Learning and adapting to the challenges of Virtual School with Amber Nguyen

When Covid-19 cases began to boom again in the summer of 2021, our lives were put to a halt once more. With government rules demanding the temporary social distancing of community members, various businesses were disrupted. For us students and teachers, school was cut short.

At SSIS, this forced an overall rescheduling of school. Schedules of all students and teachers were altered as they prepared to start the school year virtually for the first time. Despite the changes, our students and teachers continued to find creative ways to stay engaged not only with schoolwork, but also with fellow students confined by the walls of their home--in the search for balance in a challenging time.

In the following interview, we asked Amber Nguyen-a fellow senior student who has been attending school virtually from the States-about her personal journey adapting to changes with moving, challenges with different time zones, and her experience applying to colleges in a virtual setting.

Coming into this school year virtually for the first time, did you have any expectations? How do you feel about them now?

I expected it to be just how we did online school in the past, and I already knew how everything worked, so it wasn’t hard to readjust to the schedule with the Wednesday [Assembly day] as well as the new technology like Schoology. However, I do feel bad for new students and freshmen who have to start their year online.

You are not only attending school virtually, but you're facing a time zone difference as well. How has the shift of time affected you? What have you done to ease your transition?

In the first month, I actually found it really hard to stay up for school cause I had a lot of headaches and I wasn’t feeling good. But after spending a few months doing that, I eventually got used to the schedule, and I learned to take better care of my health by sleeping longer and exercising.

Are there any benefits from being able to start school later in the day?

There are definitely benefits because when I started school earlier in the day at 8 a.m, I procrastinated a lot during the evening. Now, starting school at 5 in the evening, I always feel like I’m behind in the current schedule, and that gives me the motivation to work harder in the morning and night-so I don’t fall behind.

Being a senior this year, you had to virtually apply for university. How was that experience for you? Did you learn anything out of it?

I know many people say this-and I never listened-but I learned to get ahead of my work because the workload builds up. For me, doing it [applying to colleges] virtually or in-person doesn’t really matter.

Has going to school late at night affected the balance between school and your hobbies? Also, how do you spend your free time?

No. It hasn’t really affected my hobbies-I actually have more time to do them now. I usually spend my free time reading a lot of romance and action manga. A manga that I've been enjoying is Hell's Paradise, and I would recommend that to anyone who's interested.

Living in a different time zone makes it tougher to communicate with your peers. When you're awake, they're asleep, and vice versa. Have you found communicating with friends challenging? If not, what have you been doing to keep up with your friends?

For me, I call my friends in Vietnam every few days, and I’ve actually made a lot of new friends-old and young-here in the U.S playing badminton at a local sports center. So yeah, I don’t feel lonely at all.