Since the start of the 2021-2022 school year, Seawolves of all grades and majors have been excited to return to a familiar in-person learning experience on campus. With looser COVID-19 regulations, and other campuses across the country returning to the classroom, Sonoma State decided to follow suit. 

However, despite recent California COVID-19 mandates being lifted, the University is still being cautious and requiring students to be fully vaccinated with a booster shot, and wear a mask inside all non-residential campus buildings. The new Omicron variant created some bumps in the road, but the campus was approved to return to fully in-person instruction by Feb. 12. For many students, the return to on-campus learning has not only been necessary, but has been anxiously awaited.

 While many students have struggled with converting to online learning, some students have come to prefer completing courses through an online format. Throughout the pandemic, many students were skeptical of how their programs and courses would be able to teach them the necessary skills to be successful after graduation. Some majors, like nursing, have never had the tools to teach remotely until new and recent technological advancements. Nursing students resorted to new methods of learning from online lectures to a program called i-Human, along with clinical hospital hours.

As for other students, the pandemic has not only required them to adapt to major change within their schooling, but has also taken a toll financially and logistically. Other students were forced to move out of Sonoma County due to the pandemic, planning on finishing their degree online. These students have now been forced to commute long distances to campus for classes not offered online in order to graduate on time. Many students within the University still have a combination of in-person and online classes, which makes the logistics of attending classes difficult to work through. 

As a campus community, students are all trying to navigate through this pandemic safely without letting it get in the way of enjoying the college experience to the fullest. With the CDC releasing new guidelines as new variants are discovered, it can be hard to stay hopeful as nothing seems to stay constant. These challenges and obstacles have caused a lot of anxiety as students get closer to finishing their degrees and moving onto the next chapter of their lives, but many are determined to not let them get in the way of finishing their college careers strong.