It has been a difficult year no doubt, with sports being canceled, businesses shutting down, and schools moving to remote instruction to top it off. It surely has been a year like no other. Hopefully, 2021 and beyond may be calmer without all the chaos and division within society. With everything going on in the world, it all comes down to the smaller, but important aspects within a person’s life, such as having sufficient money to put food on the table, staying healthy, and continuing one’s education. I currently attend Glendale Community College as a student and am looking to transfer to a university. Recently however, I have discovered that even with the transfer to a 2 year or 4 year university, many students go through remote instruction because the state of California has not given the green light for campuses to regulate in-person classes. This led me to think, how does Covid-19 really affect the decisions of students and their desires to transfer to universities?         

Covid-19 affects us all one way or another, whether that is having a job, business, or just attending school. As a journalism major looking to complete course studies at a university, the decision on where to go and what form of education I want to venture into is a situation that many students and future applicants alike also go through. No matter what your major is, as I learned while visiting several Zoom sessions with UC and Cal State university professors, many schools might not have majors that students applied for, or due to the lack of profits, the courses may not be available.I am in a similar situation as hundreds of other students in terms of applying and transferring, but we’re only talking about those in the GCC family. While attending a community college gives you a head start, the real work begins upon stepping foot on a new campus, no matter where you attend. Transfer students are merely affected by this pandemic because they won’t be able to physically attend their chosen schools or have in-person classes. Covid-19 has given students a troubling visualization of the transfer process along with the possibility of financial instability, and the difficult decisions that have to be made in the duration of transferring, such as becoming accustomed to living on campus and coping with being alone. Even with a pandemic that has turned the year upside down, students are still working hard to finish all their remaining classes and further their education, regardless of the insecurities of the world. No student should let a pandemic hinder their future choices, and while the realities of life are evident all around us, we have to learn to deal with whatever obstacle gets in our way, big or small. 

Emil Arakelyan can be reached by phone at 1818-726-3283, or by email @[email protected] and through social media using instagram @real.e.a_