PALs during this crazy year was a different experience for the handfuls of students who are not able to visit other schools in person, limiting the number of activities that the PALs are able to conduct with younger students. The class is just organized in an entirely different way.

“Right now we only have two schools that are letting us come on campus in person, Four Points and River Ridge,” Vandergrift PALs teacher Laura Freund said. “So we have a small amount that go to those campuses, and then the rest are traveling virtually, most of them sadly don’t have anything yet.”

PALs, aside from adapting their travel plans, have tweaked their activities to better suit the virtual year.

“They can’t play games in person and stuff like that,” Freund said. “I mean they’re still doing games and stuff they just have to adapt to them being virtual for the most part, In, in person.”

Covid has made an impact on the more hands-on classes, especially PALs.

Students who are spending their first year as a PAL aren’t getting the experience previous students did.

“Well this is my first year in PALs, but it is a lot more local than in the past,” junior Rowyn Biddle said. “We aren’t able to impact as many people on a personal level as PALs has in the past.”

The tasks students have are more centered around Vandegrift and its feeder schools and teachers who need help around the classroom. Some PALs bring gifts to teachers on special occasions while some just spend time with them.

“We help a lot of teachers in the school that are struggling because of the lack of human interaction,” Biddle said. “Just by saying positive things and being helpful whenever we can.”