Living with Lockdown

Living with Lockdown Ezine Spring 2021

Living | 1

Living | 3

Table of Contents `

How has the COVID-19

6

Letter from the editors

8 Teaching Through a Camera

. Arsh Shah

12 Problems with the Pandemic: Austin ISD

14 Learning Through a Screen

Arsh Shah

Milla Press

18 What Type of School is Best for You?

Milla Press

Pandemic affected my school?

20 Highschool as a QuaranTEEN

George Clark

24 5 Steps on Your Road to Productivity George Clark

26

Running a Company With the Click of a Button Aleah Ragan

30 Can You Run a Company Over a Computer?

Aleah Ragan

Space graphic on cover provided by Dryicons

Living | 5

Meet the editors GEORGE CLARK George Clark is a freshman at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy in Austin, TX. His interests include reading, playing video games, and sleeping. A lot. He wrote about the school-home boundary during COVID because he has felt the effects of it on himself.

Aleah Ragan is a freshman at LASA high school.

She loves reading, plays the viola, and enjoys playing volleyball with her friends as well. In this magazine, she wrote about the effects of COVID and quarantine by bringing attention to the entrepreneurs, and providing detail on how they are able to stay in business during these times.

ALEAH RAGAN ALEX ELEFTHERIADES Alex Eleftheriades is a freshman at LASA High School. His mother has worked in Special Education for more than 10 years. Though he quotes that he’s not very good at working with children. He does wonder about special education functioned during the coronavirus pandemic.

Milla Press is a freshman at LASA High School in Austin, Texas. She wrote about young children dealing with the difficulties of online school during Covid in this magazine because she has a younger sister who is about to start Elementary School and was interested in looking into how the pandemic has affected that experience.

ARSH SHAH MILLA PRESS

Arsh Shah is 15 years old and a freshman at LASA High School. He spends most of his free time mountain biking and playing video games. He went deep into how administrators across the school and district level had to change when schools went online. He was interested in seeing all the different aspects of running a school that needed to be changed because students and people outside of the school don’t get to see the behind the scenes of what administrators do.

Living | 7

Teaching through through aa Camera Camera Teaching The struggles that teachers and administrators face in virtual learning By: Arsh Shah

A

s the attendance bell echoes through the hall, you find yourself reaching for your laptop to open a Zoom meeting instead of reaching for your notebook. You look up to see your teacher, 10 feet away from you, but only focusing on their screen.

You hear her voice travel through the classroom, and Zoom sends that voice through their servers and across the city. The travel takes a few milliseconds, but that is enough to feel the gap. Your fellow classmates that are in the building may seem nearby, but mentally they are so much farther away.

The start of the pandemic during March of 2020 caused many schools to have an extended spring break followed by virtual learning for the rest of the year.

Now, in the 2020-21 school year, most students in Austin ISD still learn virtually. Even those that go to school in-person have to log onto Zoom meetings for their classes. Teachers and school administrators have to think more creatively about how to engage their students and manage to safely run a school during a global pandemic.

Jerald Wilson was a math teacher for over 11 years before becoming the Assistant Principal

in Garland ISD, and is currently the Principal of Kealing Middle School in Austin. He said that the biggest difference between virtual learning in the spring of 2020 in Garland ISD, and the 2021 school year in Austin is how teachers have adapted to technology.

“Up there, the teachers used google classroom, so they were very uncomfortable with trying to use Google Meets, which is kind of like Zoom. It was because it was new. You know it was brand new at the time, nobody knew that we would be doing 100% virtual school. The biggest change that I’ve seen since coming here is the teachers actually seem to

be very comfortable with using Zoom,” Wilson said.

Wilson said that keeping students engaged is the most important part of virtual learning. Even though many students choose to keep their cameras off, teachers find ways to still create assignments where students have to interact with one another.

“Lots of students as far as you know, the self image of themselves, may not be as comfortable or just whatever you know you’ve got going on in your house,” said Wilson.

Suzanne Newell is the Director of Academics for Austin ISD. She said that a part of engaging students is being able to understand what they need.

“It’s sometimes really hard for

teachers to pick up on students’ needs. Either their emotional needs or their learning needs if they’re just in a Zoom room.

I think there is definitely a benefit to a modified version, but I also know that for some kids, regardless of what array of circumstances it may be, virtual learning has actually been better for them right because of either social situations or life circumstances,” said Newell.

Newell said that since every single teacher faced challenges while trying to learn the various programs used in virtual learning, it became something where many teachers started to help each other and viewed this as a situation that everyone was in together.

“Every teacher in the district was a first year teacher back in

“I think that we have to first off give everyone grace, but then we’ve also got to give ourselves grace because a lot of times with educators and administrators like myself, you’re accustomed to being ahead of the curve and that’s kind of how you get to where you’re going.”

- Jerald Wilson

September. There’s some teachers who have taught for 25 years, but nobody has ever taught in a pandemic virtually ever,” said Newell. “Everybody was at square one last year.”

Wilson believes that at the beginning of last year, things were almost at rock bottom.

Once teachers got the hang of things and recovered from the initial struggle of virtual learning, they are now prepared for the worst.

long time, but it wasn’t until last spring that we absolutely had to rely on [it]. And once our backs were against the wall and this was the only way that we could do school or education, then people became more proficient at all of the new programs,” Wilson said.

Some classes are harder to teach online than others.

Wilson acknowledged that keeping a hands-on class interesting and engaging for students is something that is a constant struggle for teachers.

“It’s like if you’re in a science class and you get to dissect frogs, you probably look

forward to that. What’s crazy about it is you knew that you were gonna get in there and get to cutting and seeing things,” said Wilson.

Newell said that in some ways, instead of making virtual learning as close to a regular school environment and learning experience, many schools

throughout AISD have used asynchronous learning as a way for students to learn in a different way, and to give them flexibility in their schedule to do the things they want to do.

“I’m a huge fan of asynchronous days as long as they’re set up well right; as long as the teachers have used maybe your A or B day prior to that as a great launching point so that you can at your own pace and

Image from Kealing Middle School Twitter.

in your own preferred manner,” said Newell.

Newell said that even during inperson school, learning outside of school and at your own pace can be a great way to learn. During asynchronous learning, Newell believes that it is important for students to have the ability to get help from teachers to assist their learning, as it can help students stay productive.

“I think [it’s important] for teachers to have office hours during asynchronous days because if you guys are learning and you get to a roadblock or you get to a place that you really just can’t work through on your own it’s really important to have access to support,” Newell said.

Even in synchronous learning

virtually, Wilson explained that teachers can’t understand what issues students face unless the students come to the teachers.

“They want to see you, they want to help you because math is so procedural and linear that you know to get from one step to the next. If I help you at this step, then you can finish the problem you know,” said Wilson. “ I think that one big change is people not being able to get that face-to-face feedback.”

Suzanne said that this year has been a slightly different situation for every student and every teacher all across the country.

This whole pandemic has created a lot of firsts for everyone, and people are doing things that they never thought they would be doing.

“We’ve had to kind of stumble through this year and do it whether we wanted to or not, so also think of my point about what I’m excited about, I have seen some amazing examples across the district that have emerged over the last couple of months especially of teachers really getting the hang of virtual learning and using all of the tools

“We’ve had to kind of stumble through this year and do it [virtual learning] whether we wanted to or not.”

- Suzanne Newell Living | 11

Problems in the Pandemic: THE

By: Arsh Shah

During the pandemic, obviously not everything has been perfectly smooth sailing. Virtual learning came with a steep learning curve, and there are many problems that students, teachers, and administrators faced.

%

Increase of failing students during the pandemic in October of 2020.

Information provided by KXAN

In September 2020, families responded for 54,000 students about their learning preference

Elementary School

Middle School

High School Information provided by AISD

By december 1st, AISD denied 940 teachers work from home requests, approving only 48 for the 2021 spring semester. 1,200 were approved for the fall 2020 semester.

...Or around 5%

https://www.kxan.com/investigations/austin-isd-denies-940-work-from-home-requests-for-thespring-so-far-approves-48/

Students failed AT LEAST one course in the first semester of the 2020-21 school year

Information provided by the Community Impact Newspaper

Cumulative Covid-19 data for aisd (Weekly)

September

November

Winter Break

January

March Information provided by AISD. Living | 13

Young Students During COVID:

Teachers Have to Innovate as Children and Their Families Face Tough Decisions About In-Person Learning

By Milla Press

A

s you walk into the classroom, you see something drastically different than what we all experienced last March.

Children, all in face masks, work on their individual assignments as the teacher talks to a computer screen filled with the images of more young students. You watch as one young girl walks over to her friend to play a game, smiling as she makes sure to put on a face shield before coming in contact with the other child.

While this continues, the parents’ minds benefits of children outweigh the they face near other

pandemic question on most is whether the sending their back to school health risks from being people.

Kristin Castaño, a first grade teacher

Specifically at Highland Park Elementary School. in younger Photo provided byKristin Castaño. children, it can be difficult to see them go so long without having friends to play with or socializing at all with

people their age, and parents across the country are wondering if it is worth the risk.

Kristin Castaño teaches 1st-grade at a local school, Highland Park Elementary. This is her second year teaching this age group specifically, and she has said that she believes that social relations for young students are very important and that school is a great place for them to interact.

“I feel like my kiddos that come back in person are much more emotionally balanced and [are] feeling so much better than the sweet little ones that are still remote.”

Castaño said, “I can see them fading on the other side of Zoom and it just breaks my heart. We’re not doing anything differently for them than we did at the beginning of the year, I can just see that they’re really missing that recess time, the time to play outside with their kids.”

Social time is important to any child and taking their main form of it away is really having an impact on their happiness. While parents obviously have concerns about their children’s physical health, this social deprivation can be just as damaging to their emotional health.

Fortunately, most schools are following strict safety protocols, whenever possible.

Castano tells us that “[the students] have to clean and wipe down everything that their little hands touched throughout the day. So they each get wipes, they pack up their backpacks, set them on the carpet and they wipe down everything. So their desks, their markers, their school box, their chair, they stack everything up. They help me wipe doorknobs and light switches and all of the things,

Two students reading with masks on in a classroom. Photo courtesy of Kristin Castaño.

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I just tell them, anything your little fingers touched, you have to go wipe it out. And so they wipe everything and it’s amazing. They are troopers.”

“They wear a mask the entire day. They help disinfect and clean and it’s crazy they’re just so good at it now.”

“We’re all just doing and moving and grooving and it just makes a little difference.

You know, they wear face shields when they come too - they wear their mask in addition.

They have a face shield if they meet in the small group setting or if they’re playing a game with a friend, they have to wear all of this stuff now.”

Some teachers are becoming very creative to compensate for the abnormal school year. Emilie Buske-Ferman is a librarian at a public Texas elementary school, Elizabeth Smith Innovative Learning Academy. She has been teaching for over 5 years and having to make so many changes now is a big adjustment to what she is used to. One of the biggest challenges that she is facing is figuring out how to keep her students interested in reading when they are unable to come to her library in-person.

“We’ve seen a decrease in circulation, how many books kids are checking out,” BuskeFerman said

One of Kristin Castaño’s students reading in her classroom in-person. Photo provided by Kristin Castaño.

“And my students who are learning at home are not nearly getting the amount of books that they want.”

And my in-person kindergarten students, they’ve drastically dropped in how many numbers of books they’re checking out per week.”

Normally, Buske-Ferman gets to do a variety of fun, unique activities with her students in the library, but now she has to translate them into online learning. She does not see any of her students in person, meaning these activities must be made online applicable or no one will be able to use them. Luckily, she is creatively coming up with ways to incorporate all of her old projects into this new zoom reality.

purposeful in their day, I think it can be a really good thing for the kiddos to go back if they can.”

Castano said, “But if you’re older, I think it’s smart right now just to stay home until more people are vaccinated, more teenagers can be vaccinated. I think that will be really helpful.”

“I miss having the kids come into the library. I’ve had to completely revamp my maker space and STEAM lab, which With the Pfizer vaccine approved for had all of my robotics and coding, marble people age 16 and older, and clinical trials mazes, building kits, where kids could for the remaining vaccines for children come in and do hands-on connection age 12-15 awaiting FDA approval, to literature,” Buske-Ferman many students of all ages should said. “I just got a grant ... for soon be able to safely return backpacks and I’m going to put to the classroom, which most my STEAM lab kits in each of teachers agree is better for those backpacks, pair it with optimal learning, especially a book, and catalog it so kids in the younger demographic. can actually check it out The more that communities like a book, take it home, and work together to keep everyone Emilie Buske-Ferman, a librarian at do the makerspace activity at safe during this pandemic, the Elizabeth Smith Elementary School. home.”

Photo provided by Emilie Buske-Ferman. sooner teachers and students can be back on campus and interact Due to these adaptations, kids learning in a way necessary for younger students to virtually can still get the fun experience of thrive. Until all students are able to be back playing with educational toys without having in the classroom, parents, teachers, and to put their family’s or their own health at administrators are still working hard to do the risk. Both Castaño and Buske-Ferman believe best they can. that taking precautions for the virus is very important, not just for themselves but for the As Castano put it: “There’s lots of grace, lots of health of the community at large. just really a sense of we’re in this together and we’re going to figure it out together. We know “I think the younger you are, it’s not going to be perfect, but we’re just going to do the best that we can … I think we’re all if it’s safe and the teacher is just kind of bumping along.”

really being thoughtful and

Living | 17

WHAT TYPE OF SCHOOL IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

Take this short quiz to determine what learning environment you are best suited for.

By Milla Press

Lines of this color indicate no

Are you comfortable and able to navigate technology?

Lines of this color indicate yes

Are you an effective time manager?

DID YOU KNOW? In Texas, every student, teacher, or staff member shall wear a mask over the nose and mouth when inside a school building, school facility, facility used for school activities, or when in an outdoor space on school property or used for school activities, provided there are no extenuating circumstances.

Information provided by Texas Education Agency

S T A R T

Is someone at home high risk (including yourself)?

Are there any special circumstances that would make online learning especially difficult?

DID YOU KNOW? 21 percent of all public schools offered any courses entirely online Information provided by National Center for Educational Statistics

You have conflicting results, which means you must decide what is most important for your family, whether it is heath, learning environment, lack of initiative, or something else.

Are you willing to learn and adapt?

In-person school is a much better fit for you as it will allow you to focus and have direct help from teachers.

Are you willing to take control of your own learning and be responsible for your own work?

DID YOU KNOW?

The CDC considers a COVID-19 exposure as someone who has been within 6 feet of a COVID-19 positive patient for at least 15 minutes while they have symptoms, or 2 days prior to them having symptoms. This can include a family member or someone in the community (school or elsewhere).

Information provided by University Hospitals

You are better suited for online school, as you are responsible enough to make sure you get your work done and have decent technology skills (or are at least willing to learn).

Living | 19

High School as a QuaranTEEN COVID-19 and its effects on schools across the country

By George Clark

Photo provided by George Clark

A

s you wake up to the sound of your alarm, you dread the long commute to class.

You finally muster the strength to crawl out of bed and sit down at your desk for... school. After 12 months of quarantine, eight

hours of Zoom per day has gotten old.

Very old. You take a deep breath. “Just one more day. One more day.”

It’s no secret that COVID doesn’t make for the healthiest school environment, but it’s important that we all work together to make

it as painless as possible. Unfortunately, there have been some questionable decisions that are worsening the mental and physical wellbeing of many students all across the country. The lack of a school/ home boundary has caused many students to feel

like they can never stop working, and that has caused many talented students to burn-out.

Lynn Boswell is a member of the AISD Board of Trustees, and has been a longtime advocate for district policies that work to improve the well-being of

students and families. She was the President of the Austin Council of PTAs for two years until she was elected

“You still need joy in your life.” to the Board of Trustees. She says that it is very important to understand that students don’t have it easy this year. “[I] just work to recognize that it’s pretty lousy, it’s hard for adults, but I think it’s hard in a special way for students...I think it’s the emotional difficulty of it. That’s just hard,” Boswell said, “It’s hard to be connected, dis-

connected. And I think much of the work of teenagers is being together. And people don’t get to do that right now.”

Arnav Bhakta is a junior at Phillips Academy at Andover, one of the highest ranked boarding schools in the world. His productivity took a hit during COVID, but he worked hard to make strategies to rebuild his work ethic. He emphasized how important it was to build structure into your day.

time period. I just made a list in my notes app of a schedule I aim to follow every day.

Even if I was an hour or so off, each day or something. It still helped me because I’ve made sure that I was getting in eight to 10 hours of work so

“Kids are still kids.”

“I like to have a pretty structured day; I have a schedule of sorts.” Bhakta said, “That’s how I managed [to keep my] productivity [up] during that

Lynn Boswell posing in front of a library. Ms.Boswell has dedicated her career to improving the quality of life of students all around AISD. Without her influence on the AISD Board of Trustees, the student experiance would be much different.

Photo Provided by Lynn Boswell

Living | 21

that I was still staying pretty productive.”

Boswell also remarked that COVID had taken away young children’s opportunities to enjoy themselves.

“It’s really important to remember, no matter what the crisis is, kids are still kids.” Boswell said, “Whether you’re in a pandemic, or living in a refugee camp, or wherever you are, you still need to play, you still need to have fun, you still need joy in

“It comes down to remaining connected, supported and valued.” your life.”

However, not all schools have been as diligent at working to understand their students. Bhakta found that the support system provided by his school and others was less than helpful.

“I feel like they’ve been sending out emails along the lines of, ‘You got this, you’re almost there!’ Right?”

Bhakta said, “But then the teachers assign [us] two papers due the next day. Right before [our] long weekends, they sent out emails saying, ‘Enjoy your long weekend!’, but told teachers to give us double homework.”

Boswell commented on how she had been working hard to support her own high schooler during these tough times.

“You know, I think it’s really, it comes down to relationships; it comes down to remaining connected, supported and valued.” Boswell said, “You know, I think academics is one piece of it, but it’s only one piece of it. And I think we need to continue to see each other as human, recognize that everyone we meet is struggling in one way or another.”

Additionally, Boswell commended the teachers who worked to understand what their students were going through.

Arnav Bhakta’s 2020-2021 school photo. Mr. Bhakta is a junior at Phillips Acedemy, Andover; a boarding school in Massachusetts. His Photo provided by Arnav Bhakta.

“I appreciate the teachers who’ve been flexible about deadlines, who understand when someone might need to have their camera turned off.” Boswell said, “Whatever it is that they can, and [I know] teachers who invited

students into their homes. I think schools work because they’re built on relationships, they’re built on kind of that trust and respect. And I think we need [more of] that.”

Bhakta believes that maintaining balance

“We all need to recognize issues that we’ve probably never even thought about.” during online school is a joint effort. Something that the administration, teachers, and students all need to work together on.

“I think it’s both. At least in my experience from the teachers, I think one thing that they can work on is understanding that we’re not in person. For Andover in general, they reduced the amount of time for classes from 75 minutes to 45 minutes or something like that. And basically, in order to make up for that last time, teachers are giving more work outside of class.”

Bhakta said, “If teachers understood more about the fact that all my teachers are [increasing work] and that now I have way too much work to do outside of class; I’d like to think that would help a lot. For students, I think just maintaining a healthy balance and adding some structure to your day will help.”

Boswell had insight to the issues the district may have never even considered before quarantine started.

“I think we all need to recognize issues that we’ve probably never even thought about. I know immediately it’s, ‘Are people gonna judge me because of where I live?’ Whether it’s fancier or less fancy than people might think it was.”

Boswell said, “You know, there are kids who have their microphones and cameras turned off because they have loud younger siblings in the background. And are people assuming that they’re disengaged? Maybe you’re emotional, and all you can do is just get through class and you don’t want to be on camera crying? And is that okay?”

Boswell founded the Austin Fun & Learning organization when COVID began to help students have access to school supplies during the pandemic.

“I think schools work because they’re built on relationships, they’re built on kind of that trust and respect. And I think we need [more of] that.”

“The idea was: there were so many families and kids [that] went home without school supplies.

Kids were at home and expected to be learning, [but] kids didn’t have notebooks and pencils… calculators, rulers, whatever it is they needed.”

Boswell said, “[The] Austin Council of PTA’s is working with some other groups to figure out where there was a hole that could be filled by the community. Parents were feeling like they weren’t serving their kids, and they couldn’t help their kids do algebra, and [the kids] didn’t have what they needed to get school done.”

The administration at the Austin Independent School District are working on plans to re-open this fall, and are confident that they will be able to offer in-person classes to some extent next year.

Living | 23

5 Steps on your road to PRODUCTIVITY Does online-school have you feeling down?

Do you feel like your productivity has cratered over the last year? Read this guide and you’ll be off the races!

By George Clark

Download the Flora app! The Flora app lets you set goals to keep away from your phone, and if you meet the goal you set for yourself, you plant a virtual tree!

Information provided by Flora

Take time away from your electronics.

Even though they can feel like a reward for working, it’s much healthier to take breaks from screens every now and then.

Information provided by UC Berkely

The most important step to improving your at-home productivity is having a dedicated workspace! This can help your brain make connections with being at your workspace and working hard!

Information provided by Herzing University

Make sure to practice self care!

Taking a mental health break from your schoolwork is not only healthy, but it increases your productivity in the long run!

Try working with a friend over Zoom of FaceTime! Having a study-buddy can really improve your productivity.

Living | 25

Running a company with the click of a button

How entrepreneurs are maintaining business during COVID

By Aleah Ragan

M

orning has intruded its way in, and as you open your eyes, the bright screen begins to make them water. Stinging tears race down your cheeks as you desperately try to wipe away the sleep from last night. The chair you’re sitting on squeaks as you squirm around, seeking comfort before starting your twohour long meeting. As people join in, faces are hidden with names displayed on the screen.

There’s no sense of interaction.

Your screen starts to glitch, and the audio drags in and out, forcing you to try and battle the unstable Wi-Fi connection your computer faces.

Maintaining entrepreneurship can come with its strains as is, but during a global pandemic, a little can suddenly get a lot

worse. The coronavirus has presented itself as a hard fight to come out a victor in, especially for those forced to face the inevitable claustrophobia that comes with being boxed inside their houses, working and communicating through a radiant screen since March of 2020, and that’s just the conflict entrepreneurs have faced daily since this strenuous outbreak first began. Even now, they are having to continue to fight, as they struggle to find their paths toward success.

Devina Mendez had spent years as a physical therapist when she felt that it was time for her to branch out into a new field of work, and ever since then, she has been a part-time entrepreneur, greatly focused on growing her company. She first joined a mentor

group in November of 2020, where her mentor shared an inspiring story of starting as just an office assistant, and eventually getting to the place where he’s working today at Twitter, a major tech company.

“He shared a story with all of the summit mentees and the way he did it, getting from [an] office assistant to owning his own business,” Mendez said. “So with that advice, my partner and I decided to start our own business making websites.”

Clipart of man working in front of his computer is his office home. Photo provided by Vector Illustration Clipart.

Devina Mendez speaking in front of her staff at Buckner Villas, before COVID-19 last year.

proved difficult After beginning to find during a career so con- this outbreak. trary to the one she worked in “For me, I did a before, Mendez career change, had to find for so I came from herself what making a new worked best. environment Working with for myself, so other people I don’t know came easy for what that typher, but workical workspace ing in entrepre- is. I [could] ask neurship reother people quired a lot of and work with independence other people and individual who have had stability that that typical

workspace or computer set-up, but it’s just like being here at home.”

Mendez said, “So, for me, it’s new, and I’m adapting to what my needs are versus what I did in my other career. It’s different.”

Slowly, she began to form a grasp on what it meant Living | 27

to be working in a smaller, less interactive environment, and she was able to plant the seed of her company. Now, Mendez has to focus on the harder task at hand; how can she and her partner sprout this seed into something bigger? In other words, what are her next steps in growing her company, despite this pandemic?

Mendez said, “We encourage each other to either do it individually, or we have meetings to where we all brainstorm and talk about those ideas, different ideas for improving the web content, or just different ideas altogether...whether that’s through tutorials on different platforms like YouTube or classes that we can take. There’s a lot out there so we have to do that also individually, and then we’ll bring our ideas together again.”

Although the challenging parts

of COVID have stood prominent through Mendez’s work ethic, many others running their own companies have found that the virus has affected them on a more personal level, seeing it as something that tests your courage and perseverance. Leonor Coronado, a homeowner who buys dilapidated houses, has found the latter to be quite true, as she and her husband, Carlos, work day and night repairing the structure of their houses, and coating the walls in fresh, new paint, working in a more handson environment.

Devina Mendez’s work profile for online meetings and coding classes on LinkedIn and Treehouse.

Photo credited by Devina Mendez

that process, the fear, the overwhelming fear of what’s going to happen next. Especially with this virus; the illness, scared out of my mind because of the impact on a family member or us,” Coronado said.

Looking back at the days we’ve spent working and communicating through a screen, the struggles can seem never-end ing. Maintaining entrepreneurship during this pandemic can “In the impact on us, it was more like mentally, emotionally seem unconventional, even to the stability was gone. I was like the entrepreneurs themselves.

Sprouting a plant with limited it was swept out from my feet, resources is a hard thing to do, but I had to work through but it is also achievable, and that’s just what Mendez and

Coronado found out for themselves.

“I am used to working with other team members in my other career, and being around people as I worked with patients, but I was also ready for this career change, so for me, that adaptability and that change has had a very positive impact... so, I’m very glad to be working from home and

not having to go out and be around a lot of other people that may or may not be sick... and I am just going with that. I do miss the social aspect and miss my friends, but it’s just life now, so I’m just using it as a positive instead of an absolute negative,” Mendez said.

Mendez has triumphed in this stage of overwhelm and fear, and just as she has, Coronado has also decided to take something from a bad memory and turn it into a good lesson.

“What I learned that had a positive impact was that I got a firmer, stronger foundation, spiritually, that I never had had before, and that empowered me. After a couple of months of going into that negative, being in that negativity, it strengthened my spirituality,” Coronado added. “And not just that, it strengthened my family ties to people that I love, connecting other plans and friends, connecting with them through zoom, and doing things with them via zoom. I

A profile of Leonor Coronado. Photo courtesy of Leonor Coronado

might not be able to visit person-to-person, but at least we still can have that connection. To see that happen gave me so much inspiration, so much hope that despite the virus, despite this pandemic, that we can find ways to still stay together, maybe not the way I would like to, maybe not my preference, but at least something, and that’s better than nothing.”

As of today, Mendez is continuing to market her product and expand her company to gain recognition. Coronado has been working day and night to repair a house she recently purchased in Lancaster, Texas, and it is said to be ready at the end of May.

Living | 29

CAN YOU RUN A COMPANY over the computer?

Tips On Starting a Company

STARTING UP...

By: Aleah Ragan

Draft a Plan

Set a Profitable Goal

Gather staff and a Human Resources team

Now that you have an idea of where you hope to go with your career, ask yourself, “Do I have a financially set plan? Will it be enough to pay my employees?”

Implement tools that will help your company prosper

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According to Forbes, a major step in building leadership is being able to communicate thoroughly and respecitvely get your ideas across.

Though, it is important that you contribute, you want to make sure your employees are able to trust and rely on you to share ideas of their own

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Communicating with your peers

EDIT PROFILE According to Center for Creative Leadership, part of being a leader means having integrity. There may be numerous exectuive and difficult decisions, and it may be you who picks the short straw in coming up with the solution. It’s important also to hold the ability to delegate and communicate when faciliting teamwork, transmitting information, and coaching your employees.

Other important qualities include empathy, respect, as well as self-awareness Always focus on cultivating strong relationships, getting your name out whenever you can and reaching out whether it’s simply to offer help, or follow-up with connections after making initial contact Information Provided by Indeed: Career Guide

NETWORKING When making a name for yourself, it’s important to fight the impulse to shy away from a challenge. Using social networks and online resources is a key component to networking Information Provided by Indeed: Career Guide

INNOVATION Incorporating innovation into the workplace is a must in order to grow and prosper your company. Generating new ideas allows for you to adapt your product or services for your customers or clients

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