I have been at the Illinois Institute of Technology since 2019. I have been in college since before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This is my last semester before I finally get my degrees. While articles like these usually get written at the end of the semester, I’m feeling particularly contemplative and nostalgic at the moment, so here we go.
When I first came to Illinois Tech for the Scholarship Symposium in February 2019, I was enamored with the city. I was born and raised in the Seattle area until 2015, when my family moved to the Charleston area of South Carolina. Moving to Chicago and being in a city was magical. I spent a lot of my weekends taking the bus or train and just exploring the city. Even now, I still revel in access to a robust public transportation system, using it to explore the city and find new places to eat or hang out.
I was also so glad to be back in a diverse community. The Seattle area is full of people from all over the world and from all walks of life, but the Charleston area is mostly white, suburban, and, well, boring. Being in Chicago meant I was finally back in a place where I could go somewhere without needing a car, including many places where I need to spend little to no money, as well as really good restaurants with all sorts of cuisines.
The ability to explore was a welcome respite as I spent my first year studying architecture. Architecture is not a degree for the weak. Even those who enjoy it (unlike me), work means long hours on frustrating and tedious projects, often losing unhealthy amounts of sleep and still just barely making a deadline. Going to school for architecture had been my dream since sophomore year of high school. I even went to some summer camps for it. However, it was not what I’d hoped it would be. That first year of college was grueling, and I didn’t enjoy it. When we went online after spring break 2020, it was even worse. I was stuck doing all the work, with no opportunity to leave my parents’ house and escape.
While I am glad I changed my major, I am even more glad that my friends from freshman year are still my friends. In fact, they are some of my closest friends that I have, and we still live together.
During the summer of 2020, I spent time thinking about what I wanted to do next. I knew I couldn’t do architecture anymore, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I looked at humanities, communications, and journalism, but none of them were quite right for me. Eventually, my mom suggested Industrial-Organizational (IO) Psychology. After reading about it and learning about the career options available with an IO, I contacted my advisor and worked on switching my degree. Since then, I haven’t looked back.
It was in my second year of university where I found my love for research and statistics, learning quickly that IO was the right choice for me. While I enjoyed the content, it was rather lonesome to switch degree programs in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Classes were all remote, and there are many of my classmates I never got to meet in person, even now.
Coming back to campus in the fall 2021 semester, my freshman year roommate and I lived together again, and I started gaining new friendships and becoming more involved in the Illinois Tech community. I’ve been part of TechNews since I first came to Illinois Tech, but I started doing more work in the organization. And in the spring semester, I also got involved in the Student Government Association (SGA) as a senator. I am proud of my time as a senator, and my contributions to the new SGA constitution, but it is another commitment I am glad I left behind. The stress and drama that comes with being in the SGA Senate are far too much for me.
In 2022, I also started in my role as an Editor-in-Chief of TechNews. When I graduate, I will have spent half my time in TechNews as Editor-in-Chief. TechNews is honestly one of my proudest accomplishments from my time here.
Fall 2022 is also when I officially began the co-terminal degree program. My friends and I found an apartment off-campus, so staying in Chicago long-term was looking more likely than returning to Charleston, and I was more comfortable extending my time in university. I started working on campus and also did a remote internship, gaining more financial freedom. In the spring semester of 2023, I did another internship and started my statistics minor, feeling like I was making more progress on my career path.
2023 was also the year my family moved to Chicago from Charleston. Having my family with me again is such a blessing, and I am grateful every day that my parents chose to join me here. I was also making friends within my graduate program and finally felt comfortable getting closer to more people here, now that Chicago is my forever home.
2024 was just busy. I was burnt-out and exhausted for most of the year, with so many responsibilities in so many places. I also wasn’t able to go back to Charleston to visit my friends there at all. It’s been about two years since I’ve seen any of my friends outside of Chicago, and it sucks that I’m missing so much. I still haven’t even met some of my friends’ kids! My hope is that I will be able to make a trip down there after I graduate so I can catch up with the people I love.
And while all this was going on, there have been two presidential elections, numerous sociopolitical movements, multiple genocides, a silencing of student journalism across multiple universities, and so much more.
A lot has happened in the past six years, and I am eager to move on to my PhD and focus on my research. Despite all the craziness in the world and the horrifying push to eliminate people like me, I am still alive, and I am still passionate about my future. For all its flaws, being at Illinois Tech has played a large part in preparing me for what is to come.