When a snowstorm forced UPrep to close campus and go online on Feb. 6-7, it was a stark reminder of five years ago when COVID-19 changed the world forever, taking the community along with it.
The pandemic shut the school down on March 10, 2020, with many teachers and administrators believing they would return two weeks later. Little did they know that the whole school would not reunite for more than 412 days.
Director of Upper School Susie Wu recalls not knowing if the school could ever return to ordinary.
“I just remember that time period where we didn’t quite believe that everything was going to be completely normal from this point on,” Wu said. “There was this kind of rebuilding that needed to happen in our community.”
However, Wu is optimistic about the future of the school moving on from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I do feel like we’ve now kind of moved into that phase where we’re reaffirming the values,” Wu said. “It’s a new version of what it was back in 2018, and that’s good because I think that it involved all the students and all the adults rebuilding into the community that we are now.”
History teacher Pat Grant, who has taught at UPrep for 40 years, noticed a major downgrade in his students’ learning experience during the shutdown.
“There is a tremendous value in having those in-person connections, not just for the social side of life,” Grant said. “Your learning is enhanced by being in a room with other people who are present around you, and it’s not quite the same when you try to learn it through your laptop from home or from a book.”
He is grateful that the school was able to recover.
“I think that we kind of appreciate being here in a brick and mortar school,” Grant said. “There’s something about being in a community, in-person, that we value a little bit more than we used to.”
Senior Philip Curran compares his class, who learned online during seventh and eighth grade, to that of the rest of the school.
“I think that our maturity as a grade is kind of underdeveloped,” Curran said. “I think we did miss pivotal years of just learning how to socialize with peers and grow with others.”
He emphasizes the importance of being with others and believes that was the biggest loss of the shutdown.
“It was definitely weird. No one had seen each other in 1 1/2 years, and a lot of social interactions that a lot of kids that age should have gotten, we didn’t get,” Curran said. “We basically were pushed back a year and a half of emotional maturity and how to be with others.”
The impact of COVID-19 was not just difficult for the students.
“Those were probably the hardest years I have ever experienced in this field, in my career,” Wu said. “I think the more distant I can get away from that, the better. But also, I think being able to say, we were here during that time, I think we’ll always mark this time in our history.”
Curran highlights a familiar feeling among the community returning to virtual classes after finally leaving COVID behind.
“I thought to myself, ‘How did I go 1 1/2 years during COVID on Zoom?’” Curran said. “Because I just felt so disconnected from school during the few snow days.”
The COVID-19 pandemic will forever be a piece of the school’s and students’ history.
“I definitely will remember it for different reasons,” Curran said. “I just felt so disconnected, but it was a part of my experience.”
