When Grief Comes Calling

Life on Hold

With the majority of colleges and universities holding classes over Zoom this semester, students are stuck attending school from their bedrooms. Faced with the new realities of remote learning, some students have chosen an attractive alternative: taking time off and opting out of classes completely. Amy Lowndes is a student at Pomona college who would have been in her senior year, had she not taken a leave of absence this semester to spend time living in Anchorage, Alaska.

Freshmen Year: Nobody's Here

If you’ve ever been on a college campus without students around, it can seem lonely. This semester, Monica Ocitti, who is a first-year student at Brown University, is not only one of just a few people at school, but she is the only student living in her dorm. This is how she got there.

Life After Death: Part 2

Note: This episode contains descriptions of schizophrenia and suicide.  Today’s show is the second half of our conversation with Melissa Perez. She discusses how she continues to process her grief while keeping her brother’s memory alive.

Life After Death: Part 1

Note: This episode contains descriptions of schizophrenia and suicide.  Suicide is the 10th most common cause of death in America, yet it is the second most common among college-aged individuals. More than half of students have had suicidal thoughts and 10.5% have seriously considered attempting suicide. Alarmingly, these numbers continue to rise every year.  For Melissa Antonia Perez, suicide is anything but a statistic. In 2017, her older brother, Andrew, died by suicide when he was just 20 and Melissa was a college sophomore. Melissa sits down to tell me how she has dealt with his death and what her life has been like ever since.

When Grief Comes Calling

Note: This episode contains descriptions of death and depression. It’s easy to get caught up in the everyday life of being a student. There’s always the next paper to start, midterm to study for, and Friday night out with friends to plan. Every once in a while, however, events at home or in our outside life happen that snap us out of the student mindset and put everything into perspective. For college senior Roxy, a series of unexpected deaths and injuries began happening her sophomore year and continued for much of her time at Brown. On this episode, she talks about what it was like being away from home, which left her removed from her family and largely alone to struggle through the aftermath.