The Center for “Race,” Culture and Social Justice at Hofstra University

What I first saw as a good opportunity to have a rest from all my classes became one of the most stressful things that I ever experienced. COVID-19, Coronavirus, has affected my life not only as a student, but also as a person. I did not have the opportunity to fully experience my freshman year at Hofstra University. Coronavirus has brought a lot of changes and responsibilities into my life, which challenged me mentally and physically. In this reflection, I will be sharing my personal experiences during this pandemic, and how it has affected my life. This new lifestyle and new learning system have brought some challenges to my life. Because classes are now remotely, I have to do almost double the work, because I need to learn most of the material by myself, and find a way to fully understand it. Another inconvenience is that I am at home, with kids running around, people making noise, and I cannot find a space where I can feel fully comfortable doing my homework. At H

            Last semester, I had major surgery the first day of classes. It required me to go on medical leave for six weeks. It was a stressful time, but fortunately all is well now. I had to convert my courses to an online version (with a faculty member’s supervision) until I returned to campus. I kept asking myself, “Will my students be successful in my courses while I’m away?” I thought about students who are not really prepared for college, and those who face many socio-economic obstacles and barriers for success. I was very concerned because I know that online instruction is a “race,” culture and social justice issue.             I did my best to make the courses as fair as possible. For the most part, students were tolerant of the course adjustments. I had a few students who struggled to perform well without face-to-face meetings, especially those with learning disabilities. When I read my course evaluations a few weeks ago, most students expressed that the cour