College life certainly hasn’t been the same since the COVID-19 pandemic hit this past March, and for one Iowa State University student from Greene County, she’s been adjusting well.

Gwen Black is a Greene County High School graduate and is attending school at ISU in Ames. She tells Raccoon Valley Radio it was kind of chaotic when the fall semester started because some classes were in a hybrid model of both in-person and online, some were just online only and students were showing up to wrong classes. Black talks about how socializing, which is a huge part of her college life, has been impacted due to COVID-19.

“A lot of us have stuck to just pockets of our people. So if you have your pocket of people you try and not go, and hang out with other people outside of the pocket to lessen your exposure, but to still try and have some social interaction, and have some normal college life. But it’s been difficult, and sometimes it’s a little sad, it’s a little disappointing.”

Black says with Ames being located in Story County, there is a mask mandate and students who are on campus must wear a mask. However, Black describes when she comes back to Greene County, how the culture of wearing a mask is vastly different between the two counties.

“It is interesting coming back because I just put it on. I step out of the vehicle, and I put my mask on, and I go around. People aren’t wearing theirs, and I kind of forget that numbers (of COVID-19 cases) here are a lot lower, and a lot of people here just is not the normal here. So people don’t often do it (wear a mask). I don’t know, it kind of changes how you feel about wearing your mask, because you put it on, and then you look around, and you go, ‘Well, I’m the only one with my mask on, should I still be wearing my mask? But I might as well keep it on now at this point.’ It has been interesting.”

ISU’s fall semester is over before Thanksgiving and the spring semester is due to begin January 25th. Black hopes to have all of her class in-person by then.