{"id":1667,"date":"2021-06-10T21:17:03","date_gmt":"2021-06-11T01:17:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/?p=1667"},"modified":"2021-06-10T21:18:15","modified_gmt":"2021-06-11T01:18:15","slug":"the-class-of-2024-reflects-on-their-virtual-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/the-class-of-2024-reflects-on-their-virtual-year\/","title":{"rendered":"The Class of 2024 Reflects on Their Virtual Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Maire Crooks,\u00a0Current\u00a0<\/em>News Editor<\/p>\n

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted everyone differently, but for freshmen, it took away the typical first-year high school experience. The freshmen were welcomed to the River Hill community through Google meets and drive-by supply pickups, as the majority of the Class of 2024 were not able to step foot into the River Hill building until March 29th.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sierra Collis explains that this year, she found virtual school \u201cdraining.\u201d She \u201cbecame more isolated and spent less time hanging out with friends,\u201d especially since Sierra feels that she \u201cmissed all of the fun school events like homecoming, football games, etc.\u201d <\/span>Sapna Joy elaborates, adding that <\/span>freshmen \u201c<\/span>missed out on a lot of aspects that make high school different from middle [school].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For some, like Sierra, online learning was very \u201cchallenging academically,\u201d and Stephanie Moses believes it has \u201c<\/span>weakened my work ethic,\u201d <\/span>while others enjoyed the new flexibility and thrived in the unfamiliar environment. Sapna explains that \u201c<\/span>Academically, I had done really well because you can always retake things, you get all the powerpoints, and there’s a lot of online resources that you can do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Kate Wittholz also thought that \u201chaving the four-by-four schedule [four classes taking place over the first semester, four classes filling the second semester] really helped because it tricked [her] brain into thinking [she] was getting less work.\u201d However, \u201cit was a lot harder to focus because I was in my own home with distractions all around me instead of in a designated learning environment,\u201d which \u201cmade it really hard to sit down and pay attention.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the freshman class seems to have mixed reviews on the academic rigor of the 2020-2021 school year, they all agree on one thing- the social side of high school was extremely hard to navigate. \u201cI’ve had kind of a hard time getting to know people,\u201d notes Sapna, adding that she has \u201cmade a few new friends.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Maki Abraham says online school has been \u201ctough,\u201d as she \u201crecently moved from another country\u201d and \u201cdidn\u2019t have anyone to associate with.\u201d The pandemic and quarantine have made Abraham \u201cbecome a social butterfly\u201d because it has \u201cmade [her] realize that we need people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, Stephanie is \u201ccoming to River Hill through the Jumpstart program,\u201d meaning that she doesn’t \u201cknow many people who go [to RHHS], unlike those who were districted.\u201d It has been especially difficult with the virtual format, and Stephanie \u201cfeel[s] a bit left out knowing everyone already has friends while [she does not] know anyone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For others, they feel that they have become \u201clazy,\u201d as Kate summarizes. \u201cBeforehand I was able to get up and be awake at school the whole day. Now\u2026 I have an alarm set for a minute before my classes start\u2026 and I take naps during the day as well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Many members of the Class of 2024 acknowledge that virtual school starkly contrasted to the vision they had for their first year of high school. \u201cIt was just something I needed to get accustomed to,\u201d expresses Maki.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sapna sums up her freshman year as \u201cdisorienting. I was expecting one thing and then tossed something totally different… it was definitely a little crazy in the beginning.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The freshman class agrees that the virtual school year was not necessarily bad nor good, it was simply \u201cbizarre,\u201d stated Kate and, as Maki mentioned, \u201cinteresting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking ahead to the 2021-2022 school year, Stephanie explains that she is \u201cnervous, yet excited to experience in person high school,\u201d and she thinks she will \u201cstill feel like a freshman in a way,\u201d as the in-person opportunities and events have been limited. Everyone agreed they are all looking forward to a \u201cnormal\u201d school year and high school experience.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Maire Crooks,\u00a0Current\u00a0News Editor The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted everyone differently, but for freshmen, it took away the typical first-year high school experience. The freshmen were welcomed to the River Hill community through Google meets and drive-by supply pickups, as the majority of the Class of 2024 were not able to step foot into the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[295],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-independent-research"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/pasted-image-0-6.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1669,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667\/revisions\/1669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}