Giving Compass' Take:

• Kat Soto-Gomez expresses concern over losing so many community college students during the pandemic, who're balancing work, family, and school.

• How are marginalized communities most at risk of losing valuable education during COVID-19? How can you work to make college more affordable for struggling students?

• Learn about how you can direct your funding towards community college students during coronavirus.

While many turn their noses up to the community college system, I have always believed community colleges are where many of our society’s most resilient and hard-working students begin their higher education paths. After witnessing the many hurdles they confronted all while facing a global pandemic, that belief has been confirmed for me.

But I lost many of my community college students to the COVID-19 pandemic. While I did not lose students to the virus itself, I blame the virus for lost opportunities to engage with the handful of students who withdrew from my class the day it was announced classes would move to remote instruction. My emails, phone calls and text messages to them went unanswered. It was as if they had just disappeared.

If students weren’t filling their new schedules with work that put them at higher risks to contract the virus, they were managing household chores and babysitting duties for their family members on the front lines. Through my regular check-ins with students, I learned that while some students were overworked by the need to provide for their families, others at home seemed to be drowning in a sea of hopelessness over the heaviness of their circumstances.

I am unsure what will become of our economic system once we prevail over this pandemic, but my hope is that I can give a voice to the experience of the many community college students I have encountered over the years who are fighting for a chance to partake in the American Dream, and I will continue to work to increase those chances for them.

Read the full article about community college students during COVID-19 by Kat Soto-Gomez at EdSurge.