In so many ways, Twyla Joseph reflects the story of young people during the pandemic — her struggles with virtual schooling, her anxiety over college and career choices.
Time magazine has placed the Central Islip High School senior on the cover of its upcoming issue, which focuses on the "lost year" experienced by so many students.
The sprawling story, available online and soon on newsstands, begins and ends with Twyla wrestling with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. It chronicles how the 17-year-old from a family with limited resources lost her job early on and often felt alone in making decisions on which college to attend and which career to pursue.
"I lost a year of education," said Twyla, of Islip Terrace. She felt, she said, "frozen in time."
Twyla's comments are those of a thoughtful and mature young person, but her reaction to being on the cover of one of the world's most influential news magazines was that of a prototypical over-the-moon teenager.
"It was super-exciting. I loved it," she said. "I was like, 'Oh my God.' "
Time magazine found her through her volunteer work with the group Make the Road Action, which, with offices in New York and other states, advocates for justice in education, immigration and the criminal justice system. She's been involved in such advocacy since she saw on TV the police-related death of Eric Garner on Staten Island in 2014, she said.
Twyla said she hopes the Time article makes a difference, crystallizing the deleterious impacts of the pandemic on young people.
"In my community, Central Islip, we're kind of lower income and our schools are underfunded, so I wanted this story to go out there," she said. "I'm not the only person with this story. You come from a family that doesn't have unlimited resources. … It's harder, and it's not just harder for me, it's harder for my community."
She said she worries that the "lost year" will become a lost generation of young people, thwarted in their goals and accomplishments.
The isolation and endless hours watching online classes, she said, "gave us a lack of motivation. … We got used to being lazy."
At one point last year, Twyla said she even considered not going to college, taking a gap year to rebuild her finances and let the pandemic settle down. Her mother, who was raised in the Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia and didn't attend school in the U.S., could not offer much help. Her guidance counselor was mostly available through email and seemed always overwhelmed, she said.
She regained her job at Panera Bread in Bay Shore in August, and decided afterward she would attend college. But the pandemic has forced her to recalibrate her college choices, from going away to a historically Black college to a place closer to home.
Her career choice has also changed. Her dream of becoming an occupational therapist was scrapped due to the educational costs, and instead she's applied to be a psychology major, with hopes of being a social worker.
"The important thing is I want to help people," Twyla said.
She's received letters of acceptance from four schools but is holding off her choice until she see how much financial aide she'll receive.
Her appearance on the Time cover lifted her spirits, she said, after a year in the COVID-19 doldrums.
She offered a behind-the-scenes view of the cover shot, which looks as through she's sitting on a desk in school flanked by some lockers and holding a laptop and her college-level statistics book. In truth, Twyla said the picture was taken in the driveway of her home. The Time photographer brought a blue screen for background and placed a desk and some lockers there, she said.
She said she sees this experience as a moment of achievement for her, and "I want to keep that standard of achievement for the rest of my life."
Her family has told her, again and again, how proud they are of her. She said she can't wait to frame the cover shot.
"Throughout the pandemic, I kept asking myself, 'What can I do to make my family proud?" she said. "Now I feel I accomplished something, so I feel better about everything."
Craig Schneider is a Long Island native and Stony Brook University alumnus. He joined Newsday as a general assignment reporter in January 2018 after 20 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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April 03, 2021 at 06:00PM
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Central Islip senior graces cover of Time for story on pandemic's impact on students - Newsday
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