First Day of (Zoom) School!

1st Day of School Photo

Zoom, Oh Zoom. It's a love/hate relationship.

When I first got accepted into the Master of Higher Education (MSHE) program back in late March 2020, we had just begun the COVID-19 quarantine. I was working remotely full time from home and doing a lot of Zoom meetings. COVID-19 was implied only to be a short term issue, 2 weeks MAX! And then we were going to go back to campus and be business as usual.

Here we are five months later. It's the first day of class. Zoom is a funny thing. I have participated in more Zoom meetings for work then I use to do in-person meetings. Being in front of a camera is challenging; you feel like you need to be "on" all the time, or else the person on the other side of the screen will feel we're not paying attention to them. What gets me the most is the muted silence. It's strange to crack a joke and hear absolutely nothing, but you can visibly see the laughter. It's a modern-day silent movie!

The first day of class is bittersweet. Zoom is not ideal for building a tight-knit cohort, but if we are to become future Student Affairs professionals, we must pivot and adapt because our future students are doing the same thing. My C13 cohort has 45 amazing members from all walks of life and each with a unique educational journey. We are all different, but we have one thing in common: our mission is to help students obtain an education. So here is to my cohort mates, we are in this together! Zooming it until we can be together for the first time.