More than five years ago, COVID-19 shut down most of the world’s in-person processes. Bucks classes migrated online, and student clubs went on hiatus, all except one: The Centurion newspaper, led by the Editor-in-Chief at the time, Alyssa Moore, never stopped meeting deadlines despite worldwide isolation.

It was at the end of Moore’s first year at Bucks in the Spring of 2020 when students were dismissed for a break that would seemingly never end, leaving the campus almost entirely deserted.

“I knew how to put the paper together, but I didn’t have access to any of the notes of how to do everything since they were kept on campus,” Moore said.

However, the abrupt change in routine didn’t stop Moore from producing the newspaper.

Working together with the journalism students who continued at Bucks during this time, The Centurion never lost a beat. “So many clubs had to stop, but we were able to keep going,” Moore said.

“Some of the editions were pretty skimpy, but we were always able to put something out,” Moore said.

COVID-19 was a truly independent time for the students; for the vast majority, it was their introduction to online courses, and meant getting accustomed to the loss of the in-person interactions they were used to on campus.

Being stuck at home, many students didn’t know what to do besides spending more time in bed.

Moore was grateful to have The Centurion to run. “It kept me entertained and doing something during that time when we were all stuck at home,” she said.

With new editions due every two weeks, the pandemic taught Moore “the importance of deadlines, and shockingly, we never missed a single one,” she said. A great feat when navigating somewhat unfamiliar software with a small number of writers.

When the pandemic was about to come to an end, Moore’s final semester was nearing completion as well.

Moore said working on The Centurion “was almost like a dream, like it never happened. There was no final meeting or anything; it was just over. I never got the closure,” Moore said.

The final time Moore was on the Bucks’ campus was for graduation, which was held while social distancing in the parking lot with around 100 students.

After her time at Bucks, Moore graduated from Temple University after continuing to study journalism and now works with the Bucks County Courts.

Tony Rogers, the faculty advisor for The Centurion, reflected on that time of uncertainty with pride in his students’ work ethic.

“With the pandemic, we were in uncharted waters. But I knew the students, particularly Alyssa, were capable of producing the newspaper,” Rogers said.

With a gut feeling that if Moore said she’d keep the paper going, she would, Rogers trusted her word. Moore met every deadline, and with all the staff, created an iconic cover for The Centurion’s Volume 56 Issue 9 issue that walked through each major milestone of the pandemic.

“It was one of my proudest moments in my 29 years of teaching at Bucks,” Rogers said.

Rogers said he believes, “It’s the journalists who are rushing into the eye of the hurricane when everyone else is running away,” and it’s their job to cover unprecedented news like COVID-19.

“In a sense, that’s what Alyssa and the other Centurion staffers did,” Rogers said, reflecting on a student who worked as a stocker in a grocery store during the pandemic and saw the effects of it first-hand as co-workers became ill.

The COVID-19 pandemic never stopped The Centurion’s staff, even during the darkest days. Rogers continues to be proud of his students for all their efforts in creating the paper as “the Centurion just kept going, which is what news organizations are supposed to do,” he said.

He continued, “The Centurion, like any other student newspaper, is a place for young people to train to become professional journalists. That was its purpose then and its purpose now.”