The world changed, and then they graduated
The final months, weeks and days of a student’s college career are typically rife with uncertainty and excitement. After years of hard work and planning, students secure jobs, plan to see the world, or consider graduate school and beyond. It’s an ending that’s also a fresh start.
But for the class of 2020, all that changed in the last days of winter term when a global pandemic locked down campus and the world. Portland State University quickly shifted to remote classes. Soon it was announced that even commencement—usually attended by 25,000 people at six ceremonies in the Viking Pavilion and Moda Center—would occur online.
Although the nation’s unemployment rate had been at a 50-year low only weeks before, graduates suddenly faced a job market worse than at any time since the Great Depression, as Oregon’s unemployment rate jumped to nearly 15%.
We followed four graduates through their final moments as students and into the real world to explore how COVID-19 impacted their lives. And after protests swept the nation in early June, we added a fifth. From paralysis to passion, these resilient students’ experiences offer a window into historic times and demonstrate this special group’s most enduring lesson—the unexpected happens.