Class of 2024 reflects on college with COVID, first graduation ceremony

Four years have passed since the COVID-19 pandemic’s onset in 2020, upending NC State freshmen’s lives and sending them home weeks into their first year of college. This spring, the class of 2024 will walk across the stage in-person. The occasion will be the first “normal” graduation for many. 

For students in the class of 2024 who started at NC State during the fall semester of 2020, COVID-19 forced them back home and to complete classes online shortly after arriving on campus.

For students like Alienor Hedlund, a fourth-year studying molecular biology and French, the move off-campus was predictable but disappointing.

“I definitely knew we were gonna get kicked off,” Hedlund said. “But I really wanted the college experience, as much as I could, even if COVID kind of hindered that.” 

Skylar Schenck, a fourth-year studying psychology, said the return home was especially difficult for her as an out-of-state student.

“I'm from New Jersey,” Schenck said. “So that kind of made it a little different for me, because I came here knowing absolutely nobody, except for the girl who I was going to live with in a dorm who I talked to on Instagram. And so that sucked, because she was from North Carolina. So she had her other friends here and stuff. I didn't know anybody.”

In the spring of 2021, students returned to campus, but it was far from normal.

Hedlund returned in the spring semester and said most students expected for the University to send them home.

“People were like, ‘I'm not coming back for spring semester,’” Hedlund said. “‘I'm just gonna stay home. We're gonna get kicked off.’ We didn't get kicked off. I got my own dorm room. And back then I had a great time, because I like my alone time. Though I do have to say I was very isolated, and it definitely played a role on my mental health. It was hard to make friends freshman year, it really was.”

Schenck also said for her, COVID-19 complicated meeting people and making friends.

“It was really hard to get out and meet people,” Schenck said. “So it was a lot of loneliness, just not knowing anybody and not being familiar with the area aside from being here, because my sister went here. And in terms of school, I felt like it wasn't really learning that much.”

Hedlund said she realized she didn’t get that experience of the on-campus community.

“I wanted that sense of community, if that makes sense,” Hedlund said. “I feel like it's only in retrospect that I'm able to see that. There really wasn't much sense of community here.”

Even for students who didn’t start during 2020, school became more difficult. Adam Malik, a fifth-year studying computer science, said COVID-19 affected classes for him initially, however, the return for the fall 2021 semester went back to normal. 

“I was able to see people, I was able to go outside again, even if sometimes it was cold,” Malik said. “And I had gotten an E.S. King Village apartment for school housing. And it was just really nice to be back there.”

Malik said it was hard to adjust mentally while getting acquainted with online learning.

“I guess part of my experience with COVID-19 is getting a deeper understanding of ourselves and how some people go through life,” Malik said. “As much as it really sucked, I definitely learned from that experience.”

Hedlund and Schenck both didn’t receive normal graduations in 2020, making this year their first time walking down the aisle without COVID-19 restrictions.

Schenck said she’s looking forward to graduation after everything her class has been through.

“I'm excited for it,” Schenck said. “It feels a lot more rewarding. Definitely, because not only am I getting through college academically, but I'm getting through the mental challenges of going through COVID-19, and figuring out how to study and figuring out who I am as a person.”

Schenck said with this graduation, her class finally gets closure.

“We didn't get that,” Schenck said. “Not that high school is the same thing as college, but we didn't get that closure. I feel like we didn't get the same closure with the graduation that we had.”