When the world experienced the COVID-19 pandemic, it required the radical alteration of many facets of life. Educational institutions were no exception. All educational institutions had to discover and implement ways to provide education to their students even though their students could not see each other's faces, stayed six feet apart, and had to remain socially distant. These constraints ultimately required a redesign of many educational models and teaching plans to reflect an environment whose main priority was safety. Within this environment, students may have received a drain on their motivational supports of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. According to Self-Determination Theory, these motivational supports are necessary for the successful completion of tasks. From a selected university, 10 students were sampled that had experienced their freshman year during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study seeks to explore the motivational supports that these students experienced. As this was a naturalist study, data was collected through observations, interviews, and artifacts that were embedded within the setting. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]