March 28, 2024 | FEATURES | By Grant Thompson
This year’s senior class of 2024 is the final cohort of undergraduates who were in college during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fully remote, socially isolated, and some were left completely disappointed.
Charlotte Pulido ‘24 described her first-year experience as receiving a “taste of college” only to have it suddenly ripped away. Charley Sutherland ‘24 echoed the sentiment, describing his experience of arriving on campus, getting lunch with his roommate, being told to stay in his room for the rest of the evening, and eventually going home the very next morning.
Another mutual feeling among some in the class of 2024: resentment.
Whether it was resentment toward other students, the college administration, or more broadly toward the pandemic itself, every senior interviewed for this story (eight in total) shook a fist at their freshman year in one way or another.
“It’s just a bummer that I missed out and I feel like I’m a little resentful of that, even though it’s nobody’s fault,” said Annie Seymour ‘24.
Laney Nelson ‘24 described a similar experience, saying that it was so easy to be resentful and blame others because she “didn’t actually know” the people at whom she was pointing fingers. Nelson’s roommate, Portia Holt ‘24, felt similarly. “It’s just so easy to point a finger at someone and be like ‘they did this’ or ‘they’re making it worse,’” she said.
However, Holt also reflected on what those feelings of resentment meant for her moving forward. “But then I take a step back and I’m like no one had any clue what they were doing. So, I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe that’s also given me a little bit of grace for people.”
Like Holt, some seniors said that despite everything, created many positive learning experiences during their first year that they will take with them after graduation.
Emma Logan ‘24 said that what she’s learning from her experiences during 2020 is “ever evolving.” Despite this, Logan said her freshman year taught her to seek out new and varied perspectives, a skill that she feels will serve her well after graduation.
In addition to searching for additional input, Logan said she learned something else that was echoed by each interviewee, who said it was applicable after graduation. In a time where she, and everyone else, had “no f’ing clue” what was going on, Logan said it was critical to develop a good sense of resilience and adaptability during such unprecedented times.
Although resilience was a major part of the pandemic, it proved especially important for this year’s seniors. Before they were the Colorado College class of 2024, they were the high school class of 2020 and the freshman class of 2021, a group that never received a clean ending to high school, and who also missed out on a major landmark period in their initial year of college.
“It was just constant let downs and at a certain point, I learned how to deal with the let downs,” said Mia Matteucci ‘24, Holt and Nelson’s roommate, and a sophomore-year transfer from Connecticut College in New London.
Holt took a more retrospective approach when describing her experience during COVID, looking back and saying, “Fuck, that sucked but we’re fucking strong.” Holt also said she no longer doubts her “ability to get through hard things after getting through a pandemic.”
Matteucci identified another silver lining from that first pandemic year, saying she discovered her need to “be outside and exploring and adventuring.”
Pulido reiterated this sentiment, saying that her experience freshman year was a driving force behind her decision to go abroad to countries like Nepal and Australia. Pulido is also looking into joining the Peace Corps after graduation, a decision she said was sparked because of her experience during the COVID lockdowns.
Gratitude was another important silver lining to the seniors interviewed. Some expressed being grateful for in-person classes, others emphasized their gratitude for their closest friends.
“I want to appreciate what I have now because I know it can be taken away instantly,” said Pulido. “I want to appreciate those things and I want to carry that gratitude in my day-to-day
life.”
Of the eight seniors interviewed, seven said they had not discussed the pandemic or its future implications much at all in the four years since lockdown. Some even want so far as to say they have actively avoided discussion about it. Despite this, every senior agreed on the topic’s importance and acknowledged that it should be discussed more.
Logan, the only interviewee who said they had talked about the pandemic in-depth before the interview, said her involvement with non-profits facilitated those conversations. Logan said discussions about the pandemic and its implications are “immensely important” but was also wary of overanalysis of the topic.
As for the faculty perspective on the future of the class of 2024, Tomi-Ann Roberts, a psychology professor who researched student success in online classes during the pandemic, said in an email that she and her colleagues have also identified some silver linings for this year’s seniors. Chiefly, Roberts said, was that seniors have returned to “device-free social interaction in academic departments,” something she said she hadn’t seen in the previous two senior classes.
Roberts went on to say that she feels this year’s seniors were able to break out of “an odd, continued isolation from one another,” leading them to be a more creative, involved, engaged, and energetic class. Roberts said she hopes this shift “empowers the class of 2024 to bring their embodied selves to their work and relationships in the future.”
Although a fully remote first year allowed for learning and growth, seniors also identified some lingering problems the lockdown caused.
“The most lasting thing about COVID is that I feel pretty disconnected from the school,” Seymour said. “I’ll always look back at CC as a special place … I think it’s a very special school that I am glad I attend but it’s not my … ride or die.”
Because of this, Seymour acknowledged that she may not be a very engaged alumni after she leaves.
Others touched on how starting college during lockdown might have negatively impacted them developmentally.
Sutherland felt as though when everything was put on hold, so too was his personal and social development. Seymour felt the opposite, saying she felt as though her first year was a time for “expedited life lessons.” Others like Pulido felt like they had just skipped out on those lessons entirely. When asked, no one interviewed said they had any idea how potential developmental impacts might change the way the members of their class might interact with the working world.
Despite a full year of isolation, some seniors still expressed a deep connection with their peers. Because of their 2020 experience, they said they felt as though there was an immediate bond between them and other members of their year who also didn’t get a graduation or a real first year.
In her experience, when meeting anyone from her year both at home and abroad, Pulido said how easy it was to immediately relate to them.
“It will connect you to anyone out there,” Pulido said. She believes that the pandemic allowed for an increased “sense of unity” between all members of the class of 2024. An idea of community was something shared by nearly every person interviewed.
“I feel like I could go to a lot of places in the world and share this experience with someone and we will get it just because we both went through it,” said Holt. “I feel like we couldn’t say that about a lot of things, and I think that’s special.”
Looking toward the future, Holt also said she feels that because of the pandemic and the isolation that came with it, she will be prioritizing a strong sense of community in future workplaces.
In addition to a strong community feel, both Holt and Matteucci emphasized their disinterest in working in an entirely remote or hybrid environment. If this sentiment is shared by large portions of pandemic-era students, it could potentially change how workplaces look and operate as more students who endured COVID enter the labor market.