Terriers Together: Surviving a pandemic school year Written By: Keely Diebold ‘16 Back in August, if there was any word that could best describe the 2020-2021 school year, that word would be “unprecedented.” There was nothing usual about students, faculty and staff returning to a masked, socially-distant learning environment after a 2019-2020 school year cut short by the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with the 2020-2021 school year in the books, there is a far better word to describe it - a word that most generously sums up the experience of the VCH family. That word is “resilience.” “I’m incredibly proud of [the students], and I told this class of 2021 at the beginning of the year…at their senior mass, that they have truly shown what it means to persevere and to continue on and make the best of a tough situation,” VCH Principal Ginny Medina-Hamilton says. It was no secret entering the school year that COVID-19 restrictions would pose a challenge to students, faculty and staff alike. For a start, large gatherings and assemblies were put on hold, losing what Hamilton says is a valuable tool for building community among the school as a whole. In addition, more community-building was barred by the disallowance of guests and visitors to campus.
“Right at the beginning, the toughest thing was being in a class with only the people you were assigned with for lunch, so the socialization - what people love about high school - was just not there because we had removed any of that natural, unstructured socialization that they would normally have, and everything became very structured,” Hamilton says. Hamilton says the school gradually eased regulations and reimplemented opportunities for socialization among students as safely as possible as the year went on. For Hamilton, who stepped into the vacant principal role ahead of the 20202021 school year, making decisions in accordance with the recommendations of health experts was an immediate priority. She says she made sure she was well-versed in all requirements pertaining to COVID-19 to correctly relay them to staff and students. “We didn’t have a COVID-19 class back in principal school,” Hamilton laughs. “So it was really about making sure that I was wellinformed and that I could defend decisions.” Decisions regarding events like dances were ultimately made according to what it would take to adapt that event to COVID-19 guidelines. If regulations would completely change the way an event looked, the school
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weighed whether it was better to adjust the event to fit those regulations or refrain from holding the event altogether. “If these are the rules, and we choose to have a dance that fits these rules, is it then really a dance?” Hamilton says. “These are the rules. If it changed what the event was completely, then we either changed the event or didn’t have it.” Hamilton says that the 2020-2021 school year changed the scope of what she envisioned life as a principal to be like. However, she is deeply inspired by the way that creativity and resilience shone through VCH students, faculty and staff as they adjusted to their “new normal.” “I had some incredible conversations with our class presidents and leaders. I’ve also had students who would come in and talk to me and say, ‘Hey, we were thinking, and could we do something like this?’” Hamilton says. “And the creativity that our students have shown in trying to find ways to…have fun things happen in a way that’s still safe… their creativity really shone through.” Despite the effects of COVID-19 on academics, athletics, and extracurriculars, the 2020-2021 school year proved to be a successful one for teams, programs, and individuals at VCH.
