Every year at Fuzion we host a graduating senior from Tolman High School in Pawtucket that is interested in the graphic arts field. This year we were lucky enough to have the vivacious Marcia Barbosa, who speaks 5 languages amongst her other talents. Today she would have completed her internship at Fuzion and would have presented to us her project final. Unfortunately because of COVID-19 she was unable to complete it. However with her busy schedule permitting we have invited her back to finish it up once we are reopened.

We have all heard how devastating this has been for High School seniors, especially missing proms, awards ceremonies, graduation and all the memory making events that fill your final year at High School. We thought it would interesting to hear from the point of a graduating senior just how this pandemic has effected her senior year at Tolman. So here is Marcia’s essay on how the pandemic has effected her senior year.

But before I turn this blog over to you Marcia, all of us at Fuzion wish you a Happy Graduation and good luck in your future endeavors. From what we have seen at Fuzion makes us believe you are going to make us proud and will surely hit the ball out of the park, no matter what you choose to do.

Take it away, Marcia:

COVID-19 was something really unexpected. I am Marcia Barbosa, a senior at William E. Tolman High School in Pawtucket, RI and COVID-19 has really impacted my last year and most important semester of my high school career. Senior year is typically the year where you are supposed to enjoy your last moments as a teenager along with the classical senior events such as Senior Prank, Senior Supper, Senior Skip Days, Decision Day, Senior Prom and most importantly Graduation Day. My senior year is pretty sad now, although it’s ok that memories can still always be made.

What COVID-19 really impacted me on though has been my future career. My mom and little brother are the only family members I have here in Rhode Island and financially my mom is the only person who can help me. About 2 years ago, my mom injured herself at her job so ever since then she has been unable to work. Because of this I had to get a job so I could at least try to afford to go to college. I was applying for jobs everywhere and days before they decided to shut down places and put everyone in quarantine, I got a job at the mall. Before I was even able to start working, the mall was shut down. I could have still gotten another job since there’s still places open but school is now online and if I want to finish my senior year, which I do, I have to complete the work and attend the virtual classes while also trying to take care of my college needs. This is really difficult to manage.

My mom was told this year that she can definitely go back to her job now, but because of her age and injuries we are afraid that if she catches the virus it would be really bad on her, so now I have no help and I can barely afford college. Besides being affected financially, I had a really important internship at Fuzion Design as part of the Tolman Marketing & Management Program that was giving me the experiences I needed for my future career, that also got effected by the virus and it was a one time opportunity for me as a senior. I was also working really hard everyday on getting better at throwing for outdoor track so I could win medals, awards, or any track scholarship I was able to get as a senior athlete, but that was effected as well.

So, the moral of this is that COVID-19 has financially, educationally and athletically affected my future in college. It has stopped me from gaining more experiences and social distancing has stopped me from making memories of my last year of high school with my friends. The good side of this story though is that I’m learning other new things that could be helpful in the future technologically and health wise. I’ve learned that if you stay in bed for too long your body freezes up and it will hurt. I have also gained more cooking skills and other things that our phones can’t always do for us.

Marcia Barbosa

Tolman High School Class of 2020

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At Fuzion, we believe in helping out young artists through internships. So we are now extending that to you – our blog readers in order to help out Marcia. If you know of any additional internships, jobs or scholarships that might be applicable to her, please let us know. She’s still narrowing her focus, but is really interested in interior design, architecture and of course graphic design. She’s a hard worker and always comes in with a positive attitude and smile on her face. Help us make her college dreams possible!