Circumstances have not been ideal studying throughout this pandemic, however, the experience has given me valuable tools and lifelong lessons I will value for the rest of my life.

Joleen Ion is in her final year on our 2+2 Social Studies degree and we caught up with her recently to see how she has found the unexpected change in teaching and learning style this year…

After having a pretty turbulent academic year 2019/2020 I was determined to start this year with a positive mentality. Adapting to using new platforms has been at times a little overwhelming and the constant emails from my children’s school, has had me constantly on edge. However, the support this year from fellow students, supervisors, and lecturers has made every challenging moment so much more bearable. There is a lot more togetherness at the moment and I find myself feeling grateful for every lecture and online zoom I have with my amazing groups. Avoiding procrastination has been somewhat difficult this year but I have been able to adopt some of my experiences from an earlier mindfulness module and bring them into my everyday university work life. Creating an ‘only me’ space has been vital for me to gather my thoughts and to be able to read, analyse and write well. I am so excited to be graduating this year, despite hoping this will not be an end to my time studying at Warwick. 

Circumstances have not been ideal studying throughout this pandemic, however, the experience has given me valuable tools and lifelong lessons I will value for the rest of my life.