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Changzhou, China

After school, I needed to do farm work and cook dinner. After that, I have to do the dishes too. I couldn’t start doing school work until 8 p.m. At that time, I was a big fan of Maths, so I often stayed up past midnight to solve tricky math problems. Sometimes, I got really sleepy so I fell asleep with candles lit. When the candles melted, the desk would catch fire—this happened three times. Every time I managed to save my Math book first. I’d cry really loud if I see the book was burnt broken. I didn’t think of anything else. 

Huntington, WV

My family does not respect the stay-at-home order, so I am worried about my living arrangement. I would rather be on my own, but have no ability to do so at the time.

South Bend, IN

I just can’t overstate how much more difficult this situation is for students who are parenting… I understand that there are other challenging situations people face, but I often feel alienated further by the fact that I am parenting while working on my PhD, and the COVID crisis seems to have exacerbated that.

New York, NY

I am just struggling with performing at a high level in a suboptimal environment. I live in NYC and I’m in a small apartment with my whole family. I can’t go to the gym or go outside for non essential things. I had COVID and I know people who have it and who’ve died from it. I think many professors have understood this but some can’t fathom why students aren’t performing as well or attending class and this is why.

Baltimore, MD

I have no motivation now and don’t have the same support nets as before to get help on engineering projects. My motivation is like 5% of what it was before.Thinking about doing the work makes me want to cry and hurt myself. Can’t focus, work routine disrupted, can’t go to normal study places.

South Bend, IN

My motivation before was mostly a problem only because I had so many things to do and my mental health issues made time management hard. Now, my mental health is so bad that it is difficult to find motivation even for a single task due the next day. Sometimes, it takes until the due date for me to have the mental energy to even start.