Senior year! The one year every student looks forward to. The last year of high school, the final hurrah, the hardest goodbye. I never imagined my senior year being like this. No one imagined any of this. I couldn’t tell you how many of my family members came to me asking about school. This pandemic is leaving us with more questions than answers. Hopefully, I can fill you in on some ways Lehigh Valley Academy relates to questions.

LVA is an IB school, which means us students are blessed with learning at an advanced level. From Internal Assessments (IA) to Extended Essays (EE), LVA has tons of assignments that the seniors must complete before graduation. This pandemic is of no help. With LVA closing early in spring 2020, the then juniors didn’t get to complete or start their IAs for many of their classes. Now, seniors are being overwhelmed with so much work.

Jasson Benitez has this to say about his senior year: “It’s all right. I’m missing out on a lot of things, but it is what it is.”

Amberly Figuereo said, “It’s okay. It’s not bad, but it could be better.”

This year is not only tough on students but also on the teachers. Here is what DP Theory of Knowledge teacher Ms. Caroff has to say about teachers in this crazy year: “Teaching this year definitely takes a lot more preparation, just because we’re trying to make things accessible for everyone online. I know so many teachers here have been working so many extra hours, just trying to make things more engaging for everyone. It’s definitely different. I miss seeing a lot of my students since only some of them are hybrid, but all of my students have been really great about just doing their best and powering through. I’m just really proud of them! I think that we are all trying to do the best we could right now, and everyone is doing a great job!”

The LVA student council is one of the many activities LVA has to offer, and it is personally one of my favorites. There may be a little bias on my behalf since I am the Promoter for the organization. Student council is in charge of most of the events, such as pep rallies, dances, Spirit Week, and many more things. Sadly, many of these events might not happen, which is hard on everyone in high school, since those events are what we all look forward to.

Here is what the president of the Student Council, Ella Beaky, has to say: “It’s hard to make any concrete decisions about the events we’re planning because of the capacity limits and things like that. The restrictions are really hard to work around.”

LVA has many clubs, ranging from MiniTHON to SAGA, but these clubs are facing multiple uncertainties. Here is what the head of LVA’s MiniTHON, Mr. Colacito, had to say when I asked about any updates: “The Four Diamonds Fund, which is the charity that all of our money goes to, is still holding MiniTHONS across Pennsylvania. As for LVA’s MiniTHON, I am still working with our captains here at LVA to figure out how to approach this new year. We are still looking at different fundraisers that we can do outside of school, but because of our new schedule and all of the limitations we have, it’s hard to do fundraisers in school.”

I asked students from different grades how they feel about this strange school year, and here is what they had to say.

Kasper Kutyla says, “Obviously circumstances are different than usual. I feel like there is a lot more stress and a lot less time to relax, and less fun activities planned. It’s more like work, work, work, and then some more work.”

It seems like many of the freshmen only know one adjective when it comes to answering this question, which is, “good.”

To stay up to date with LVA event-related news, be sure to follow the Student Council Instagram @lva_studentcouncil. REMEMBER, Wash your hands and wear a mask.