This summer, the two of us had the opportunity to be interns with Complete College America (CCA), gaining valuable experience writing articles, creating social-media content, assisting with the CCA Live virtual series, and learning from the CCA Staff, CCA Board, and their networks.
Despite the uncertainty created by the coronavirus, we’re both excited to begin our senior year as journalism majors, taking new courses like Backpack Video Journalism and Advanced Reporting that will bolster our grad-school applications or give us the experience we need to land new jobs after graduation. And we’re still excited to start a normal-ish semester on campus.
But, don’t let our excitement confuse you. We’re apprehensive and anxious about our return to campus for the fall semester, wondering: How safe is it to be on campus with a large number of people consolidated into relatively small areas? How will our classroom time be affected; will we be allowed into a classroom? How will we keep proper social-distancing requirements between our classmates?
Another event, the recent Black Lives Matter protests, has shed light on the different manifestations of systemic racism, like the many ways that students of color face completely different challenges when they enter a college or university. Not only do we have to navigate a competitive academic environment, we’re often met with animosity that can leave us feeling like impostors. As we return to campus, we want our institutions to see that the graduation gap between white and students of color is still wide and to finally do something about it. We want them to take necessary steps like investing in campus organizations run by students of color and hiring a racially diverse set of mental health professionals and faculty. We sincerely hope they’ll give each student the resources they need to succeed and make a commitment to fight for us when we need help.
This summer, we expected to be active with our student newspapers on campus and to be interning in businesses or nonprofits off campus, splitting time between work and study as we inch our way toward graduation. The reality we’re facing is nothing like what we’d anticipated four months ago. But we’re ready to take what we’ve learned through these experiences and apply those lessons to make the most of whatever comes next.
