Many students dream about the college experience: living in a dorm with your best friends, partying on the weekends and staying up way too late, class schedules that mean you can sleep in until noon.

But all of that came crashing down in 2020, when the world shut down because of COVID-19.

Now, four years later, seniors who had their college experience transformed by the pandemic are preparing to walk across the stage—possibly for the first time ever. As NKU’s commencement approaches on May 5, The Northerner explored how three graduating seniors survived the pandemic, and survived college.

“I thought my dreams were over.”

18-year-old Noah Warner had just kicked off his first college spring break in March 2020. He was thrilled with his recent casting at Kings Island and was ready to begin rehearsals in an upcoming School of the Arts (SOTA) production. As a vocal performance major, Warner was determined to make his mark on the arts community.

Then Warner received a phone call. 

“Hey, you should check the news. Kings Island just announced they’re shutting down,” said the person on the other end.

The very next day, the infamous lockdown began. Warner had two hours to move out all of his belongings and evacuate his NKU dorm. He wouldn’t be back on campus for another year and a half.

“I truly thought my college career was over,” Warner recalled. “I thought my dreams were over.”

Now, Warner is preparing to walk across the stage in his cap and gown at Truist Arena. And his dreams are far from over.

The Ohio native arrived at NKU in August 2019. He was a driven student, ready to say “yes” to any opportunities he could find. As a full scholarship student, he didn’t want to hold back from any experiences. He was most excited to learn from professors and staff members in SOTA. In fact, it was a professor who referred him to audition at Kings Island his freshman year. 

But COVID-19 sent Warner back home to Ohio to learn from a computer screen and tiny boxes on Zoom. Singing is physical, Warner pointed out, and it was nearly impossible to try to recreate vocal performance from a virtual diagram. 

The online learning process continued for the rest of spring 2020. Then fall 2020. And then spring 2021, too. Halfway through the spring 2021 semester, Warner took a break from classes. “For a lot of my classes… I didn’t have a piano, I don’t come from any music background where they have the resources. So I was like, I’m not going to pay to fail.”

When Warner returned to campus in the fall of 2021, he became a resident assistant in Commonwealth Hall and hit the books, taking dance, technique and performance classes. 

Only two students remained from Warner’s freshman music class. Many people quickly transitioned to a different career path when the pandemic hit, the vocal performance major explained. “It was crazy to see who I started with in person, and then I came back in person and was like, ‘Who are all you people?’” Warner joked.

Challenges persisted even after returning in person. Students performed dance concerts in masks, spread 12 feet apart to sing in choir and didn’t get live in-person audiences for several months.

Now, SOTA students perform to sold-out theater and dance audiences. Warner takes full advantage of the virtual aspect that COVID-19 added to the arts world, submitting virtual auditions to companies across the country. 

And his resilience has paid off. After graduation, he will travel to London and Scotland to perform with NKU’s Chamber Choir. A week later, he’ll fly out to Minnesota to perform in shows, galas and workshops as part of a professional company. His adventures won’t end there, as he’ll also spend time in Lexington, Kentucky and Pennsylvania to do theater work.

“The farthest I’ve ever traveled is literally Kentucky, so I’m like, ‘What am I doing? This is crazy,’” Warner said.

Through the pandemic, Warner said he’s learned to not apologize for the cards he’s been dealt and to not fear rejection.

“I think of perseverance when you say ‘the class of COVID.’ It’s a resilience thing… We’re one collective unit of people who survived. The class of COVID survivors.”

“The reality was better than what I expected.”

After spending his first semester at NKU online from Panama, international student Stefano Pecile was finally able to travel to Northern Kentucky in January 2021.

And he immediately went into quarantine.

Pecile graduated from high school in Panama in May 2020. His graduation ceremony consisted of a video compilation of students showing off their diplomas, which had been sent in the mail. COVID-19 restrictions were stringent in Panama. For the first two months of lockdown, citizens were only able to go out for one hour a week. Pecile’s mom and dad took that time to get groceries, while he and his brother stayed at home essentially all the time.

Right before the pandemic struck, Pecile had completed his enrollment to NKU, received a good amount of scholarships and started all the necessary paperwork to receive his student visa. Nearly everything was set up for his international studies.

Then the world shut down, including the embassy, and Pecile was unable to get his visa in time for his first semester at NKU. He spent the fall 2020 semester fully online and still living in Panama. Pecile found NKU’s Esports Club and got involved virtually with the gaming group. The embassy opened back up a few months later, and Pecile was able to secure his student visa.

“My plan was always to come [to the U.S.] That was my goal all along,” Pecile said. “So the pandemic didn’t really change that, it just delayed it.”

When the international student arrived in the U.S. in January 2021, he was picked up and brought to his dorm in Callahan Hall. He was given supplies to go straight into a two-week quarantine. “It was basically being trapped there for two weeks, and then after that I was able to go out a little bit,” Pecile said.

For the majority of his first semester, Pecile’s interactions revolved around his one in-person class and taking the shuttle bus to Norse Commons for food. “[The first semester] was basically being in my dorm and then going out twice a day just to pick up lunch and dinner.”

As the semesters went on, he remained involved in esports and continued branching out to more groups, like Latino Avanzados Mentorship Program (LAMP) and Orientation Leaders.

“There’s a lot more opportunities than I thought there was ever going to be,” he said.

While Pecile preferred in-person classes, shifts because of the pandemic meant that at least half of his schedule tended to be online. Now, the senior is grateful for the online opportunities, as they’ve allowed him to work a co-op in the engineering field. The facilities engineering co-op has turned into a full-time job offer for Pecile, who will start his official role a week after commencement.

“I’ve earned this degree.”

When Madison Fulton walked across her high school cafeteria to receive her diploma in 2020, NKU wasn’t really on her radar and certainly wasn’t in her plans.

The high school graduate planned to attend Shawnee State University, a public four-year institution in Portsmouth, Ohio, with an enrollment of around 3,000. Fulton received a golf scholarship at Shawnee State, where she would play Division I in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).

Fulton said her first semester at the university was rough; she was navigating what major she wanted to pick and trying to keep up with COVID-19 protocols. Online classes—especially ones like chemistry—were still new and challenging to Fulton, and she found that being both a student and an athlete wasn’t for her.

“You would never think of yourself getting into college during a whole pandemic that the whole world is dealing with,” Fulton said. “It’s hard to navigate through that… you can’t really get advice of how to navigate from other people because it’s new for them as well.”

Because of academic struggles, Fulton wasn’t able to play any golf tournaments in the spring 2021 semester. At that point, she decided she couldn’t continue at Shawnee State.

Fulton attempted to take campus tours and weighed her options of where to go next. She settled on NKU because of its smaller size and personal relationships between students and professors.

Transferring colleges in the middle of the pandemic was nothing like she would have imagined, Fulton said. She switched back and forth between commuting from her home about an hour away and living on campus. During her second semester at NKU, she moved into New Residence Hall and lived without a roommate.

“I was in my room all alone,” Fulton said. “It’s gonna sound super cheesy, but that day when my parents helped me move in, and then I had to look out the window of them leaving, I cried.”

Fulton said she felt numb throughout the beginning of the pandemic. She eventually found comfort in reading her Bible, following along with the experience of others on social media and journaling. While she began journaling to give herself a sense of peace and normalcy during the lockdown, it has been a habit she continues today, as she showed off her colorful pages during her interview.

As the days and semesters drew on, Fulton was optimistic about how the world was getting back to normal and how she was growing as a person. She remembered receiving the email that masks would not be required at NKU anymore and feeling relief. 

If her high school self could see the person she is today, Fulton said she wouldn’t recognize her personality. She told a story of a shy, wallflower-like girl who grew to be outgoing—mostly because of how much time she spent holed up in her room, yearning to talk to people.

When commencement rolls around on May 5, Fulton said she can truly say she’s earned her degree in marketing.

To her fellow graduates, Fulton said it’s okay to feel proud of yourself, because you did indeed earn your degree.

“When I imagine it now, all I can imagine is seeing my family and my friends looking back at me and cheering my name… Getting all those hugs and congratulations—that I can’t wait for.”