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The University of Illinois Chicago, still requires masks and social distancing and/or some combination of COVID-19 health practices. Despite this, students are still eager to return to having face-to-face interaction. A study of COVID-19 on college students by Stephanie Marken, from Gallup, discussed the impact of students’ support networks during the pandemic. Students and faculty at the University of Illinois Chicago provided a few firsthand accounts from to compare their responses with what the study showed; Support networks at home played an important role in students’ education during the pandemic.

“I started out pretty strong,” said Erin Dashnaw, a junior Public Health major at UIC. “A lot of the professors would just upload everything and so I could just do it at my own pace. Then they [the professors] stopped doing that, and I started doing way worse.”

Commuting has also been a major complaint from students returning to in-person classes. “The commute sucks pretty hard. It’s damn near an hour if shit doesn’t go wrong, which is like, what, half the time? It sucks,” said Ben Jacobi, a Biochemistry major at UIC who also uses public transit to get to school.

Traversing back and forth aside, students were also excited to discuss the upsides of returning. Kevin Aguilar, a Software Engineering major at UIC, said he was most looking forward to “actual discussions.” Elaborating, he adds, “It’s a lot more engaging in person. I’m [also] much more comfortable talking to the professors or TA’s.” These are sentiments that seem to be shared by most students.

The feelings and perspectives of students also seemed to be correlated to the strength of their support networks during and after the pandemic. “During the lockdown, I had a medium support network I guess. It was just me and my husband,” said Dashnaw. She explained how his positivity and reluctance to help push and motivate her would often trigger her anxiety. “We didn’t ever quite find that balance.”

According to the Lumina-Gallup Student Study, 62% of students pursuing a bachelor’s degree strongly disagreed that they had a support system during the pandemic. This was yet another common theme. Everyone spent most of the “lockdown” portion of the pandemic confined to their homes, with only those within for support. While some had supportive partners who had the best intentions, that support didn’t always come in the way it was needed.

“I was still living at home during the pandemic and my parents and sister were the worst,” recounted Sarah Barnes, a Psychology major at UIC. “They would always be so loud in the background since I didn’t have anywhere quiet in the house. I would always be embarrassed to unmute my mic during class on zoom. Plus, my parents still acted like I was in high school and [were] always trying to make me do my work before I could do literally anything else.”

Years as someone’s only support can be draining for anyone. This can come in the form of being desensitized to their problems or just a matter of running out of advice and comfort to offer. “I was dating this girl for a few months when the pandemic started,” said Aguilar. “We ended up breaking up since we couldn’t really see each other because of the lockdown. I was pretty depressed about it for a while and that made schoolwork even harder.” Unfortunately, the results of the study, as well as the student’s personal accounts, exemplified the impact that lacking a support network can have on your educational career.

Some students have worked to expand their support network to include other students as well. “It’s a bigger network now. Even going to school a few times a week… adds an amount of positive pressure,” noted Dashnaw. She wasn’t the only one to increase their support network either. Aguilar also hit the ground running, saying “I’ve already made some friends to talk about school with. Plus, we do a lot of group work in most of my classes which helps me feel supported,” said Aguilar. It seems like students are considerably more optimistic about the coming semesters and being back to having face-to-face classes and encounters.

Teachers, like students, were also facing many challenges during the pandemic. Many educators use a multitude of teaching methods, including writing, reading, visual aids, hands-on practice, etc. For a very hands-on and visual type of professor, Dr. Claudio Ugalde, a Physics professor at UIC, had particular difficulty in adapting to online learning. “It was very difficult. The students are not able to learn as well over video,” said Dr. Ugalde. “I also didn’t have enough space to show examples like I would have liked to. I think the Universities could all have aided the educators more. The dissemination of information was pretty bad, unfortunately.” It wasn’t all downsides though. He continued, “There were many professors that collaborated more and provided great resources to one another.” Despite not receiving the support needed from the universities, it is a comfort to learn that the community of educators remained tightly knit by providing help, resources, and support to one another. If there is anything to be learned from the pandemic, it would be how a strong support network can help people through even the most difficult of times.