It’s 2020, and a deadly pandemic has forced schools to shut down globally. Some students struggle to lasso this new digital format, while others revel in their newfound independence.
Months pass, and they quickly find routine in seeing familiar faces — classmates, friends, teachers — projected on a screen. Disillusionment spreads as social isolation rears its unforgiving head.
For present-day virtual learners, this isolating experience is commonplace. For all the benefits online education has offered during and after the pandemic, this downside can be debilitating.
Virtual students must take personal responsibility to interact with others in ways the traditional public-school weekday takes care of by virtue of its century-old design. Enrolled in Tulsa Tech’s Career Academy and Pharmacy Technician Program, 17-year-old Sunday Holley is heavily acquainted with the loneliness that accompanies alternative learning.
“Career Academy is capped at around six students per class, which felt a little bit lonely at first, but I’ve acclimated to it because I have friends outside of school,” Holley said.
Holley spends most school hours at home, breezing through credits on the educational platform Edgenuity.
“I’m involved in school activities and programs that allow me to feel connected to people around me, so I feel very fulfilled being in a group where they share the same interests,” Holley shared, speaking with the confidence of an experienced socialite.
During COVID-19, Holley admits that simply turning on the camera during Zoom meetings was a daunting task. Mics were constantly muted, this dread for socializing through a screen widely shared as common sentiment among online students experiencing the format for the first time. Holley, finding that socializing in person helped negate these feelings, opted to take on a life of scrubs, filling prescriptions, and memorizing pharmaceutical jargon her senior year.
So, the solution to feelings of isolation as a virtual student? Extracurriculars. Or, in Holley’s case, a job with a ton to learn about.
Like Holley, It’s important for virtual learners to realize the importance of human connection — to take advantage of the plethora of social opportunities offered outside of the classroom. At Epic Charter Schools, the Comet Clovers 4-H Club offers exactly that.
As one of the largest youth clubs in the country, the 4-H program centers on cultivating life skills useful for the rest of students’ lives. Leadership skills, public speaking, and even scholarship opportunities are but a fraction of benefits the program offers. What’s more — students often connect with experts in their field and other dedicated peers in virtual meetings.
“I encourage public speaking, even if that’s you having to unmute and say your name and answer the question of the day,” Epic Comet Clovers advisor Missy Quintero said.
Epic’s 4-H Club hosts virtual meetings by which students 9- to 19-years-old are given the opportunity to meet volunteers who underscore the four H’s: the heart, hands, head and health. In February, Quintero and fellow club members explored heart health and took their own pulses. In November, members emphasized the importance of being thankful by learning how to write a thank you note.
But, as valuable as these practical skills can be, clubs like Comet Clovers offer something even more durable: a feeling of community, building relationships with others out there in the ones and zeroes of computer-based instruction.
“I think it’s important for kids to know that there’s somebody out there that they can connect with. There’s somebody who’s your person out there, and you’ll never know if you don’t try to connect,” Quintero said.
A 2022 survey from the University of California at Davis of some 1,200 freshmen, sophomores and juniors found that students who attended class online were more likely to be lonely and depressed during the pandemic’s early days than their in-person peers.