Woodlief McCabe ’23
Staff Writer
At the beginning of September, Mount Holyoke students re-introduced themselves to campus. Freshmen and sophomores got their first taste of in-person learning, while juniors and seniors found themselves adjusting to being on campus for the first time in a year and a half. Those who went home as first years in 2020 returned as juniors while 2020’s sophomores are now completing their final year. The leap forward has left some Mount Holyoke upperclassmen unsure of where they stand. I spoke with several students who talked about feeling like they’d lost part of the “Mount Holyoke experience.”
Hongtian Wang ’22 expressed that “missing one and a half years really brought us a lack of knowledge about Mount Holyoke.”
For many students, internship and job opportunities were pushed back or scrapped completely, leaving many in an odd situation of having academic experience but an empty resume.
Ziyadah Zeigler ’23 is the Black History Month coordinator for the Association for Pan-African Unity. While excited to take on the role, she feels that campus restrictions continue to limit the capabilities of the APAU and the organization's ability to adequately provide a good representation of the organization to new students. This is also Zeigler’s first time on the board of a student organization. Some juniors and seniors are taking on leadership roles despite feeling new to the organizations themselves. Not all groups were able to hold events or put together activities virtually. Many saw lower turnout, and technology became a barrier.
Now on campus, many upperclassmen, like Samantha Pittman ’23, aren’t sure how to feel.
“Sometimes I just sit and wonder how my college experience is halfway done when I have never been on campus for the full year,” Pittman said.
Zeigler expressed a similar sentiment, saying that “coming back now as a junior sort of feels like the Twilight Zone.”
As a junior myself, I have also noted the surreal time-jumping feeling of being back on campus. We are trying to simultaneously pick up where we left off and find a place as upperclassmen.
“I feel like last year never happened, and keep accidentally referring to our first year as ‘last year,’” EJ Jankovic ’23 said. Even though they spent the last year on campus, Jankovic feels the return of the entire student body and in-person classes is like the end of an “incredibly long summer.”
The upperclassmen I spoke to indicated a cautious optimism — we are eager to catch up on things we missed, and that includes being a resource for underclassmen.
Pittman said that she “missed out on sophomore year when [she] could still explore,” which led her to join new organizations that she hadn’t as a first-year. Jankovic is now Chair of Halls and the Promotions Officer in the newly-formed Tea Club. Wang joined the Chinese Cultural Association to “do more for our college” before graduating.
Being on campus after so long is re-energizing the student body. We are trying new things and looking forward to the experiences that we missed out on. Most of the spring traditions haven’t happened on campus since the current seniors were first-years; we are going to be experiencing these for the first time alongside the first-year and sophomore classes. Still, those I talked to largely felt ready and willing to guide the underclassmen through campus life. Zeigler took it upon herself to become an orientation leader, saying, “I was glad to give them the welcome that I was given, [and honestly took for granted], as a freshman.” Many juniors and seniors have still taken classes throughout the pandemic, learning and growing as students the entire time. Though sometimes overwhelmed, and a bit disoriented, Mount Holyoke upperclassmen are intent on filling their roles as leaders and resources for the newly-arrived classes.