Recent Minnesota State University graduate Lyreshia Ghostlon-Green, who graduated from Wayzata High School in spring of 2020, said she’ll never forget March 13 of that year.
“It was so unexpected,” she said. “I’ll never forget it. That was the last day I ever went back to that school.”
What was supposed to be an early spring break kept on getting extended.
Ghostlon-Green, who majored in acting at MSU, was involved in theater in high school.
When her classes eventually returned online, she said it took some getting used to taking classes on Zoom that were meant to be in person.
Then more traditional high school experiences kept on getting canceled.
“That part really sucked because it’s my senior year, and you want to do all of the last things,” she said.
“I just remember a lot of tears from senior year of high school and then to get into college, it’s like, I went straight from high school to college and was a little nervous because I, just as you are as any incoming freshman, (was) just nervous about college.”
Ghostlon-Green was fortunate to have toured colleges and decide where she wanted to go before the shutdown. Preparing for college was a different story.
She recalled having to attend events such as college orientation online.
“I remember sitting in my bedroom, just like watching these modules about college life and all the dos and don’ts and all the things you need to know and feeling so overwhelmed,” she said.
“Here I am sitting online trying to decide where I want to live, but it’s hard to decide. They’re trying to do their best by offering you virtual tours and videos … but it’s nothing like the real thing.”
Ghostlon-Green described the anxiety of not feeling fully equipped in the transition to her next chapter.
“I’m such a hands-on learner, such an in-person person, that I really felt at a deficit my senior year of high school,” she said. “I think the imposter syndrome was very real.”
Then came her first year of college in fall of 2020.
Ghostlon-Green remembered stepping onto campus and having to wear a mask 24/7.
She said her classmates tried to stay as safe as possible but had to make many adjustments.
“A lot of the performances were masked, and my first show I ever did at MSU was called “Hair.” We had these clear masks that we had to wear so that they would protect us, but you could still see our mouths and we could still act and perform,” she said.
“The heat and the sweat, it was terrible, but it got the job done, I guess. We had to modify some of the scenes that we did.”
She also remembered the uncertainty of not knowing whether classes were going to be in person or online.
But despite a challenging start to her college experience, Ghostlon-Green said she was still involved in campaigns on campus to encourage fellow students to mask up.
“My field of study is performing and I love performing in all aspects, and so I wanted to get involved in anything that was like me being in front of a camera,” she said. “I think that my passion for it comes from wanting to keep people safe.”
Ghostlon-Green is one of many students who had their educational experience altered due to the pandemic.
Megan Torner, who graduated from Bethany Lutheran College this year with a degree in business administration and legal studies, also graduated high school in spring 2020.
Torner went to an online school based out of Iowa but said she still would’ve had an in-person graduation had it not been canceled.
“It was definitely really disappointing. It was like not having closure on something,” she said.
Torner said it was already daunting going from high school to college, but then came the pandemic.
“In some ways it was OK for me because I was used to online school, but I was not used to Zoom and having professors and classes on Zoom,” she said.
Making friends
The online aspect, Torner said, definitely made it harder to make friends in college.
“That was the first two years almost of school. I think everybody was so used to COVID that it was hard for them to reach out, make friends, talk — at least it was for me since I did not live on campus. It was definitely a challenge in that area,” she said.
“I feel like now, with graduating now, I’m finally starting to catch up and get those friend groups, get really tight-knit community relationships that would’ve happened freshman year.”
Torner eventually got involved in clubs on campus once restrictions started to lift. She got involved in a project that successfully raised money to make electricity more affordable for a Lebanese church and in activities such as mock trial and law club.
Impact on high schoolers
This year’s St. Peter High School graduating class of about 170 seniors came in as ninth graders in the era of hybrid learning, high school counselor Regina Sirianni said.
According to Minnesota Department of Education data released earlier this year, St. Peter High School saw a jump in its four-year graduation rate, with 92.55%, or 149 out of 161 students graduating in 2023. That’s up from the prior year’s 88.11%.
While data from this year won’t be released until next year, Sirianni said this year’s class had a full two years of no interruption from the pandemic.
“So I think that’s definitely helped them,” she said.
Sirianni also said the school district has been doing its part to help students with social emotional learning.
This past year they started using a social emotional learning curriculum that helps all of their students build their social skills.
“We think a lot of our students missed out on getting that experience when they’re home by themselves during that COVID time,” Sirianni said.
The evidence-based curriculum, CharacterStrong, teaches topics such as social skills, emotional regulation, effective goal setting, according to its website.
Sirianni said the district is also actively working to increase attendance rates.
“We’ve been able to get back on top of it. During that time it was hard to get kids to come in because it was all back and forth,” she said.
“Having that consistent requirement and expectation that kids show up every day has been able to help these students understand OK, we do have to go to school. We do have support there.”
A happy ending
After not having a high school graduation, Ghostlon-Green and Torner were finally able to get that experience in college.
Ghostlon-Green, who spoke at commencement, described the event as life-changing.
“If you could see my face right now, I’m glowing,” she said. “Like, I want to graduate more often. It was so much fun. I talked about that in my commencement speech, how most of us in my graduating class didn’t get graduation in 2020.
“To get that was awesome and to even be the speaker at my own graduation was the cherry on top.”
Torner also reflected on finally getting closure on her educational career.
“It was so nice. It was such a beautiful ceremony, and everybody was definitely really emotional. And I think a lot of it was because they were realizing they didn’t get this in high school, so they appreciated it a lot more,” she said.