Since Iowa State University transferred its course material online, students have started to create new routines during the pandemic. 

Sam Schreck, a senior in civil engineering, has his COVID-19 at-home academic routine refined for maximum success. Schreck found that, for him, working in hour-long bursts with equal break times have helped him to stay sane throughout this period.

In addition to this, he also keeps track of his assignments and due dates meticulously so he doesn’t fall behind in classes.

“[The hardest part is] not being able to be around your peers and have those conversations that foster learning a lot more,” Schreck said. “If you’re taking those classes on your own, you don’t have any strong, intellectual discussions, which grow your critical thinking ability more by bouncing ideas off of each other.”

Although his social life has been derailed, Schreck remains in mostly positive spirits at home. He said he thinks his classes have been easier when he doesn’t have to worry about allocating commute time for the CyRide in his daily schedule. He also said he has been communicating and collaborating with others quite a bit more to alleviate any confusion from his lesson or classes. 

Schreck did not move back home like most students did. Instead he decided to stay at his apartment in Ames for the time being, however his family lives nearby in Ankeny. He is still planning on doing his job after graduation, but doesn’t know if his start date is the same. Schreck expressed his sadness when describing not seeing many of his college friends again, sooner than he thought.

“It’s hard because you’re always home, you’re not [able] to go out and do things and the motivation isn’t there to get as much done because you don’t see people or get face-to-face interaction with professors, which is affecting me the most,” Schreck said.