After an unprecedented senior year, Mercer students plan their next steps

Editor’s note: McKenna Kaufman is a Mercer University student working with the Telegraph this spring.

Mercer’s graduating class of 2021 experienced a senior year unlike any other as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the world and the university community worked to achieve a new sense of normalcy.

Graduating seniors are now preparing to enter a society and workforce that looks drastically different than it has in years past.

Audry Paul

Audry Paul, a holistic child major, found out that her plans for student teaching during her senior year would change significantly as local schools switched to virtual learning.

“That was a huge adjustment, to figure out how to keep first graders engaged and excited when they’re staring at a computer all day, and there wasn’t a whole lot of time to kind of adjust to that,” Paul said.

Paul is now back in the classroom teaching for the final weeks of the semester and plans to become an elementary school teacher with Teach for America. She has been placed with a school in Kansas City, Missouri and hopes to use her position to make a difference in the lives of her students and work combating educational inequality.

“I felt like a lot of the placements that I had in college really kind of inspired me to kind of learn more about the causes of those inequities and ways that teachers can be responsive and use kind of teaching as a form of advocacy for students that are either low income or minorities or whatever the case may be,” Paul said.

Jordan Houser

Like Paul, senior physics and math student Jordan Houser also faced uncertainty throughout her final year as a Mercer student. For Houser, COVID-19 impacted her relationships within the physics and math departments.

“The people I’m closest with are elders, so that was really frightening,” Houser said. “My favorite part of my college experience was being able to talk to my professors. My professors are older people. So I would keep myself from talking to them in person. And that I guess wasn’t too good for me, because I just love talking to people.”

As graduation approaches, Houser plans to work towards earning her Ph.D, and eventually becoming a professor. She hopes to begin research and has begun learning more about logic and the history of math, topics she hopes to concentrate on more post-graduation.

“My plans for post-graduation are to not sell myself too short,” Houser said. “I want to build connections with people in my field, so that I’m more prepared to be in it.”

Evan Stair

Evan Stair, a chemistry major, has goals similar to Houser. In August, Stair will attend the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill to pursue a Ph.D in chemistry. Despite new restrictions on campus, Stair still felt supported by his professors and the Mercer community.

“The professors have been very understanding and they’ve adapted their course very well to these times,” Stair said. “I think that’s what I’m going to miss is just having professors and a sense of community that Mercer provides.”

Stair plans to begin research in environmental chemistry with a focus on atmospheric chemicals and their impact on human health. The community of UNC professors and graduate students were what drew Stair to the chemistry graduate program, he said.

“They were all just really accepting right away and I just felt like it was a place you could belong,” Stair said. “The chemistry program there seems very, very tight-knit and they do a lot of things together, so I’m pretty excited about going in the fall.”

Gracie Garanich

Gracie Garanich, a marketing and entrepreneurship double major and member of Mercer’s Beach Volleyball Team, also pursued a sense of community when solidifying her post-graduation plans, she said.

Garanich will move to Charlotte, North Carolina to begin a job as a digital marketing analyst for Red Ventures, a media company.

“The company is very forward in the essence that it’s very team, collaborative based,” Garanich said. “I think the company aesthetic and the company culture is something that I found that I had been looking for all of college.”

While excited about starting her career, Garanich is going to miss the community she has built with her teammates.

“We’re kind of spreading out all over the country. It’s going to be fun to visit them but it’s just that bittersweet moment where we’re not going to see each other every day anymore,” Garanich said. “I would definitely say (I’m feeling) a mixture of good nerves… and then just reminiscing on the good times.”

Like Garanich, Stair has also spent his senior year looking back on his time at Mercer.

“It’s definitely nostalgic, but still exciting for the things that are going to come,” Stair said. “We’re 22 years old, there’s still so much life left.”