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How students are returning to school during newest COVID-19 surge

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — In a hodgepodge of in-person, remote and delayed reopenings, millions of students across the country are set to head back to school after several weeks on winter break.

School districts in every state are using a variety of approaches and precautions to determine the best way to keep children and staffers safe amid the nation’s latest, and most significant, COVID-19 surge on record.

The return to school comes as the hospital admission rate among children has hit its highest point of the pandemic. Pediatric case rates are also approaching record highs.

During an appearance on ABC News’ This Week on Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci told George Stephanopoulos that even with the surge, he is still in support of keeping kids in school as much as possible.

“I plead with parents to please seriously consider vaccinating your children, wearing masks in the school setting, doing test-to-stay approaches when children get infected,” Fauci said. “I think all those things put together, it’s safe enough to get those kids back to school, balanced against the deleterious effects of keeping them out.”

Many districts in major cities across the country are forging ahead with reopening plans, with some requiring face masks or testing of students and staff ahead of the return as an additional precaution. However, dozens of other districts — including in Ohio, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan — are beginning the spring term remotely.

Atlanta

Citing a rapid surge in infections locally, Atlanta Public Schools will open virtually Tuesday for all students and all staff. The city plans to reopen in-person instruction on Jan. 10, according to the school district’s public guidance.

All staff are required to report to work on Monday, Jan. 3 for mandatory COVID-19 surveillance testing.

Boston

Students in Boston will return to the classroom Tuesday as the district rolls out its share of the state-supplied rapid COVID-19 tests.

Over the weekend, members of the Massachusetts National Guard began delivering 227,000 rapid COVID-19 tests to school districts across the state, to be used for teachers and staff.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius announced Monday that so far, 155 teachers and school staffers have reported positive COVID-19 tests.

Chicago

In Chicago, students returned to class Monday, according to the school district’s public guidance.

Testing is only mandatory for unvaccinated students who traveled to an “orange” state, per the city’s travel guidance, which now includes every state except Montana.

Unvaccinated students who are close contacts of a known COVID-19 case must stay home and quarantine for 10 days. Vaccinated students who are close contacts can attend school as long as they are not experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms.

The district also distributed 150,000 take-home test kits to schools to support the return.

Cleveland

Citing a “significant rise in COVID-19 cases in the community,” the Cleveland Metropolitan School District will move to remote learning for the week of Jan. 3.

Following a professional day for staff, students will log on and follow their class schedules Tuesday through Friday.

Detroit

The spring semester in Detroit will not begin until later this week at the earliest.

Employees will be required to take a COVID-19 test on Monday and Tuesday through the district, according to the school district’s public guidance. All students are also encouraged to take a test through the district this week.

The district said it cannot begin the semester online, due to the fact that not all of its students have laptops.

School officials said they expect to announce plans for Thursday and Friday on Wednesday afternoon or evening.

Los Angeles

Staff in all Los Angeles County schools are required to wear upgraded masks — surgical mask or higher-level PPE, according to the district’s latest guidance. Students are “strongly recommended” to wear well-fitted masks.

The district is also strongly recommending that all eligible staff and students receive a booster shot.

COVID-19 testing is required for all close contacts who are permitted to remain in school immediately after exposure, regardless of vaccination or booster status.

Miami

All staff will be required to wear face masks inside any Miami-Dade County Public School facility. Students are not required to wear face coverings, but masks are “highly encouraged.”

Protocols for the enhanced sanitization and cleaning of classrooms and common areas, which were implemented at the beginning of the pandemic, will continue, according to the district.

New York City

Beginning Monday, schools in New York City will distribute take-home COVID-19 tests to any student or staff who exhibits COVID-19 symptoms or has been potentially exposed in a classroom where a positive case has been identified.

“The numbers of transmissions are low; your children is in a safe space to learn and continue to thrive. We’ve lost almost two years of education … we can’t do it again,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams told Stephanopoulos on This Week.

Unvaccinated or not yet fully vaccinated students in kindergarten through grade 12 who were in close contact to a positive COVID-19 case will no longer have to quarantine, as long as they do not have symptoms and do not have a positive COVID-19 test.

Following an exposure, all students and adults will receive a take-home rapid test kit and take two tests over the course of five days. For students in 3-K and pre-K, the quarantine policy will remain the same, meaning students who were in close proximity to a positive case will still have to quarantine for 10 days.

Newark

Newark Public Schools began the semester Monday with remote instruction to continue through Jan. 14. The school anticipates a return to in-person instruction on Jan. 18.

Seattle

In-person school in Seattle is set to resume on Tuesday. COVID-19 testing is available Monday for students and staff.

Washington, D.C.

Last month, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that D.C. public schools would require all students and staff to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test result before returning to school on Thursday.

Schools were closed on Monday due to inclement weather faced by the district.

The district will make free rapid antigen tests available on Tuesday and Wednesday. DCPS families will need to upload their child’s negative test results.

Mom pays off $72K in student loan, credit card debt using these tips

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Mom pays off K in student loan, credit card debt using these tips

(SAN DIEGO) — A California mom is entering 2022 debt-free after paying off more than $70,000 in student loan and credit card debt.

Amanda Courtney, 36, of San Diego, said she began falling into debt as soon as she entered college, nearly two decades ago.

“There was no way for me to go to college without taking out student loans, so I knew as I was applying for colleges that I was going to have to take out loans,” Courtney told Good Morning America. “I was kind of like, well, everyone takes out student loans, right? It’s fine.”

Courtney said she took out $15,000 in loans for her freshman year of college, and then also got into credit card debt when, at 18, she got a credit card without learning about how to budget and make her payments.

Over the next few years, Courtney said she transferred to two different colleges, including at one point living back at home and attending a community college, to try to lower her student loan debt.

When she graduated from college in 2008, the U.S. was in the midst of a financial crisis and Courtney said she could not find a job. Without a job, she could also not afford to pay off her student loans, she said.

“I continued to enroll in school just so I could defer my student loans because I couldn’t afford to make the minimum payments, all while continuing to accrue more credit card debt,” she said. “And I just fell deeper and deeper into debt.”

At age 25, Courtney, who now works as an administrative assistant at a San Diego high school, got a job working in education that allowed her to start to pay off her debt, but only with the minimum payments each month. She said she quickly learned that though she had deferred making payments on her student loans by taking low-cost community college classes for several years, the interest on her debt had continued to add up.

“I was deferring my loans, but I wasn’t deferring the interest, so though I was deferring making those payments, I was adding to my balance,” she said. “I didn’t have the financial literacy to understand what I was doing and the full implications of what I was doing.”

Courtney said that because federal loans and grants did not cover her full college tuition, she got a loan through a private loan company that carried what she described as an “insane interest rate.”

In the United States, Americans owe nearly $1.8 trillion in student loans, according to the Federal Reserve.

Coming from a family that did not discuss finances or budgeting, Courtney said she “truly did not know” what she was getting herself into when she signed up for student loans.

“I didn’t understand the economics of it and the commitment of it,” she said. “I think I just had this false sense of security that I’m working and I’m going to get a degree and then I’m going to have a job that can pay off the debt so it won’t be a big problem.”

“Then reality hits and you realize that’s not how any of this works and my $15,000 in loans very quickly becomes $30,000,” she said.

Things started to change for Courtney when she started dating her now-husband and they had conversations about their finances.

“I, very innocently, early in our relationship, was like so, ‘How much debt do you have?,'” she recalled. “He looked at me very plainly and said, ‘I don’t have any debt. How much do you have?'”

Courtney said she made a decision in that moment to be honest about her financial woes, and her now-husband worked with her to build a budget, the first time Courtney had done that in her life.

“I truly lived with this mindset that everybody lives with debt. Everybody has student loan debt. Everybody has credit card debt,” she said. “Having had that conversation with my now-husband, I started to think of money differently.”

With that foundation in place, Courtney spent the next nearly eight years paying off $50,000 in student loan debt and $12,000 in credit card debt.

She made her final student loan payment in September 2021.

“It took that long because I did it while still living my life,” said Courtney, who got married and gave birth to her first child and was at one point the sole income earner for her family in those eight years. “We built things into the budget so I felt this freedom to still live my life.”

Here are Courtney’s three tips for paying off debt.

1. Create a budget that works for you.

“The first thing you have to do is you have to be honest with yourself,” said Courtney. “So for me, that meant pulling out all of my credit card statements and all of my student loan balances, and really looking at where I was at, and making a plan.”

Courtney works on what she calls a zero-balance budget, which means that she directs each dollar in her paycheck to a specific location.

“Every month, a week before payday, I can actually view my paycheck, so on that day, I rebuild my budget every single month,” she said. “I look at what I have coming in versus what I have going out and I tell every dollar where to go.”

Courtney said she made sure that even while she was focused on paying off her debt, she allowed herself to continue to live her life.

“I was honest with myself, and I made a plan, but I made a realistic plan,” she said. “You have to allow yourself to go to that lunch celebration with friends. You have to allow yourself to buy yourself a new top every now and again.”

Courtney loves to travel, for example, so she created a special travel savings account that she directed money to each month. She said this allowed her to still travel while being financially responsible.

“If I want to go somewhere, I look at do I have enough in that travel account to go,” she said. “If I don’t, then I don’t get to go.”

2. Consolidate your loans, if possible.

A few years into her debt-paying journey, Courtney said she was able to consolidate her loans into one payment, which made it easier for her to track and pay off the loans.

“That was so freeing,” she said.

The U.S. Department of Education offers a Direct Consolidation loan with no fee.

3. Plan ahead instead of trying to catch up.

Courtney said she kept herself within her budget by learning to plan ahead for major events, like birthdays and holidays and vacations, instead of putting those expenses on credit cards.

“Whereas I always wanted to treat the holidays as an emergency and put it on my credit card and just make it rain in various stores, all of a sudden it was like, ‘Oh, I should be putting away money every month to get there and then look at what I have at the end of the year and look at what I can afford to do for people,'” she said. “One of the years, during my debt payoff, I made all of my Christmas presents for my friends and family.”

“I still felt like I got to give gifts, but I did so within my means,” she said.

4. Focus on small benchmarks at first.

Courtney said she at first focused on paying off her credit card with the lowest balance as a way to feel like she was making progress.

“I continued to make minimum payments on my other [credit cards], but I really focused on that one because I wanted to feel accomplished,” she said. “And when I paid off that first credit card, I remember, it felt so good.”

“It started to feel like, oh, I can do this I can make headway,” Courtney recalled. “Just with every little benchmark, it felt so great and so exciting.”

Kanye West working on sequel to ’Donda’ album

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Less than six months after the release of Donda, Kanye West is apparently already hard at work on a sequel.

Steven Victor, the chief operating officer at G.O.O.D. Music and the SVP of A&R at Universal Music Group, told Complex, “Ye has started working on his new masterpiece, DONDA 2.”

If the project comes to fruition it would be the eleventh studio album from the Chicago native and the first sequel album in his discography.

Ye released DONDA in August 2021 after a host of setbacks and delays, with a deluxe version featuring five new songs released just three months later in November.

COVID live updates: US reports 1 million new daily COVID cases

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 827,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

About 62% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Jan 04, 6:36 am
US reports 1 million new daily COVID cases

More than 1 million new COVID-19 cases were reported in the United States on Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The 1,082,549 new infections were about double last week’s record daily cases, according to the university’s data. It was unclear whether the newly reported cases included backlogs from holiday testing.

The US recorded 1,688 deaths related to COVID-19 on Monday, below the record high of 4,442, set on Jan. 20, 2021, according to the university’s data.

Jan 04, 6:32 am
US reports record 325,000 new pediatric COVID infections last week

A record 325,000 children tested positive for COVID-19 last week amid the nation’s most significant COVID-19 infection surge yet, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

Children accounted for about 17.4% of last week’s reported COVID-19 cases, down from previous weeks, when children accounted for more than a quarter of all new cases.

A total of nearly 7.9 million children have tested positive for the virus, since the onset of the pandemic.

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Jan 03, 4:02 pm
New York looking into COVID-19 hospitalizations that began for other reasons

New York’s hospitals will be required to report a breakdown of how many COVID-19 patients were admitted due to the coronavirus and how many were admitted for other needs and only discovered they were infected during their stays.

During a COVID-19 briefing on Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul cited anecdotal reports of as many as 50% of patients at some hospitals testing positive for the virus who were actually admitted for other reasons, such as car accidents.

“I just want to always be honest with New Yorkers about how bad this is,” Hochul said. “Yes, the sheer number of people infected are high, but I want to see whether or not the hospitalizations correlate with that.”

She continued, “And I’m anticipating to see that at least a certain percentage overall are not being treated for COVID.”

Hospitals will begin reporting their breakdowns Tuesday, but it’s unclear how soon the data will be publicly available.

-ABC News’ Joshua Hoyos and Will McDuffie

Jan 03, 3:11 pm
Surgeon general warns next few weeks ‘will be tough’

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy warned that COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations will continue to increase as the omicron variant rapidly spreads across the country.

“The next few weeks are going to be tough for us,” he told ABC’s “The View” on Monday. “We’re already seeing record levels of cases, and we’re seeing hospitalizations starting to tick up. We’re seeing some of our hospital systems getting strained at this point.”

Information from South Africa and the United Kingdom indicates omicron could be less severe than previous COVID-19 variants, Murthy said.

“We’re still going to see a lot of people get sick and a lot of hospitalizations, but the overall severity may end up being significantly lower,” he said.

Murthy said both South Africa and the U.K. “had a very rapid rise, but then they had a very steep fall” in cases

“I’m hoping that that’s what happens here too,” he added.

-ABC News’ Joanne Rosa

Biden administration reimposes ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Biden administration officials further outlined a plan for the implementation of the “MPP” or “Remain in Mexico” policy on a conference call with reporters Monday while underscoring a commitment to ending the program and describing safeguards designed to improve conditions for asylum seeking enrollees.

A central criticism of the MPP program — which bars asylum seekers from entering the U.S. while immigration courts review their claims — was the lack of access to U.S. legal services for enrollees forced into makeshift Mexican border camps. Now, the Biden administration is working with legal service providers and promising 24-hour consultation windows to assist with screening interviews and immigration court cases.

The Justice Department’s Executive Office of Immigration Review is working to increase legal representation rates for asylum seekers while distributing “self-help materials” for immigrant applicants who need information on the process.

Improving conditions south of the border was another component in securing the Mexican government’s cooperation. U.S. humanitarian workers have built up WiFi access at shelters, and Mexican authorities have stepped up security including at transportation hubs.

Now, migrants enrolled in MPP will have access to transportation services at the port of entry, something Biden administration officials said is a necessary security measure given the level of crime taking place at border crossings.

Over the holidays, the Biden administration submitted a request to the Supreme Court for expedited briefings on the case to end MPP. The administration previously lost lower court appeals against efforts to reinstate the protocols.

Under the latest iteration of MPP, migrants who receive an interview with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will be judged on whether there’s a “reasonable possibility” they have a fear of returning to Mexico rather than the previously used and more restrictive “more likely than not” standard.

The new standards are accessible to those like the group of 36 migrants brought to El Paso Monday for court hearings, making them the first to be processed under the new rules.

Officials did not provide information on the number of asylum seekers subjected to MPP under the Biden administration’s latest implementation efforts, but they did confirm enrollments have started in the El Paso and San Diego regions.

One senior Biden administration official estimated on Monday that the program was costing the U.S. government in excess of “tens of millions of dollars.”

Scoreboard roundup — 1/3/22

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Monday’s sports events:

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Philadelphia 133, Houston 113
Washington 124, Charlotte 121
Memphis 118, Brooklyn 104
Detroit 115, Milwaukee 106
Chicago 102, Orlando 98
Utah 115, New Orleans 104
Dallas 103, Denver 89
Golden State 115, Miami 108
Portland 136, Atlanta 131
Minnesota 122, LA Clippers 104

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
NY Rangers 4, Edmonton 1
Carolina at Toronto (Postponed)
Minnesota at Ottawa (Postponed)

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Pittsburgh 26, Cleveland 14

TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Wisconsin 74, Purdue 69
Arizona 95, Washington 79

Parker McCollum’s fiancee inspired “To Be Loved by You,” but he admits “it’s not incredibly true about her”

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Though Parker McCollum is a happily engaged man, he’s the first to admit that “To Be Loved by You” isn’t the most cheerful love song.

Parker popped the question to his fiancee, Hallie Ray Light, in July 2021, months after the release of his latest hit, “To Be Loved by You,” which is currently in the top 20 on country radio. The singer reveals that Hallie Ray inspired the idea for the song, although he notes that it’s not entirely autobiographical.

“She was the one that I was talking about when I said out loud, ‘What does a man have to do to be loved by that girl?'” he says in reference to the song’s hook. “All my songs are kind of heartbreak, love songs about everything going terribly wrong, so I try to always write in that vein. [M]y favorite kind of songs are those songs. So she inspired song, but it’s not incredibly true about her.”

The couple is currently preparing for their upcoming wedding ceremony in March, and Parker says he is slowly but surely getting ready for the big day.

“It is certainly coming up. It’s at the end of March,” he shares, adding that he has a few months to “really prepare for it and be ready.” “So I think I am,” he assures.

Another significant event on Parker’s calendar is a performance at the Houston Rodeo on March 12, a major milestone for the Texas native. The remaining lineup will be announced this Wednesday, January 5, with tickets going on sale January 13.

Jim Carrey says The Weeknd’s new album is “deep and elegant”

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

On Monday, The Weeknd surprised fans by announcing that his new album Dawn FM would be arriving Friday, and then further surprised them by revealing that fellow Canadian star Jim Carrey would be featured on the project. Now, the comedian himself is giving us a sneak preview of the much-anticipated album.

“I listened to Dawn FM with my good friend Abel @theweeknd last night,” Carrey tweeted, using the singer’s birth name. “It was deep and elegant and it danced me around the room. I’m thrilled to play a part in his symphony.”

It’s not exactly clear what the Truman Show star is doing on the album, but its trailer does feature a voice-over from a guy who could be him, saying, “You are now listening to 103.5 Dawn FM. You’ve been in the dark way too long. It’s time to walk into the light and accept your fate with open arms.”

As for how The Weeknd and Jim Carrey are even friends, in August, the singer told GQ, “He lived literally like two buildings down from me. He had a telescope, and I had a telescope. He was like, ‘Where do you live? What floor do you live on?’…And we looked out the windows on our telescopes and we could see each other.”

The Weeknd further revealed that on his 30th birthday — February 16, 2020 — Carrey “pulled up to my crib and took me to breakfast.”

I listened to Dawn FM with my good friend Abel @theweeknd last night. It was deep and elegant and it danced me around the room. I’m thrilled to play a part in his symphony. ;^• https://t.co/FV2LoKLYVX

— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) January 3, 2022

Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman share memories of Yes’ ‘Fragile’ album, released in the US 50 years ago today

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the U.S. release of Yes‘ classic fourth studio album, Fragile.

Fragile was the U.K. prog-rock band’s highest-charting album on the Billboard 200, peaking at #4, and featured several of the group’s most enduring tunes, including “Roundabout,” “Long Distance Runaround” and “Heart of the Sunrise.”

“Roundabout,” of course, is widely considered the group’s signature song, and an edited version of the tune reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it Yes’ second most successful single after 1983’s chart-topping “Owner of a Lonely Heart.”

Founding Yes frontman Jon Anderson, who co-wrote “Roundabout” with guitarist Steve Howe, recalls that the idea for the song came about as the band was driving in its tour van through Scotland. Anderson tells ABC Audio that the lyric “mountains come out of the sky” was inspired by the fact that “you couldn’t see the top of the mountains because the clouds were so low.”

He adds, “And then the lakes. You know, you come to Loch Lomond, and all that…energy of Scotland. That’s why if you listen to the solo, it’s a…like a Scottish reel.”

Fragile was the first Yes album to feature keyboard whiz Rick Wakeman, who replaced founding member Tony Kaye. Wakeman tells ABC Audio that he has fond memories of working on Fragile because he loved the collaborative way some of the album’s long pieces — such as “Heart of the Sunrise” and “South Side of the Sky” — were created.

“We used to spend one month, two months all together in a rehearsal room, throwing ideas at each other, and that’s how the music got put together,” Rick notes. “And it’s how…the best Yes music, in my mind, was always put together.”

Here’s the full Fragile track list:

Side One
“Roundabout”
“Cans and Brahms” (instrumental)
“We Have Heaven”
“South Side of the Sky”

Side Two
“Five Per Cent for Nothing” (instrumental)
“Long Distance Runaround”
“The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)”
“Mood for a Day” (instrumental)
“Heart of the Sunrise”

‘The Bachelor’ recap: Clayton’s journey begins with a shocking franchise first

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

The Bachelor kicked off its 26th season on Monday with Clayton Echard, a 28-year-old medical sales rep from Columbia, Missouri meeting the 31 women who are vying to be his future wife.

However, in a shocking franchise first, Salley, a 26-year-old Charlottesville, Virginia native, would head home before the first limo arrived.

Salley, we learned, was previously engaged and set to marry on the same weekend as The Bachelor began taping. She revealed that going into the show, she was excited about meeting Clayton and entering a new chapter of her life with him, but upon arriving at the mansion, she realized she wasn’t ready to move on just yet.

Salley then showed up at Clayton’s hotel room to personally deliver the news that she was backing out of the competition, but was surprised when he asked to leave for a moment and returned with a rose in his hand, explaining, “There’s definitely chemistry and really makes me feel like there could be something special,” he insisted.

“I really want you here, so much so that I want to prove that,” he continued, before offering her the rose.

Unfortunately, After thinking it over, Salley turned down his offer, explaining, “I want to accept that rose, but my heart is just not in the place where I can.”

“That was tough,” Clayton said later in a confessional. “The first rose that I have given out as The Bachelor was rejected.”

Another shocking moment came after 28-year-old spray tanner Claire‘s time alone with Clayton didn’t go well. She expressed her disappointment with the other women, declaring, “He was a hundred percent too nice for me.”

Upon learning that Claire had no intention of saying that to Clayton’s face, Serene, an Ohio school teacher, decided to tell him instead. After a confronting Claire about her remarks, he sent her packing.

Also sent home on Monday were Daria, Hailey, Ivana, Jane, Lindsay D., Rianna and Samantha.

The first impression rose went to Teddi.

Here are the other women remaining after the rose ceremony:

Cassidy, 26, an executive recruiter from Los Angeles, Calif.
Eliza, 25, a marketing manager from Berlin, Germany
Elizabeth, 32, a real estate advisor from Highlands Ranch, Colo.
Ency, 28, a sales manager from Burbank, Calif.
Gabby, 30, an ICU nurse from Denver, Colo.
Genevive, 26, a bartender from Los Angeles, Calif.
Hunter, 28, a human resources specialist from Charlotte, N.C.
Jill, 26, an architectural historian from Scituate, R.I.
Kate, 32, a real estate agent from Lake Hollywood, Calif.
Kira, 32, a physician from Philadelphia, Pa.
Lyndsey W., 28 an industrial sale representative from Houston, Texas
Mara, 32, an entrepreneur from Collingswood, N.J.
Marlena, 30, a former Olympian from Gainesville, Fla.
Melina, 27, a personal trainer from West Hollywood, Calif.
Rachel, 25, a flight instructor from Clermont, Fla.
Sarah, 23, a wealth management advisor from New York City, N.Y.
Serene, 26, an elementary school teacher from Oklahoma City, Ohio
Shanae, 29, a recruiter from Sycamore, Ohio
Sierra, 26, a yoga instructor from Dallas, Texas
Susie, 28, a wedding videographer from Virginia Beach, Va.
Teddi, 24, a surgical unit nurse from Highland, Calif.
Tessa, 26, a human resources specialist from Brooklyn, N.Y.

The Bachelor returns Monday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

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