In March 2020, colleges and universities across the U.S transitioned classes online in response to the COVID-19 crisis sweeping the nation, and the world. As NYC emerged as the epicenter of the pandemic, student researchers at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, City University of New York, identified a need to better understand how this novel phenomenon was being experienced by this year’s cohort of graduating MSW Students. In a series of virtual discussions, student researchers identified 3 questions to explore, to describe students’ experiences of the present pandemic.
How have students experienced struggle, resilience, & coping in their lives?
Which factors positively or negatively impact their present experience?
What do students hope, fear, and anticipate with regard to the future?
Developing these questions marked the beginning of a participatory action research project conducted by, for and with graduating MSW students at Silberman.
The findings presented here by no means fully capture the experiences of all 47 participants, or the entire cohort for that matter. In scratching the surface of the data collected, the student researchers identified the following themes related to the research questions, outlined above.
Moments of Past Resilience/Life Events
Access (Resources, Marginalization)
In exploring this website you are exploring part of what shapes the student experience of the times. As of May 2020, the end of COVID-19 is not yet in sight, and the pandemic is anticipated to leave lasting changes on the world as we once knew it. As such, this project is intended to be ongoing, to identify what students are experiencing, and what implications this holds for those in positions to help.
Contact [email protected] for more information.
