Taft Seniors Respond to COVID-19 and Its Impacts on Their Transition to College

By Gisele Sanchez

Seniors must develop “college search stations” in their very own bedrooms due to COVID-19 restrictions. A good work station proves to be very beneficial to students while they practice isolated learning.

As the school year starts up once again, seniors prepare themselves for the next stage in their lives.

However, as COVID-19 has yet to get any better, many Taft seniors have had to adapt to new online academia: Zoom meetings, emailed assignments, and the new online academic platform, Schoology. Ultimately, causing their last year of high school to lose its spark of excitement.

“Not being able to go to the football games, in school studying or student council meetings… there isn’t any importance to the year anymore,” says senior class parliamentarian, Auri Mancik.

Many seniors claim that their college searches have also been impacted by COVID-19 in many ways.

“I feel more confident in my applications since most colleges removed SAT scores as a requirement…the colleges will be able to focus on other things like my GPA, class rank, and the AP classes that I took, which I think is a better representation of someone’s capabilities,” says senior, Kaleb Cintron.

While some may share this same positive perspective, others claim that the online transition has added a new level of stress onto seniors, making it harder to showcase their character on college applications.

“There are no clubs right now…so it’s really hard to try and transition virtually the things that colleges usually accept people based on,” says Mancik.

Despite this, many students can agree that universities are at least making an attempt to accommodate the current situation that students all over the country are finding themselves in.

“I feel that they have been accommodating to the current situation by allowing people to join virtual meetings or virtual campus tours to learn more about their college choice,” says Cintron.

Overall, even in this new isolated version of public school, Taft seniors are pushing themselves through the year with the same vigor and excitement for the future.

“It’s honestly already preparing me for college just because in college you can’t depend on your teachers…we really have to push ourselves to find time and study,” says Mancik.