Class of 2022 Members Share Experiences, Setbacks

Class of 2022 Members Share Experiences, Setbacks

Christina Howard, Alex Mayeri and Griffin Kornaker are members of the college class of 2022 who mainly feel good about their college experience.

Their time in college was affected² by the COVID-19 pandemic when education officials shut down most college campuses in March 2020.

For over two years, they attended school in a different way than they expected when they finished high school.

Mayeri and Howard spent the last four years in college. Kornaker finished in 2021 but completed an additional degree this year.

VOA spoke³ to all three to find out how the COVID-19 health crisis⁴ affected their college education and their lives.

Lost opportunities

Christina Howard will graduate in June from the University of Chicago. She plans to move to Philadelphia and work with an organization called Partners for Justice. The group helps poor people who are accused of breaking the law and need help understanding the legal system.

Howard said she did feel some frustration⁵ about the limits on her college time.

"I didn't, you know, ever imagine that it would be this much of my college experience would be kind of this weird⁶, disjointed thing."

But she felt "lucky" that she had almost two full years of college before the pandemic restrictions⁷ started.

"It hasn't really disrupted⁹ my life in long-lasting ways," she said, noting that close family and friends never got seriously sick from the virus.

Howard said she probably would have started her work life doing a job like the one in Philadelphia even if the pandemic had not happened.

But she did say she thought "there were more possibilities before the pandemic." She thinks people who lead universities may be "glossing¹¹ over" the feeling of lost opportunities that current students have.

Making the best of it

Alex Mayeri studied advertising¹² and design at Syracuse University in New York state. He graduated in the middle of May.

He is still looking for a job. While he received some work experience at school, he did not have the chance to work in an advertising or design office during summers as he had hoped.

When pandemic restrictions closed businesses in March 2020, Mayeri was looking for a summer job at an advertising company in New York City. He did not get that chance. Instead, he got work experience with the sports communications office at his university.

The next summer, in 2021, he did have a chance to work for an advertising company. But he did not go into an office. Instead of feeling disappointed, Mayeri said he thought about one good result. He worked for an advertising company called Motive¹³, based in Denver, Colorado. In normal times, he might not have been able to work there because it would have been too costly¹⁴ to spend four months living away from home.

Mayeri, however, did have some things he was unhappy about. For example, he noted¹⁵ that he would have liked to go to class in person during his third year. Most of that time was spent taking classes by video link. He also missed out on one important experience:

"The biggest thing that I would say about COVID to anybody was not being able to go abroad, travel for a study abroad program. That's the one thing going into college that I was probably looking forward to the most."

He called it "a sore subject," or something he didn't feel happy about.

But Mayeri completed his studies and he feels good about what he learned from his COVID college experience.

"I don't regret how anything happened, and I'm grateful for how things happened, because I don't think I would be as mature and as thoughtful and as developed..."

A lost season

Griffin Kornaker was a star basketball player growing up near Rochester, New York. However, he did not think he was good enough to play at a college with a famous basketball team. So, he decided¹⁶ to attend Middlebury College in Vermont. Middlebury is a small college with a liberal arts study program. It also has a good basketball team that plays other small New England colleges like Amherst College, Williams College, and Tufts University, which are all in Massachusetts.

During his third year at Middlebury, Kornaker was one of the team's main players. The team was good, winning 21 of 27 games. One win came in the 2020 national tournament for small colleges.

About two weeks later, his college experience changed. Middlebury started teaching classes by video link. The next school year, 2020-2021, there was no basketball. Kornaker finished college with an economics¹⁷ degree. But he did not have a chance to play one more season with his basketball teammates.

"We would have been the best we'd ever been," he said.

Kornaker even had a job offer. But he turned it down to play basketball for one more season.

He decided to change schools and study for another degree in finance¹⁸ at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland, Ohio. Since he did not play during his fourth year at Middlebury, he was permitted to play one more basketball season.

"It really was an academic decision," he said, noting that he did not want to go to just any school. He wanted to go to a school that would prepare him for his future job.

Kornaker was not the only new player at CWRU. There were two other college graduates who wanted one more chance to play. They came to Cleveland and joined some good players.

Kornaker was not sure how good the team would be.

"I just wanted to compete," he said.

By March 2022, CWRU finished its best season ever. The team won games against top academic schools like the University of Chicago and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. And it won two games in the 2022 NCAA Tournament. During the season, the team won 20 of 27 games.

Kornaker said he always knew basketball was going to be a tool he could use to get a good education. Now he has degrees from two of the top schools in the U.S.

"I don't think I could have done it any better, so I have zero regrets. Of course, we hoped we would have won a couple more games, but I wouldn't take back any of my experiences."

In the end, all three students said they thought they would go on to have good lives. They were disappointed with some parts of their time in college during the pandemic. But they do not believe the last two years will be a long-term setback¹.

"I really do think it's been a good experience," Kornaker said. "Hopefully it's something we complain about when we're old and grumpy, and (the pandemic) is wrapped up by then."

Words in This Story

frustration –n. feeling anger or unhappiness because of being unable to do something

disjointed –adj. lacking order or organization

disrupt⁸ –v. to be prevented from normal progress or acting¹⁹ in the normal way

gloss¹⁰ over –v. (phrasal) to treat a serious matter as though it were not important

liberal arts –n. areas of study (such as history, language, and literature) that are intended to give you general knowledge rather than to develop specific skills needed for a profession

setback –n. a problem that makes progress more difficult or success less likely

grumpy –adj. easily bothered or angered

1 setback   

n.退步，挫折，挫败

参考例句：

• Since that time there has never been any setback in his career.从那时起他在事业上一直没有遇到周折。
• She views every minor setback as a disaster.她把每个较小的挫折都看成重大灾难。

2 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。

5 frustration   

n.挫折，失败，失效，落空

参考例句：

• He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。

6 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

7 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

8 disrupt   

adj.分裂的，分散的；vt.使分裂，使瓦解

参考例句：

• The war seemed likely to disrupt the state.战争可能使这个国家分裂。
• The conflict seemed likely to disrupt the government.这场冲突可能使政府垮台。

9 disrupted   

使混乱，扰乱( disrupt的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• An accident has disrupted railway services into and out of the city. 一场事故使得进出该城市的铁路交通陷入混乱。
• A crowd of protesters disrupted the meeting. 一群抗议者扰乱了会议。

10 gloss   

n.光泽，光滑；虚饰；注释；vt.加光泽于；掩饰

参考例句：

• John tried in vain to gloss over his faults.约翰极力想掩饰自己的缺点，但是没有用。
• She rubbed up the silver plates to a high gloss.她把银盘擦得很亮。

11 glossing   

v.注解( gloss的现在分词 )；掩饰（错误）；粉饰；把…搪塞过去

参考例句：

• The rights and wrongs in any controversy should be clarified without compromise or glossing over. 有争论的问题，要把是非弄明白，不要调和敷衍。 来自互联网

12 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

13 motive   

n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的

参考例句：

• The police could not find a motive for the murder.警察不能找到谋杀的动机。
• He had some motive in telling this fable.他讲这寓言故事是有用意的。

14 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

15 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

16 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

17 economics   

n.经济学，经济情况

参考例句：

• He is studying economics,which subject is very important.他正在学习经济学，该学科是很重要的。
• One can't separate politics from economics.不能把政治与经济割裂开来。

18 finance   

n.财务管理，财政，金融，财源，资金

参考例句：

• She is an expert in finance.她是一名财政专家。
• A finance house made a bid to buy up the entire company.一家信贷公司出价买下了整个公司。

19 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。