CATCHING UP WITH THE CLASS OF 2020
BY LAUREN ALPERN
The Class of 2020 graduated from Royal St. George’s College last year without pomp or circumstance. The students spent the last few months of their final year in remote learning, and their graduation celebration consisted of a Layby Parade, where they each had a timeslot to come drive through and pick up a special gift, and a livestream YouTube video in the evening. The plan is to still have a proper graduation ceremony whenever it may be possible. Their first-year university experiences haven’t gone exactly as planned either, but these alumni are making the most of the cards they have been dealt. Please note that interviews were conducted in March, so situations and restrictions may have changed since.
Will Van Nostrand, Western
WILL IS STUDYING ENGINEERING AT WESTERN UNIVERSITY,
and planning to also do the Ivey Honours Business Administration program starting in third year. Will’s cheerful smile, which he’s known for, is still constant despite the fact that he spends most of the time in his room in residence. His room is big because he was supposed to have a roommate, though he has it all to himself. He has decked it out with an exercise bench and other fitness equipment so he’s able to work out. It gives him time and space to take breaks from his classes, most of which are online. “I actually had two in-person chemistry and physics labs, but because of the lockdown for the first part of this semester, they moved them all online. It’s kind of weird to do labs online. We get a Word document with a bunch of data sets and watch a video of someone doing the experiments. It’s definitely not the same hands-on experience that it was supposed to be,” said Will. “I have some Zoom classes, but I prefer to do those in my room on most days. For the others, the work is just assigned and there’s no face-to-face interaction at all.” Will still has one in-person class. The group project class is a full semester and involves two groups of six people spaced out across a huge classroom. He enjoys his live streamed classes, but some are more interactive than others. Some have 200 people, but his business class “only” has 80, making it easier to talk to people on Zoom. “For Calculus, they give us pre-recorded lectures and you have to go through it all yourself. I dread it—it’s not very engaging,” said Will. “You just listen in your room and write down notes. I definitely prefer when there’s a live component. It incentivizes me to get my work done as soon as possible, so I can be prepared for the live class.” Aside from a few people he has met in classes, the only people Will has met are the people who live on his floor in his residence. This is really the only group of people he is allowed to socialize with. Will feels he has lucked out with his “bubble.”
“I think I got pretty lucky with the people I got put on a floor with. We can’t really see anyone else. We can have a few people in our rooms, but not too many. We can also eat with each other, but we have to be spread out across the room,” said Will. “A lot of people on my floor like to go to campus to get food, especially when it’s warm. There are food places that are open for take out, so we’ll go for lunch to grab something and bring it back and eat outside. That’s been nice.” Fellow Georgian Sam Tatoff ’20 happens to be on Will’s floor, and Jack Lacey ’19, who took a Gap year, is on the floor above, so Will gets to see some familiar faces sometimes. As far as extracurriculars go, things haven’t gone exactly as Will envisioned when he signed his acceptance letter. He did, however, join the Western Engineering Concrete Canoe Association. “In a normal year, there’s a competition between a bunch of schools and they make and race the canoes, but they obviously can’t do that this year,” said Will. “We’ve mostly been focusing on research—how to make them better—so it’s not the same experience, but it’s still cool to be a part of it. Even if I can’t be part of what they normally do, it’s been a good experience to see what they’ve done in the past.” COVID is such a huge part of daily life. There was a scare earlier in the summer when there were a few cases on another floor, but it was dealt with quickly. Even when Will went home to visit his family, as he did for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Reading Week, he went to a testing centre on campus to get the all-clear in advance. And while Will keeps on smiling, he is definitely disappointed by his first-year experience. He, like his counterparts, knows what could have been, and what should have been. “It’s pretty tough when I think about what I could have had in a normal first year,” said Will. “I’m happy about my floor, but there’s so much that I’m missing out on. I know I would be meeting so many people and I’d have regular classes.” Of course, Will knows that he will have more years at Western that won’t be affected by COVID, but he’ll never get back his first year. “This is typically when you live in residence and meet a ton of people. You pick your discipline in second year, which is difficult when you’ve met so few peers who you’d normally work with on getting through all the course content,” said Will. “I’m happy I’m here, though.”
Connor von Teichman, Bishop's
CONNOR VON TEICHMAN CHOSE BISHOP’S UNIVERSITY IN LENNOXVILLE, QUEBEC,
because he thought it would be a similar community to RSGC: small campus, small classes, close knit. He wasn’t wrong, but what he didn’t realize was that COVID would make his community even smaller. He has one in-person class— German, with four other students—while the rest are Google Meets or asynchronous video lectures. The Bachelor of Business Administration student still seems to be having a good time, however, and has made some friends on his residence floor during the in-person orientation week and as part of the rugby team, which initially ran practices, but has since stopped training. The school has been quite strict with safety protocols. There are no roommates in residence and at one point when numbers were high, no one was allowed in anyone else’s room. Now, just one person is allowed. There is a curfew after 9:30 pm in the province, though students are allowed out of their rooms on campus until midnight, but only in a designated area.
“They’ll actually hand out tickets and can call the cops,” said Connor. Unfortunately, COVID did strike the residence, impacting many of the students, including Connor. “Yes, I got it too. I wasn’t super affected by it—just achy and tired, and it was right during mid-terms. One of my friends had it really badly,” said Connor. “Seven of us went to quarantine at a house.” Connor is hoping that rugby training and practices will start again soon, and he stays positive by getting outside, keeping active and socializing with the one person who is allowed in his room. He has found the year disappointing though. “Learning online is tough and I find it really hard to pay attention,” said Connor. “Sometimes I think about all that has been lost. Half of the time, I try to make the most of it. The other half, I think ‘this is kind of sucky.’ I’ll talk to older guys and they’ll talk about all of the things they normally do, and I realize we can’t do any of it. I’m excited for next year though. I’m hoping vaccines will change things."
WangWang Wang, University of Waterloo
WHEN WANGWANG WANG SIGNED HIS ACCEPTANCE INTO THE ARCHITECTURE CO-OP PROGRAM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO,
he didn’t envision doing it from his bedroom in Toronto. But when he realized that all of his classes were going to be held online, he made the decision to stay home. While the decision has kept him safe from any COVID outbreaks, it has also prevented him from having any sort of actual university experience. “I pretty much spend 20 hours a day in my bedroom, except for the few hours a day when I go out for a walk,” said WangWang. “I’ve been playing video games online with my RSGC friends, which has been really good. I think I’ve maybe made two new friends in the whole school year so far, and it’s very awkward to do stuff online with them.” While there’s no stress in terms of having to travel to and from school or worry about cooking, there’s also not much motivation. “The first half of the year was pretty exciting because I had just started university, but the second half, I’ve been getting down and it’s been hard to get motivated,” said WangWang. “I’m hoping next year will be better. It’s sort of like, sure, we’re not having much fun right now, but I’m just looking forward to next year. That’s the mind set I have right now.”
WangWang says they have done a great job at moving the Architecture program online. “They’ve actually done much better than I thought. I thought I would have to be there to put stuff together,” said WangWang. “We’re doing more digitalized things and developing our topics that way. That’s a big reason why it still works. I can make my models online.” The hardest part has been connecting with his classmates. “One of the weirdest and hardest things to do is getting to know each other. I’m more focused on art and it’s kind of hard getting motivated by others and their work,” said WangWang. “You’re not there to see what others are doing, which makes it hard to connect. I really spend my free time only with my RSGC friends.” WangWang has found it difficult to stay positive for the second term, but remains in touch with RSGC’s Senior School Social Worker Andrea Kaye, whom he has found to be a big help. Despite a slow start, he is enjoying the school work and the program. As for September 2021, he hopes to move to Waterloo if classes will be in-person. He will stay home again if they continue online. What keeps him uplifted is the relationship he has with his fellow Georgian alumni. “We all have such a strong relationship with each other,” said WangWang. “Playing with them online and talking to them every day is very fulfilling.”
Sam Dumper, Gap Year
SAM DUMPER WAS ALL SET TO HEAD DOWN TO BARD COLLEGE,
a private, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, with a small population of 1,900 students. He had a spot on the baseball team and an academic scholarship. But with the difficult situation at the border because of COVID-19, Sam made a last-minute decision to defer his offer and take a gap year. With low expectations for what the year would bring, Sam has had a year of growth and success. “Taking a gap year ended up being the best decision I’ve ever made. I had an internship back in June within the Ministry of Labour, and as it came to a close, they decided to promote me to full time, so I’ve been working as the Special Assistant to the Minister of Labour, Monte McNaughton,” said Sam. “I thought I was going to be working at a grocery store or something, so I really lucked out. I get to work closely with the Minister and other politicians. Being around the government and seeing them make decisions around COVID has been really cool. I’ve gained a greater appreciation for politics.” While Sam initially spent a lot of time down at Queen’s Park, he has been working from home every day and making the most of it. He has also started an online business, The Muscle Co., selling fitness equipment and clothing. “The company is basically just me. We started as a drop shipping company, selling products from foreign manufacturers that we can sell and rebrand at a local market. Now we have a clothing line with our logo on it. It’s very early on, but I’m hopeful for the future,” said Sam.
“I don’t have to hold inventory—I just send off my logo to a manufacturer and send it directly to them to make whatever the person wants. The hardest part is definitely marketing and finding your market. Everything is super competitive. You can’t just put a product out there and expect it to sell. You have to invest and advertise.” In the meantime, while Sam has had some incredible work experience, it hasn’t been easy when it comes to training for baseball. “Baseball facilities have been closed, gyms have been closed. I work out in my basement and whenever it gets above zero, I’ll go hit and throw outside with my brother. It’s definitely been difficult to do anything,” said Sam. “Even when I was 18 last summer playing with my travel team, it was supposed to be our best year. You’re playing with guys you played with for 10 years. I think we were supposed to go to PEI. It was pretty unfortunate—we maybe played eight games. This summer, the plan is to play on a Junior team with Matteo ’20 and Cristian Forgione ’18. Hopefully things will open up and I’ll get a bunch of my workouts in there.” So, while Sam plans to head to Bard in September to study finance and economics with his spot on the baseball team intact, he has zero regrets about his year off. “I see a bunch of my friends in first year learning a lot, but I know from a lot of them that they’re not experiencing as much as they would have hoped,” said Sam. “I have no regrets about making my decision to defer—especially making money to be able to help pay for school.”
