By Casia Siegel

Often when we are teaching, we only see our students for a few hours each week. What were they experiencing during Covid-19 that we didn’t see? Four students have agreed to tell their stories about the past year; watch Math Values this week for a glimpse into the lives of our students.

Casia Siegel graduated in May 2021 from the University of Virginia.

Tell us about your experiences as a student during Covid-19.

For the past year I have been living on campus, despite all of my classes being online. A lot of us were hopeful that things were going to return to normal this Spring semester. Due to this, there were a few other students who also were nearby. We would often try to meet up weekly to do homework, but often it turned into a social hour because at least some of us (myself included) were pretty desperate for social interaction. I did not handle the isolation well. I would say in some very minor aspects, this pandemic helped me. I took a lot of very high level classes all at once, while working for the University and having to drive home a lot for medical reasons, and it definitely would have been harder to manage all of that on top of a social life.

However, in all other ways, the closed school really hurt. I struggled to sit through my classes. Prior to the pandemic I had never skipped a class, and only showed up late maybe once or twice. In the last year, I cannot even count how many classes I missed or just zoned out through. I also know I am not alone in this. Additionally, though most professors tried their best, learning via zoom is very difficult even if you are paying attention. A lot of times, material would go by too quickly and the professor would be on to the next page of lecture, much faster than things would have been written on a blackboard and erased in a normal year. All in all, this last year was really a struggle for me. In the end, I did manage to get the grades I wanted in all my classes. However I walk away from my senior year worried that I do not actually know the material as well as I otherwise would have and aware that I lack the faculty connections I would have made in-person.

Did you seek help from others?

I did seek help from friends, which was good. A lot of us struggled through this past year. Professors, I am sure, were mostly available to help, but it was hard to go to them and say "I zoned out for the entire second half of your lecture, could you give me the Reader's Digest version?" Telling them about my constant game of catch-up never felt like an option. Additionally, office hours over zoom always stressed me out a lot, so I didn't attend as much as I likely should have.

What did you tell your professors?

I did tell my professors about things going on in my life, such as work or doctor's appointments, though missing a class last year meant you didn't really miss it—the material was still recorded and available online. I had some professors who really cared and were very kind. I had others who were not. One professor said, "It is quarantine, you can't have weekend plans,” regarding an extra long homework assignment. Another professor tried to put a midterm the day after Halloween, on a Sunday. His reason was, "then we wouldn't have to miss a class." Things like that made it clear that some professors really believed we had no lives outside of their classroom, and it felt like they had no respect for our time—or need for a break. I wish I had stood up for myself more in the past year, because some of these things were unfair and unnecessary.

What did you learn from this experience?

I think I learned a lot from this experience. I learned that social interaction should not be the first thing on the chopping block when I get busy—it is necessary to function well. I learned that I love math, but I also need a life outside of it or I start to resent it. I learned that I can persevere through times that feel interminable.

What would you like to tell your peers?

That we all struggled. None of us learned as much or made the connections we otherwise would have.

What would you like your instructors to know?

That students have lives outside of the classes they are taking. Also that math is a sort of dry subject, and over zoom it gets a whole lot drier. Online classes with a class-participation element helped me engage a lot, even though pre-pandemic I was never a big class-participation fan. Having to present things semi-regularly or breaking into rooms to solve things very much kept me engaged even outside of those times, because it kept me wanting to be prepared.