Students electing to continue with remote learning during the pandemic find ways to stay connected to SPS

Ian Aldrich

Last spring, as Rishi Jun-Kai Basu ’21 was finishing out the school year from his home in Lexington, Mass., the junior began contemplating what the Fall Term might look like for himself and for St. Paul’s School. In the first few weeks, especially, Basu, who speaks with the calm demeanor of a college professor in control of the facts, had been thinking a lot about the big picture impact of COVID-19. In a piece he penned for an April edition of The Pelican, the then-Fifth Former argued that the lessons learned from the exponential growth of coronavirus could help combat other global catastrophes.

“During these times, we ought to remind ourselves that learning can happen in good times and bad,” he wrote. “We can’t change the past, but we can change the future. Hopefully, we use the knowledge gained from this pandemic experience to counter other exponential phenomena, like climate change, and think mathematically to save our world before it is too late.”

As spring faded into summer, and it became clear that St. Paul’s would again be welcoming students back to the grounds in the fall, Basu decided he would at least do the fall semester from home.

“In March, the School had done such a good job under the circumstances at making distance learning work,” says Basu. “I knew the experience was going to be even better once they’d been able to really plan for it. And I just thought that, if I didn’t have to be on campus, it would be better for the community and for those who did have to be there.”

In all, some 30 SPS students chose to remote learn for the entire Fall Term and their reasons varied. For some, like Olivia Kim ’22 of Bedford, N.H., family concerns were a driving force.

“My grandmother lives with us and I worried about putting her in danger,” she says.

For Wenling “Dolan” Kou ’23, who resides in Beijing, China, quarantine logistics and worries over possible crowd exposure at different airports convinced her to stay home. “The plane tickets were also hard to book,” she says.

Student Leadership from Afar
Still, the decision was not easy for any of them. All of the students interviewed for this story highlighted the fact that they missed the camaraderie and culture that comes with living and going to school in person. That includes Basu. His involvement at the School runs deep. He serves as vice president of the Student Council, is head of the Chess Club, writes for the school newspaper, volunteers as a peer tutor, and is involved in several different ethnic groups.

But, as a student leader, Basu also saw an opportunity to set an example. Not long into the summer break, he began meeting virtually with three other key student officers – president Seth McKenzie ’21, secretary Hannah Deng ’21, and treasurer Margaret Pirozzolo ’21 – to examine what the student experience might look like come September. The question that hung over all their discussions was how they could be sure distance learners would feel connected to the larger school community.

Of particular focus was the School’s myriad student organizations. At the start of each term, St. Paul’s hosts the Clubs and Societies Bazaar, a lively gathering of some 50 groups that allows students to see up-close the range of extracurricular activities available to them and talk in person with club leaders.

“Everyone turns out for it and there’s music playing and all this great energy,” says Basu. “It’s really an awesome feeling, and we didn’t want that to go away.”

With the expected cancellation of the fall in-person bazaar, and concern over how remote students could still be involved in extracurricular activities, the student leadership team began making plans to hold a virtual event. They did so by using Remo, an enhanced video calling platform built for larger online gatherings that allows for both group chats and one-on-one discussions.

In September, SPS opened its virtual doors to the latest iteration of the Clubs and Societies Bazaar. Turnout and enthusiasm were strong, says Basu. Students made their choices and, perhaps most significantly, reconnected with others in a way they hadn’t in nearly six months. Those who couldn’t attend had access to a newly developed online guidebook that showcases each organization. Information is updated frequently, and students can sign on with different clubs and groups throughout the year.

“We’ve seen a good amount traffic, so I think it’s been pretty effective,” says Basu.

That sentiment extends to his remote learning. Even in the midst of wrapping up his career at SPS and applying to colleges, Basu, who has managed to stay connected with the various groups and organizations he’s involved with, says he has no regrets about his decision.

“I knew that the best way I could advocate for those who were distance learning was for me to go through the same experience,” he says.

Reimagining Education
Even as SPS faculty and staff triaged last year’s Spring Term, school officials were already looking ahead to the fall. For many, a summer break never really came to fruition. Different building spaces had to be reimagined as classroom areas that suited both in-person and distance learners, faculty took classes and learned to fine-tune their courses for those who chose to study remotely, and new technologies had to be implemented, from software to classroom cameras to creating an online depository for students to access textbooks that could help bridge the gap between distance- and in-person learners.

“Sometimes I look at what we had to do in such a short period of time and it’s kind of remarkable,” says Dean of Studies Lori Bohan. “Everyone – students, faculty, administrators – we knew we weren’t going back to how things had been. So we had to think about what we could do to help the kids who can’t be here feel like they are a part of the School and their classes so they can learn.”

The new tools of the trade, from classroom cameras with 360-degree views to digital whiteboards to more robust use of cloud computing to foster collaboration, don’t spell a radical overhaul at a school that has always prized technological innovation. But, in trying to reach different student populations in varied settings, SPS educators have had to reimagine how they connect with those they’re teaching and the kind of classroom community they’re trying to build.

“One of the things we have learned is that everything we think is going to be incredibly difficult is actually learnable,” says Director of Distance Learning Melissa Poole, who helmed the incorporation of much of the School’s new technologies over the last year. “Our students are learning new things every day and they’re being put in this kind of an uncomfortable position every single day, having to learn something new and apply it and use it and then do something with it. As teachers, we don’t always have to be in that position. But, over the last few months, we have been in that position. I think it gives us a really good perspective on how our students experience the world and how they adjust to new things.”

New Routines and the Ability to Readjust
On most school mornings, Olivia Kim wakes up at 7 a.m. and heads to the kitchen, where her mom is usually seeing off her father – a cardiologist at Catholic Medical Center in nearby Manchester. After a light breakfast, the Fifth Former gets dressed and then stations herself in the office, a spacious room in her home’s finished basement, to wrap up any last-minute homework before logging on to school.

Depending on the morning, her class schedule begins at 8 or 8:30. In some respects, the rhythm to her day is similar to what she had when she was living at SPS. There’s built-in free time, scheduled blocks to meet with advisers, and Chapel. She’s continued with the Classics Society Club, joining the group via Zoom every Sunday for their preparation for different Certamen competitions, quiz-bowl style games for Latin and Greek students. In addition, she’s also started volunteering as an SPS-supported youth mentor with the Friends Program, which works with underserved children in New Hampshire’s Merrimack County.

“I am grateful to have had teachers who were adept at technology skills, allowing the transition to online learning to be as smooth as possible,” Kim says. “With the cameras they’ve set up in the classrooms, I can see and hear the other students in the rooms, see the classroom, and see my teacher’s face. In my biology class, for example, the teacher will take the mic to the students if they have something to say. The audio is very good. By the end of the day, I am pretty tired of looking at a screen, but overall it’s gone really well.”

The biggest loss, says Kim, has been not seeing her friends in person, and missing out on dorm life. “We stay in touch, but it’s not the same,” she says. Still, the decision to stay home was never a hard one. “I knew I had to protect my grandmother. I love her and I feel very fortunate to have such strong family bonds and adequate spaces in my home to study and stay focused.”

On the opposite side of the globe, Dolan Kou has found her way as a distance learner. “I feel like I’m more used to taking online classes,” she says. “It can be a little crazy because I have classes at midnight when my brain just needs to rest. [But], we have extra-help sessions, and I can also e-mail my teachers.”

Any hiccups, from turned-off microphones to camera glitches to late-night grogginess, Kou says, are relatively small issues compared to what others around the world are going through.

“I know and understand that this is something that a lot of people are dealing with right now,” says the Beijing native, who hopes to return to Concord for the Spring Term. “All I can do is wait for the vaccine to come out and for the world to return to normal again.”

Tobias Benetton ’21, a native of Italy, has the same kind of hopes. He’s a Sixth Former, and missing out on his final year at SPS, where he is the varsity soccer captain, was a challenging idea to accept.

“I knew it was going to be hard and, honestly, it has been,” says Benetton, who lives with his family in a small town near Venice. “What was frustrating, compared to last spring when all students were home, was seeing the other students in class. But the School was fantastic in providing resources for students, from online books to extra-help sessions for students from different time zones. My college adviser was very available, and I have been able to follow all college work from home very well. Obviously, COVID impacted everyone’s college plans. I [recently] canceled my SAT, for example. It’s just a continuous change of plans as everything is very uncertain.”

Fellow Sixth Former Rishi Basu knows that as well as anyone. With the college application process upended, Basu has had to rely on virtual visits to prospective schools, while also quickly and deftly forging relationships with admissions personnel. Basu, who plans to study applied math, credits the colleges he’s considering and SPS staff for helping to make the endeavor as seamless as possible. But, he says, it’s required a lot of time on Zoom and he’ll be happy when it’s safe to resume meeting people in person again.

“I think this year has taught me to never take anything for granted,” Basu says. “So much of what we think of as normal can be taken away very quickly. And being in the position of representing other students like this has been an invaluable experience.”