Features

Leticia Desouza

Staff Writer

The recent pandemic hit the SLA community in many different ways. During those times, to keep ourselves and those around us safe, students needed to stay home and isolate ourselves from the outside world. With this free time, people chose many pathways where they could kill time. One of the many ways people around the world chose to kill time was with technology.

This was especially true for the Class of 2024, who started their high school experience entirely online. Whereas other grades at SLA had a chance to meet in person before being forced online, last year’s freshmen only had online interactions to connect. 

Sophomore Eric Perez — connected with many people with activities like zoom calls and online games.

“I think that’s what made it fun, I’d stay up all night with friends and play video games. There was a lot of time for that which made me feel closer to friends.” Stated Perez

It seems that the freedom people across the world have with the internet allowed them to be less lonely during the cruciating moments of the pandemic. 

“My relationship with most of the people I met online didn’t last long. If it did last, it was because we had something to connect with,” continued Perez. “For example, we both had the same interests or they were really funny.” 

While some students had many experiences with the broad platforms in technology, other students mentioned their experiences during their time in online school.

Sophomore Shuhd Abdalla and Sophomore Auris Espinal shared some of their experiences with trying to build connections with other students at SLA during their online freshman year.

“It was a lot harder to make friends. I was really excited to make new friends but the pandemic has really made it difficult. Especially since everyone on zoom was over the pandemic at that point and sad about schooling being online that no one really tried to make lots of friends and stayed in a tight friend group.” Abdalla explained.

“I didn’t really get to connect with people mainly because I didn’t know anybody and they didn’t know me. When online classes first started I was very excited because I would get to see and talk to other students that were my age.” stated Espinal.

For all these reasons,  Sophomores seemed to have difficulty creating a bond with their classmates. This made their experiences with the recent pandemic feel lonely. 

After a while, things began to go back to normal after spending almost two years in quarantine. People began going back to their normal routines like going to work or school. This made many interactions and friendships made during the quarantine period start to fade. 

“Sometimes I saw how we got distant from each other, but it never really bothered me. If there was a bad change, then I would simply block them.” Added Perez.

With the diversity of the sophomore SLA community, there are many other experiences recent 10th graders were able to experience during their time in the recent quarantine. Though with time only moving forward and with technology improving each day, online connections will only continue to grow. The recent pandemic allowed many people across the world to explore a world that they weren’t familiar with, allowing them to wonder and discover what is more to this unfamiliar world.

Harper Leary

Staff Writer

Many students’ first in-person benchmark season came in full swing towards the end of October. This was a typical start of the school year – except that more than half of SLA students did not know what to expect after being online for more than a year and a half. 

As a result, each student has had to find their way in this new, old normal.

Sophomore Elijah Lopez expressed his opinion on the first quarter’s benchmark season, comparing it to last year’s, which was almost entirely online. 

“I think they are [in-person benchmarks] easier [than online benchmarks], cause the teachers are more accessible in person, and the checkpoints that they gave us were a lot better this year than we got last year.”

“For sophomores, it was their first time doing an in-person benchmark, so it- sometimes we say that for the sophomores, ‘it’s like you’re having your freshman and sophomore year simultaneously.” 

English teacher Larissa Pahomov said. “It was unique because we were expecting academic work that was beyond what we would expect from freshmen, but in terms of the scaffolding and support in getting a benchmark done, I think we, meaning the teachers, had to put more effort and more steps in to make sure students were supported.”

Some students had mixed opinions on the topic.

Junior Katelyn Chen had her entire sophomore year online, meaning this is the first time she has been in person since freshman year. 

“Honestly, it depends because I feel like online they were more laid back, but like in person, it’s easy to work with people,” Chen said. 

Senior Shay Deanna seemed to agree.

 “I can focus better [online], like my focus in class gets messed up when I’m around a bunch of people. On virtual school, it was easier because I could just focus, and I can get it done when I wanted to. And then I had the whole day to get it done because we finished school at like 12.”

While opinions about the return to in-person workloads were mixed, all three students interviewed emphasized that they are glad to be off Zoom. 

Ms. Pahomov pointed out the positives of teaching in person again. “I’m definitely appreciating the chance to check in with people in person,” she said.

“I think that valuing and maximizing the time we have face to face has become even more important. Because that was the biggest hurdle, I mean there were ways to check in with students one-on-one, but it was so much slower with Zoom that you just couldn’t provide the level of feedback that we were used to.”

By Marcus Diemer and Oskar Glahn

Though he is only here twice a week, Music Teacher Matthew Roberts stands out — at 6’8”, he stands well over the tallest students at SLA. 

In addition to his height, Mr. Roberts has depth in the variety of his work and life experiences. After years of musical experience, Mr. Roberts has big goals to improve staff/student relationships and inspire those in his classroom through music. His current role as an itinerant music teacher has him giving lessons at multiple schools across Philadelphia. 

Upbringing 

Mr. Roberts spent his early years living in Staten Island, one of the five boroughs of New York City. He faced challenges growing up in a rough neighborhood, and eventually his family moved to Lansdale, Pennsylvania when he was seven years old. He recalls that the environment as well as the school systems there were drastically better. He found his passion for music living there while attending a school in the North Penn school district. 

Music was always present in Mr. Robert’s life; both of his parents were classical musicians and his father was a choir director as well as a composer, and his mother sang in a choir. He branched out in high school and experimented with some different genres. 

“I got into some jazz, and rock was still pretty big back then so I was in a few rock bands,” he stated.  He majored in music at Temple University here in Philadelphia, and has lived in the city since 1994, and focused on building his career. 

“I pushed everything away and really focused on music. I thought I was going to be an orchestra player. I auditioned for the Philadelphia Orchestra (to play upright bass) and 250 people showed up, just for a spot on the sublist,” he recalled. After that, for years on end, he continued to practice music. 

He did some gigs around the city, and was a part of the Allentown Symphony Orchestra as well as the Reading symphony. He also taught many private lessons, but struggled to make a steady income from music, and eventually came around to the idea of becoming a classroom music teacher. He says that he found it to be a lot of fun working with kids and to be able to give them inspiration through his passion. He finds happiness through being able to positively influence youth and see them grow. 

Outside of the Workplace

Although Mr. Roberts is often very busy teaching music at six different schools here in Philadelphia, he does manage to find time for his other interests. 

“Something I never thought I would get into is spirituality,” he remarked, though he seemed reluctant to talk about it at a public school. He admits he is still “trying to figure everything out” in life, but spirituality is helping him on that journey. 

He also mentioned that he is fascinated by cars. “I like to study up on cars, as well as buy different cars that come by and sell them.” 

Mr. Roberts is also working on becoming a landlord, which helps make ends meet as a teacher. “I’ve got a few properties and am doing some landlording and stuff on the side,” he explained. 

Making a Difference

Mr. Roberts states that he taught at CAPA and Masterman, but chose to come teach at the neighborhood schools anticipating that the public school kids would really savor music class. He looks to provide an outlet for his students here at Science Leadership Academy. His teaching has been well received by the students here.

“I really like how relaxing his class is,” remarked sophomore Anna Diemer, who is in the music elective

“We are really happy to have Mr. Roberts and we can’t wait to see what he and our SLA students create!” stated Principal Chris Lehmann.