(04/20/20 5:00pm)
When IUPUI senior Hannah Boswell went to classes the week before spring break, she didn’t know it was the last time in her college career that she would see her closest friends and professors.
She didn’t know that the coronavirus would sweep the globe, taking tens of thousands of lives and forcing tens of millions to self-quarantine as businesses and schools closed.
On March 15, IU president Michael McRobbie announced that all IU campuses would suspend face-to-face classes and transition to virtual learning for the remainder of the semester. Less than a week later, IU postponed all spring commencement ceremonies after heeding the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Current guidance from the CDC, restrictions on large gatherings, and our own focus on health and safety make it impossible to hold these cherished traditional events as scheduled,” president McRobbie said in a message to the IU community.
Nearly seven thousand IUPUI seniors will graduate this spring without a commencement ceremony. Seniors now face the hardships of a pandemic and discouragement of a postponed commencement.
Boswell, a communications major with a theatre certificate, said it was “a shame” that seniors won’t be publicly recognized in May for their hard work.
“Commencement is like the applause at the end of the show that gives the performer the reason, the drive and the motivation to work,” Boswell said. “For a lot of people, that’s lost now.”
Natalie Givan, a senior journalism major, expressed both disappointment and support for the school’s decision to postpone commencement.
“I was really sad when I found out,” Givan said. “But I think it was necessary, and our health and safety is what’s most important.”
The coronavirus pandemic took a toll on seniors’ academic and personal lives during a season that’s often full of hope and celebration. Financial burden increased for IUPUI students—41 percent of which came from low-income backgrounds according to institutional research. Many lost their jobs or worked in essential industries such as food supply where they faced a higher risk of contracting the virus.
Others were ordered to move off-campus and return home. This was easier said than done for students who had no homes or came from abusive households. International students also faced logistical challenges of getting home such as travel restrictions and expenses.
Still others experienced worsened mental illness from stressors related to the coronavirus and separation from on-campus support systems. A recent article by the Psychiatric Times said college students were uniquely vulnerable to anxiety and depression in public health emergencies. Social isolation and limitations of remote psychiatric care compounded these symptoms.
Mental health problems were also exacerbated by sadness and frustration over a postponed commencement. Boswell said these were “valid emotions” for seniors to experience.
“I think people should be allowed to mourn the loss of a momentous occasion that’s really important to them,” Boswell said.
Despite adversities, isolation and a postponed commencement, seniors still plan to commemorate their accomplishments at IUPUI. Givan will celebrate with her family, and Boswell will get a tattoo of ancient Greek architecture to represent her education in theatre and classical studies.
“I thought the tattoo would be a nice commencement of my own,” Boswell said.
In uncharted times, IUPUI seniors don’t know when they’ll get the chance to march across stage and receive their hard-earned diplomas, but they trust that the day will come.
“If commencement is pushed back by a couple months, so be it,” Givan said. “I’ll still walk across that stage.”
(03/29/19 7:27pm)
At the IUPUI Campus Center, college students and elementary school children sit together in pairs, bent over picture books, pausing in between pages to chat and laugh. When the children stumble over words, their mentors act as patient guides, providing gentle corrections and words of encouragement. There is something hopeful in this small gathering as memories are made and bright futures are made possible.
Every week, College Mentors for Kids meets at the IUPUI Campus Center with the mission of inspiring growth and confidence in children while opening their eyes to the opportunities available to them. The non-profit organization fosters supportive relationships between college student mentors and their mentees, called little buddies, who are in 3rd-6th grades and visit from a local elementary school.
Annabelle Ketchem, a freshman at IUPUI and a mentor in the program, has built a strong bond with her little buddy over the last year.
“My little buddy is the best,” Ketchem said. “She’s such a special kid. She’s curious beyond her years, and she has the potential to be really wise.”
Ketchem discovered College Mentors for Kids during freshman orientation and felt that the program was a perfect fit. Having grown up surrounded by many peers who never viewed higher education as a possibility, Ketchem felt a responsibility to show the next generation all they could accomplish.
“Being on campus at IUPUI, I feel really propelled to let other people know how attainable this education is because we have such good scholarship programs here,” Ketchem said. “I definitely want other people to be able to consider that.”
College Mentors for Kids teaches kids about careers, culture and community service through a variety of fun, hands-on activities. For one day’s activity, faculty from the Purdue School of Science visited to talk about engineering. After learning about 3-D printing and aerodynamics, the kids got to do some of their own engineering.
With their mentors’ guidance, the little buddies designed special paper airplanes with features to make them glide, rotate and whiz across the room. The children’s faces filled with pride as they saw their creations.
For another day’s activity, the little buddies and their mentors took a tour of IUPUI’s dorms. This early exposure to residential college life proved to be an exciting exper
ience for the kids, and they were full of questions: Did the mentors live in the dorms? Was it better to live on campus or off campus? Why was there a restaurant in one of the dorms?
After every learning activity and interaction with their mentors, the children in College Mentors for Kids come away with new perspectives for their futures. And these new perspectives make a real impact. According to the College Mentors for Kids website, 8 in 10 former little buddies graduated high school, 3 in 4 pursued post-secondary education and 2 in 3 reported volunteering for their community.
These numbers are staggering given the challenges that many children in College Mentors for Kids face. Most of the children come from poverty or low-income homes, and 80 percent don’t have a family history of higher education.
In the midst of these obstacles, it is crucial for children to have consistent, compassionate role models. Erika Plata, a senior at IUPUI and the president of College Mentors for Kids, talked about the importance of mentoring.
“One-on-one consistency is what we aim for at College Mentors,” Plata said. “Unfortunately, some of the kids don’t have that at home, so we just want to be there for them for anything.”
College Mentors for Kids not only makes an impact in children’s lives, but it also is gratifying for mentors and staff.
“I just love seeing the kids come out of the bus and hug you,” Plata said. “They just grow on you, and you don’t ever stop.”
Plata started out at College Mentors for Kids as a mentor her freshman year. Now in her fourth and final year with the program, Plata hopes to visit after graduation and see how the organization continues to grow and change lives. Managing a non-profit organization while living a busy college life has been demanding, but she is reminded of her purpose every week when she hears the little buddies’ stories.
“We give a lot to the little buddies, and they give a lot to us too,” Plata said. “We learn from them.”
To learn how to become a mentor in College Mentors for Kids at IUPUI, go to collegementors.org/mentor-application.