For University of Minnesota senior Jessica Zmuda, adjusting to online classes this semester because of the pandemic was a challenge.
Being separated from each other made engaging with classmates and learning course material online difficult, she noted. But a common silver lining for Zmuda and other university students emerged: Many found themselves spending quality time with friends and family. And others said they were able to take on new interests and seek out creative opportunities that may not have been available to them otherwise.
Zmuda’s family lives an hour north of the Twin Cities and finding time to visit them between classes and work in the past has been tough. When courses shifted online for the coronavirus outbreak, she was able to go home for nearly six months and spend time with her family and their three dogs.
“We usually never get to be around each other for that often. And family time together was really significant for me,” she said.
Recently engaged, Zmuda said the pandemic allowed her to spend more time with her fiancé, taking walks around Van Cleve Park in Minneapolis and studying outside when the weather allowed it.
Despite the toll of online classes, she was also able to take a job digitizing dried plant specimens in the University’s Herbarium collection this semester, getting experience she wouldn’t have the opportunity to do under non-pandemic circumstances.
THE MOTIVATED ADAPT
Miles Mullen, a freshman at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, said although he also feels like online classes have made it harder to learn, the pandemic has forced him to get more creative as a photography major.
“It definitely has motivated me to … think outside the box,” Mullen said. His trademark is street photography, where he walks around and takes pictures of what he sees. That typically means people, which gets tough “when everyone stays inside.”
So before, where he would showcase the character of a location through people, he now photographs buildings and tries to describe the artistry of an area through the architecture.
“I’m taking photos more sparingly now,” he said. “It’s like I have to take the perfect angle of the perfect object.”
Mullen said he has been able to get more experience photographing different subjects and styles. Not only has he done more fine-art photography for class, but he got experience in a journalistic setting too while photographing the unrest that following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May.
Describing himself as an introvert at heart, Mullen said he expected to spend much of his time in his room at college even under non-pandemic circumstances. But this year, after bonding with a core group of friends, he said they’ve been able to do virtual movie nights together and some even pose as subjects for his photoshoots.
“Having the number of friends that I do now (and) an established friend group is kind of surprising,” he said. “I was kind of expecting the whole year to be in limbo for everyone.”
KEEPING A SENSE OF NORMALCY
“If you find the good in a situation, it’ll be so much easier to get through the bad,” said University of Minnesota senior Grace Enfield.
A director of the University’s dance club, the Dance Collective, Enfield said the club was able to adapt to the pandemic by cutting down the number of dances performed each semester and limiting the number of people involved at any given time. The collective also made sure all dancers were masked and socially distanced.
“These people have been my friends since I started going to school here. They’re my second home,” said Enfield, a journalism student. “Since we canceled the show last semester, and it was the show that I was really looking forward to, I just felt heartbroken. Like a little piece of me just was taken away by something that was out of my hands.”
Going to Dance Collective twice a week helped her see old friends and get out of her house, as has spending time with her boyfriend. She’s also been able to get into reading and digital drawing too.
“This whole year has been really pessimistic, and bad things have happened every single month,” she said, “so looking forward to something is a much better way to go about living right now.”
ABOUT THIS STORY
COVID-19 took a lot from Minnesotans: their fun, their livelihoods and, for 5,000, their very lives. As we surveyed the wreckage of 2020, we also saw the silver linings that came out of the pandemic for this daily series of stories. Other silver linings:
CHRISTMAS: Churches ‘making the best’ of the pandemic; giving is up and seniors adapt to online
SATURDAY: A gift from COVID: No crowds on freeways or mass transit
SUNDAY: Families add hockey rinks, adopt kittens to help each other cope through pandemic
MONDAY: Pandemic spurs teachers to find ways to keep kids reading
To read more articles on the pandemic, go online to twincities.com/tag/coronavirus
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Students find opportunities for growth, quality time in pandemic - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
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