Name: Andrew Jessip

Year: 2nd year graduate student

Major: Education

Location: Ames, Iowa

How are you managing the adjustment to social distancing?

I am focusing on my mantra of Gratitude! I am fortunate to have a home in which I can isolate, food to sustain me, and friends I can lean on in this uncertain time. I empathize with feelings of anxiety and loneliness, but am grateful for live yoga sessions and FaceTime with my family and friends!

Name: Brandilynn Smith

Year: Senior

Major: Landscape Architecture

Location: Ames, Iowa 

How are you managing the adjustment to social distancing?

‘Staying at home for me is rather easy to do. I leave to get groceries and for walks once in a while. However, it has been taking its toll on my mental health. The lack of social interaction starts to get to you after a while. Depression creeps up on you and makes it difficult to get work done. Make sure to continue talking to people through social media or video games. There’s plenty of cheap or free online games that can help bridge the gap, for example. Stay connected even though we are distancing ourselves physically. An example of a free game people can play on multiple systems would be Dauntless! I can use it on my switch while my boyfriend plays on his laptop.

As far as school goes, due to anxiety and depression creeping up from the social distancing and the switch to using purely online technology, it has been increasingly challenging to keep up with work. Hopefully, once I get used to this enormous change, I can get back into the rhythm of a typical school week.

Landscape Architects switch back and forth between physically drawing out plans to digital representation quite often. Going to purely digital has made figuring out scale rather tricky. Figuring out the software and how to best represent the ideas in my head is somewhat tricky as well. Having to use remote desktop to participate in my 3d Modeling lab is fascinating. I love the fact that even though my laptop probably couldn’t handle software like Rhino, I can still potentially use it through this remote desktop technology the College of Design is helping us use.

Hopefully, we all will get used to this enormous change soon!’