’21 Honoree Julianne Morgan

“I knew I was going to remember that moment forever. We had been told the week prior that things were going to change, so we had started getting into full prep mode. We were preparing a lot of content to help instructors move their classes to an online platform quickly, efficiently and effectively, and then putting all these documents and videos in a location that could be easily accessed. Initially they were planning to send students home in a few weeks, and we were taking our time with it a little bit at first, so we could make it really good. On that Tuesday, my boss called our office and we were all brought in together and he was on the phone. He said, ‘I have to tell you all that they’re sending the students home tomorrow and we need to have everything done, everything’s going (to remote).’ I looked at my coworkers and I said, ‘Remember this moment, because it’s the moment everything changes for us.’ We knew what our mission was. We knew what we had to do. And we all just went and completed our tasks. We had to make more content about how to keep teaching online, and then more content on how to make teaching online better.”

“So there was just more and more content that had to be made. I work on a team of 10 people who were all instrumental in getting that work done, and all 10 of us pulled some late nights for a while. We had to just spit stuff out, and so it ended up not being good, but at least it was, I think, somewhat effective. We got it all done, cleaned up the office, and then left to work from home. Some of us stayed in the office a little bit longer, like for another couple of weeks, but for others that was the last day on campus.”

“Over the summer, we knew that we had to standardize things and make them a little bit more uniform for students, as we moved into Fall semester, and for instructors, because we could better help them if they were all kind of doing the same thing. Since we didn't know how the semester would go, we had to have plans in place for all potential possibilities, from completely face-to-face instruction, to completely self-paced asynchronous instruction. We created template sites, and then developed a training package about those sites so that any instructor could just start using them, and put things in the right place for their students – and for themselves – to be successful.”

“I know that it did get a lot of usage, and I am proud of our team for pulling that together, but I feel more tired now. I feel like I don't really know what to do next. I don’t know how to help more and I'm not sure what people need from me right now in my job. I’m feeling a little bit of a sense of helplessness, I guess, and a sense of loss. Thinking back from March to November, I’d say that I was just running on adrenaline for those all those months. I was just going, going, going, trying to get everything done, helping people get everything done. I don’t have children. I don’t have elderly parents. I don’t have caretaking responsibilities at all. I just have friends who are on the younger side of things.”

“I was, of course, concerned for my grandmother, but at the same time, I knew that she was able to quarantine safely at home. She had one of her sons living with her and he would be able to go out and do shopping and things like that. So I didn’t worry too much about it. Then, in November the pandemic became a little bit more real for me because she did get COVID. Then she died of COVID. I lost some resilience myself. I did not bounce back. I was not really having a crisis, but what I would say is that resilience is important, and I didn’t give myself any time from March to November to take a step back and think about the important things in life. I was just running the entire time.”

“In November, I just stopped doing everything. I was not the best worker in the world by any means. But I took some time to just reflect on my grandmother’s life. I think about her because I was able to be connected with her throughout this pandemic – not as much as I should have been, but I’m grateful that this happened in the 21st century where I could call her. I didn’t have to write a letter. And I thought about how she didn’t worry about this pandemic. It didn’t really bother her in any way, shape or form. I think that’s because she’d grown up during the Great Depression. She used to have to fill up a tub of water, heat it up somehow, and then wash her clothes in it manually. I'm just so grateful for all the things I have in my life. Going through this pandemic in earlier times, it would’ve just been unbearable.”

“Thinking about the resilience she demonstrated helped me kind of bounce back and get back on my feet. I am now in more of an academic engagement role, and I am responsible for marketing and communicating changes out to instructors. I still haven’t quite found the right methods for it yet, because communication during the pandemic has changed a lot. But as we have moved into Spring semester, everyone knows what they’re doing for the most part. They don’t need us as much. In some ways they might even be more skilled at Zoom than I am! I’m really proud of our institution for taking on this challenge and doing an amazing job with delivering successful learning experiences to students in the worst possible conditions.”