By Barbara Ron

Freshmen may not all be together on campus, but they have at least one thing in common: they’re so over Zoom.

“Zoom fatigue” and isolation have weighed on the class of 2024, the first and possibly only cohort to experience their freshman year entirely online. Many are holding onto the hope of starting next year with a full schedule of in-person classes. 

Freshman Melody Simmons is looking forward to in-person labs and activities that are essential for those in the science field. 

“Giving the lame versions of things isn’t helpful for learning. I think I’d just be really looking forward to and hoping for authentic experiences,” said Simmons, a chemical engineering major.

Some students hope that this year online will act as a bridge to their first in-person university experience this coming fall. Others feel in-person learning is going to be a continuation of their freshman year.

“Next year, when we do go in person, I’m still going to feel like a freshman again because I don’t know where any of the buildings are or anything, so it’s going to be a little difficult,” said freshman Tori Paul, a kinesiology major. 

Paul, who plays for UMD’s women’s soccer team, says her social life is not as affected as others’ are because she has her teammates. 

“I think being an athlete makes it 10 times easier to find friends because we have a lot of meetings that include all athletes. So through those meetings and stuff, it’s really easy to meet new people,” Paul said. 

Although freshman year has looked a lot different because of the pandemic, now-online activities — like rushing for sororities — have remained a way for students to connect with others. Samantha Carey, a freshman journalism major, says she joined Alpha Delta Pi through their informal recruitment period. 

Carey said freshmen have come up with other ways to connect with each other, including weekend meetups on campus.

“I think it kind of became like a freshmen thing on the weekends, like going to McKeldin Mall, and kind of just hang out with masks [and] socially distance,” Carey said.

Carey said these hangouts have not happened yet this semester due to the weather change. 

The class of 2024 has many students who finished their last semesters of high school online. Prom and graduation — staples of senior year life — were scrapped, but some people still clung to the hope of starting a normal first year of college. That didn’t happen.

While some students had experience with online learning from their last semester of senior year, others came fresh off a gap year. Sydney Nichole Jackson, a freshman journalism student, gained the title of Miss District of Columbia Teen USA 2020 during her gap year. 

Given that she didn’t have the experience of completing her last months of high school online like many of her current peers, Jackson had a hard time adjusting to virtual learning.

Once she became more comfortable with Zoom and asynchronous lectures during her fall semester, Jackson said she found online classes liberating at times because it allowed her to pursue extracurriculars outside of academia that she wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.  

“Of course we’re not [fans] of the pandemic, but it has allowed me to do far more than I would have done if I were on campus,” she said. 

Some of her extracurriculars include Girl Empire 202, a program she started that allows her to mentor young girls and give back to her community. She also works with the Princess for a Day organization, where she teaches girls about inner beauty and how “it’s not all about what’s on the outside, it’s about how are you going to impact people with [your inner self],” she said. 

While some students feel the university is using its resources to care for students, others feel left behind. 

I feel like the freshman year got a little lost. A lot of people are worried about ‘oh, high school seniors and college seniors’ and I think the freshmen … we kind of miss all those big [events],” Jackson said. 

Although freshmen have been assigned higher priority regarding rooming on campus, some still decided to complete coursework from home out of worry of contracting the coronavirus. Some students have now been tasked with balancing full family life with a full college life, all from their childhood bedrooms. 

Simmons has been studying from home this whole year. She said her last semester of high school was easy because teachers who did not know how to transition to virtual learning gave her less work. She said transitioning to college was an adjustment. 

“I think I overestimated my ability to to kind of adjust in the fall, so classes were hard,” Simmons said.

“There’s a lot of encouragement from professors and TAs and all different sorts of people to join clubs and stuff, but it just felt very overwhelming,” said Simmons.

She said after full days of online classes, she felt too exhausted to hop on Zoom again for clubs.

Freshman Chuck Martin, a business major, also expressed feelings of Zoom fatigue.

“I went to a couple of meetings, but as it was online and I didn’t feel like I was meeting anybody. At the same time, it kind of felt like a class, sitting through a lecture,” he said.

Martin is excited to get out of his dorm and socialize with friends. He said having his first year of college be fully online is not the end of the world. 

“Honestly, the freshmen are lucky. I feel bad for the seniors, mostly because it’s their last year,” Martin said. “I mean, I’ve got three more years here; I don’t really mind too much. Heart out to the seniors.”

Featured image: UMD freshmen feel too tired for Zoom even when they are logging on for clubs. Photo courtesy of Samantha Carey.