In the fall of 2021, UC Berkeley had its first in-person semester since the pandemic started in March of 2020. While most students were excited about the prospect of having in-person classes once again, some still had concerns about the ongoing pandemic and the risks required of in-person learning.
For most students on our team, the huge lectures of general education classes like math, physics, and biology were overwhelming to think about after spending over a year avoiding as many people as possible.
It is important to note, however, that while most classes returned to in-person this semester, many others were still remote or hybrid in order to allow for in-person and remote learning options.
Further, for some members of our team, only the lab portions of their classes were offered in-person, which allowed them to still meet with smaller groups of students, and still get the in-person feel of the classroom setting while avoiding the risks associated with meeting in larger groups for regular lectures.
Overall, our team members enjoyed seeing the campus full of students and being able to get regular social interaction face-to-face again but were still wary of the risks involved with seeing our peers in this manner.
The team is generally very hopeful for the upcoming in-person semesters as the pandemic wears down.
This blog post was written by Brooke Chang.