Exploring the Effects of the “COVID Gap Year” Written by Alex Gallaway The shadows of the COVID-19 pandemic still move through the halls of every educational institution in the world. Even if masking and social distancing seem like a thing of the past, we still see echoes reflected in increased competitive GPAs, greater opportunities for online classes, and the elimination of the idea that it’s good to “tough it out” and attend classes when you have a stuffy nose. You could do a doctoral thesis on how the pandemic affected education as a whole, but for the purpose of this article, I wanted to examine one aspect in particular: the…