For many high school students, adapting to distance learning has brought new challenges, such as isolation, Zoom fatigue, and staying motivated, on top of other stressors during the pandemic.
ā€œIā€™m a very face-to-face person,ā€ says tenth-grader Azucena Hernandez, known as ā€œAzuā€ to her friends. ā€œEmailing teachers has been terrible. Iā€™m very good at speaking to people. Thatā€™s my strong point. I havenā€™t been able to do that, and thatā€™s been really hard.ā€
But participating CUESA's Foodwise Teens, an after-school cooking, gardening, and job skills program, has helped Azu continue to nourish that outgoing part of herself, even if much of the learning is online.