As the 2020 school year begins to kick off at Benedictine College, there have been many new rules implemented that everyone is getting used to. The 2020 freshman class is having to endure the beginning of a school year that no one else has had to.
Every year at the end of Benedictine’s annual beanie week, the freshmen attend an all-school Mass and Convocation. However, the night before the Convocation was going to take place, the school made an executive decision that this would be the first year they would not host the Mass and Convocation.
A Brimming Freshman Class Misses out on the Convocation Mass
With this year bringing the largest freshman class that Benedictine has ever had – an impressive 581 students, the school was not able to safely have everyone gather for the occasion.
Samuel Hahn, a junior at Benedictine, observes what the freshmen this year did not get to experience with the Convocation Mass.
“The freshmen missed out on being able to all come together in a spiritual sense, at the campus Abbey to start out their college experience,” Hahn said.
A New Norm in Education
Along with the activities on campus being kept to a minimum, Benedictine also implemented a new collaborative classroom which is made up of half the students online and half the students in class.
Elena Nguyen, a freshman this year, gave some insight on how she is coping with starting college during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I feel comfortable doing hybrid classes because it seems as though the professors have really adapted and they are doing well teaching both online and in class,” Nguyen said. “It can be difficult dealing with safety measures, but it helps knowing that everyone is dealing with the same thing, no matter what grade you are in, and in a sense, it is unifying”.
