The OC Voice is a portion of the OC Report newsletter where local residents may have a platform to talk about local issues they care about. Sonia Rao is a sophomore journalism and economics major and The Daily Tar Heel's City & State editor.
I'm a sophomore at UNC, and I've been attending classes over Zoom since the pandemic hit in March.
It's hard to stare at a computer screen for hours every day. I miss walking through campus to get to class and seeing my professors and peers in person.
But I know I'm lucky. I have stable Wi-Fi and am learning from a safe environment. I'm also not missing out on milestones like learning to read, socializing with friends through clubs and extracurriculars or even going to prom.
I can't imagine what this virtual learning experience has been like for elementary, middle and high school students in local school districts.
In North Carolina, elementary schools are able to reopen at full capacity, while middle and high schools are allowed to open in hybrid, partially remote formats.
But Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools is fully remote until Jan. 15. Orange County Schools has been remote for the first nine weeks of the semester and will vote on whether to continue with virtual education on Sept. 28.
For the past few months, the DTH has covered education through the pandemic. We've written about Zoombombing issues, how the districts are handling driver's education and how local nonprofits are working to feed families.
But we can't fully report on education without the voices of parents, students and educators. We want to make sure we're telling the right stories, and that the stories we are telling include the perspectives of those who are the most affected by remote learning.
