Each spring, as the sun comes out, students play frisbee, performing groups serenade and seniors ring the commitment bell on a quad full of students lounging in the sun. However, for some students, springtime also comes with stuffy noses, clogged ears and watery eyes.
The culprit? One would think it would be the variety of trees, flowers and grasses releasing pollen into the air. Masters is home to many varieties of trees, including Bradford pear, magnolia, oak, sorrel, dogwood, maple and weeping Europe and Beech trees. Yet, out of those trees, only maple and oak trees are wind-pollinating trees, which are more likely to cause seasonal allergies. Still, each year, more and more people seem to be affected by seasonal allergies. In 2021, 1 in 5 children (18.9%) in the United States reported suf-
fering from seasonal allergies. However, in 2024, around 14 million, or 21 out of 100 children (21%), reported seasonal allergies. Nitin Gupta, resident school doctor, proposed a theory for why the number of seasonal allergies has increased. “So, the last couple of years, we really had very mild winters. And so that mild winter caused a lot of pollen blooms,” he said. “I think even, like, three years ago, we had pollen bloom starting in January. So, we wouldn’t have one true allergy season in those warmer winters. But this winter was very different.”
He continued, “So this year, [I’m] not seeing the allergies as bad as last year’s, but we are going to have a true allergy season.
These changes to the allergy season have continued to affect both students and faculty on the
Masters campus each spring. Senior M’kaela Riley believes her allergies have become worse since coming to Masters in her freshman year. “I remember going to bed and my eye was itching, and when I woke up, my left eye
was really swollen and red,” she recalled. “I went to the nurse, and I told her about it, and she gave me Claritin, and after that, it just slowly went down. But I never noticed that before I came to Masters.”
