During the spring 2020 transition to remote learning necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Oral History: the Art of the Interview classes were forced to abandon the planned interview projects During the three week interruption before classes resumed online, Associate Professor Erin McCarthy and Archives staff created Capturing Quarantine, a digital oral history project designed to document the student experience during the global pandemic.
The collection documents a frequently overlooked voice, that of the undergraduate student, and will be a valuable source for future study by those interested in learning about daily life during the pandemic from the student perspective.
Students interviewed each other, created biographical and interview abstract statements, and authored reflection pieces on the experience of the abrupt mid-semester switch and overall thoughts about the process and the pandemic.
This project resumed during the Fall 2020 semester, with additional interviews collected, as the college offered both remote and hybrid courses. As with the spring 2020 interviews, these fall interviews continue to capture the undergraduate student voice narrating their experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Other oral history projects conducted by Dr. McCarthy's students in support of archival holdings:
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Interview with Nurrah Muhammad
Kelso Antoine
Nurrah Aishah Muhammad (she/hers) was born in Detroit, Michigan. As a baby, her family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she was raised for the majority of her life. She attended Muhammad university of Islam, where she would go on to participate in extracurriculars that focused heavily on engineering and animation. During her time in high school, she would go on to participate in computer science internships at places like the University of Illinois at Chicago as well as the Field Museum. Following her graduation, she decided to shift her focus solely on art, majoring in animation and minoring in filmmaking at Columbia College Chicago. Muhammad currently resides with her parents in the suburbs of Chicago and intends to graduate in 2024.
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Interview with Purlz (LaCole Purely)
Caity Gee
LaCole Purley (she/her) was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 2001 and raised in the Riverview and Florissant neighborhoods of St. Louis. Purley attended McCluer North High School, where she graduated as valedictorian in 2020. While in high school, Purley was involved with Special Olympics, marching band, the theater department, and schoolwide announcements. In performing on stage at school, Purley realized her passion for the performing arts. At the end of her senior year, Purley was promoted to manager at Smoothie King and became a business owner with the Super App for Life Leadership. She juggled all of this, as well as the Coronavirus becoming a worldwide pandemic and causing McCluer High School to shut down. It was from then that she realized she wanted to go into voiceover work, while all of the theaters were closed. In the Fall of 2020, she entered into Columbia College Chicago with a major in radio and a concentration in voiceover. Puley currently lives with her grandmother and is continuing her studies from home through virtual learning.
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Interview with Alexandra Resendez
Nikolas LaMaack
Alexandra Resendez, Ally, a 20-year-old freshman at Columbia College Chicago, was forced to navigate life during the COVID-19 pandemic after a few months of moving to the city. Ally grew up in Brownsville, Texas and lived there until she went to college. During her first year, Columbia was forced to shut down and she got kicked out of her dorm mere days after flying home for safety. She had to take a cross country trip to retrieve her Chicago life and trade in for a bedroom at her parent’s house. The stress of not having health insurance has forced Ally to go to Mexico for treatment and puts her in constant fear for her family’s lives. Through a guitar and poetry, she takes each day a step at a time until we see the other side.
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Interview with Alex Schmelter
Lawson McGrain
Alex Schmelter was born in Lake Forest, Illinois to George Schmelter from Indiana, and Illinois native Kristin MacMurray. Schmelter was raised in Lake Villa, Illinois and was educated at Grayslake North High School. Alex spent summers working at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois and at an Amazon delivery facility. In 2017 Schmelter had an internship at Shalom Television working as a PA/stagehand that offered a valuable experience that now helps him on film sets at Columbia College. Schmelter spent several years volunteering for the St. Vincent DePaul Society at Prince of Peace Catholic Church helping with home visits, food trucks, food pantries. Schmelter also spent a summer assisting in Praying Pelican Missions in Puerto Rico hurricane relief in 2018. This work consisted of building houses, facilities for other volunteers, and helping rebuild and clean other devastated areas. Alex came to Columbia College Chicago in 2018 to study film, but a passion for literature, inspired by former high school teachers as well as his sister, led Schmelter to change his major. He now studies English at Columbia College Chicago and is expected to graduate in 2022.