SACRAMENTO, Calif. — One year ago, schools were shut down and students began in-home learning as the state tried to slow the spread of COVID-19.
The pandemic cheated students out of a traditional learning environment and it cheated seniors out of traditional graduations and proms.
Trevor Christopher and Andrea Esquetini are among millions of high school and college seniors who got a raw deal during the pandemic.
The class of 2020 was cheated out of proper education, internship opportunities and most importantly they were cheated out of a traditional graduation ceremony.
“I feel like I’m not even a student because I’m never on campus,” said Andrea Esquetini. She was set to graduate from UC Davis in 2020 but decided to extend her education in hopes she would get better internship opportunities this year. Unfortunately, many were completely canceled and the ones she took online didn’t teach her much.
“It was 2 meetings a week and it was just about the work. You can’t make contacts from that,” explained Esquetini, who is taking another semester at UC Davis in hopes she’ll get a better internship.
Trevor Christopher spent most of his senior year in distance learning. After graduating from Granit Bay High School in 2020 he signed up for in-person college culinary classes only to find himself back on the computer taking zoom cooking courses.
“The labs for actually going into cook hands-on was just replaced with online work,” said Christopher who decided not to sign up for the next semester. Instead, he got a job cooking at a restaurant in Roseville.
“If things are still going the way they are with no end in sight. I might not go back to college.”
The class of 2020 was cheated. The end of this virus is in sight, but for Trevor Christopher and Andrea Esquetini and many other pandemic graduates, the future looks less optimistic.
“In March of 2020 I was very set on one thing, but now I’ve been forced to open up and look at other options I guess,’ said Esquetini.
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