Below is a conversation with Eric Spear and Iris McGrath, two students enrolled at Daytona State College.
For those who can’t listen to what is being said in the interview, I typed it out:
Audio Interview 1 (new recording 3)
Chloe: “Hi, this is Chloe and I’m here with Eric Spear”
Eric: “Hi, hello, my name is Eric”
Chloe: “Eric are you in College or High School?”
Eric: “I’m currently enrolled in College”
Chloe: “Alright, do you feel like you are excelling in your coursework?”
Eric: “um.. I feel like I’m doing alright. There’s some days where I just don’t make it to school which sucks. But for the stuff I do do I feel like I do a pretty good job”
Chloe: “Why don’t you feel like you’re making it to school on time?”
Eric: ” ‘cuz I like to sleep a lot”
Chloe: “um what are your feelings when you go to and from school?”
Eric: “um I don’t feel much”
Chloe: “Are you excited to go school, or are you, do you kind of dread going to school, or do you kind of not have any feelings towards it? It’s just another day?”
Eric: “Yeah I mean I just do what I need to do- go there and get it done”
Chloe: “Alright. Do you feel welcome at your school?”
Eric: “Sure, I feel welcome enough. I’ve never really felt singled out. I mean sometimes I feel like people stare a lot but I think that’s just anywhere you go people will stare at you, so you just kind of ignore them and you’ll be fine. I’ve never really had too many bad experiences with people but, other than that yeah not too bad.
Chloe:”Alright. Are you comfortable talking to your professors?”
Eric: “uhh yeah for the most part, I mean if I have a question I’ll ask. Ya know, I don’t ever feel the need to go out of my way to talk about nothing, but yeah, I mean my professors are pretty relaxed and easy-going so it doesn’t make it too hard.”
Chloe:”It doesn’t really uncomfortable?”
Eric:”no”
Chloe:”It doesn’t feel weird?”
Eric:”no”
Chloe:”Alright, well thank you”
Thoughts on this interview:
My opinion on this student is that he is very low maintenance. He doesn’t feel the need to talk to his professors, and he doesn’t take offense to anything that happens at school. He seems satisfied with the campus, and only blames himself for sleeping in.
Audio Interview number 2 (new recording 8)
Chloe:” Hi I’m Chloe Bonds and I’m here with Iris McGrath who’s currently enrolled in DSC. Do you currently feel like you are excelling in your courses, Iris?”
Iris:”No, I’m not excelling at all.”
Chloe:”Why do you think that is?”
(I noticed that the audio cut out for her reply here, I apologize)
Iris:” Yes I have a lack of motivation”
Chloe: “That’s interesting, do you feel like your lack of motivation might spur from any mental illnesses?”
Iris:” Definitely so, uh the depression doesn’t help because it makes it harder to stay focus with important things like the schoolwork. Staying on track is hard.”
Chloe:”Alright, do you feel like college has enough resources for you right now to help you get through this lack of motivation?”
Iris:”They definitely offer enough resources to help me get through that lack of motivation.. um but I don’t feel to comfortable with it.”
Chloe:”Why don’t you feel comfortable with it?”
Iris:”um.. anxiety mainly. The face-to-face aspect of it isn’t too appealing for me”
Chloe:”Okay so what you’re saying is the face-to-face is a little bit too much, but maybe if there was uh a kind of way to help you that wasn’t face-to-face, maybe..?”
Iris:”Right, like an online service or something”
Chloe:”Interesting, do you feel comfortable talking to you professors?”
Iris:”To a point, yes. um they’ve made it known that they’re there to help but it’s the whole anxiety issue that I face.”
Thoughts on this interview:
Iris knows what her issues are, and why she is not excelling in her courses. Unfortunately, I have gathered that she does not feel comfortable confronting them with someone else at school due to her anxiety. We came to the conclusion that someone in her situation could be helped by an online service, something like a chat with a counselor online, might be able to help.
Below are screenshots of a conversation with a student at Seabreeze High School.
I began this conversation by sending him questions from my feedback page to answer. After he answered the questions, I understood that he was very opinionated on this topic, and I started to dig deeper on the matter. I thought it was interesting that he said he was teaching himself. If he wasn’t getting help with his curriculum at school, I was doubting that he was getting help with his mental health.
He tells me here that his problem with anxiety sprouts from a fear of school shootings. He believes that there is not enough currently being done to prevent this from happening.
Here, I started to believe that Cole is completely disillusioned with the idea of education, and I started to understand why. He doesn’t seem to enjoy learning at high school level courses, but that’s because he doesn’t feel like they will help him in life.
The anxiety he gets from being at his school, mixed with what he believes are arbitrary classes, is the recipe for his disbelief in the education system.
Here I remembered something about high school that I had forgotten. I forgot that my high school was like this, but as I read what he said it came flooding back to me. I agreed with what he said. Teachers mainly like the students that participate in their extra-curricular activities.
Thoughts on this interview:
Cole seems very troubled with the way that the education system is currently built. Not only does he feel unsafe, but he is taking courses that he doesn’t feel are necessary. With these issues in mind, he does not feel like he can talk to school staff to help this situation.
Below is a screenshot of another conversation with a student at Seabreeze High School
Mental Health 