Larissa Copley was studying at the American University in Bulgaria when she got the email from ETSU’s Study Abroad program: “All students are required to return to the United States as soon as possible.”
“I started crying just to be completely honest,” Copley said. “I knew – I had the feeling – that it was coming.”
This was the common experience of ETSU students studying internationally this semester as the novel coronavirus spread across the globe.
Copley, a junior anthropology major, struggled to come to terms with her dream trip ending almost two months early.
“It took me a little while to fully process exactly what I felt because it went back and forth between trying to understand but feeling it was unfair to being upset because I didn’t get to say goodbye to everyone properly,” she said. “It was just a lot of emotions to process in a very short amount of time.”
Although the trip was cut short, Copley said she was not surprised when ETSU required students to return to the U.S. because the Study Abroad program had updated students regularly regarding the virus and another student at the American University in Bulgaria had already been told by their university they would need to return.
On Feb. 25, ETSU Study Abroad first emailed students to make them aware trip cancellations might happen. A warning message March 9 stated that ETSU was monitoring COVID-19 but would not require students to return to the U.S. unless the CDC issued a Level 3 Advisory in the student’s country. Study Abroad also told students to consider traveling home sooner.
Early March 12, Study Abroad emailed students to state that the CDC had issued a global Level 2 Advisory and a Level 3 in the majority of European countries. The email stated the university was determining whether students would be mandated to return to the U.S. and advised them again to consider traveling home.
Finally, around noon March 12, Study Abroad emailed students again, stating they were required by ETSU to return to the U.S. because the U.S. Department of State had issued a global Level 3 Advisory. The email contained information to help students with the traveling process and prepare them for any screening or self-quarantine steps they might take upon landing.
The decision was made by a committee made up of community partners, like health departments and Ballad Health, and ETSU representatives from the president’s office, legal team, the College of Public Health, the University Health Center and others, according to Study Abroad Coordinator Hopelyn Mooney.
Copley described traveling amid the COVID-19 outbreak, especially during her stop in England, as “really disappointing” because of how other passengers at her stop in London, England, responded to her having been in other parts of Europe.
“They acted as if I had the plague when I exited the line,” she said. “They completely shifted their attitude toward me, and I was was just shocked by how quickly everyone became almost … cold.”
Her first stop in the U.S. was changed from Nashville, Tennessee, to Atlanta, Georgia, because of CDC guidelines for international travelers in Europe, and Copley had been to Belgium and the Netherlands within two weeks of her flight. When she finally landed at the Knoxville, Tennessee, airport, she asked her family not to hug her.
Since being home, she has self-quarantined in her room away from her family and checked her temperature twice daily, but she has not shown symptoms of COVID-19.
“One thing that was really frustrating for me and several of my friends is the fact that we had to come home from our study abroad two months early, and we still have seen people not taking this seriously,” she said. “It’s really frustrating to be trying to take all of the necessary precautions and seeing other people go about life as if nothing is happening. I don’t think people should live in fear, but I do think it’s helpful for people to be considerate of other people that you could be affecting and not know about it.”
Copley is continuing her classes through the Bulgarian university online, but she said the seven hour time difference has made her coursework challenging. Leaving early was financially difficult, too. Her immediate departure resulted in cancelling planned trips in Bulgaria and her original flight home.
“My savings account was essentially almost gone in just a week,” she said.
Copley is thankful her professors are working with her and for all the support she has received by everyone at ETSU since her trip was cut short.
ETSU junior and corporate finance major Adam Rosenbalm was studying at the University of Pavia in Italy this semester, but his trip was cut short after 13 days due to the Coronavirus spread.
“I actually spent more time in quarantine than I did in Italy,” he said.
While the city never officially quarantined while Rosenbalm was there, he says many of the surrounding areas did. He, however, never experienced the levels of chaos most notably seen from Italy due to the virus.
Rosenbalm left Italy to return home on March 2, and Delta airlines allowed him to change his return ticket date free of charge. His flight was also one of the last out of the country before Delta and American airlines ceased travel with Italy.
Though he showed no symptoms of COVID-19, Rosenbalm decided to completely self-quarantine upon his return. He booked an Airbnb for 14 days and had groceries delivered to his door during that time.
While in Italy, Rosenbalm said he believed media, especially from the U.S., was blowing the virus’ spread out of proportion because he was not experiencing the grocery shortage and quarantining that other parts of Italy were. In fact, he says most people he saw were going about their days mostly normal besides practicing social-distancing, though it “never reached a sense of normal” during his stay.
Since his return, he said he understands that the coverage was of areas already more impacted.
“While my heart will long to be in Italy, I’m thankful to have gotten out when I did,” Rosenbalm said.
He is no longer taking classes through the University of Pavia, and he picked up a 5-week course with ETSU, partly to keep his financial aid eligibility. Thankfully, he said, the loss of the semester will not affect his graduation date.
Sydney Wright, a junior media and communication major with a minor in politics, was studying at Nottingham Trent University in England when she was notified about the return requirement by ETSU.
“I couldn’t stay, but I hated to leave,” Wright said. “I wasn’t ready to go home. I’d had the goal of studying abroad since middle school, and I was finally doing it. I never thought it would get cut short, but I knew it was just one of countless things being disrupted by the virus.”
Wright immediately changed her return flight date and travelled home March 17. On the airplane, the crew had travelers fill out a form with any coronavirus-type symptoms they were experiencing. Wright had gotten a cold eight days before her flight, so she noted her cough. She was pulled aside by the crew after the flight, had her temperature taken and was told she could continue.
She has since quarantined herself out of caution – and will continue for the suggested 14 days – but believes she was not affected by the virus. In the meantime, she will continue and finish her classes online with Nottingham Trent University.
Other students, like junior Marianne Perkins, never even embarked on their study abroad journies because of the virus.
Perkins, an International Studies and German double major, was scheduled to leave for the University of Trier in Germany March 10 because the school’s semester starts in April, with orientation in March. However, the initial email from Study Abroad on March 6 convinced her to cancel her trip. At first she thought the change in plans was overdramatic, but quickly realized canceling her trip was best.
Perkins hopes to schedule another 3 1/2 week language program at the University of Trier over the summer, but that is dependent on COVID-19’s status. Until then, she is looking to pick up late start courses this semester, or she will have to take a gap semester from ETSU. She has already contacted the university’s Financial Aid office to keep her Hope Scholarship eligibility if a gap semester is necessary.
“Now that more and more things are changing and more and more things are closed even here in the U.S., it definitely makes more sense for me,” she said. “I know I would have only been there for two days, … so I’m relieved in a way that at least I’ll have a chance – hopefully in the near future – to go and truly enjoy being abroad or studying abroad.”
Students may apply for reimbursement of travel expenses through the university’s financial accounting department if their return flight dates were not rescheduled free of charge by airlines, according to Mooney. She also says many students are making plans to defer to study abroad programs in the fall.
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