If you’re a student today, it’s easy to feel like every academic term brings a new, history-making event. But COVID is in its own category. The pandemic has upended the educational landscape in huge and novel ways. The ncIMPACT Initiative team recently took some time to speak directly with students about the changing nature of school and youth engagement, and to learn more about the path they see ahead.

Since March of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to radically remake the economic landscape of North Carolina and beyond. While local governments work to rebuild, rework, and retool existing systems and services to meet this new environment, state leaders in North Carolina are seeking to learn from the lessons of the pandemic as they chart a course for the future.