Today, America’s assumptions about its technical advantages are being challenged anew.

China announced recently that all students in Beijing will receive starting next fall. And the emergence of China鈥檚 has shown that commonly held assumptions about the U.S.鈥檚 technical advantage are once again just that 鈥� assumptions.

This could be American AI鈥檚 competitive wakeup call, illustrating that the U.S. needs to dramatically strengthen and expand its approach to AI education. But in this new Space Race, America doesn’t have years to catch up. AI advancements are happening at the fastest pace of any innovation in modern history. 

If we wait, we will lose.

Under the Beijing Municipal Education Commission鈥檚 plan, will be enrolled in hands-on introductory courses for artificial intelligence, middle schoolers will learn how to apply AI in their schoolwork and daily lives, and high schoolers will focus on strengthening innovation in the field.

China isn鈥檛 alone. The governments of Singapore, South Korea, Finland and Canada have all passed initiatives to . That list will only grow as more nations realize how vital AI will be in the . 

Countries that lead in AI education will subsequently lead in AI-driven economic growth and military advancement. If the U.S. doesn鈥檛 prioritize AI literacy and readiness, it isn’t just setting students up for failure 鈥� it’s undermining its own economic and national security. By 2030, artificial intelligence will contribute nearly . America must stay at the forefront. 

This means AI literacy 鈥� the fundamental understanding of these technological tools 鈥� isn鈥檛 optional. Neither is AI readiness, the ability to leverage those tools to the nation’s advantage. Instilling both concepts in America’s schools will set the foundation for the future.

Admittedly, the structure of the education system in the United States restricts the government’s ability to mandate AI courses from the top down, the way China can. 

But history shows that America鈥檚 community-based approach can be a catalyst for innovation, especially when states, schools and nonprofits are empowered to collaborate and lead the charge. AI education doesn鈥檛 need a one-size-fits-all approach; it needs momentum and sharing of what works and what doesn’t. If we leave it to each state or school to figure it out on their own, we risk further alienating Americans who fall on the wrong side of the .

So, how can U.S. schools get on the right track?

First, don鈥檛 ignore the ongoing technology race. Developments like those in Beijing should spark conversations and action among school district leaders, teachers and parents. 

Second, recognize AI education as a national priority. Federal officials must discuss AI literacy and readiness as imperative for the nation鈥檚 economic security and competitiveness. Though economics and education tend to be separate policy discussions, they go hand in hand when it comes to the ability of future generations to participate in an increasingly tech-driven global workforce.

Third, even without any federal action, states and school districts can and should recognize the importance of AI education and integrate it into their curriculums. This is already happening in places like Ohio, where the state has funded workshops with ongoing training in AI concepts for all educators and its Educational Service Center Association . In Maryland, Prince George鈥檚 County Public Schools have .

There鈥檚 also lots of room for nonprofit organizations to pick up the slack on AI education. Organizations like (where I work), and MIT鈥檚 initiative have done a lot of legwork creating pilot programs and teacher training so schools don鈥檛 have to figure it out from scratch.

America must rise to the moment.

A year after the Soviets launched the first space satellite in history, Congress passed the , which increased funding for education 鈥� particularly in science and math. The home-grown scientists and engineers that effort produced strengthened national security, transformed the U.S. into the world鈥檚 top superpower within a generation and resulted in discoveries that drive computing, medicine and mobile technology to this day.

The new technological developments and educational investments in places like China require a similar response. America must push forward to implement AI education that will help the nation prosper and compete in the years ahead.

The night I returned to New York City at age 5, the city felt surreal 鈥� bustling, vibrant, and intimidating. As my parents, older sister, and I got into the taxi, the city lights appeared to converge and become one. Everything seemed larger here. As the cab slowly pulled away from the airport, so did my sense of reality. From the towering buildings to the flashing signs to the rushing cars, it was all so different from the villages of Fujian province, China.

The taxi took us to the Borough Park, Brooklyn, apartment where we would be staying. When we walked in, there were boxes, furniture, appliances, and bicycles crowded into a roughly 144-square-foot living room. How can anyone live like this? I thought.

My family of four slept in a room that was smaller still, crammed with a bunk bed, a square table, and two chairs. As the clock struck midnight on what would be my first full day back in New York, I sat on the bottom bunk and ate takeout. I was full of curiosity and excitement, yet there were certain nuances to my feelings. Who were my parents? Why had they come all this way to a foreign land? And most importantly, why had I lived so far from them?

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I was 7,000 miles 鈥� and a virtual world away 鈥� from Fujian, where I had lived alongside a pond overgrown with lily pads, where the breeze would fly across my face, where the sound of crickets would penetrate the otherwise silent night, and where my grandma would pluck chickens for us to cook and eat. Everything was calmer and quieter there, on our block with only a couple of houses.

I soon learned that I hadn鈥檛 always lived so far from my mom and dad. My parents explained that I was born in Flushing, Queens, less than 20 miles from Borough Park. But like many immigrants, my parents worked grueling schedules at minimum-wage jobs 鈥� my mother in a nail salon with minimal training and my father as a chef at a Chinese buffet. Overextended and unable to support a family of four, they sent my sister and me to live with our grandparents in China.

For my parents, America 鈥� a nation that purports to value individual liberty, growth, and prosperity 鈥� became nothing more than the place where they resided as they saved money to bring us back to them.

All this makes me what some researchers call a Lacking affordable child care, many Chinese immigrant families send their American-born babies to . When the kids are ready for school, at around age 4 or 5,

Because of this arrangement, I had the joy of getting to know my grandparents. But it came at a cost: I didn鈥檛 really know the very people who created me. We were family, and we were strangers 鈥� so close, yet so far apart.

In the months after I returned to my parents, I was often nostalgic for my simpler life back in China. I would think about the small shop in town where my sister would buy the most pointless toys and about the local theater where performers dressed in elaborate costumes and painted their faces to tell the story of an emperor鈥檚 favorite concubine. This longing is what happens when you鈥檙e caught between two worlds 鈥� one that holds the joyful memories of childhood, and another of a new and confusing country.

People sometimes ask me if I could go back, would I do it all again. My answer will always be yes. These memories are reminders of a time when I was smaller, but when my heart felt a little fuller.

In Borough Park, my parents enrolled my sister and me in school. As a little Chinese 鈥渋mmigrant,鈥� I spoke no English. Nor had I developed a sense of independence, and I would often cry when my mother left for work. In America, life felt like a rollercoaster, terrifying but also thrilling.

By fifth grade, though, I stood on the podium at Brooklyn鈥檚 P.S. 69 Vincent D. Grippo School and gave a valedictory speech. Somewhere along the way, the naive village boy had become an industrious student in the big city. I couldn鈥檛 grasp how rapidly my life had been transformed.

Now, about a decade after leaving China and returning to New York, I鈥檓 a student at Staten Island Tech, one of a handful of elite specialized high schools in New York City. Sometimes I wonder: Does my success mean that my parents鈥� hard work has finally paid off? Does it mean they are proud of me?

I feel constant pressure to succeed. Not for my peers, not for my teachers, and not even for myself, but for my parents, who still work humble, low-wage jobs. This pressure doesn鈥檛 come from them, who urge me to 鈥渄o what makes you happy,鈥� but rather from within. Sometimes, the very opportunities that are supposed to liberate me feel more like a burden.

I know I鈥檓 not the only one who feels this way. Many experience this overwhelm. For us, the American Dream can feel like a our parents.

When I first returned to America, I didn鈥檛 even know what the American Dream was. I soon came to understand it to be the idea that if you work hard, you can succeed. I know now that it鈥檚 not that simple, that factors such as personal and professional networks, perseverance, health, and luck also play a role. Still, I always tell myself that I could be working a little harder, like when I finish taking a test and feel pessimistic about the outcome, despite having studied so hard.

The pressure could be something I, along with , navigate our whole lives. We learn to coexist with it. Success in high school and beyond feels like a given. And working in a field that doesn鈥檛 pay well or waiting for the perfect job isn鈥檛 really an option because we want to provide lives of comfort for our parents, who never lived such lives.

I feel the weight of it all because, deep down, I know that I am a big part of my parents鈥� American Dream.

Ocean Lin, a member of Chalkbeat鈥檚 2024-25 class, is a high school junior who wants to pursue a career in chemistry. He hopes to make a difference and share authentic stories. Ocean started the Instagram poetry account Tide Tales to give marginalized groups a platform for creative self-expression.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at .

Each of the Cornell College instructors injured in a stabbing during their teaching trip to Jilin City, China are back with family or moving forward from the incident, the college said in a statement Tuesday.

Cornell College President Jonathan Brand said in the update to campus that all four of the instructors have either been reunited with family members or are continuing with their summer travel plans after being injured in a 鈥渟erious incident鈥� in a public park in the city last week.

People and organizations both in the U.S. and China aided in getting the instructors the care they needed, Brand said. He said he has been reminded through this time about how the 鈥渆xtended Cornell College community鈥� cares for each other.

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鈥淲e appreciate the support from our colleagues at Beihua University, and we have thanked our state and federal legislators as well as the Department of State for their efforts to assist our instructors and their families,鈥� Brand said in the statement.

The instructors were teaching at as part of a partnership with Cornell College. The June 10 incident occurred while the instructors were visiting a park near the university, accompanied by a colleague from Beihua. A man bumped into one of them, according to Jilin City police. The suspect, who police apprehended and identified as a 55-year-old with the surname Ciu, then allegedly stabbed that individual and the three other instructors.

One of the instructors involved in the incident was David Zabner, state Rep. Adam Zabner鈥檚 brother. A Ph.D. candidate at Tufts University, David Zabner was in Jilin City as part of the partnership between Beihua University and Cornell College when he was wounded in the arm during the incident. The names of the other instructors have not been released.

According to Adam Zabner鈥檚 , his brother returned to Iowa late last week. The representative said in a statement that the U.S. State Department and U.S. Consulate in Shenyang were helpful during David Zabner鈥檚 treatment and in efforts to bring him home, as well as the offices of Vice President Kamala Harris, Sen. Chuck Grassley and U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

Cornell College has partnered with Beihua University since 2018 to bring instructors from Mount Vernon to Jilin City to teach at the university for two-week periods.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com. Follow Iowa Capital Dispatch on and .

A U.S.-based tutoring company on Tuesday pushed back against a conservative campaign to 鈥渄estroy鈥� it due to security fears over its Chinese owner.

In a posted online, said the parents鈥� rights group in recent months has misrepresented its operations, falsely claiming it has ties to the Chinese government. The company, based in New York, said the parents鈥� group is trying to persuade lawmakers and others that Tutor.com 鈥渋s somehow a puppet of the Chinese government and a threat to national security,鈥� according to the letter. 

Founded two decades ago, Tutor.com was acquired in 2022 by , a Beijing-based investment firm in Hong Kong, Singapore and Palo Alto, Calif. In the letter to attorneys representing Parents Defending Education, the company said the parents鈥� group has chosen to portray Tutor.com 鈥渁s a stalking horse to advance the advocacy group鈥檚 broader political agenda.鈥�

The effort by Parents Defending Education both echoes and influences a larger one by lawmakers nationwide to raise security concerns about companies linked to China, including fears that they could be compelled to share student data with the Chinese government.

But John Calvello, Tutor.com鈥檚 spokesperson and chief institutional officer, said the fears are misplaced.

鈥淔irst and foremost, it’s important to say: We are an American company,鈥� he said in an interview. 鈥淚 want to be very clear about that. And again, as an American company, you have to abide by all U.S laws and regulations.鈥�

Tutor.com, Calvello said, 鈥渃annot be compelled to share data鈥� with anyone.

He noted that it had recently undergone a voluntary review by the federal , which found, in his words, 鈥渘o unresolved national security concerns.鈥�

He also said the company has a designated security officer approved by the U.S. government to ensure data security compliance. And he said all of Tutor.com鈥檚 data is housed in the United States. 

According to the watchdog site , states, school districts, colleges and even the Pentagon have spent more than $35 million on contracts with Tutor.com over the past decade. Among the largest: nearly $1.6 million in 2015 for online homework tutoring for the U.S. Defense Department and $1.1 million in 2022 for tutoring at California State East Bay.

Following the pandemic, state and school district spending on Tutor.com, as with other tutoring providers, skyrocketed. In December, the New Hampshire Department of Education said it would through Tutor.com to every student in fourth- through twelfth grades, as well as to those prepping for GED exams. 

But many lawmakers have also sought to minimize China鈥檚 influence in both K-12 and higher education.

After Congress in 2018 targeted the nearly 100 Confucius Institutes on U.S. college campuses, restricting federal funding at schools with programs, their number dropped to fewer than five, according to a 2023 U.S. Government Accountability Office . 

In 2024, lawmakers are seeking to ban TikTok due to the social media application鈥檚 Chinese ownership. Primavera is a minority investor in ByteDance, TikTok鈥檚 parent company. ByteDance also owns the AI-powered homework helper .

But Tutor.com has been the subject of much of the scrutiny around student data. In February, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, Lloyd Austin, saying the Pentagon鈥檚 relationship with Tutor.com is 鈥渋ll-advised, reckless, and a danger to U.S. national security.鈥�

Cotton said the Pentagon should end its dealings with the company, suggesting that students鈥� personal data, such as location, IP addresses and the contents of tutoring sessions, could be released to the Chinese government. He said the U.S. is 鈥減aying to expose our military and their children鈥檚 private information to the Chinese Communist Party.鈥�

In March, Manny Diaz, Jr., Florida鈥檚 commissioner of education, to public K-12 and higher education leaders statewide, saying Tutor.com鈥檚 ties to 鈥渇oreign countries of concern鈥� may compromise student data privacy. Diaz said the State Board of Education had adopted rules to protect student data 鈥渢o keep it out of the hands of bad actors,鈥� adding that school districts, charter schools and state colleges 鈥渕ust take the necessary steps to protect their students from nefarious foreign actors such as the Chinese Communist Party.鈥�

And last month, 13 lawmakers, led by U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Michigan, to U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, saying Tutor.com 鈥減oses a significant national security threat.鈥� They asked what measures the department had taken to assess 鈥渢he potential national security risks associated with Tutor.com’s relationship.鈥�

A spokesperson for Cardona did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Neily recently that Tutor.com鈥檚 Chinese ties are 鈥渟omething that just seemed to have slipped past the goalies.鈥�

During a segment on the company, the show鈥檚 host alleged that providers like Tutor.com can gather data from even the youngest students and 鈥渁dapt what they need to teach these kids to make sure they’re good, functional little robots.鈥� He asked Neily, 鈥淚s that the plan?鈥� 

She replied, 鈥淭hat very much seems to be the plan,鈥� adding, 鈥淟et’s be honest, this data is not being secured by America’s best and brightest.鈥�

Neily did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tutor.com鈥檚 Calvello said much of the alarm around the company鈥檚 Chinese ties stems from the parents鈥� group, which he said has been 鈥減romoting falsehoods鈥� that lawmakers and others have amplified. As a result, he said, a few school districts have been under pressure to drop the service, with critics quoting the parents鈥� group鈥檚 materials. 

鈥淲e’re prepared to pursue legal avenues to protect our reputation and operations from false claims,鈥� he said.

I wondered how countries outside the U.S. are dealing with these shockwaves, how they are employing AI more broadly to improve education and what lessons American schools can learn from their approaches.

I found that other developed countries share concerns about students cheating but are moving quickly to use AI to personalize education, enhance language lessons and help teachers with mundane tasks, such as grading. Some of these countries are in the early stages of training teachers to use AI and developing curriculum standards for what students should know and be able to do with the technology.

Several countries began positioning themselves several years ago to invest in AI in education in order to compete in the fourth industrial revolution. 

厂颈苍驳补辫辞谤别鈥檚 鈥淪mart Nation鈥� , for example, aims to position the country as a world leader in AI by 2030 by bringing together researchers, government and industry. One goal is to help teachers better customize and improve education for every student, particularly those with special needs. An AI-enabled will provide customized feedback and motivation to students, automated grading and machine learning systems to identify how each student responds to classroom materials and activities.

One of the most promising applications of generative AI in education is the ability to tailor learning to individual students’ needs, and there is a clear trend toward customization in other countries鈥� educational strategies. 

South Korea has implemented AI-based systems to adapt homework and assignments based on students鈥� educational levels and 鈥�.鈥� Each child will have a personalized AI tutor and access to an online learning platform, allowing teachers to focus on social-emotional and hands-on lessons. The minister of education says these changes are necessary to allow public schools, which currently emphasize memorization, to provide the same type of personalized and deeper learning that private schools offer. He foresees a future where assessments happen throughout the normal course of daily assignments rather than in an end-of-course exam. 

In India, ed tech company uses AI to clarify complex math and science concepts. Students can use a smartphone to scan a passage from a textbook, and the app uses 3-D imagery to help with visualization. AI is also being used in India to predict student performance, enabling early intervention. 

Countries are also investing heavily in AI teacher preparation programs and national curricular requirements. Singapore recently announced a national initiative to build AI literacy among students and teachers to ensure they understand the risks and benefits of the technology. By 2026, training on AI in education for teachers at all levels, including those in training.

South Korea is investing heavily in . By 2025, the country aims to have AI coursework in its national curriculum across all grade levels, starting with high school. The Korean ministry of education鈥檚 unit is designing and piloting extensive teacher development around AI and other technologies. The ministry鈥檚 Center provides model classrooms where visitors can experience the use of advanced technologies in education. 

Finland, long admired for its high-quality education system and teacher-centric system, has embraced AI with a bold national commitment to educate its citizens with free online coursework. Roughly half of schools use the platform to give students and teachers immediate feedback and analytics on student assignments.

In China, the government has 鈥� via tax breaks and other incentives 鈥� in tools, such as the adaptive tutoring platform AI, which rely on large-scale data sets and camera surveillance. Most of these products focus heavily on improving performance on standardized tests, so students whose families can afford it get ahead. In countries like China, ethics, equitable access, privacy and other concerns are not high priorities, however.

In contrast, Finland鈥檚 , a collaboration among a multi-disciplinary group of international researchers and companies, aims to promote equity and quality of learning locally and globally. The project has produced a number of on the of AI in education and on how these technologies can improve teaching and learning. Its members are designing and testing an intelligent digital system that assesses student wellness and feeds back insights to students and educators.

Evidence matters a lot right now, and many of these countries are investing in research to inform the effective use of new tools as well as to guide regulatory efforts. A research center, , hosted by AI Singapore and funded by the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office, works with the Ministry of Education to launch projects that will improve the education system. As part of a five-year plan called AI@NIE, 厂颈苍驳补辫辞谤别鈥檚 National Institute of Education will invest in research and innovation to use artificial intelligence for education.

Early guidelines are in the works, in the U.S., but they are coming late. Though the Department of Education recently released a strong , and the American Federation of Teachers put out an , the European Union issued guidelines two years ago and recently updated their proposed . Japan recently released and has selected a number of schools to pilot them as the government weighs which regulations make most sense.

The U.S. government could start by adding considerations for the use of AI to its , such as how states and districts should best minimize risks and maximize opportunities. Providing direction about how best to prepare teachers and students for the coming tsunami would help connect the dots to a broader strategy to make U.S. students prepared and competitive in the AI economy. 

The push other countries are making toward radically customized education is also one the U.S. should take seriously. Too many education policy people dismiss personalized learning as a remnant of a effort in the early 2000s, but other countries see that high-quality curriculum can be leveraged by AI in revolutionary ways and can be tailored in real time to a student鈥檚 particular level. 

It鈥檚 time to up our game on this front and embrace AI-enabled personalized learning like , in part by investing in a national research agenda in partnership with companies to learn whether and how AI can accelerate learning. Finally, we owe it to teachers and districts to offer a comprehensive AI training program ASAP. This is too important a support to be left to schools, districts or even states to figure out. 

As the U.S. continues to explore the potential of generative artificial intelligence in education, the federal government and states must accelerate efforts to compete and thrive in an AI-powered world. It will also behoove education leaders, researchers and technology developers, however, to collaborate and share best practices and policies to unlock new frontiers in education and equip students with the skills and knowledge needed for success in an increasingly complex world.

The day I found out my grandfather died, I cried so hard I threw up. Two days later, I went back to school.

I walked through the front doors holding back tears. It wasn鈥檛 that I felt uncomfortable crying in public. I just wanted to avoid combining a mask with a runny nose.

First period went by without a hitch. Second period was on track to end the same way until I decided to verbally respond to an email from my history teacher. At the time, my school had a hybrid schedule with three rotating groups. For example, if Cohort A was in school on Monday, Cohorts B and C would do school virtually.

The night before coming into school that day, I’d sent my teacher a message. The email read: 鈥淗i Mrs. Hollman, yesterday after school, I found out that my grandfather had passed away. I just wanted to let you know in case I ever started crying during class. I’m trying my best to hold myself together, but I just can’t help it.鈥�

She responded: 鈥淪o sorry to hear that. It sounds like you were close. How old was he? When’s the funeral? If you need to turn off your camera or step off Zoom any time I understand.鈥� Two simple questions, and yet I couldn鈥檛 send a reply. Looking back, I realize that I waited because the grief trapped in my body had nowhere to go.

Why? That鈥檚 a long story. It makes me think about how hard the isolation of the pandemic has been on kids my age, particularly those who had previously battled loneliness and depression.

When I was born, my parents lived in a tiny apartment in Brooklyn. They wanted to move to the suburbs to raise their family but hadn鈥檛 saved up enough money. With only my dad working (and my mom staying at home to take care of me), my parents eventually decided to send me to China to live with my grandparents. By the time my parents finally bought a house in the suburbs, I was five years old. At the time, moving back to the United States was an unwelcome and drastic change. I didn鈥檛 understand a word of English, and my grandparents were all I knew. They took me to the park, cooked my favorite meals, and tucked me in at night.

For as long as I knew him, my grandfather had a nicotine addiction. He started smoking cigarettes at fourteen, and the problem only worsened as he got older. By the time he reached his sixties, he could not walk up a flight of stairs without heaving. He never had cigarettes in his pockets, but it was hard not to notice the smell. During my stay in China, I followed him everywhere to make sure he didn鈥檛 smoke. I even spied on him from behind curtains. Once, I caught him hiding a cigarette on the ledge of the stone wall that surrounded the house. After he walked away, I rushed out and stood on my tippy toes, feeling for the cigarette along the length of the wall. When I found it, I ripped it in half, emptied out the contents, and left it there for my grandfather to find.

I did annoying things like that a lot, but my grandfather never raised his voice at me or told me to leave him alone. He鈥檇 just chuckle and call me a 鈥渂ad egg.鈥�

Unlike my relationship with my grandfather, the one I share with my parents has always been tense. My parents are what you might consider 鈥渢ypical immigrants.鈥� They鈥檙e Chinese nationals who left in their early twenties to pursue a better life for themselves and their future children. For them, discussing mental or emotional health has never been easy or necessary. When you grow up splitting a single egg with your siblings, there is no time for 鈥渇eeling blue.鈥�

Whenever I struggled with difficult emotions, my parents did as well. Loneliness was met with anger, sadness with dismissiveness, fear with biting words. I have never felt comfortable speaking to my parents about my emotional or mental wellbeing, and only do so when I want to feel worse than I already do. In other words, never. It doesn鈥檛 help that my parents are barely home: They leave for work hours before school ends and come home minutes before I鈥檓 about to fall asleep. I know that owning and operating a restaurant isn鈥檛 easy, but I wish I had time to say more than 鈥済ood morning鈥� and 鈥済ood night.鈥�

My brother isn鈥檛 exactly someone I can confide in either. He鈥檚 five years younger than I am, and didn鈥檛 have the same close relationship with our grandfather. To him, grandpa was some old guy who lived on the other side of the world. I didn鈥檛 know how to explain to him, or any of my friends, that knowing grandpa isn鈥檛 somewhere on earth felt like a part of me was being violently ripped away. So I stayed silent, isolated, unsure of how to cope.

At the end of second period, once all the students left, I turned to Mrs. Hollman and said, 鈥淗e was about to be eighty.鈥� I remember tightly clenching my hands, digging my nails into my palm. But once the first tear broke free, the rest followed in an unbroken stream. I then blubbered out everything I had been holding in. I finally had someone to listen to all the words I wanted to say. I don鈥檛 remember exactly what Mrs. Hollman said. No quantity or quality of words could ease the pain, but that鈥檚 okay. At least she listened.

After arriving at my next class, I quickly asked to go to the bathroom so I could clean myself up. Luckily, I was the only person in there 鈥� awkward stares and questions avoided. I blew my nose, wiped my mask, put it back on, and tried all the .

I have these memorized because in freshman year, when my depression and anxiety were unmanageable, I鈥檇 often randomly burst into tears. I think every one of my teachers from ninth grade saw me cry at least once.

The first time I acknowledged my mental health problems was with my eighth grade English teacher. A toxic friendship, low self-esteem, and persistent feelings of failure made me wish I could stop waking up in the morning 鈥� at the age of fourteen. In school, I would stare at a wall without noticing that an entire period had gone by.

My English teacher at the time, Mrs. Doane, noticed my odd behavior and pulled me aside after class one day to ask whether I was okay. The answer was no, but that鈥檚 not what I said. Mrs. Doane didn鈥檛 believe me, and I鈥檓 glad she didn鈥檛. By continuing to use the power of, 鈥淗ow are you?鈥� she gradually got me to open up. And through our conversations, I learned that I needed professional help.

It took me three years of consistent, agonizing steps in the right direction 鈥� steps so microscopic that they didn鈥檛 seem to exist at all鈥� before I finally felt I was meant to live.

Death from COVID-19 complications isn鈥檛 something most students have to worry about. But the consequences of pandemic-induced social isolation shouldn鈥檛 be underestimated. A surge of in Clark County, Nevada, convinced district officials that schools need to reopen as quickly as possible. from the Centers for Disease Control found that emergency room visits for suspected suicide attempts among teens increased 31 percent last year compared to 2019; for teen girls, the attempts were over 50 percent higher.

Reaching out to students struggling with depression may seem next to impossible when teachers and administrators have so much to deal with as a result of the pandemic. But I know I wouldn鈥檛 have made it this far without my teachers.

Students certainly need additional help. I have an idea about how technology can be used to open a new frontier in mental health support. Students, with the help of their guidance counselors, could launch peer-support video conferences. Although these conferences wouldn’t replace professional counseling, they could help students cope. Any time during lunch or even after school, a student who is struggling could join such a group and talk with a fellow student who is there to empathize, ask questions 鈥� and most importantly 鈥� to listen.

It鈥檚 been five months since my grandfather passed. Things have gotten better. Sometimes an entire day passes where I don鈥檛 think of him at all. But on the days that I do, I feel a deep sense of longing that nothing can alleviate.

I鈥檒l be a senior next year, so I鈥檝e started looking at colleges, thinking about prospective majors and planning my future. But although life goes on, I鈥檇 give anything to call my grandfather again and tell him one more time to stop smoking.

Cindy Chen is a junior at James Caldwell High School in Caldwell, New Jersey.

鈥淧andemic Notebook鈥� is an ongoing collection of first-person, student-written articles about what it is like to live through the coronavirus pandemic. Have an idea? Please contact Executive Editor Andrew Brownstein at Andrew@The74million.org.