鈥淚t felt like a chapter that never ended,鈥� Magdalena Estiverne said of her senior year at Evans High School in Orlando, Fla. She found out by voicemail in March that in-person instruction at her school was over for the year.
鈥淧art of you is kind of missing,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like your mind still goes back to it.鈥�
Estiverne didn鈥檛 get to go to prom. She didn鈥檛 get to wear the strappy silver sandals her mom had bought her for that night. She knows it might sound like a small disappointment, because there are such big issues going on in the world, but she was looking forward to it. And having something to look forward to is what Estiverne said she needs most right now.
Like 18 percent of the 2020 high school graduates who responded to an August poll from the EdWeek Research Center, Estiverne has parents who were laid off or furloughed from their jobs in the hospitality industry because of the pandemic. To make ends meet, the family now receives government assistance. They also picked up food donations at Estiverne鈥檚 high school. The school鈥檚 student government teachers also delivered gift bags in May to all student government seniors, including Estiverne.
Now Estiverne is working toward an associate degree in psychology at Valencia Community College, with the help of a federal Pell grant. That puts her in the fortunate half of those who responded to the EdWeek Research Center poll. The survey found that, among the students who had planned in January to attend a two-year college, 57 percent were following through with those plans in August.
Estiverne hopes to become a social worker. By doing so, Estiverne said, 鈥淚 can help people who are like me, who鈥檝e gone through the same situation as I have.鈥�
As a Haitian immigrant who moved to the United States at age 8, Estiverne feels that school has always been complicated for her. In the predominately Black public high school she attended, she said she did not feel 鈥淏lack enough.鈥� Plus, English is not her first language. Even so, she managed to get mostly A鈥檚 and B鈥檚 in high school and find friends over time鈥攂ut social distancing prevented her from seeing them over the summer.
In April, her family had to find another place to live after the landlord sold their home. And in July, her parents, who are also both Haitian immigrants, were laid off from their hotel housekeeping jobs at Rosen Hotels.
Looking for a new home during the pandemic has complicated Estiverne鈥檚 efforts to continue her education. Her high school digital technology teacher connected her to a youth work program, which accepted her in March just before school shut down. But she said she didn鈥檛 get to finish enrolling because 鈥渕y focus wasn鈥檛 100 percent on school because we were constantly looking for places to go, homes and stuff like that until we found this house.鈥�
Even now, in the house her family found鈥攕he shares a bedroom with her older sister鈥擡stiverne鈥檚 . That鈥檚 a problem because her community college classes are taught remotely.
鈥淥nline classes, it鈥檚 like you don鈥檛 have access to the teacher,鈥� Estiverne said. 鈥淲hen the Wi-Fi goes out, you can鈥檛 just email them and explain it to them.鈥�
She鈥檚 enrolled in English Composition, General Psychology, and U.S. History. She鈥檚 avoiding college math after a frustrating and disappointing experience trying to learn math remotely in high school. She said she could never get the hands-on support she needed, and the delay in email communication just made things more difficult.
鈥淚鈥檓 stressed out and anxious about the economy at this moment,鈥� Estiverne said, echoing struggles expressed by other 2020 graduates in the EdWeek Research Center poll. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what path we are going to take, especially with this election going on right now.鈥�
