Photo Courtesy of Leah DeHaemer

“I’m an exercise science major at Hofstra, this is my second year … I grew up playing sports, so I have a big interest in exercise science and in the field in general … I work as a health ambassador, which is this new program that Hofstra has created to enforce the wearing of masks and social distancing, and it’s basically offered to all health science majors … I’m in the Exercise Is Medicine club, which is a club really directed [at] exercise science majors, but anyone can join. It doesn’t matter if you’re exercise science or not … We’re going to be making a video soon that has to do with the precautions about the opening of the fitness center, and we’re also making a video about Exercise Is Medicine, and what that really means basically … For me personally, I guess it’s been fine adjusting to the [new campus] environment. It did kind of suck last year having to go back to Connecticut, but luckily we’re back now, if we can stay that way. But I mean it was rough at first, just like with the wearing of the masks. But it’s just a different change of lifestyle, and eventually I guess this’ll just be the way it’s going to be for the next couple of years at least. [But] the change has been fine for me, really … A couple of classes that I wish were in person are online, which kind of sucks, cause me being an exercise science major, most of – not most, well a lot of the stuff is hands-on, so you can’t really do that, and reading in the textbook obviously isn’t the same as actually doing it … I’m in a fraternity, I’m in Pi Lambda Phi at Hofstra. It’s relatively new; the Hofstra chapter was founded in 2016, so we’re still new and we’re still growing. We’re trying to make the most [of the situation], especially in these times, cause it’s hard to recruit kids. There’s different precautions now with COVID and everything, so we have to be careful with that, but we’re trying to expand, and hopefully we can just keep it going … I actually live off-campus in a house, but most of my time is actually spent on campus, cause I’m studying and stuff. But yeah, I mean a lot of it is hard work … We are one of the smallest [fraternities] on campus, we have fifteen to twenty actives. So, like I said, we’re also trying to expand, but I just like having a small group of friends that I can rely on, and that’ll help me out.”