Written By: Gabriela Flores and Mary Zakharova
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Back in Mar. 2020, Brooklyn College was taken by storm when classes made the sudden switch from in-person classrooms to online platforms. As the pandemic has continued, and with campus life becoming a relic, some students are taking a break from their studies in response to the new normal.
“I don’t think I was helping myself by just pushing through, because I thought that was kind of the mantra that I needed to follow. ‘Push through this – you’ll be fine,’” said Mia Galeano, who is taking her first semester off this spring after attending BC for a year and a half. “Pushing through doesn’t mean I need to drag myself along in order to reach the finish line if I’m already so tired and worn out.”
Remote learning has presented more challenges for students than they perhaps expected.To those who were struggling, and prefer learning on campus, waiting for a sense of normalcy to return seemed like the best option.
“I mean ultimately it’s their choice, and if they want to take the break, if they feel it would be their best interest to take the break, then we were in support of it,” said Stephany Rodríguez, a Senior Academic Advisor at the Center for Academic Advisement and Student Success (CAASS). Rodríguez and her colleagues worked with students who considered taking time off, providing resources to ease their remote learning experiences.
“Ultimately we want them to continue, rather than take a break, but it’s their choice,” she said.
In the beginning, when COVID guidelines were implemented and cases were steadily rising, most students expected remote learning to last for a few weeks. Not knowing how the pandemic would pan out, Galeano was determined to stick with her academic goals. She planned to expedite her graduation by picking up summer courses. But staying in her room at home began to take a toll on her and led her to lose interest in all her classes.
“ (…)It’s a completely different environment and it’s difficult even though there are ways in which people can find environments for themselves in this space. It’s just not the same,” said Galeano. With her mother working as a nurse on the frontlines, she also became increasingly worried for her family’s safety more than her studies.
“That daily stress of worrying about her, but then also worrying about my studies – I guess it just accumulated and accumulated,” she said. “Then it led up to the point where I was like, ‘All right, I really need to take a break because I don’t even know who I am anymore.’”
With personal lives and mental health affected by COVID restrictions, contractions, and deaths, some students have found remote learning to be too much to bear. Their attention shifted sharply towards their family and other personal needs.
“Seeing my dad, and seeing my sister sick really bad – I just found it very insensitive. How are you supposed to focus? How are people supposed to focus?,” said Maribel J., who paused her studies in Spring 2020 when her loved ones tested positive for COVID-19. When BC made the move online, Maribel noticed that the immense workloads, lack of understanding from some of her professors, and sharing a computer made remote learning more difficult to manage.
“I remember being really upset with myself that I couldn’t continue college because I genuinely could not. And I was beating myself up for it like, ‘How can I be so dumb? How could I not handle remote learning – in the easiest year?,’” she recalled. With more time to focus on herself and her family, Maribel was able to spark new and old interests alike. Before COVID-19, she did consider taking some time off to figure out if her career path headed towards music, but she backburned the possibility of a break until last Spring.
“I feel very confident, I feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be right now,” she said. “I’m glad I’m not following the social norms of having to go to college right after high school. And I know that with college I’m able to enter whenever.”
Despite the challenges COVID has created, taking some time off from academia has helped some students slow the pace of their regular day-to-day lives.
“I feel like I’m taking advantage of this time,” said an anonymous student from the Feirstein Graduate School. After starting their one-year leave of absence last spring, they claim they have garnered more knowledge of their craft as a director. In deciding to pause their studies at BC, they considered their financial situation and family’s health since they were worried about passing the virus to them if they were to shoot a film in-person.
“There is a good and bad. I’m missing the physical inspiration I get from cohort directors. When you’re working, and filming together, you always get inspiration from other filmmakers – so that I’m missing,” they said. “But at the same time, I’m concentrating on the small theories, readings, watching movies, analyzing. Those times are also precious so I can deepen my perspective of films.”
Noticing the drastic shifts the film industry has undergone with the implementation of COVID restrictions, the student is preparing for the changes that are to come once the pandemic curbs. “I was more occupied by traditional filmmaking, but right now everything is drastically changing,” they said, mentioning that they’re currently writing some scripts for future projects. “(…)This is a very dynamic time right now, so it’s kinda exciting too – that we’re witnessing this shift.”
As vaccines roll out and plans for BC’s full re-entry solidify, students are awaiting news on how the months ahead will look. For now, they will continue to adapt by their own means, even if it includes taking a temporary break from schooling.
“I think I kinda changed the mantra in my head by saying, ‘Help yourself, in any way possible.’ Which was taking that break and deciding that I matter – my choices matter,” said Galeano. “Just because I’m not in school now doesn’t mean that it isn’t important to me. I’m helping myself by not burning myself out.”