Before the pandemic, the road to college wasn't smooth for all Arizona high schoolers, but that path has become even bumpier for some during the COVID-19 pandemic. A Nogales student and Phoenix mother of 3 shared their concerns during a Tuesday webinar by Expect More Arizona and College Success Arizona.
Ivan Carrillo, a senior at Nogales High School who aspires to one day be a surgeon, said before the pandemic it was easy to visit his counselor’s office regularly to ask questions on what he should be doing to prepare to go to college. That's not the case this school year. His school district is still teaching remotely due to concerns over COVID-19. Carillo feels the pandemic has hurt the typical student-counselor relationships.
“We have to email all of our teachers and all of our counselors and all of our counselors, set up Google meets meeting, and we have to reach out to them where normally they would reach out to us," he said.
Carillo said his peers say it’s a difficult and time consuming to find resources, and they are doing the best to adapt. He adds that they feel their teachers, counselors and parents are doing their best to help them throughout this process.
In Phoenix, mother Rebecca McKay is worried that her three sons who attend Sunnyslope High School, aren't gaining the life skills they need to succeed. For example, her eldest son, a junior, was hoping to get his first job over the summer and gain work experience but couldn't due to business closures. She's also concerned about her twins who entered high school this year.
When her eldest son started high school, parents were encouraged to back off so students could learn to be responsible for their own education, she said. McKay worries that her twins aren’t getting the same lesson.
“During a pandemic, teachers are relying on parents to provide that support on the home front," McKay said.
She said she knows her sons aren't alone and that all students in their cohort are probably in the same position. The only solution she sees to this is eventually being able to return to a traditional class setting.
