The Lost But Found Class of 2020
COVID-19 has been an issue since December 2019, but it didn't start to really make an impact until the beginning of March or February 2020. Many schools and businesses were shut down in early March.
Two Chicago high schools (Legal Prep Charter Academy and Noble Academy) closed for the rest of the year. This means Legal Prep and Noble Academy couldn't give their seniors a traditional prom and graduation. Seniors at Legal Prep Charter Academy and Noble Academy have had a difficult year. One Nobel Academy senior Mahliyah Roberston, 18, said, “You couldn’t do work like any other day when you're at school.”
Since early March, Nobel Academy students were required to log in the computer at least two times out of a week. Robertson said, “You had to do it on the computer and that was hard and complicated and had people confused and it didn’t make me feel like I had a complete senior year.”
Robertson, an honor roll student, was looking forward to walking across the stage.
“I didn’t have the graduation I hoped for; instead I just received a diploma during school clean out,” she said.
COVID-19 didn't just affect her senior year it will affect her freshman year at National Louis University to major in early childhood education. Her steps after college are to continue her life goals and that is to take care of her siblings, make her parents proud, and start a new journey.
“Now that I’m going to be a college freshman, I might not even have the privileges to actually sit in a college class, everything might have to be virtually and that’s not the way I expected to start my college experience,” she said.
Another high school senior’s life changed because of COVID-19. Khalyiah Solid, who attends Legal Prep Charter Academy, said, “It was so much work to do before we had less than a week to graduate.¨
Solid was getting ready for her last week of school but things got a little rocky. She said, ¨I’m not scared to go to college. I’m more ready than prepared.¨
Solid is more worried about whether they are going to find a vaccine so she can finally enjoy her college journey since COVID-19 took part of her senior year. Solid said,¨It stopped me from having my senior events and graduation.” Solid is going to Kirkwood Community College location in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She plans on majoring in Business management. She wants to start her own clothing line, and hopefully in the future open her own business. Her next step after college is to transfer to a four year university and take a study in art fashion design.