COVID-19 has caused a profound affect on the school year with some Bruins feeling as if they missed out on some experiences, such as the many school trips that have been bypassed this year. 

Computer Science Teacher Jeremy Kerr further elaborated upon the importance of such trips.

“Trips take learning outside of a classroom environment and into the real world.  It sparks inspiration for students to think what is possible outside of the high school arena,” he said. “Trips offer a variety of activities such as tours, hands on learning, exploration, etc.  They’re also a lot of fun – bonding times and memories that last for years.  Some of the most memorable high school experiences come from trips outside of the walls of the high school … This is definitely an area of growth I’d like to foster in future years.”

One of Bear River’s largest field trips is the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Day to Sierra College where students are able to preview the majors available. It’s a great opportunity for anyone who is thinking about attending the college after high school, especially if they become eligible for the “two years free” tuition aid program. This trip could be taken by anyone at Bear River that was in a CTE class.

Some experienced CTE students weren’t surprised at the cancellation of this particular trip, being glad to have taken it before, such as Junior Aden Mattson who expressed his neutrality on the matter.

“Because I did it last year, I don’t really mind all that much,” he said. “It was fun last year because I was able to break up into groups with my friends and go look at what interested us. It is kind of disappointing that we couldn’t go look at those things together but it’s not too big of a deal.”

Junior Dominic Hartman held similar views and sympathized for lower classmen who hadn’t gotten to experience the field trip this year.

“I don’t feel like I am missing that much not going to the CTE trip because I have been to that two times already,” he said. “I do feel bad for the current freshmen or anyone else that has never been on that trip though.”

However, all hope for extracurricular events was not lost yet. Mr. Kerr pointed out that virtual competitions like Codewars were still thriving.

“Codewars is a virtual Computer Science competition that is hosted by HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprises). This year we have a three-person team competing against multiple teams in our area and around the world,” said Mr. Kerr.  “It’s a live three-hour contest that gives teams a set of problems that can be solved using code with various levels of difficulty.”

With all field trips and school events being cancelled this year as a result of health concerns, Senior Eden Douglas expressed her disappointment with how her senior year has played out so far.

“It definitely sucks that our experiences are so different this year, especially as a senior,” she said. “I wish I could have had a full senior year including trips and school dances. It feels very isolated and strange to often have very few people in class.”