In September, Class of 2020 Westborough High Alum Corina Gencarelli went on to further her education becoming a Ram at the University of Rhode Island.

“The campus is beautiful, the location is so close to the beach, and I have a lot of family there,” remarks Gencarelli

She shares that this college experience is very different from what she expected but is still enjoying it.

URI has put in place many safety regulations that are keeping the students safe. Some of these safety precautions include: masks worn everywhere except dorms, only one visitor in your dorm (and they have to be from your dorm), sick students with covid are sent to an isolation spot at a hotel nearby, social distancing during in-person classes, daily self-assessment form to track symptoms, and free testing.

Gencarelli feels the campus seems empty most of the time with people only outside to go grab food or taking a walk.

She says, “The university has done a great job providing different covid friendly activities for students.”

URI is hosting movie nights on the football field, providing food trucks that come to the Quad, stuffing a stuffed animal ram (Gencarelli’s favorite activity), and offering outdoor workout classes; all of these things make college life feel a little more normal.

Gencarelli is majoring in marketing and she take all of her classes in person except two of them. She is loving all her classes and believes that “you definitely need to have a lot more organization and time management than you did in high school.”

She says she misses how helpful and involved the teachers were with their students at WHS, but she is liking college a lot more because of the amount of freedom and responsibility.

She is loving the campus and the community but not enjoying the food. There are two dining halls, the lines get very long, and the food is not good.

“I know many kids including me are having stomach issues as a result of it,” Gencarelli says.
Gencarelli tends to go to the Corner Store or RamsDen which are other options for food that she enjoys more.

Due to covid, URI has decided to change their forced triple dorm rooms into singles or doubles. They have also spread out all the freshman students into different dorms. Gencarelli chose to go random and got a double with a girl Abby who she has become close with already. She does not enjoy her dorm because they are the worst dorms due to their size and that they are the oldest dorms on campus.

To get involved with the campus, Gencarelli decided to join a sorority. She recently went through the whole recruitment process, which is online this year and was able to get into Zeta Tau Alpha. She chose to be in a sorority for volunteer opportunities and to meet new people. At URI, Greek life is said to be a large part of the campus.

“Due to covid, it has been challenging to meet new people and have a normal college experience, but so far I am having a great time and cant wait for the years to come,” Gencarelli shares.