18-year-old Olivia Riek says the coronavirus pandemic is the scariest situation she has lived through. “I think throughout my life, I’ve always had adults that could tell me what was going to happen. And just nobody really knows,” she said.
Disclosure: Olivia Riek’s mother, Debbie Riek, is WITF’s Director of Education.
We couldn’t have known how your school memories would end at Northeastern School District but we knew how it began–a nervous girl in braids wearing her favorite outfit with a backpack way too big for her tiny body. You were a mix of anxious and confident and you held my hand walking into school. The memory is so clear to me. And now, here we are. We are both a mix of anxious and confident together. Though you aren’t holding my hand, I see that same look in your eyes. Will I be ok, Mom? Will this all work out the way I want? Will I have a friend? What if I get scared? Yes, sweet girl, you will be more than ok and no, it probably won’t work out the way you want. But those two things can exist together–beautiful and brutal as Glennon Doyle says. Brutiful. You will have many friends and many more to come and also, you will get scared but you will keep doing the next right thing. Always. Just the next right thing. I know you love Taylor Swift and can only end this letter with her words, “Long live all the walls we crashed through, how the kingdom lights shined just for me and you. Long live all the mountains we moved. I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you.” We love you so much. There is nothing you could do to make us more proud or less. Congratulations Class of 2020 and especially to that little girl in pigtails who is now a high school graduate.
-Mom
Shining a light on our daughter Mariah. Mariah is a proud member of Central York High School class of 2020. Mariah is a distinguished honor student, member of mini thon, member of York Dance Expressions competition dance team. Mariah was excited to celebrate her senior year with her friends. While things haven’t ended as she had hoped. She is looking forward to starting college at West Chester University where she will study forensic Psychology. Mariah is a loving and caring person who would do anything to help a friend. She is keeping a positive attitude and enjoying this time with family. So proud of the class of 2020.
-Donna
I have 2 children still at home, both girls, one of whom is a senior. She is missing her senior prom(this bothers me more than her).
She has played lacrosse since the 5th grade. This was her final high school season. She practiced every day to have one scrimmage and have her season end. No more games to play in high school. No parents to walk her on senior night, no announcers to talk of her accomplishments where she’s going to college etc.
Now to the biggest hurt of all….no graduation. No cap and gown that were paid for to adorn. No having your name called to walk across the stage to get your diploma. Something that she has worked hard for, for 12 years, and we as parents have worked for for 18 years stolen from us. There is no police report that can be filed, no chance of getting back what was stolen, it’s just gone. Yes she will get a piece of paper, but it is definitely not the same thing. Seniors everywhere along with their parents were simply put ROBBED.
WITF recognizes that children, families and teachers are eager to continue learning together during these uncertain times. Using a wealth of resources, WITF can create a bridge to distance learning opportunities and engaging experiences while we are all staying safe at home.
Learn more at: www.witf.org/families-and-children/learning-at-home/
For more information, please contact:
Debbie Riek, WITF’s Director of Education
Debbie_Riek@witf.org
My girlfriend and I had missed out on our last prom together, something that we had been hoping for since the beginning of the year. We went to last year’s prom, which was my first ever prom, and I had promposed in this small but grand way, making her cry and so happy!! This year she was going to prompose to me and we were gonna match and dance the night away in each others arms one last time. But we didn’t get that. However, we are planning our own low key prom where we’ll dance the night away with our love song, Honeybee, and just be happy together once again. This will be something very special to my heart because we’ve been through a lot and to have our last prom will be our dream come true.
-Bee
In less than 10 days I should be getting on a plane to Ireland and starting my study abroad experience. Instead, I’m sitting isolated in my house wearing an Ireland t-shirt. While I am sad my sophomore year of college was cut short, it is a small price to pay for my health. A global pandemic was not part of my four year plan, but now that it is, I am grateful for those at my university and in my community that are making an effort to bring joy to students in this time of uncertainty. Someday I will go to Ireland, but for now I am content sitting on the couch. Thank you first responders, teachers, professors, essential workers, and anyone who has done anything to help someone else in need.
– A., University of Pittsburgh
“In the long run, the schoolwork will sort itself out. The kids are going to remember how you make them feel.”
Tammy Novick, an educator for 30 years, never thought she would teach from behind a computer screen. She prefers to connect with her fourth-grade students in person. But since Gov. Tom Wolf closed schools over concerns of COVID-19, she has had to adjust to a new way of teaching.
“It’s more difficult because I really feel the boundaries are blurred. Especially when we first started. It’s getting better now,” Novick said. “For the first, I’d say at least two to three weeks, I felt like I was basically on-call all the time because I was trying to check my email even in the evenings, because a lot of times that’s when the kids could do their work.”
She has now settled into a routine.
Although she sees her students online give days a week, she misses being able to interact with them one-on-one.
“It’s really hard to know whether they’re understanding something when you can’t see their faces, you can’t see their eyes, hear their expressions,” she said. “Especially for those kiddos who struggle. It’s really hard because normally I would sit beside them and talk to them quietly so that it’s just one-on-one and it’s more individual. Then they’re not embarrassed that they didn’t understand it or had difficulty with it. You can’t really do that online.”
Still, Novick feels the situation has allowed her to teach her students valuable life lessons.
“I really think that this experience has allowed us to show the kids and to show them that we don’t know what’s going to happen, we can’t control our surroundings, we can’t control our situation, but that we can control how we react to it and that we need to make the best of every situation and stay positive and embrace the changes and give it our best,” she said.
For the parents who are now struggling to handle a full-time job and help children with their schoolwork, Novick says it will all work out.
“In the long run, the schoolwork will sort itself out,” she said. “The kids are going to remember how you make them feel. Just try. I mean, that’s all you can do and that’s all your kids can ask of you.”
My wife and I had looked forward to May 7 in Philadelphia for months. Our daughter would be graduating that day from Temple University in Civil Engineering. We had the day logistically planned to the minute, including our Pittsburgh-based son flying round trip in one day to see his sister graduate. Emma had learned in February she would be giving the student commencement address to engineering graduates.
Emma had learned in February she would be giving the student commencement address to engineering graduates.
Shortly after her last spring break in March, Temple announced all classes were suspended and would go 100% online. Emma believed the early thinking that it would be “a couple weeks” and classes would resume. As friends came by her apartment to say goodbye for the last time before they left campus, it was clear online would complete the semester. Emma toughed it out for a few more days in her apartment, but got lonely without friends. We brought her and her desk home on a Saturday amid the tears of her “ruined” last semester.
We quickly got into a daily routine of 4 of us working in 4 separate rooms in the house – our son came home from Pittsburgh, too. Emma had night classes, so dinner was usually an hour before she came downstairs and ate alone while we cleaned the dishes nearby. The weeks went quickly, and finals approached.
We prayed that it would arrive in time – and be legible.
My wife thought we should create a secret sign to show Emma how proud we were. Some quick searches online took me to a Texas site where we could design our own. We prayed that it would arrive in time – and be legible. Three days before May 7 – it arrived. We hung it in front of the house while Emma took her last final. We got congratulatory remarks by neighbors as they walked the sidewalk in front of our house.
Over the next few days, the sign was the backdrop for many family pictures, each typically serenaded by neighbors in passing cars tooting approval. Temple’s virtual graduation had very inspirational messages of perseverance and pride. Emma’s commencement address was one of them, and has also received neighbor’s comments on the speech (recorded in her bedroom). We will let you be the judge of the speech, but let the sign tell you how proud we are of Emma!
Emma Krampe is graduating summa cum laude with a degree in Civil Engineering with an Environmental Concentration and a certificate in Programming Fundamentals. On campus, she has been an active leader in Engineers Without Borders and Freely Magazine, has interned at the environmental department for the U.S. Embassy to Italy in Rome, and is an avid Italian language student. After Temple, she has accepted admission for graduate studies in environmental engineering at the Polytechnic University of Milan.
It started off as a joke. We thought once someone on a Fordham’s campus got it, we’d just get an extended spring break… We had no idea.
I first heard about a strange virus back in January that had shut down a major city in China. I saw videos on Twitter of a place called Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, with streets empty and residents crying out for help from their balconies. It all felt foreign and distant. I never thought it could happen in the United States, or to New York – the city that never sleeps, that gives me so much comfort and strength in its steadfast eternity.
I’d never seen the city so empty.
I love walking around the city. It might be my favorite activity. Whether it be with my friends or by myself with my headphones, I love the pace and energy of the sidewalks. On summer days when we had nothing to do, my friends and I used to take the Metro North from the Bronx into Midtown Manhattan and then walk the rest of the three miles down to SOHO or the Village. We might catch a movie or grab some food, but being in the city was the main attraction. Once the pandemic hit, my friends and I went for a drive around our old stomping grounds. I’d never seen the city so empty. I could still feel it though, the soul of the city lives on.
The day classes were canceled, the entire Fordham community fled to our central quad on campus, Edward’s Parade, where I was supposed to graduate in just a few weeks time. It’s a Fordham tradition to gather on Eddie’s on the first sunny day of the Spring. That was our first and last Eddie’s Day.
It was the perfect ending
We laid out in the sun and laughed at how the crowd on the field was the opposed of what the school wanted by canceling classes. We listened to music, drank in the sun, and sat with friends. It was the perfect ending without us even knowing it. I’m so sad that I didn’t get the graduation we were promised, nor the normal transition from college to real word. But I’m so grateful for that day… and all the priceless memories I have from my time at Fordham.
Julia Agos (center ,top) is a reporter and the host of All Things Considered for WITF
Hello, I’m Pennsylvania’s First Lady, Frances Wolf.
This year is something that you have looked forward to for a long time. You are graduating and embarking on a new journey full of excitement and possibilities.
Unlike the many classes before you, the joy of your final year was disrupted in ways that none of us could have imagined. You’ve missed out on some of the milestones that have traditionally defined this time of your lives, like prom and graduation ceremonies.
And I am sure that this experience has not lived up to your expectations or dreams.
But one thing that will remain is that YOU DID IT! You have graduated! And whether you are attending college, entering the workforce, or still figuring out what’s next, you should feel a great sense of pride in knowing that you have made it to this point.
It has not been easy navigating these past few months, but your dedication and perseverance have gotten you here. And that same drive will take you far beyond this moment.
So be proud of yourselves because Governor Wolf and I are proud of you all! And we will rise above this moment together, Pennsylvania!
Congratulations, Class of 2020. We cannot wait to see what you accomplish next!
I’m a senior at the beautiful Palmyra Area High School in Palmyra, Pa.
Being a senior and having to leave everything you know behind is hard. But having your last day of school in mid-March without realizing it would be your last day makes it even harder. Although I’m sad COVID-19 took away events like prom and graduation from my class, I’m sadder that it took away our chance to say goodbye. We’ll never have that day we’ve been waiting for for years, that day that we walk the halls, laugh in the cafeteria, and talk to our teachers one last time. Now, when we return to the school next, it’ll be following social distancing guidelines to return textbooks and other equipment. After that, if we come back again, it’ll be on our own as alumni. Everything will be different.
We all thought we had more time together in our building as a class and a family. When we left school on March 12, fully expecting to come back the following Monday, none of us realized that our casual, normal goodbyes would be the last ones we would get to make.
-A
My mother used to say, “when you are handed lemons … make lemonade.” The Newport High School administration did exactly that. As a parent of a graduating senior this year, I am in awe of the administration’s creativity and courage to craft, orchestrate and produce what will be a very memorable occasion for Newport H.S. graduates on June 3rd, the original graduation date.
Graduation 2020 The Movie was no small feat, but from my socially distant perspective (out in the parking lot, trying to capture photos) it went off without a hitch. Not only will parents, family members and graduates be able to go see the movie at the Mifflintown Drive-in that evening, but prior to that we will gather in our cars at the Perry County Fairgrounds in Newport to be led through town by a Newport firetruck to celebrate our seniors this year. Vehicles will be adorned with personalized magnets showcasing each student’s name.
I personally feel the school has gone above and beyond to make this year’s graduation “ceremony” one of the most memorable occasions we could ever hope for. Thank you Newport, and cheers for making lemonade!
-Wendy
Arthur Delivers Class of 2020 Commencement Speech with a Little Help from D.W.
ARTHUR, the longest-running children’s animated series and beloved by kids aged 4-6, is also relevant with the young adults who grew up with Arthur, D.W., their family and friends. Both Newsweek and Time recently reported on the series’ social media popularity. As the COVID-19 pandemic has uprooted plans and expectations, many ARTHUR memes, including one of D.W. longingly looking from behind a fence, have resonated with this years’ graduates. Whether moving on from elementary school, high school or college, the class of 2020 has used the memes to communicate their experiences.
With educational themes like social-emotional learning central to the series’ curriculum, ARTHUR is no stranger to tackling difficult subjects. It has always offered support and insights to children, parents and educators during challenging times, whether around natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, bullying, or civic engagement. Now more than ever, Arthur and D.W. are here to help graduates move into the future.