By Madhavi Rao ’24
Staff Writer
Over the past year, the meaning of a normal college experience has changed drastically. What was supposed to be a time of meeting new people and making memories has transformed completely. The online college experience is devoid of interaction with peers beyond an educational setting, which is negatively impacting many students.
Mount Holyoke has been working hard to help new students form friendships and come closer to a normal experience through activities such as orientation groups and Spirit Week. However, for first-year students like Deepika Kumawat ’24 and Maeesha Tasnim Naomi ’24 who are neither on campus or on the East Coast, this can feel even more alienating.
The only interactions that many remote international students have with other students at the College are through their classes. Kumawat, an Indian student, expressed her disappointment with this situation, saying, “My classes involve a lot of group work and collaboration, which allow[s] me to get to know new people — but it’s only about our work. We don’t actually talk to each other.”
She continued, “Social media [can] help, but it can only do so much.”
Naomi, a Bangladeshi first-year, echoed this sentiment. “When I’m doing online classes, I make acquaintances, not friends. I don’t have regular contact with them once class finishes. I get to know them during class, but our conversations last only for those seven weeks,” Naomi said.
Pictured above: the workspace by Maeesha Tasnim Naomi ‘24 which has been used as her desk since she was in 5th grade.
Kumawat did enjoy her first-year seminar, finding it to be more relaxed. “Other classes were about work, but this was about getting to know the people in my class [year],” she said.
During the week of Feb. 21, the Orientation Committee organized Spirit Week, an opportunity for first-year students to bond as a class. The activities included “twinning” with another first-year, dressing up as a meme and wearing fashions from another decade. The results were shared on the class of 2024 Instagram page through daily story updates.
“When I see these things on Instagram, I just skim through them,” Kumawat said. “They look fun for the people on campus, but participating in them online doesn’t seem that enjoyable.”
“For the Spirit Week events, I honestly just get the emails. I used to want to participate in them, but because of the time zone [difference] I couldn’t and eventually stopped checking my emails,” Naomi explained. “I don't have a routine for sleeping. My sleep schedule is so messed up. Even if the time works for me, I probably wouldn’t have enough energy to attend the event. Pretty much, I just go to class and get on with my day,” she added.
The last day of Spirit Week involved a virtual Snowball, which took place on Saturday, Feb. 27, at 7 p.m. EST. On the class of 2024 Instagram page, the Snowball was promoted as a night of music, games, karaoke, tarot and other activities, and as being “an event to celebrate and meet our class and welcome Springies.”
While the event was presented as an opportunity to meet the class of 2024, time zone differences made the event inaccessible to international students.
For Kumawat, the event took place at 5:30 a.m., meaning she would have to wake herself up for it. “The timings are bad,” she explained, “I don’t think I can wake up that early just to attend these events.” Especially in a situation where international students often have to stay up until after midnight for their classes, attending events early in the morning seems impossible.
Naomi added, “I was excited when I saw the event on Instagram, but then I saw that part of it involved people playing in the snow. It was fun seeing the Instagram stories, but I didn’t know how to engage in that.”