by Juhi Doshi, Itzel Luna, and Stephanie Zappelli
Calmatters
Back to normal life — sort of.
With COVID-19 vaccines widely available, California colleges welcomed students back for a mix of in-person and online classes this fall. After months of studying virtually from childhood bedrooms and other remote locations, students could once again ask questions of professors face to face and socialize with their peers IRL.
The transition didn’t always go smoothly.
Some students struggled to find affordable housing. Others discovered they actually preferred online classes — especially when trying to juggle work with school. And policies around vaccines and other coronavirus safety measures were sometimes confusing and unevenly enforced. Still, many said the chance to connect with other students in person was worth the strife, whether that meant putting on a theater performance together or simply studying side by side.
Reporters with the CalMatters College Journalism Network spoke with students from around the state about their experience returning to campus this fall — the highs, the lows, and the just plain weird. (Comments have been edited for length and clarity.)
Analí Salazar, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Junior transfer student, studying mechanical engineering
I’m a transfer from Santa Barbara City College. Going from a school where we had an environment where it was all people of color, all coming from similar backgrounds, to coming to a campus where everyone’s white, it’s definitely a transition to say the least. I have a friend in my class who I know from City College, and he also speaks Spanish. We’ll be in our welding class, speaking in Spanish, and we’ll be yelling at each other in Spanish because that’s how we are, and everyone is staring at us, like, “What are they saying?”
It’s been funny in that circumstance, but it’s definitely different in the aspect of walking around campus and then seeing a huge group of frat boys walking towards me. I am a small person. I am a five-foot little brown girl. So seeing a huge group of, like, 6’3” white frat men — not a great feeling. That’s been the biggest difference, being in an environment where I don’t know if I’m ok. They could be the nicest people ever, but also, you have no idea, because of how many incidents so many frats have had.
— Interviewed by Stephanie Zappelli
Airin Valdez, Stanford University
Freshman, major undecided
As a first-generation student, I did not feel adequately prepared for college-level work, especially at a school like Stanford.
My whole senior year (of high school) was online learning. It was very difficult to not only learn the material but have to teach myself the content since personally I’m more of a visual and tactile learner. Having to balance school work and home responsibilities also made my online experience challenging. I’m the oldest of three children. My brother was a freshman in high school so I had to help him a lot with homework and also my younger sister, who is in middle school. I also had to help around the house.
I am very happy to transition onto on-campus life since I have the opportunity to experience my first year of college in-person, but after a year of online learning, it’s very difficult and so different. I often feel behind compared to my peers who have more resources or had the opportunity to be exposed to content that is completely new to me.
A way the university has helped with this transition has been having programs in place for students that are first-generation and low-income, like me. I was able to come onto campus early during the summer and take a math and English class to develop my skills. But their support is very continuous, not just during the summer but also now during the school year — like being able to speak with an academic advisor who specifically works with first-generation and low-income students.
— Interviewed by Itzel Luna
Jeevan Acharya, Chapman University
Senior film production and computer science major
We shot my thesis October 17th weekend, and the weekend after. My thesis is about a newlywed, reserved, Indian-American woman who risked being excommunicated from her and her husband’s family after they see her in a provocative commercial while on vacation in Mexico.
The biggest part about (the production) was adapting as the situation was changing. And every week, we had to update our (COVID-19) guidelines to make sure everybody was safe. If you have holes in there, your production could get shut down. So any minor things are taken pretty seriously.
My freshman and sophomore year — before COVID happened — I had a lot of experience on set. But a lot of those positions weren’t in key roles —they were kind of learning and being an understudy of those key positions. And your Advanced Production comes at a crucial time where you step from those smaller positions into those larger roles, and you carry a lot more responsibility on your shoulders.
The way I prepared for it was a lot of counsel with my advisors, and just kind of trusting the process, having faith in myself that I would deliver in the end. I feel like that’s a really hard thing for creative people, and especially art students to do: to trust what they’re doing, really believe in themselves 100 percent, and have faith that it’s going to turn out the way you want it if you put the work in.
Having time to really mold the film into what I want is just such a huge stress reliever. Over the summer it was almost like this looming shadow over my head. And now that it’s done, it’s like, I see brighter days.
— Interviewed by Juhi Doshi
Doshi, Forschen, Luna, Mendez, Taylor, Vargas and Zappelli are fellows with the CalMatters College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. This story and other higher education coverage are supported by the College Futures Foundation.
