The Tucson Chapter of the Arizona Hydrological Society (AHS) 2020 AHS Undergraduate Mentor Scholarship was awarded to University of Arizona senior, Danielle Rehwoldt.
As part of the student responsibilities of the mentor scholarships, award winners must submit a short article to the AHS monthly newsletter describing their school experience in 2020, including how COVID-19 influenced their experience. Please take the time to read Danielle’s engaging report.
School Experience of 2020
Submitted by Danielle Rehwoldt
It was the start of the new year and I was ready for my last “regular” spring semester. The next one involved preparing for graduation. In late January, only a few weeks after classes started back up again, one of my friends posted on his Snapchat story about the first case of the “Coronavirus” at ASU. I thought to myself, “That is funny! We don’t like ASU, and this is a joke about beer and how ASU is like a virus!” I responded to my friend’s story quite similarly, and in a very stern tone, he mentioned that the virus is profoundly serious, real, and has made its way into the United States and in Arizona. Even still, in that moment, I thought nothing of it.
My friends and I planned a trip for spring break to go to Six Flags, Sequoia National Park, Yosemite, Death Valley, and Las Vegas. During our time in Death Valley, we camped and spent a few days there without any cell service or connection to the outside world. The last leg of school where we encounter the stress of finals and sitting in big lecture halls quietly taking exams was upon us. Disconnecting from technology in Death Valley was so surreal and relaxing as we looked up at the galaxy untouched by the pollution of light. The morning sun hit our eyes through the tent as we woke up with the simple drive to Las Vegas on our minds. We packed up and headed out on the road singing along to road trip soundtracks and taking pictures of the mountains and the desert. Our cluelessness only symbolized our naive minds approaching cell service. Our emails soon blew up with about twenty messages from the Provost, from each professor, and from U of A telling us, in despair, about how we will have to accommodate with online classes until April 6th. Additionally, spring break was extended for another two days. At the time, we were so excited. We stopped at a Subway and celebrated with lots of food as we could not wait to do school in bed and make breakfast while our classmates were on the other side of the screen. We had no idea what this also meant for our college experience.
Upon our return, our parents were worried and mentioned that Las Vegas, Six Flags and Yosemite all closed three days after we visited each spot. We had no idea we were essentially on a time crunch. The only things on our minds were how online classes were going to work for different classes, how long the online process will take, and if school was overreacting. We were frustrated and anxious about how each class, especially our labs, were going to work out online. Adjusting to online would take time, especially for the professors. To me, adapting to all of this did not seem like a problem as I did not want to bike to school anymore – it was a pain.
Motivation soon began to slip from my grasp. Experiencing lack of motivation during lecture only drains you more – I began to tell myself to go back to the slides on D2L to look at them again on my own time. This was not efficient and being on the computer more than I had to was super frustrating. Most of my classmates and I liked being active and around other people. Not commuting at all, not having a rec to go to, and working on tons of online classwork put a lot of stress on us. Once U of A made the decision to have classes online for the rest of the semester, all I thought about was how I needed to figure out a way to stay healthy mentally and physically through all of this, especially when I got a call from my boss.
I did not realize that March 6th, the day I talked to my supervisor about National Parks before spring break, was the last time I was going to be at the office. During the call, my supervisor mentioned that I was not an essential worker, and due to the liability issues with government property and the bureaucracy to be able to work from home, I could not work remotely. My supervisor then told me she would update me every few weeks about when they would expect me back. Not seeing how long this virus will take, I went home to Maryland for only three weeks as I expected to have my job soon after I got back. During my time in Maryland, I was told by my supervisor that the offices were opening back up slowly, and they were working to get more people to work remotely. As anyone would do, I was not applying for jobs because I relied on this job to open again soon. Shortly after I got back from Maryland (which is in the middle of the summer), I was told quite the opposite – that I will not have a job for the rest of the summer and that the fall was up in the air as well. Devastated, I searched for scholarships, side-jobs, and jobs that aligned with my major, but Tucson made it a point to shut down the city for 30 days the week after I got back. Hiring froze, delivery apps were a popular thing to do, but of course, my car needed 2,000 dollars’ worth of maintenance as it had high mileage and was experiencing its first summer in the Tucson heat. So, doing a delivery app job did not seem right as it would run down my car even more, and I would make under minimum wage. That could never cover gas, maintenance, and groceries. Essentially, the job was pointless. Everything felt pointless.
I received this scholarship at the best time possible as everything was in shambles. Working on going to the meetings, meeting individuals in my field, learning more about the industry, and writing up summaries for this scholarship really allowed me to engage my mind in a productive manner during the day. Along with this scholarship, I was thankful to have research to get a head start on my senior project as well as have the opportunity to learn AutoCAD LT through YouTube. I learned how to paint, I learned how to cook better, I applied to opening job positions for next summer, I read books and I made sure to exercise and meditate when I could at home.
Students are still getting email updates constantly from the President and the Provost for how school will reopen, and it is in a staging opening process with four types of teaching (iCourse Online, Live Online, Flex-In-Person, and In-Person). We plan to start out fully online for the first week, go in person for smaller classes and then advance to allowing in-person classes for bigger classes, depending on how severe the COVID-19 cases are. Fortunately, I recently received a text notifying me that I can come into my work again with strict precautions taken. I still cannot see many of my friends as I now know too many people who caught the virus, but I have been and will be using this time to learn to relax and know that once this is over, there will be a great chance for a big boom of opportunity after I graduate from the Accelerated Master’s Program.