of like germs and like the potential of spreading sickness and everything. Like what do you mean?

Corey Hendricks 09:03
Anything else you want to cover about your time in a pandemic, any stories, anything else?

Alyssa Schoettle 09:19
I just wish people were more considerate. Like, in the times that I had been potent––potentially exposed, the person who exposed me and my room––my roommates and I wasn't even going to tell us that he had potentially exposed us. And I'm just like, how could like knowing that people our age had literally gotten sick and died and had horrible effects, and you weren't going to tell us? Just like, I feel like that's this experience a lot of people out there just like, didn't care about others. And I'm just like, oh, that––that sucks.

Corey Hendricks 09:54
Do you think there was a common theme throughout the pandemic?

Alyssa Schoettle 09:58
I feel like there's a lot of apathy about it. And everyone who has a mindset of oh, it's not gonna affect me or it's not gonna affect me that bad so I'm just not going to care. And I'm just going to be like, this is an affront to me rather than being like, oh care about your community a little bit. Just a tiny bit.

Corey Hendricks 10:17
All right. Anything else?

Alyssa Schoettle 10:18
Nope.

Corey Hendricks 10:19
All right. Thank you so much.