How student heroes were made during the COVID-19 pandemic
In normal times, we occasionally face a small change in legislation or federal guidelines that forces us to adjust and shakes up our routine a little bit. However, those small changes pale in comparison to what our staff, faculty, and especially our students have had to face this year.
With the pandemic’s arrival, many students began to face unprecedented financial, academic, and personal crises.
Our students financially rely on the stability of their country’s currency, which in some cases, fell to half against the dollar. Immediately their living expenses doubled- housing, food, transportation, tuition, and everything else in their livelihoods essentially cost twice as much. Their lifestyle was significantly affected both financially and psychologically. Some students were forced to abandon their studies and go back home to their home country; others had to seek treatment as they fell into anxiety and depression.
Adjusting to online classes meant a change in academic progress. Even though a great number of students still made normal progress, online learning proved to be a challenge for many. Factoring in the changes in their environment- some having their kids home, dogs barking, and no in-person contact with their instructor caused some to fall behind. We’ve been making constant revisions to help both students and teachers be successful online, but we also expect a dip in progress when we review our student achievement data in January 2021. However, instead of viewing this in a negative light, we will use this data to help us find how we can better serve our students in the coming year!
Learning to live in a country with different customs and cultures has always been a great challenge for our students, but with the added adversities this year, we want to publicly recognize that our students are courageous and strong for resiliently facing the greatest crisis we have seen in our lifetimes. True heroes. Our congratulations to them! Even when everything was going wrong, they stood strong and did not give up their hopes of learning English as a second language. Our students are our inspiration to continue offering an excellent education because they deserve the best!
We kept our standards high, and they still have established themselves as Harvest soldiers worthy of our respect.
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