Scholar Commons

In this section, participants responded to the following prompt: Reflect on a specific event or moment from the past year of your life (happy, sad, frustrating, enlightening, inspiring, etc.). Share that experience.

Participants may have responded to one of the prompts below.

1. Have your feelings or perspective on the pandemic changed since stay-at-home orders were issued in March 2020?
2. What plans did you cancel? Were you disappointed or relieved?
3. What has been the single greatest change you’ve experienced in the past year?
4. What has been the biggest surprise? (For example, is there something you miss greatly that you didn’t realize you’d miss; or perhaps something you’ve found great joy in that surprises you?)
5. How have you handled the transition to an indefinite work-from-home situation? (Do you love the freedom of not being on a strict “on-the-clock” schedule? Do you hate it? Do you miss in-person meetings? Do you prefer Zoom?)
6. If you’re originally from somewhere outside Santa Clara County, how do you feel about the way your hometown/home state or country handled the pandemic? Was it better or worse, in your opinion, than how the Bay Area has done things?
7. Did you try any new hobbies?
8. What was your greatest achievement of 2020?
9. If you are an essential worker, what does it feel like to work on a mostly empty campus?
10. How has the pandemic affected your or your family’s employment status? Have you lost your job or felt threatened by furloughs? Has the pandemic opened up a new type of work for you?
11. For class of 2020: What was it like to unexpectedly finish your senior year online?
12. For class of 2024: What has it been like to conduct your first year of college online?
13. What has your experience with housing on campus or around campus been like during the pandemic? Did you have to leave your dorm suddenly in Spring 2020, or are you using emergency housing?
14. Are you excited to get the vaccine, or are you skeptical?