St. Mark’s Stays Prepared

    Jonathan Hernandez ‘24

On August 31, 2020, St. Mark’s released its School Operations Evaluation Criteria, which was made to describe the criteria St. Mark’s is using to evaluate if the school’s operations need to be adjusted during this school year. One of the facilities highlighted in the Criteria was the Health Services annex. 

(The layout of the annex)

The Director of Health Services, Adria Pavletic, was able to help explain the annex’s role this year. She first gave thanks to Ms. Duran, Director of Facilities, and her facilities team for making the annex a cheerful and comfortable place. Due to COVID-19 having a variety of symptoms, any student who exhibits any signs of infectious disease will be admitted to the annex. Ms. Pavletic noted how some of the symptoms may include “nasal congestion, sore throat, nausea, headache, or just feeling unwell in general.” 

When a student is admitted, the health services nurses are to assess the student and determine what the proper plan of care will be. However, if an individual is seriously ill, they are to be taken to a local hospital for care. Ms. Pavletic gives thanks for the COVID-19 PCR testing that is available to the St. Mark’s community, which is performed each week so that the Health Services Office can track cases, if any.

The school has also taken many other precautions to ensure the safety of the student body and the faculty and staff. They have ensured that classroom spaces are disinfected after each class and that common areas in houses and that commonly used spaces are disinfected throughout the day.

The school has also encouraged students to wash their hands frequently and effectively and require students to wear effective face masks of multiple fabric layers, physical distance, and submit a daily health check. 

As of now, there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 at St. Mark’s. The precautions have ensured that St. Mark’s has not had a case of COVID-19 and will help the community be prepared for the next semester if COVID-19 is still present in the winter. 

Haiti Partnership Remains Strong

By Diana Oh ‘24

The Haiti Partnership consists of about 30 students and faculty members and is a partnership between St. Mark’s School and St. Marguerite’s School in La Tournelle, Haiti. The partnership allows St. Markers to better understand the Haitian culture and provides opportunity make special connections with students in Haiti. The three main branches of the partnership are fundraising, education/outreach, and communication.

Located in the Caribbean, Haiti is a country that includes the western part of the Island of Hispaniola and smaller islands such as Vauche, Grande Caye, and Gonâve. In 2010, Haiti went through one of the most catastrophic disasters, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0, barely 25km from the capital, Port-au-Prince. The earthquake caused 250,000 casualties, 300,000 injuries, and 1.3 million people lost their homes. Less than 10 months away from the destruction, a cholera outbreak exacerbated the situation. Even today, many Haitians suffer from poor sanitation and scarcity of food. 

Annually, students and faculty members of St. Mark’s visit St. Marguerite’s school, where they build special relationships. Although the current COVID-19 pandemic does not allow regular visits, meetings will be held regularly via Zoom. For example, regular discussions meetings with school administrators and church leaders are held to discuss how to improve the school system and community. Furthermore, since 2012, St. Mark’s has raised thousands of dollars through annual hikes to Henninger Flats, a journey whose distance represents how long a student of St. Marguerite’s takes to go to school each day. Classroom materials, friendship bracelets and hundreds of seed packets were also sent to St. Marguerite’s church to help them with the lack of food and supplies. Moreover, the St. Mark’s community provides funding for the lunch of more than 180 students in the St. Marguerite School, which annually costs over $20,000. 

Annually, students and faculty members of St. Mark’s visit St. Marguerite’s school, where they build special relationships. Although the current COVID-19 pandemic does not allow regular visits, meetings will be held regularly via Zoom. For example, regular discussions meetings with school administrators and church leaders are held to discuss how to improve the school system and community. Furthermore, since 2012, St. Mark’s has raised thousands of dollars through annual hikes to Henninger Flats, a journey whose distance represents how long a student of St. Marguerite’s takes to go to school each day. Classroom materials, friendship bracelets and hundreds of seed packets were also sent to St. Marguerite’s church to help them with the lack of food and supplies. Moreover, the St. Mark’s community provides funding for the lunch of more than 180 students in the St. Marguerite School, which annually costs over $20,000. 

Also, the funds help pay the teachers’ salaries. Before the COVID 19 pandemic broke out, chapel received coin donations and canned food for the St. Marguerite’s lunch program. 

On November 17th, from 10:30 a.m to 12:30 p.m , a letter writing event was held on the VIth form quad. Sending letters is a very effective way to connect two different communities together. By exchanging and receiving letters from the students of St. Marguerite, we will be able to maintain our relationship with the,.

Elise Gobron, the co-head of the Haiti Partnership talked about the importance of communication and her excitement about this exchange of letters: “Since it has been three years since we have had the opportunity to travel to Haiti and make those face-to-face connections, finding creative ways to connect with our partner school has definitely been a priority! I am so excited to have the whole school participate and send meaningful handwritten letters to our partner school, I think this will be a really great way to connect on a more tangible level!”

One goal for the future is to provide St. Marguerite’s with books and supplies to increase the quality of education for the students. In addition, faculty are considering extending the St. Marguerite’s school to 12th grade, as currently it only supports from kindergarten to 10th grade. Last but not least, continuing to improve friendships with the St. Marguerite community is also a major goal.

Affinity Groups and Club Meetings Reconnect St. Markers from Around the Globe

By Mandy Hui ‘23

St. Mark’s students are academically driven, tackling rigorous classes, and trying their best to excel in all of their courses. However, students’ social lives should be considered just as important as their academic lives. A lot of the students are still trying to discover their identities and explore different activities they may take an interest in. Fortunately, St. Mark’s has a variety of clubs and affinity groups, bringing together people with shared interests or of the same cultural, religious, ethnic, sexual, and gender identity.

Due to the Coronavirus, not all students can physically be on campus, but modern-day technology helps overcome this challenge. Remote students feel more isolated because they cannot socialize with their friends at school. Thus, clubs and affinity groups meetings are great opportunities for remote students and in-person learners to reconnect over similar hobbies and cultures.

Every week, there is an array of meetings students and faculty members can participate. There are over thirty clubs that are all student led, and each club is required to organize a meeting weekly, and affinity groups are expected to connect twice a month. The types of clubs range from debate club and book club, to dance club and mountain skiing club; the variation of clubs ensures that each student in the school will have at least one club that piques their interests.

In contrast, St. Mark’s affinity groups are clubs that categorize people by their racial, sexual, and gender identity, building a safe space for students to share their feelings and struggles with peers who may be going through a similar experience because of their identity. Examples of such affinity groups include: Black Lives Union (BLU), Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA), Southborough Society, and many more. There are times when two different affinity groups will have merged meetings, discussing problems that overlap and concern both groups. 

Every student is going through a lot currently because of the global pandemic. Hopefully, club meetings and affinity groups will help ease students’ stress and tensions, making it easier for students to navigate their way through this academic year. With students supporting each other, it will help strengthen the community as a whole.

The Global Citizenship Programs Shift Gears

By Suha Choi’22

One of the advantages of a St. Mark’s education is that students have a number of exchange programs and other global citizenship opportunities that allow students to immerse in learning at different places around the world. Some St. Markers whose plans were to attend such programs in this 2020-2021 academic year shared how the pandemic has affected their plans and/or experiences with the programs.

Sadly, the School Year Abroad programs which allow students to have an exchange program in France, Italy, China, or Spain have been canceled. Maya Scully ‘22, who had initially applied for a trip to China, faced many changes in her plan due to the uncertainty that was laid ahead of her. She explains that she was going to hear back from the school in China about her acceptance by mid-March, but the program was canceled because of the spread of Coronavirus.

The SYA program allowed some applicants in similar situations to re-apply for different schools. Maya took advantage of that and reapplied to a program in Spain. She shares, “I was very excited when I found out that I got accepted into the SYA Spain, but then quarantine happened, and my family and I decided that it would be better for me to stay home for the following year.” Maya and many students in the same situation as her have been keeping up with academics at St. Mark’s, as their programs have been canceled.

Dr. Warren also explained that “[the SYA program] initially canceled only the fall, but the rise in the pandemic numbers in Europe and the new restrictions put into place have made it impossible for the programs to continue.” However, she hopes that by next fall the programs will be able to run again and that students can immerse in captivating experiences such as the School Year Abroad program. 

On the other hand, some semester programs have– very thankfully– been doing much better because students found in-person learning to be safe. Dr. Warren explains, “Because the groups are small and much of the work is done outdoors they are able to spend much of the day unmasked, so it looks pre-COVID in the photos of those campuses.” Kendall Sommers ’ 22 spent her fall at Vermont as she was participating in the Mountain School of Milton Academy. She shares that not only did she have some great experiences but also that the program adhered to safety protocols to avoid the spread of COVID-19. Kendall told, “We started online for a week and were all required to quarantine for 2 weeks. Then, when we got on campus, we all wore masks even in the forms with roommates for a week.” They got tested again and were then allowed to take off their masks inside their dorms composed of 5 to 11 people.

The program made sure to have everyone tested several times and that students stay distant from other dorms. While the students were in their “little bubbles,” the program switched up these bubbles every 2 weeks followed by testing, which allowed interactions with everyone in the program. These guidelines followed throughout the whole program, including having to wear masks when they were in vehicles, getting food, or when there were many people in one space. They also had morning check-ins for symptoms. Most importantly, Kendall has loved the experience and thinks that the best part was getting to know everyone and interact with them in dorms. She also loved the “solo camping trip” that was a part of the Mountain School program.   

In addition to the School Year Abroad programs and the Mountain School, short weekend conferences such as the Social Justice Leadership Institute have been occurring online to continue their programs despite the unprecedented circumstances. The global diploma cohort students, too, have been gathering monthly via zoom to pursue their understanding of global citizenship. Dr. Warren– the director of the global citizenship program at St. Mark– has further shared her plans to create more virtual programs to make up for the loss of in-person programs. 

Remote Chapel: Celebration of Self-Appreciation

By Yoonjeong Yang ’24

The sense of community has transcended the physical distance between us. On September 15th, the first chapel of the year happened virtually, bringing the St. Mark’s student body, faculty, and staff together. Despite the shift from offline to online, the chapel successfully presented musical performances by St. Markers, school prayers, as well as a senior chapel talk– many St. Markers’ favorites– by the student monitor Lily Wang Luo. Taking an advantage of the new online format, Lily presented her story and journey leading up to St. Mark’s through a video. Her talk about identity and confronting challenges due to her race has deeply resonated with me as much as it did for many others. This article shares some key take-aways and reflections on her chapel talk.

Under Chinese parents, Lily was born born in Peru. Her family then moved to Brazil and attended a local school in Novo Hamburgo with native Brazilians, where she would learn the Portuguese language and about the Brazilian culture. Despite how accustomed she was to the language and culture, Lily was still considered a racial minority in Brazil as an Asian immigrant, being conflicted between her ethnic Chinese identity and Brazilian cultural identity. Her struggles about racial identity continued when she transferred to an international school in China, where most students were now ethnic Chinese who were fluent in both Chinese and English. Moving from Brazil to China further deepened Lily’s questions about her identity, for she was neither fluent in either language nor the culture of her supposed “home” country. Wanting to fit in, she at first chose silence about her Latin American identity while westernizing herself. However, she realized that the harder she tried, only the lonelier and dissatisfied would she grow. 

Then, she moved to St. Mark’s. During her early times at St. Mark’s, she still felt apprehensive about people assuming her background by her looks because of her prior experiences. To her surprise, people at St. Mark’s were much more sensitive about one’s identity and multi-cultural backgrounds. This surprise, followed by great delight, motivated her to reach out to people with different backgrounds and diverse student groups. Doing so allowed her to fully express her true self while also hearing about other people’s stories. Through these meaningful interactions, she felt confident that the relationships built here at St. Mark’s would be deep and lasting ones. While it is true that not all of us may relate to Lily’s experiences, the moral of her story points to something that we can all learn from: building relationships with open-minded and supportive people has the power to heal struggles about your identity, develop empathy, and ultimately lead to self-acceptance and self-appreciation. 

Lily’s talk reminded me of my own struggles to adapt to a new culture and social atmosphere when I first moved to the U.S. I underwent similar stereotypes and judgments made by my peers. Like Lily, I too chose to show the things that were expected from others, despite the feelings of self-loss it brought to me. At my previous school, I remember having to veil my failure, fear, or sadness and refrain from trying new things because of my worries about failing. At last, I found people at the school who would encourage me to step outside my comfort zones. This was a turning point in my life where I began to challenge myself every day to try new pursuits. I no longer closed myself to limited perspectives and went to explore different things.

Just as much as Lily’s speech resonated with me, I hope that her powerful speech has impacted many other’s thoughts about identity. Taking from Lily’s advice, we should continue to step out of our comfort zone through actively reaching out to people from different backgrounds. Lily’s chapel talk was also a reminder of the importance of community and how it shapes our identity. While we live through unprecedented times, self-acceptance and open-mindedness are things we should continue to strive for. Everyone at St. Mark’s has a story of their own to bring to the table, and these unique experiences build up the community that we are.

Here is a link to Lily’s chapel talk: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LXMmURGOGDm95lj20H-811ZPyDfqfwAE/view?usp=sharing.

Students don’t Dress Down Dress Code

By Jonathan Hernandez ‘24

St. Mark’s has adopted a new dress code for class time for this academic year. In light of the pandemic, and the hybrid learning environment that has been created, St. Mark’s has altered its clothing expectations for “health, comfort, and practicality” during COVID-19 as stated in the Dress Code Expectations. In previous years, St. Mark’s has required students to dress in “business casual.” However, this year, the new relaxed dress code has been introduced, which still follows the idea of students’ dress being “appropriate for the work and respectful of the community.” Thus, underwear is still not outerwear and distracting attire is still not permitted. If you were planning on wearing pajama pants to class, the dress code is NOT that relaxed.

History of St. Mark’s Dress Code

“From its earliest days, there was a strict dress code for students (all boys for its first 110 years or so)” says Nick Noble, School Historian. A jacket and tie were required in all classes and at meals during the week, but they were not required for lunches and dinners on game days. Jackets and ties were also required for the chapel which took place every day of the week except on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Moreover, suits were required for certain major school events and Sunday chapel which was mandatory for all students if they were not attending services at their own religious institution. This dress code was in place for the first hundred years of St. Mark’s history. Additionally, there were requirements for hair, too. If a teacher told you to “get a haircut,” you did.

During the 1960s, St. Mark’s relaxed the dress code and expanded the definition of a jacket to include different colors. “Formal School Dress” (Our Chapel Dress) still required suits, but this wasn’t always enforced, if the entire ensemble was dark and conservative. The hair length regulation was also relaxed and became more specific. Some of the rules included that “eyes must be visible”; “hair cannot completely cover the ears,”; and “hair cannot be longer than the collar of your shirt/jacket.” There were fewer chapel services as well.

In the 1970s, hair length adhering to the dress code for boys became difficult to enforce. There was a cultural shift in men’s hair in part due to the rebelliousness of the 1960s that challenged traditional short-hair for men. Longer hair was in for boys. St. Mark’s responded by adding greater specificity to the dress code requiring “eyes must be visible”, “hair cannot completely cover the ears” and “hair cannot be longer than the collar of your shirt/jacket” to address potential violations regarding hair length.

With the emergence of coeducation in the 1970s, St. Mark’s added a dress code for girls. The first girls that attended St. Mark’s in 1972 were from the Southborough School who had a formal dress code that included a uniform green shirt and green blazer with gold and yellow insignia. This formal dress code only lasted one or two years. As a more liberal and progressive school than St. Mark’s at the time, the Southborough school had a more relaxed regular dress code for girls that included button shirts, skirts, khaki pants or dresses. St. Mark’s became fully co-education in the fall of 1977. Ms. Putnam, who’s been at St. Mark’s for 42 years, recalls from her high school years the tension between what girls thought was appropriate attire (really short mini-skirts) and what the administration deemed acceptable. This is not unique to St. Mark’s by any means, but a reflection of social and cultural norms.

In the early 1980s, the dress code was relaxed even more by headmaster Mark Barlow, according to Mr. Noble. “Neat, presentable, and appropriate” became the guidelines for the dress code as jackets and ties were no longer required during the school day while “Chapel Dress” was still required for major school events and evening services. “Any changes over the last 25 years have been adjustments to that change” reported Mr. Noble.

Dress Code for 2020-2021 School Year

Before this academic year, St. Mark’s announced its plan for a relaxed dress code during COVID-19. Dr. Warren, Head of School, reported that they “began thinking about dress code during the summer, as we planned for 2020-21.” Dr. Warren further said that “if students learning remotely are dressed in a casual way, then students who are learning at St. Mark’s should also be able to dress in a casual way.” But, again, no pajama pants nor bunny slippers in class. Casual wear does have its limits. As someone who just spent 13 years in Arizona where t-shirts and shorts are worn throughout the entire school year, I can assure you that casual attire has different meanings in different parts of the country. Some New England casual attire would be considered formal attire in the Southwest.

One of the biggest changes for the relaxed dress code is that Chapel Dress has been temporarily suspended. Additionally, St. Mark’s is allowing students to wear sweatshirts other than St. Mark’s Sweatshirts.

Reactions to the Relaxed Dress Code from the St. Mark’s Community

I asked our St. Mark’s community about the relaxed dress code. Most responses were positive. “I think it will make life easier for students and families and is a fair solution given that remote students can wear whatever they like” said Ms. Pavletic, Director of Health Services. Ms. Roussinos, modern language faculty and Thayer house head, stated “I think the school will be positively affected by the change in dress code. It will allow students to be less stressed about how they might abide by dress code rules, and more focused on other health and wellness issues.” Ms. Roussinos also added, “I am super excited about the relaxed dress code! It means I don’t have to pretend to patrol students who are out of dress code (Sorry, Vac!!) and focus on more essential tasks at hand.”

Eighty-five percent of students who responded to my survey were very excited about the changes in the dress code. “I believe that the relaxed dress code will relax students in the hectic state of this school year. I think that with all that is going on it will be one less thing to worry about,” said V former Sydni Williams. Like many others, Ms. Williams was most excited about wearing non-St. Mark’s sweatshirts. Delaney Grace, VI former, is also enthused about the change: “I think that we have more freedom to dress how we want all while being presentable and ready to learn! Blue jeans, leggings, non SM sweatshirts can all be worn as long as we look ready to learn. Thank you, Mr. Vachris.” Harlan Jackson, IV form, believes that the relaxed dress code “will lead to a more lively atmosphere.” Of those students that responded positively about the relaxed dress code, 38% of them expressed that they were most excited about being able to wear non-St. Mark’s sweatshirts. Some students believed that the relaxed dress code would eliminate needless pressure and an opportunity to express themselves more allowing for greater diversity in campus dress.

Of the forty individuals who responded to the survey, however, 15% of students were not enthused about this change to the dress code. Pearse MacDonald, a IV form, believes that “things will be more lazy,” while another student expressed that a more relaxed environment “might negatively affect motivation.” Ezio Salem, III form, believes, “It will look less formal” and this could negatively impact St. Mark’s. Other comments included, “I want to continue to look more presentable for school so I hope most people won’t just wear more casual clothes all the time.” So, please, please reserve your bunny slippers and pajama pants for your dorm room or at home.

It is clear that there are many individuals, both students and staff who are enthusiastic about the relaxed dress code. “What we wear changes and responds to trends in culture, fashion and marketing,” according to Ms. Putnam. Dress codes attempt to help us express ourselves without breaking decorum or making others feel uncomfortable. “Being proud of who you are and wearing clothing that you can be comfortable wearing, that describes you, is one of the ways that we speak nonverbally,” stated Ms. Putnam. She further added, “We all live together in a community and that generally means some compromise.” COVID-19 has upended our lives in so many ways and many at St. Mark’s are grateful for the relaxed dress.

St. Markers’ find Silver Linings this summer

By Sophie Chiang ‘23

The months and months of quarantine we all faced consisted of a lot of Netflix, food binges, and unnecessary all-nighters. For a lot of us, there was simply just not enough to do. However, a few St. Markers used this sudden abundance of time to accomplish things they wouldn’t have otherwise. 

With the rise of racial unrest, Darius Wagner ’23 felt a fierce obligation to contribute to the Black Lives Matter movement. He immediately sprang into action, deciding that he needed to make his voice heard. An organization called Educators for Justice reached out to him to be the student speaker for a protest. Darius and the protestors marched as one from downtown Brooklyn, across the Brooklyn bridge, all the way to city hall. “I made my voice heard because complacency wasn’t a choice,” Wagner stated. His powerful speech stirred many, and every step he took in the protest was a step for the Black Lives Matter movement. 

For Bryan Chiang ’23, the pandemic led him and his family to spend the summer in Taiwan. Taiwan is one of the world’s leaders in the manufacturing of semiconductors, and Bryan took advantage of this to take up an internship at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. During his time there, he learned how to make a healable semiconductor that can repair itself upon contact with another semiconductor. Semiconductors are materials that only conduct electricity some of the time. This makes it an excellent component for diodes, transistors, integrated circuits, and other electronic devices. It has many applications in the real world, including producing electronic skin. Bryan felt very fulfilled after this once-in-a-lifetime experience, saying, “if it weren’t for quarantine, I wouldn’t have been in Taiwan, and I wouldn’t have been able to collaborate with the professor to work on this project. I now have much more interest and confidence in the field of technology.” 

For many non-native English speakers, affording English language education is not an option. However, not knowing English, in today’s increasingly Global community, closes doors for many. Christine Ling ’23 decided that she would give as many people as she could the opportunity to learn the language. She started a program to teach English to local kids aged 7-8 who wouldn’t have this opportunity otherwise, holding weekly Zoom sessions with them. Christine admits that the kids were very loud and challenging to work with, saying, “it was very challenging to control a group of kids over zoom, but it was a good challenge that I learned a lot from. I learned leadership skills, patience, and how to be creative, since teaching over Zoom isn’t always the easiest. I had to come up with a series of games such as dictionary and bingo in order to engage them.” All in all, Christine was glad that she got to accomplish something like this, saying that it was fulfilling to see these kids’ growth over the 8 weeks that they worked together.

Fiona Tran ‘23 also took the opportunity to connect English learners to teaching centers. During quarantine, she joined as an intern at an educational consulting company her friend had introduced her to. After she joined in mid-July, her job was to sit down with her partners to find quality teaching centers in Hanoi, Vietnam. When there were clients, Fiona personally consulted them on their English learning path to maximize their financial situation and to help them find a teaching center that fits their needs.

Quarantine was the last thing that we all would want. However, our St. Markers show that good things can come from bad situations, and that it can lead us to accomplish things we never thought possible. Do you have a silver lining story you would like to share with the community. . .. . . ?

New Challenges of Remote and in-person learning

By Sunny Li’ 22

For the first time since the founding of St.Mark’s, the school year has started with no students physically present on campus. Taking courses fully online, nevertheless, was not anew to any of us here. Since as early as March, St.Markers have been asked to live remotely from school. After months and months of hoping to reunite on campus and to start our normal lives, the pandemic still left us scattered around the world. During the spring of last year when we were physically apart from one another, it was not uncommon for us to feel isolated and to lack self-motivation. In times like this, a structural lifestyle became indispensable to our healthy mindsets. As classes constitute the main part of our lives, the St.Mark’s schedule plays a pivotal rule in shaping our daily routine, and therefore, helping us with effective learning.

The last school year ended with online learning. Considering how students might not focus as well as they did with in-person learning, St.Mark’s designed each class to meet for only short periods of time—two twenty-minute blocks each week. Teachers also held asynchronous sessions and office hours for those who need additional help. With little time meeting as a class, all students were encouraged to learn and complete assignments in their own times. Under this schedule, classes served as a check-in meeting and were mostly for group discussions. Certainly, there was a lot of flexibility for students in deciding their own tasks. Especially, with the cancellation of all sports events, each student had plenty of time dedicated to academic work. Personally, I found myself working productively under such a schedule—a minimum meeting time with sufficient time for self-learning.

In this new school year of 2020-21, St.Mark’s had adopted a new class schedule that resembled a normal in-person learning schedule. Meanwhile, the school aimed to accommodate the different time zones that students are located in: classes follow the usual color-block schedule with each class meeting three times a week—two long blocks and one short block. For international students, especially those located in Asia, not all three classes are required. They are given the option or even encouraged to “miss” any classes after 12:00 pm EST. While sticking to long blocks that go up to ninety minutes, the schedule allows international students to learn in times that best work for them. In my opinion, however, meeting for longer periods of time served as a disadvantage for one to focus. Paying full attention to online classes was already more challenging than learning in person. Short meetings can still instigate active thinking and volunteering responses in class; long meeting blocks, on the other hand, easily become dull for some students in the end. Another challenge faced by all students is the new mode of hybrid learning. Teachers need to interact with students who are learning online while they write on the whiteboard, assign groups, and teach in-person students. The already complicated issue with online learning now adds up with the task of teaching in-person students in the most effective way. Oftentimes, technical difficulties emerge, including bad sound quality and bad location of the camera. Without being able to fully participate in class due to these technical issues, online students could easily feel “left-out” or be easily distracted by things unrelated to class.

There is no perfect solution in times like this. As much as every one of us is eager to get back to normal school life, we need to first devote our energy to cope with the difficulties in remote learning. Full attention, self-motivation, productivity, these qualities that were once present in our school lives become what we need to search for deliberately in today’s learning. Despite the challenges we face, I’m fully confident that St.Markers will overcome them and discover a best learning attitude. After all, we do what we do best. Age Quod Agis!

COVID-19 Influence on Current Mental Health Trend

By Ingrid Yeung ‘23

Fear, stress, isolation, and anxiousness became predominant factors of life in the chaotic year of 2020. The COVID-19 forced people to adjust their way of working, studying, and living. Self-quarantine limited many outdoor activities and opportunities. Schools and work turned online, many people who were not able to work online had to risk their health to work, and more even lost their jobs and became unemployed. With more than 30 million confirmed cases, this worldwide pandemic had already resulted in more than 1 million deaths until the end of August.  What we don't see behind the numbers of confirmed cases and deaths are people who suffered from the side effects of this pandemic. According to Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBX) Health Index, New York county, which has one of the highest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases, has a 38% greater prevalence of depression compared to the national standard. Currently, a large portion of the population is suffering from unemployment and mounting loneliness, which could lead to depression and other mental health problems. 

(European Commission - Europa EU)

The unemployment rate ties closely with mental health issues. As more people lose jobs due to the pandemic, the depression rate rose. The longer people remain unemployed, the more they undergo depression. For people suffering from job losses of three to five weeks, 10% show symptoms of depression. However, for those who are unemployed for a year or more, the number rose to 19%.

The current unemployment rate in the US had reached its historical peak in April 2020, with 14.7%, meaning that in every 10 people you meet, there will likely be one unemployed person. Such a terrible number of unemployed people indicate that there is an evergrowing mental health issue within our society. Governments had made efforts to lower unemployment rates by restarting businesses and giving out subsidies, but they did not seem to provide concrete support for the unemployed population. Therefore, unemployment will remain a vital problem and an essential factor for the rising mental health issues if COVID-19 continues to strike the world. 

(Prosperity Connection)

For those working and studying online, the cumulating loneliness is also an essential factor influencing mental health. During quarantine, many had to abandon their normal ways of life, spending most of their time online. The lack of physical activity and communication left people in complete isolation. When quarantined at home, it is normal for people to overthink and stress themselves. A study analyzed Google search queries that contained terms including “panic attack” or “anxiety attack” throughout a time span of 15 years. It shows that the largest growth of those occurrences happened between March 16, 2020 and April 14, 2020, with a total increase of 17%. These were times when the guidelines for social distancing were the harshest and the COVID situation was the most serious around the world. Quarantine and social distance affected our lives negatively since humans are, by nature, social creatures. With a healthy approach to utilize the internet and social media to connect with friends and family, this issue of loneliness could be partially resolved. Many health and mental institutions like the World Health Organization are also setting up new guidelines and providing resources for mental health problems during the pandemic. Yet, rising mental health problems due to social distancing can never be fully resolved unless we are back outside with no restrictions on our activities. 

Though in our small community at St. Mark’s we have partially resumed in-person activities, it is important to recognize the rising mental health issues, learn to seek help, and stay healthy mentally. Many students have reported that they felt disconnected from their friends and teachers during online classes even though St. Mark’s had organized community activities online. As a remote student myself, it is apparent that we can do very little only through the screen. Therefore, seeking help from the counselors, taking advantage of online resources, and keeping oneself busy without being overwhelmed are all essential components to a healthy remote learning experience. Mental health issues may remain prevalent as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, but all we need to do is to stay positive no matter what obstacles we face. 

Source 

Am I having a panic attack? Internet searches for anxiety attacks take off during COVID-19 (Press Release), La Jolla, CA. August 24, 2020, EurekAlert! Accessed August 25, 2020

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-rate#:~:text=Unemployment%20Rate%20in%20the%20United,percent%20in%20May%20of%201953.’

https://www.soa.org/globalassets/assets/files/resources/research-report/2020/covid-19-mental-health.pdf

https://www.pharmacytimes.com/news/study-covid-19-pandemic-causing-mental-health-issues