It is no surprise that this year has proven to be one of the most difficult and uncertain ones over the past ten years; however, many people still seem to be hopeful that 2021 will come with ‘solutions’ to the problems and adjustments we were all forced to make. College students all over, especially in America, can be classified as being in the portion of society that has most been impacted by the roaring changes that were brought to us by 2020; mostly due to the pandemic.
American college students, or International students studying and living in America were ‘severely’ impacted by government implemented regulations against Covid-19, due to the fact that the change was not only the shift of in-person to online classes; but also, coping with the reality of how scarce the number of people who were hired for employment this year was, especially those who are fresh out of college. As a result of these newly divulged statistics for workforce bound college grads, the notion of clinging to some kind of hope that their lives were successfully moving forward, became interrupted, if not bleak.
International students face a different kind of severe impact, their major concern right now does not only regard their ‘place’ amongst the American economy, but it also derives from travel restrictions that were executed as a consequence of health protection policies. The concern of this particular group of college students, goes to the extent that they might not even be allowed to re-enter the United States, at least not until there is any kind of guarantee or reassurance that an effective vaccine against Covid-19 is on its way.
The challenges described above may seem impossible to come to terms with, alongside coping with all the challenges that this year has unleashed on all of us. However, it is important to acknowledge that not all is lost, and that the new government administration seems to be concocting fixed economic adjustments that will help with the concern of being hired, and a mitigation plan for the present unemployment and employability rates. Additionally, to the employment issue, the new administration seems to favor a more open ‘flux’ of internationals residing, or that plan to reside in the US. Maybe this openness can be translated into looser protectionism policies, and perhaps these future government implements might help with the present notion that most college students are facing. 2020 was the year that all we knew was being reevaluated, or in other words, interrupted.