COVID-19 Affects Students Futures

By: Arden Wynn

The contagious Covid-19 virus, also known as the Coronavirus, has spread throughout the world over the last few months. Students have had to process changing from face-to-face classrooms, to being moved completely online. Many students are affected by Covid-19 physically, mentally, and emotionally.

The college graduating class of 2020, all over the United States, have had their final moments as a student. Memories, traditions, and all of their “lasts”, are now unable to be experienced. This has led to an endless amount of fear, uncertainty, and reevaluating their future.   

Senior, Caroline Weibel, marketing major at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, fears what the next step will be when it comes to her future occupation. “The most prominent way it’s affected me is it’s made it difficult for me to get a job. Because of the coronavirus, many agencies have frozen hiring for who knows how long”, said Weibel.

According to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of April 3, 2020, the total unemployment rate rose to 4.4% reflecting the effect of Covid-19. The number of permanent job losses increased by 177,000, equaling a total of 1.5 million people.

Senior Nursing major at the University of Miami Ohio, Elizabeth DeBeer, is experiencing concerns with the struggles of coping with todays new normal. “With most of my friends being from other parts of the country… ,having to say goodbye so fast has definitely impacted me mentally and emotionally”, said DeBeer.

The Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are encouraging our population to stay away from fearing the disease and rather learning to cope with it. According to the official CDC website, taking care of yourself, your friends, and your family can help you cope with the stress the virus brings.

Covid-19 is also affecting those seniors who planned on returning back to school in the fall.

University of Arkansas senior, Luke Elms, had been studying several months for the GRE test to get into Arkansas’ Grad School. Covid-19 quickly affected Elms by all testing centers cancelling the exam resulting in Grad schools changing their acceptance path, some schools even contemplating doing interviews instead. “Its been pretty tough getting through the application process just because all of the people at the Walton School of Business haven’t been as accessible…Right now I am trying to sort that out, and figure out how to get my application done. As a whole, the outbreak has made the whole process even harder” Said Elms.

With Covid-19 cases constantly rising, there is a lot of uncertainty of what will happen next, not only for students, but the world as well.