I didn’t hear from Jenna in April and was a little anxious. But she’s doing great, is mostly done with high school except for online AP exams this week, and has wrapped up her college search. Congratulations, Jenna! Read the full interview below.

Meet the Class gets updated each month from September to May. Each installment features an interview about both the facts and the feelings of where the student is in the process.
Interviews may be edited lightly for clarity and grammar. Names may be changed to protect privacy.
Jenna ATTENDS A Public HIGH SCHOOL IN Michigan

How are you doing? Are you and your family well? How badly is the stay-at-home affecting you right now? Is college this fall still your plan, or have things changed too drastically?

So far I'm doing okay and so is my family. With everything going on, we've been focusing on staying home and staying safe.

In the beginning of the stay-at-home order, I was bored out of my mind almost every day and waiting for school to get back in session. It’s not now, but through this time I've been trying to keep busy and trying new hobbies to make the days go by during these times. I've hardly left the house so I've had to find new hobbies around the house. I've started cooking more which has been interesting considering I'm a terrible cook but it's coming along slowly haha :)

I also do plan to attend college in the fall whether I have to do online or get the chance to attend classes on campus . From what I've heard, there's a possibility Wayne State will return but I'm not sure at Central.

Michigan has been in the national news lately, with your stay at home order extended and major protests at the capitol. Are you feeling that tension in your own home or community, or does the conflict with the state government feel distant?

Honestly, personally I'm not really feeling the tension. I saw some on social media were very upset about what was going on and others voicing their opinion for a bit but not an over abundance of tension. Even now as I'm writing to you, I don't see people post/talk about it really anymore.

One of your top contenders, Wayne State, has moved their deposit date back to June 1. But last I checked, Central Michigan State is keeping their May 1 deadline. Does having two different deadlines complicate things for you? And are those still your top choices?

Having the two different deadlines did complicate things at one point, but I have ultimately decided on attending Wayne State in the fall.

Considering the circumstances and my criteria for choosing a college, it's my best bet as of right now.

As of right now, I don't have a ton of money saved for college so I plan on staying home my first year at least since I don't live far from the school.

But I also wanted to stay close to my mom with everything going on so I know she's okay rather than me being 2 hours away from home and not being able to come home and help her if needed.

How is school going right now? Are you doing at-home assignments? Live meetings, through Zoom or something like that? How well is your high school handling the chaos?

For a while my school didn't tell us anything about assignments until all Michigan schools shut down for the rest of the year.

Then my school implemented a plan where grades 9th-11th must do online to complete their classes or they hand out packets weekly at one of our schools for those without internet access. As for seniors, they're doing credit/no credit.

If we had a passing grade in a class before March 12th then you're done, although teachers still post work to do and it cannot negatively affect our grades.

If you didn't have a passing grade before March 12th then you have to do the work in order to complete the class and graduate.

So because of this, I'm pretty much done :)

(Except I have my AP Psych test on May 19th I've been studying for, or trying to at least.)

Not many of my classes have been doing Zoom meets except for my one AP class, as we have the test to prepare for.

My school overall is handling the situation very well. Communication between our superintendent, parents and students have been crystal clear which we're all thankful for. Though for the rest of the year, since everything has been cancelled, a lot of clubs have been scrambling to figure out elections. In Key Club we have an all senior board so we've been reaching out to others within the club if they're interested in holding a position and same with Student Council.

As of right now we're still having a prom and graduation I believe? Prom was supposed to be May 28th and graduation was June 3rd. Our principal has been fighting to have this for us so we're not sure whats going to happen.

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Photo by Angela Elisabeth.