Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC and we'll wrap up today with a call-in for high school seniors and college seniors who might be listening right now. As you graduate from high school or college, what's one thing you will always remember about doing as much of your school years as you've done during the pandemic? 212 433, WNYC 212 433 9692. High school seniors, college seniors, what's one thing you will always remember about going to high school or college during the pandemic as we are in graduation season now?

Obviously, for over two years, you've had to face all the highs and lows of high school or college amidst the pandemic. Now after months of even more canceled events, in some cases, college applications, if you're a high school, senior job applications, if you're a college senior, Zoom classes, hybrid learning, isolation. Do I have to stay in my parents' house all four years?

If you're a college student, the class of 2022 is finally graduating mostly in person after an experience truly unlike any other generation ever. High school seniors, college seniors, call in to reflect on these hard few years of COVID affected high school or college, 212 433, WNYC 212 433 96 92. What's one thing you will remember, like when you are 50 and looking back on being a high school student or college student during the pandemic. What do you think that image is going to be? What do you think the first story is that you're going to tell your own kids or grandkids about this crazy era? 212 433, WNYC, 212 433 96 92.

Maybe we'll remember that first moment. When the announcement of school shutting down was made, "Wait there, what? We're what? We have to do what? For the class of 22, the news of the pandemic arrived in the spring of sophomore year, junior year in high school anyway, notorious for heavy workloads, and college application prep was mostly remote. Some hybrid options. Senior year has been more in person for most of you in high school or college, but not without the challenges of infection spikes, masking, quarantining. What are the rules in your dorm?

Some dorms were sampling their sewage from their students, did you know that, to test to see if there was any Covid in the dorm at that particular moment? Then they would go out and survey the individuals, if so. Graduating high school, seniors, graduating college seniors, as you breathe a sigh of relief at very least and celebrate yourselves as it is appropriate to do, and look forward to your futures in college or in the quote-unquote, "real world," what's one image? What's one moment? What's one feeling that you think you'll always remember about doing high school or college during the pandemic? 212 433, WNYC 212 433 96 92, and we'll take your calls right after this.

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Brian Lehrer on WNYC. High school seniors, who happen to be listening today, college seniors, who happen to be listening today. I see we have one college professor who's calling in. We could take some faculty members too, high school or college, with what you think your students are always going to remember about being high school or college students during the pandemic.

212 433, WNYC 212 433 96 92, and we happen to have a high school senior right here with us to kick this off who's going to tell us a little bit about her own experience as a student, during the pandemic. This is a ringer. It's our own high school intern this semester, Gigi Steckel. Hey, Gigi, we've talked many times off the air. Welcome to on the air. Do we have Gigi? Now we have Gigi. Hi. Hey, Gigi.

Gigi Steckel: Hi. Thank you so much.

Brian Lehrer: I think this whole segment was your idea. What do you think you will always remember about doing high school during the pandemic?

Gigi Steckel: Yes, so one thing that really stands out to me from my experience that just made me appreciate so much how important in-person learning is was my music class over the pandemic. I was in the jazz band before and when we went remote, my music teacher made such an effort to keep us all engaged by having us send videos of ourself playing to a chat or organizing really amazing, but chaotic improvisation sessions on Zoom.

Then when we finally were able to go back in person and play together for the first time in over a year, that really just made me emotional and showed me how much of a different it makes to be among other people and to learn in person with others. That's something I'll definitely never take for granted again, after this.

Brian Lehrer: You talk about being a member of the jazz band. We had Wyn Marsalis on the show early in the pandemic, and he was talking about how he couldn't put the band members together to play together virtually because there's lag time if you're on Zoom or one of those other platforms. I think they've since developed some platforms where they actually can get around that, get past what they call the latency.

They put together this amazing jazz at Lincoln Center orchestra video that we played a little of the sound of on the show that time where they each recorded their parts in their own homes and they must have had really good metronomes, Gigi, because yes, then he was able to stitch the whole thing together and it sounded like the big band.

Gigi Steckel: That's so amazing. That's so impressive. Yes, that's the reason I say it was so chaotic because mostly the timing, but still so special in its own way. It's definitely something that you would never have participated in had the pandemic not happened, a crazy Zoom improvisation session.

Brian Lehrer: There you go. Well, thanks, Gigi, for being a great intern for us this semester, and good luck as I know you're going on to college. I'm not going to tell people where they can find you but I'm sure you're going to do great. Thanks for telling us that story about the jazz band. Probably not the first thing people would think of regarding pandemic effects in high school, but thanks.

Gigi Steckel: Thank you so much.

Brian Lehrer: Our intern from high school this semester, Gigi Steckel, we're going to go next to Sam in Red Hook. Sam, you're on WNYC. Hi there.

Sam: Hi, thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it.

Brian Lehrer: Where are you graduating from?

Sam: I just graduated recently from Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson. It's a pretty isolated, I would say, small-town area that is not really in a big city but it is just crazy with the pandemic to see all my classmates and everybody who has come from far and wide to this little Hamlet on the Hudson. Really we went through this experience altogether and it was just amazing to see everybody and see how they were able to persevere through all the restrictions and all the travel advisories and everything that happened. It was amazing to see my class really rally and figure out ways to get around the restrictions and whatnot, still maintain the community that we had so, yes.

Brian Lehrer: Do you have a good example of that in mind?

Sam: Yes, most of my classes were online, at least last year, and one of my classes, it was a philosophy research seminar. I think every student in the class was coming from like a completely different corner of the world and there were lots of just fun moments of us trying to hear each other and make sure that we were understanding what everybody was saying over Zoom.

We had some people in person as well, myself included, and we had students in China who were waking up at or were tuning in at 10 o'clock and people in Berlin that were tuning in at like midday when the class is in the morning. Just experiencing that, I never thought that I would be doing that in college, but it just happened the way it did.

Brian Lehrer: Sam, thank you. Thank you very much for sharing that. Good luck to you. What a great story. I guess there are versions of that in people's personal lives, no matter whether you were students or anything else that the steps, the measures that we took to connect when the normal measures weren't available? Sam, that's a great story about people from all over the world who happened to be students at Bard but were home doing virtual learning in the pandemic, connecting anyway and finding their ways. That's great. Let's go next to Isaac in South Slope in Brooklyn. You're on WNYC. Hi, Isaac.

Isaac: Hi. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good. Where are you graduating from, what school?

Isaac: I am graduating from the Institute for Collaborative Education.

Brian Lehrer: Congratulations, an alternative high school in the city?

Isaac: Yes, indeed.

Brian Lehrer: What will you always remember about being in high school during the pandemic?

Isaac: It was a tough question. I think I have to agree with Gigi is our school really inspired me to really think outside of the box when trying to make lemonade out of the lemons that left us in this unfortunate situation. I think there was a lot of interesting connections and interesting opportunities that I actually had through Zoom that I wouldn't have had if we were in person.

It was like this interesting experience where I almost in some sense, felt almost fortunate for having COVID to do that.

Brian Lehrer: Interesting. If for Gigi and I guess I should say, Gigi recruited a few of her friends from the same school to call in. That's really cool. You're one of them. For her, it was jazz band that she'll remember connecting through anyway and struggling with the limitations of, in the pandemic. What was it for you?

Isaac: I think there was a lot of stuff, but I think one thing that, I will never forget is that my friends and I actually started a food and culture club, and we did Zoom cooking sessions online where we would, we made like dumplings, we made apple Gillettes, we made banana bread. We were making all this food on Zoom. A lot of us had never even really cooked before.

It was like this crazy experience where we were learning so much outside of what we were learning through the regular courses that we had. That was pretty memorable.

Brian Lehrer: That's awesome, Isaac. Thank you. Good luck to you. We're going to go next to Lily in Monmouth county. Lily, you're on WNYC. Hey there.

Lily: Hi.

Brian Lehrer: Where are you graduating from?

Lily: Wall High school.

Brian Lehrer: In Wall. What do you think you'll always remember about doing high school during the pandemic?

Lily: Well, to be honest, my experience wasn't so positive. I think that I'll remember it as being the hardest year of high school because of the issues I had with virtual learning.

Just to switch to doing lessons completely online and at home was really, really tough for me to stay engaged and pay attention. I did way worse that year than I would've done in any other year, I think. It was just, it was pretty bad.

Brian Lehrer: Did you find that there were a lot of individual differences among your friends, like some kids maybe took to it like, "Oh, I don't have to go and sit in front of the teach and I can do all this stuff on my own," and that suited them, but for some others, like you, not so much?

Lily: Definitely. I know some people who really liked the virtual learning, but for me, it was just, I just could not, stay on top of my assignments. I couldn't stay engaged or learn the stuff.

Brian Lehrer: Lily, thank you. You must be happy, happy to be back in person, and probably happy to be out of high school.

Lily: Oh yes.

Brian Lehrer: What's next for you?

Lily: Next is, I'm going to try and decide what I want to do for college. I'm still not sure.

Brian Lehrer: Well, good luck. Thank you very much for checking in with us, and you have a great start there just by being able to call up on the radio and be candid while other people were telling positive stories about how they connected. Despite all, so many people have been in your situation. Obviously, I don't have to tell you of struggling with the virtual learning of it, making it harder to concentrate and stay connected, and things like that.

I think you're off to a great start. Just even being able to say that out loud. Oh, let's see. I think we have one more Gigi winger on here. Is it Elsabet in Williamsburg? Elsabet, you're on WNYC. Hello?

Elsabet: Hi. Can you hear me?

Brian Lehrer: You go to school. Hi, same high school?

Elle: Yes I go. I go to the Institute for Collaborative Education.

Brian Lehrer: What do you think you'll always remember about doing that during a pandemic?

Elsabet: I think I'll always remember my, homeroom class because my teacher always like made sure that we were okay and gave us resources to make the whole process easier for us. I think since everybody was like in the same boat of the struggle of a pandemic and having to learn how to do school online. We were really supportive to each other and it was beautiful. It made me just really thankful for my teachers that put in that extra work.

Brian Lehrer: Have you had graduation yet or does that come up in a few weeks?

Elsabet: Graduation is in about two weeks. I'm excited.

Brian Lehrer: Well, congratulations to you and everybody who made it through school in the pandemic. Thanks for your calls.

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