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Like all of the nation\u2019s high school graduates, the Chicago Public Schools class of 2022 has spent more than half of their high school experience navigating the pandemic. But in addition to the challenges of remote learning, families impacted by COVID-19, and interruptions to their social lives, CPS students also had to contend with contention between the Chicago Teachers Union and CPS administration, including two strikes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHigh school itself, we know isn\u2019t easy,\u201d said Lane Tech High School graduate Isabela \u00c1vila R\u00edos. \u201cAnd then add on more than one strike and COVID and all that, it made it seem like it was never going to end at one point. Yet here I am two days post-graduation, realizing like it\u2019s all over. It\u2019s all behind me now.\u201d<\/p>\n
For CPS class of 2022 graduates\u00a0Isabela \u00c1vila R\u00edos, Diego Garcia, Yazmine Puma, and Andre Pedroza, high school was more than a stop on the way to adulthood. It\u2019s where they found support and community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are teachers here who really care about the students and I\u2019m just grateful to have been in the classroom with those teachers and have had experiences with some teachers that … very clearly cared about me and cared about the community,\u201d said Diego Garcia. \u201cI reflect on that a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s where they discovered new interests and talents.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have multiple different types of outlets in which you can show your creative expression and that\u2019s where I feel like CPS actually does a good job,\u201d said Schurz High School graduate Andre Pedroza. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t know as much about music as I do now if not for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s where they learned more about who they are and who they want to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came into Schurz I wanted to major in business because that\u2019s what I thought interested me, but then I kind of struggled on what I wanted to major in because nothing really caught my attention. Like I\u2019m more of a hands on thinking type of person,\u201d said Schurz High School graduate Yazmine Puma.<\/p>\n
\u201cCPS in itself allowed me to start off my activism work that led me to then create the\u00a0Coalition of Advocates for Undocumented Students\u2019 Education<\/a>\u00a0and for it to take off,\u201d said \u00c1vila R\u00edos.<\/p>\n Looking back, the graduates say every aspect of their school lives was touched by the pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last couple of years, it was a little rough with the pandemic and online school, it wasn\u2019t the best,\u201d said Garcia. \u201cSome ideas don\u2019t translate well through computers, and sometimes I had trouble with the internet connection.\u201d<\/p>\n Garcia said there were changes to his well-being.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the shutdown, I felt a little less social. I felt like I became a little more introverted. So that\u2019s something I\u2019m still working through and trying to get past,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Pedroza also had difficulty with remote learning, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say that COVID legitimately reduced my work ethic. Sometimes there were days where I wouldn\u2019t want to do assignments because I wouldn\u2019t have motivation to do them,\u201d Pedroza said. \u201cThat\u2019s when administration here introduced something, I call it the 50% rule. And essentially that\u2019s when teachers were not allowed to fail the students\u2019 assignments. I feel like that 50% rule really like affects students like in this school, especially with their work ethic.\u201d<\/p>\n The interruptions also led to disappointment for student-athletes like Yazmine Puma.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been playing sports since freshman year. My mom caught COVID towards the end of my volleyball season. So due to that my volleyball season was cut short. I was really sad about that,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted to try out soccer for my junior year but that wasn\u2019t able to happen because my dad had COVID and then I had to quarantine basically the entire month.\u201d<\/p>\n And even retuning to in-person school had some road bumps, said \u00c1vila R\u00edos.<\/p>\n \u201cVirtual learning was hard in itself, but the transition back, since our schools weren\u2019t prepared for that either, made things so much harder with teachers having to change the way they grade or accept work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n But now with their time in CPS at an end, they all report feeling ready and eager for the challenges that lie ahead.<\/p>\n Yazmine Puma is heading to Illinois State University in the fall to study criminal justice.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m actually very excited. I had to think about it a lot because I\u2019m moving away, I\u2019m going to be living on campus, but I see it as a way of experiencing something new and as a way of like making myself more independent,\u201d Puma said.<\/p>\n Andre Pedroza is attending Harold Washington College to study computer science.<\/p>\n \u201cI envision having a career with computer science, maybe with programming, especially something with video games, because that\u2019s something I\u2019m interested in as well,\u201d said Pedroza.<\/p>\n After a summer working with the National Equity Project, Isabela \u00c1vila R\u00edos will be matriculating at the University of Chicago to major in political science.<\/p>\n \u201cI think going to CPS really opened up my view of the city,\u201d \u00c1vila R\u00edos said. \u201cI know so much more just from meeting people from everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n And Diego Garcia will be going to UIC, where he was accepted into the pre-health pre-science program and plans a career in the medical field. Garcia\u2019s high school was\u00a0one of the recipients of full scholarships<\/a>\u00a0from the nonprofit organization Hope Chicago, an event Garcia called a \u201conce-in-a-lifetime opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to have to figure out more things on my own and that\u2019s just my main concern, making sure I have everything that needs to be done, done,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI am unbelievably excited.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n