Podcast of the pandemic
This is the opinion of University of Connecticut sociology and journalism senior Jamiah Bennett.
For many college students like me, the COVID- 19 pandemic has impacted our mental and emotional health in ways we never could have imagined two months ago. In addition to the heartbreaking losses of life and livelihood, we are mourning the abrupt loss of our academic year that was so much more than just attending classes every day and taking exams every few weeks.
The memories we would have formed during times such as Spring Weekend and graduation day — as well as everyday moments in our dorms and walking around campus — were stolen from us by the coronavirus.
As a college senior at the University nervous of to Connecticut, receive an email I was during spring break from UConn President Thomas Katsouleas with “Important UConn / COVID- 19 Update” in the subject line. With other universities in the region, such as Sacred Heart
University and Harvard University, canceling normal campus operations for the remainder of the semester, I had a gut feeling that Katseouleas was going to announce the same for UConn.
When I opened the email, my eyes skipped over the first four paragraphs and immediately went to the bold text in the fifth paragraph: “In light of this, coursework at UConn will continue to be delivered online for the remainder of the spring 2020 semester, including final exams, and I am sorry to say that there will be no May commencement exercises this year.”
Tears immediately filled my eyes.
It took all of 30 seconds for my phone to start lighting up with texts from my peers. Some students were upset that they weren’t able to say a proper goodbye to friends, loved ones and acquaintances. Other students were worried about no longer having housing or a job. Many of my fellow seniors were upset that they would not have a traditional graduation ceremony after years of hard work and anticipation of walking across the stage.
As I tried to process my emotions while empathizing with the rest of the world, I also tried to think of ways that I could support my peers. Then it came to me.
At the start of my spring 2020 semester, I partnered with Marie Shanahan, journalism professor at UConn, to create a podcast on self- care practices for college students. As a result of conversations I was having with my peers, I was inspired to slightly change the direction of the podcast called “Expect the Unexpected.”
Keeping in mind that self- care is more important now than ever, I decided to repurpose the material I had already gathered on self- care practices so it could complement student stories about experiences they are having during the pandemic.
For a recent episode, Barbara Shehata, a senior at UConn studying allied health, spoke with me about expectations she had a month before the pandemic.
“I was expecting to hug the people that I miss,” she said. “I was expecting to visit my cousin who just moved to Florida. I was expecting a lot.”
Amber Smith, a senior who is also taking graduate classes in political science, discussed the scramble to figure out where she’d go if she couldn’t stay on campus.
“Housing on campus is not just something that is fun to have the full college experience, even though that is wonderful,” Smith said. “For a lot of students, that is their only form of housing available to them.”
These experiencescan greatly impact the mental health of students. For how long is not yet known. In a first- person piece featured on BU Today, the dean of Boston University’s School of Public Health said “the mental health effects of COVID- 19 can shape health for many years, long past the events that precipitated them.” “While it can be difficult to take the long view when the events of the moment are so compelling,” Sandro Galeo wrote, “it is necessary if we are to ensure the steps we take now are in the best interest of public health once this pandemic passes and our task moves from one of response to one of recovery.”
My hope is that “Expect the Unexpected” will help students process their current experiences through conversations that lead to building a community of individuals who can support each other today and beyond.