“I feel a lot more motivated when I’m in the classroom.”

Marie Frede is a psychology major at UW-Milwaukee. She talked with Tom Hoffman about her experiences being a first-year student on campus during the pandemic.

(Tom Hoffman) What are your thoughts on learning in-person as opposed to learning online?

(Marie Frede) I prefer in person. I feel like I’m able to engage better with my classmates and teachers and just the content in general.

(Tom) So you prefer learning in person?

(Marie) Definitely. I feel a lot more motivated when I’m in the classroom.

(Tom) You mentioned that you are a freshman this year, has the pandemic impacted your career goals at all?

(Marie) I don’t think it really has. Since I’m a freshman, there was the thought of taking a gap year if the pandemic was still as bad as it was in 2020. But I feel like I’m on the right track right now. I guess with my field there’s a lot of issues with quarantine and the pandemic that are related to psychology, so it’s opened up some more pathways. I was originally going to go into psychology anyways, but I feel like there might be more opportunities than there were originally.

(Tom) What are some of the biggest concerns you have for the future regarding the pandemic?

(Marie) I guess I’m worried about when things are going back to quote unquote “normal.” And since I’m a psychology major, I’m concerned about how it is going to affect people’s minds.

(Tom) What has been the biggest difficulty for you during the pandemic?

(Marie) I think just dealing with quarantine and getting my education. I struggled a lot my senior year. Like, there was thought of whether I was even going to graduate or pass all my classes. Also, I was worried about being in college and how it would affect meeting people on campus. Even with my family members, I haven’t been able to see them and talk with them as much.