In a relatively normal year, spring is a complicated time for CPS seniors, many of whom depend on their counselors, teachers, and other adults for support with financial aid packages and complex college decisions. In conversations with peers and adults, they grapple with how different post-secondary choices will affect their identities, relationships, and future.
For the CPS graduating class of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic made all of these tasks more complicated. Students who were used to popping into a counselor’s office with a question suddenly had to schedule phone calls or virtual meetings. New and continuing students had to navigate the uncertainty around whether colleges would be holding in-person or remote classes in the fall. All the while, many CPS graduates and their families were facing the brunt of the physical, emotional, and financial impact of a pandemic that disproportionately affected people of color...