Pandemic Stories Through the Eyes of College Students
“Unity because it allowed us to come together not just as students, but as an entire community to work through this new and profound experience together” - Addison Smith, student in Professor Homzie’s Fall 2020 Coms 200 course.
The Center for Community Engagement (CCE) partnered with the Sonoma County Library to create a project that focuses on students and their experiences during the pandemic, called the Community Diary Project/ Sonoma Responds. The virtual showcase, created by LARC, is a place for students to share their personal projects with the community as well as their peers. You can see these projects at Community Diary Project/ Sonoma Responds Fall 2020 Showcase.
In the fall 2020 semester, 33 courses at Sonoma State participated in the virtual CDP. Some classes in Business, Communications, and Psychology were given the freedom to choose whatever they wanted to. Other courses like Nursing, created projects that focused around their major and their experiences as nursing students, all while connecting it to the pandemic.
An example of a class that participated in the Fall 2020 CDP, was Communications 200. It was taught by professor Hillary Homzie and is an introduction to the history of mass communication, the mechanics of the mass communication industries, and theories of mass communications as a social, cultural, and political phenomenon.
As Homzie emphasizes how relevant this course is to the society that we are living in today, the CDP is a crucial project to be a part of since it’s history in the making. “It’s important to document what’s happening,” and, “an opportunity for a variety of majors to express themselves, because a diversity of opinions and backgrounds is so important,” says Homzie as she reviews her thoughts on the project. While we are still living in uncertain times, Homzie reminds us that we are “witnessing all of the resilience as well as the various ways in which some of our students are truly thriving during our COVID-19 semesters,” as it gives outsiders a “chance to peek into the lives of their peers.” I was in this class myself, and you can read more about my experience.