Coming back to school for the 2021-2022 school year challenged Sarah Brown (‘22) as she transitioned to on campus for this year as a senior. After staying home for both semesters her junior year, Brown faced setbacks during COVID-19 while enrolled in Florida Learning Virtual School (FLVS).

“I was not comfortable with going back to school and I didn’t want to put my family’s health at risk. The process of online was hard knowing I couldn’t interact with any students or teachers. I wasn’t able to get any hands-on learning and usually had to find more sources instead of relying on teachers. I mostly missed being around my peers and in a classroom setting. I’m glad to be back for my last year as a senior and it is really nice being around my classmates again,” Brown said.

Staying online during the pandemic while following the normal bell schedule, Olivia Fasano (‘22) compared the workload from last year versus this school year. Fasano chose to do the at-home online platform provided by the school called mySchool Online instead of FLVS due to the want of normalcy during the outbreak.

“I personally feel like the workload pretty much stayed the same. Even though the work was a little bit easier at times, I noticed some difficulties when I started out this year due to the change from computer screen to face-to-face. That being said, I had decided to stay home for my junior year because many of my family members are at high risk for catching COVID-19. Even though I didn’t want to stay home necessarily, I enjoyed the process of doing online school while also doing good academically,” Fasano said.

Due to the reduction in COVID-19 cases, mySchool Online vanished as students and staff decided to come back after a long year from home learning because of the rapid and contagious spread last school year. They continue to further their academic careers at school and maintain caution while attending classes on campus.