College in the COVID Era - Why it's not all bad news!

Melissa Nipper

Director of College Counseling

“ Mrs. Nipper, I feel like my college plans are all over the place!” This was a conversation I had with one of my seniors while we reviewed their common application and college list this past week.  What this student is experiencing, having plans seemingly ‘all over the place and with no obvious order,’ is EXACTLY the right way to look at the college process in this year like no other. Here’s why. 

The Class of 2021 watched closely as they saw their peers in the Class of 2020 get excited about their college acceptances while making plans for where they would be in the fall of 2020. The underclassmen also watched as more and more colleges announced they would be closing residence halls, move to on-line classes or offer a hybrid learning style. They watched as more of their peers decided to take a gap year, or remain at home while all their newly bought dorm items sat, packed away, untouched. And, they watched as so many of the Class of 2020 forged ahead with optimism at the hope of the world returning back to normal and in turn, being able to have their expectations of a traditional experience college realized. 

The Class of 2021 is going about the college search process in a much different way this year. They are still looking at their dream schools. YES- STILL APPLY I tell them. But, they are also cautious about not knowing just what life will look like on May 1st of 2021, when they have to commit to a college. So, they are also looking at more options closer to home, adding more state schools to their list, and even considering two year community colleges as a backup ‘just in case’. So, while their college application list may not be the traditional cluster grouped in specific desired locations, the Class of 2021 is on their way to being the best prepared graduating class in terms of planning for the future and all the scenarios it may bring. 

How students are creating their application list is not the only area to be impacted by Covid. While spring of the junior year and summer before the senior year are the optimal times to visit colleges, these visits had to be put on hold or cancelled all together based on college regulations. Although unfortunate, this has had an upside. The inability for students to visit college campuses has forced all colleges to create and improve upon their virtual content. Where visiting a college in California may not have been very economical for a junior from Ohio, now, there are live virtual tours, student led panels, increased opportunities for interviews and so much more - allowing these students to increase their ability to ‘visit’ and learn about so many more colleges than what previously was available. Does this replace the feeling of seeing a school in person, no, BUT, it does give context to students and parents until visiting live is a possibility again. 

Let’s talk about testing policies. SAT and ACT tests have gone hand in hand with college admissions since 1959! In the past decade, some colleges and universities have moved to a test optional policy. However, for the Class of 2021, over 70% of all colleges and universities in the US are test optional or test blind. This number changes almost on a daily basis while many colleges have altered their testing policies even beyond the current senior class to extend to the class of 2023. For colleges that have not made specific determinations about their testing policies going forward, they are saying that this admissions cycle will lead them to determine what additional changes will be made for the upcoming years. Imagine a world without the stress and anxiety of taking a 4 hour test early on a Saturday morning. I for one think that is pretty awesome! 

College admissions counselors admittedly confess that they are still learning too. In a recent NPR interview, Jeff Schiffman, director of undergraduate admissions at Tulane University, said with a sigh "I don't even know where to begin," "We're going to have to hit the reset button hard on this one. It's going to take a complete retraining of how we review applications and what we're looking for. We're kind of figuring it out as we go." While November and December are the months when the early action and early decision 1 applications get read and reviewed, I am confident that college admissions offices will determine what they need to do moving forward in the years ahead. 

Here are a couple articles that I have found very interesting about College in the COVID Era:

How the Coronavirus has Upended College Admissions

High Stakes College Recruitment Goes Virtual- and Zoom Fatigue Sets In

So, although college admissions in the Covid era is far from normal, I remain optimistic about the process, the choices, and the grit and resilience of our students. Yes, when putting a college list together, students  may be ‘all over the board’ and to that I say- GOOD FOR THEM! 

Who Moved My Theater?

Darryl Lewis

AOA Music Instructor and Theater Director

In 2005, I stood backstage at the original Dobama Theater. Before Dobama moved into their beautiful Cedar Road location they were located in the dusty basement of the Winking Lizard on Coventry Road in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. My lines were memorized, I was in good voice and, with the help of Joseph Hammer, our Director, I felt good about the character that we created. 

It was Friday, opening night and there wasn’t an empty seat anywhere in the theater. It was pitch black backstage but I could hear the patrons talking as they waited for the show to begin. I positioned myself just barely off stage so the audience could not see me. I was nervous and excited at the same time. This was my very first acting gig with no singing.  At any moment I would hear a recorded message reminding audience members to turn off their cell phones, the stage lights would change and that would be my cue to enter and start talking. It was the regional premier of the award winning play, The Exonerated, written by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, a married couple who are both actors and writers. Written in 2002, this award-winning docudrama was culled from interviews with more than forty former death row inmates nationwide, as well as from public records, that included legal documents, transcripts and letters. The Exonerated premiered in Los Angeles in 2002. During the course of the run, many big-name actors, including Richard Dreyfuss, Mia Farrow, Gabriel Byrne, Jill Clayburgh, and Sara Gilbert, appeared in the play. Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, Brian Dennehy, Aidan Quinn, and Delroy Lindo starred in the adaptation of the play for Court TV. For the Cleveland premier, I would soon be surrounded by audience members on three sides. Those patrons in the front row could stretch out their arms and touch me if so motivated. This was “in your face” theater and it was showtime. I heard all of my cues, entered a bare stage with my tweed cap, hit my mark and said the following:

This is not the place for thought that does not end in concreteness;

        it is not easy to be open or too curious.

It is dangerous to dwell too much on things:

to wonder who or why or when, to wonder how, is dangerous.

How do we the people get outta this hole, what’s the way to fight,

might I do what Richard and Ralph and Langston’n them did?

It is not easy to be a poet here, Yet I sing.

I sing.

I played a character named Delbert Tibbs and functioned as a sort of Chorus, fading in and out of the action. A black man in his late fifties with a personality like an old soulful song: smooth, mellow, but with a relentless underlying rhythm. He has a great sense of humor. He’s from Chicago and he was on death row. All of the main characters in this play have spent time on death row for crimes they did not commit. Delbert speaks in poetic phrases and spells out a warning. He is thinking out loud about the best way to approach the problem. When he refers to Richard and Ralph and Langston he is referring to African American authors who speak out boldly in their works about racism. Other characters would soon join Delbert on stage. Each taking their turn, telling their individual stories that landed them each on death row. It was a powerful, moving evening of theater when audience members realized that none of these individuals were actually guilty of the crimes for which they were convicted. They are The Exonerated.

The original Dobama Theater had one main entrance, so patrons and actors often mingled when exiting. On my way out of the theater a young lady stopped me at the doorway to share  congratulations and say thank you. She said that this play had caused her to re-think her prior thoughts on capital punishments. She had no idea that so many innocent people were incarcerated, and some executed. She was having a change of heart and I was proud to have  something to do with that change. I was learning that the best art can do more than entertain us. It can engage, enlighten and challenge our points of view.

Theater has long been a place where one can advocate for social awareness and giving voice to the invisible. Today at Andrews Osborne Academy in the school year 2020/2021,  we will lean into the many challenges before us. Acknowledging that we are living with formidable circumstances for public performance and safety. We have been working through the summer to figure out how to best serve our student performers, designers, technicians, and our entire AOA community while preserving a real performance experience through Music & Theater. While our emphasis remains on safety, we are continuing to move forward with productions that are exciting and challenging to both our student population and our patrons. We will build on the groundwork laid by past AOA productions of To Kill a Mockingbird, The Diary of Anne Frank and Laramie Project. Productions in the year 2020/2021 will undoubtedly look, sound and feel different, but we will embrace technology. We will follow all CDC and AOA guidelines. We are a creative force and we will adapt, re-imagine and grow into this new normal. My personal passion of giving students a world class theatrical experience is still alive. So we will challenge ourselves to be innovative and look for new ways to create and protect one another. This is a time for us to learn new ways to express ourselves and forge ahead into the unknown showcasing our passions with renewed vitality. Like many who have trod the boards before us, we have something important to say and the time is now. Stay tuned for more exciting announcements from AOA Music & Theater 2020/2021.