As vaccines rollout across the globe and COVID-19 continues to spread, coronavirus is entering a college classroom in New York City a different way — and people are signing up to be a part of it.
Brooklyn College Professor Jolanta Kruszelnicka and other faculty members are launching a course this spring semester dealing entirely on the COVID pandemic.
"We thought it was a fantastic opportunity to actually bring knowledge in more depth about the current issue," said Kruszelnicka. "This is the most successful teaching, when you can actually show students something that is happening right now."
The class, which was open to all students, was nearly filled up just days after being offered. Senior Beverly Bradley didn't hesitate to sign up.
"I felt like I had to take this course. The minute I knew I signed up immediately," Bradley said. " I thought it was brilliant, I was like what a genius idea to take all the health disciplines pretty much and put it in a course to help us learn."
Professors from different subjects will lecture once a week. The goal of the course is to cut through misinformation and answer COVID questions.
"This is not purely medicine, this is not purely epidemiology. We are talking now about mental health issues, social issues, we are talking about prevention," Kruszelnicka said.
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Students like Bradley said they are eager to learn facts about the virus in order to help themselves and their communities get through the pandemic.
"Right now, education is the key. Education is the only way, in my opinion, to get past this thing, to get knowledge on this," Bradley said. "I want facts, I want real facts and I know in this course I will get real facts ... I can take the knowledge that I've learned, utilize it and share it with my community."
