Senior year is supposed to be a time for going out with friends, studying hard to get into your dream university or college and preparing yourself to say goodbye to teachers who have influenced your life over the past four years. For the class of 2021 though, it has been anything but that as they have found themselves in a constant back and forth from online learning to in school and barely any social outings. Here is a look at what a senior year in quarantine looked like to some of the grade 12 students of Drayton Valley and area.
Madison Prysko- Breton High School
Q: What has been the biggest struggle for you doing your senior year through Covid?
A: “I’m so accustomed to being able to see my family and all my friends. I’m a very social person so it’s very difficult to have to kind of reel that all back in and distance myself from my family which was the hardest.”
Q: Academically, how has Covid affected you this year?
A: “For online schooling I was okay. It was a bit of a struggle because we’ve always been very hands on learning with all of our teachers and it was very difficult between the teachers having to quarantine because of potential Covid cases and trying to figure everything out as it felt like in other years it was easier. This year was definitely harder and I do feel like most definitely I could have done better but with Covid it was extremely difficult.”
Q: Senior year usually involves tons of social events. How has Covid affected this?
A: “You see past years and they get to go out and party and celebrate amazing events in their life and we can’t this year.”
Q: Graduation will look a little different this year, what are your thoughts on it?
A: “I am disappointed but I do know that my principal as well as my grad representative is doing the best they can with what we can do. I’m extremely disappointed but there really is not much we can do about it.”
Q: What do your future plans look like?
A: “I’m hoping to take a gap year, kind of hoping for more vaccinations to be out and everything to kind of calm down Covid related before I do apply to school because I want the full education that I’m paying for with tuition and I wanna be able to be in classes learning. That’s the best way I learn instead of in a dorm room on my computer.”
Rae-Lynne MacDuff– Holy Trinity Academy
Q: What has been the biggest struggle for you doing your senior year through Covid?
A: “The social aspect I think, you do a lot of it on your own and not as much with your friends helping you through it… We even do things like parties through school that we haven’t been able to do. We haven’t gotten to do a lot of the activities we are used to or our big trip to the Citadel we take every year.”
Q: Academically, how has Covid affected you this year?
A: “I personally haven’t seen a drop in my grades but being at home has forced me to work harder.”
Q: Graduation will look a little different this year, what are your thoughts on it?
A: “I think we’ve put together a really fun event that’s just gonna celebrate the accomplishments we’ve achieved and we are happy with what we have I think.”
Q: What do your future plans look like?
A:“I’m going on to the University of Alberta to get a Bachelor of Elementary Education.”
Gwyneth Lizardo- Holy Trinity Academy
Q: What has been the biggest struggle for you doing your senior year through Covid?
A: “I think staying home and not seeing people for a long time. Not being able to see my friends and not being able to see my teachers that I was supposed to spend time with during my last year of school.”
Q: Academically, how has Covid affected you this year?
A: “I feel like Covid has not helped me at all. I learn better when I’m at school. Just trying to stay focused has been hard.”
Q: What do your future plans look like?
A: “I’m going to the University of Alberta and taking a Bachelor of Arts and Economics.”
Mathea Cruickshank- Holy Trinity Academy
Q: What has been the biggest struggle for you doing your senior year through Covid?
A: “It’s been hard building up self motivation, now you have to do stuff on your own and not have a support system there to help you out with schooling or any other aspects that you’d usually have in a regular year.”
Q: Academically, how has Covid affected you this year?
A: “I got relatively the same grades but definitely classes that I’m not as good at or passionate about my grades definitely dropped. I didn’t have the motivation to get stuff done.”
Q: Senior year usually involves tons of social events. How has Covid affected this?
A: “I feel like missing out on parties and just stuff like that. We didn’t get to create as strong of a class bond this year as other classes. Even just like sports teams and stuff we didn’t get to get together and have that type of fun.”
Q: Graduation will look a little different this year, what are your thoughts on it?
A: “I almost kind of like this year better because they are making us feel really special and I know not a lot of graduates get to experience what we are experiencing so I’m thankful for what we have.”
Q: What do your future plans look like?
A: “I’m going to Mount Royal University for a degree in social work.”
Rebekah Pequin- Holy Trinity Academy
Q: What has been the biggest struggle for you doing your senior year through Covid?
A: “Caring about school. It’s been difficult to have a positive attitude and the motivation to get the work done when you don’t have the encouragement from teachers and friends and not having a routine.”
Q: Academically, how has Covid affected you this year?
A: “It’s been a bit of a struggle but I’d say it’s more difficult to get the help. If you are struggling with something it’s harder to have the one on one that HTA normally has.”
Q: Senior year usually involves tons of social events. How has Covid affected this?
A: “I definitely missed out on sports. It was my last year to play basketball and to be the captain and all that. We didn’t get any of that this year. The tournaments are a big part of it but the bonding aspect also with your couches and with your teammates.”
Q: Graduation will look a little different this year, what are your thoughts on it?
A: “I’m excited that it’s something different but it’s also disappointing that I saw both my older brothers’ grads and it was a lot of fun and it was a lot of togetherness with all the teachers, all the staff and kids you aren’t as close with in your class you become closer with at the banquet… We definitely won’t be able to get that and I definitely won’t be able to have my family see me work on my accomplishments because a lot of them won’t come if it’s just in a car.”
Q: What do your future plans look like?
A: I’m attending Grant Macewan for a Bachelor of Arts in psychology to do a career as a prison psychologist.
Corbyn Colwell- Frank Maddock High School
Q: What has been the biggest struggle for you doing your senior year through Covid?
A: “Motivation. Just having a hard time keeping up with school because we keep going in and out of it. So the learning styles are different even.”
Q: Academically, how has Covid affected you this year?
A: “I’m pretty sure there has been a drop but there are some classes where the work has somehow gotten easier… I noticed with a lot of my friends that we focus on one subject more than the others during online school so we get behind so our grades all fluctuate due to that.”
Q: Senior year usually involves tons of social events. How has Covid affected this?
A: “I feel like I don’t know most of my class as much as the previous classes have but I have gotten closer to the people who are actually in my classes.”
Q: Graduation will look a little different this year, what are your thoughts on it?
A: “I’m liking how it’s gonna be outside and a little bit quieter than it usually is but I am a little disappointed that there’s a possibility that we won’t get a prom.”
Q: What do your future plans look like?
A: “My plan is to work for a year and try to figure out what I wanna do. And then I’m going to go to school.”
Delaina Osborne– Frank Maddock High School
Q: What has been the biggest struggle for you doing your senior year through Covid?
A: “Definitely motivation and burnout… Because I’m so academically orientated I have to get really high grades to feel successful so to have to combat going from in person learning to at home learning was very stressful and then very unmotivating because have the time we would be doing things and then all the sudden they wouldn’t matter anymore and so after first semester my burnout hit really really hard and so it made things very difficult to see the point of continuing.”
Q: Senior year usually involves tons of social events. How has Covid affected this?
A: “Because we are seniors we expect that this year is to be all about our graduation and all about our success so we want to go out and we want to go to Edmonton on the weekends, we want to go swimming, we want to hang out and stuff and we haven’t had the ability to do that and actually be able to celebrate us as like this transition period in our lives… So I think socially it was very detrimental and a lot of people did suffer from that whether that be just they are very extroverted or just the fact that they felt like they weren’t mattering anymore.”
Q: Graduation will look a little different this year, what are your thoughts on it?
A: “The school is doing a lot with what they have… I’m hoping that with restrictions opening up hopefully early July then myself and others can celebrate. It just sucks that we won’t be around our teachers and we won’t be around the families who have supported us through all this. So we won’t be able to cross the stage and say hey I did this to everyone. It will just be myself, two other teachers and my parents.”
Q: What do your future plans look like?
A: “I am going to the University of Alberta for an English major and an art minor because I plan on applying myself to more of the arts in my future.”
