Pooja Tewari: This is not how I thought I would end college.
Daniela Beck: My school where I'm from
has really been impacted by the virus.
Emma O'Brien: We expected something to happen soon,
but we didn't know it would be
this drastic so quickly.
Masha Pescheryakova: When my chancellor
first sent out an email
telling us that UCSB's going remote,
I was shocked.
Hasumi Tani: Students who were off campus
during spring break were essentially told
to not come back to campus,
and they were ordered to either stay
or go back to their permanent address.
Daniela Dwek: Last week was my last time in the facilities.
Belkis Anane: School is closed.
Students were instructed to evacuate
and join their families.
But I cannot, because I'm an international student,
and I cannot leave because of travel bans.
Hasumi: As an international student,
I do not have a place to stay here,
and, currently, I'm in a pretty sticky situation.
My visa was rejected this week,
so I literally
do not have a place to go back right now.
And my only choice is to stay
here in America, and hopefully Georgetown.
Preet Kaur: I have chosen to stay in Santa Cruz.
This is mainly because if I am exposed to the virus
and I'm asymptomatic right now,
I don't want to go back to my parents' house
and accidentally expose my family.
Huma Manjra: When I came home yesterday,
I had a lot of paranoia around,
I really just sat through a flight,
I really just went through two of the biggest airports,
and who knows what I touched,
and I had this fear that, OK, if I come home,
am I gonna give anything to my parents,
am I gonna give anything to my older, like,
relatives, like my grandparents?
Being here in LA County, where the cases are soaring,
and doubling and tripling with each day,
is really heightening my fear.
Genevieve Korn: I may not be able to see my parents
for an extended period of time. Due to their age,
they are in one of the at-risk categories,
and I'm very afraid that the next time
I look at my phone someone I know and love will be gone.
Belkis: Few of us are left here,
but everyone I know and care about
is halfway across the globe.
So it is definitely very hard
to go through this on your own.
Housing is not a problem because
I already live off campus,
but I believe it is a great challenge
to see all of my roommates and classmates
leave and join their families
while I cannot do that.
It is very, very hard to be productive
and work online when you are very worried
for your family, who's in a very serious outbreak.
AJ Yablonsky: The whole university is now pass/fail,
mandatory. You can't even opt in to take letter grade,
because for people who are going home
to family situations that they have to take care
of a loved one who's sick with this illness
or, you know, provide for their family because
someone might have lost a job,
they can't worry about their grades right now.
Genevieve: No one knows what's happening.
But in terms of the professors and the universities,
they're doing the best they can.
They don't know how to cope just as much
as we don't know how to cope.
Emma: It is, you know, really difficult to cater
to all of the needs of students online,
and I think a lot of classes will struggle.
We really rely on the student to professor
contact and relationship,
and I just don't think that's
really possible online.
Amona Saleh: Having our classes being moved to online
has definitely lessened the quality of our education.
Like, my science classes, all of our labs
have been just canceled.
Emily Herrmann: What really stood out to me is just
how radically unprepared
the education system was for this switch.
I know of some professors in the humanities
who didn't even use email
before all of this went down.
Genevieve: There are a lot of students out there
that are really feeling lost right now
and really need a friend.
And they need someone to talk to
because everything they knew was
ripped away from them in a set of emails.
Preet: A lot of extracurriculars on campus
have also been totally eliminated.
I personally do research in a lab,
and I am not allowed to go on campus currently
unless I have things that I need to keep alive.
Emily: I'm an athlete on the track team.
Our entire spring season got canceled,
which has been really tough.
Genevieve: An organization that I'm the president of,
all of our competitions were canceled,
which I understand why for the safety of everyone,
I agree with that they were canceled.
I cried a lot when I found out
that all of the work we had put in
for months and months and months
wasn't gonna happen this year.
Pooja: I am in my final semester of college,
I was supposed to be abroad, had that taken away from me.
I'm supposed to be graduating, walking in May,
and there's a chance my commencement ceremony
could get canceled.
AJ: Today actually we just got an email
that our commencement ceremonies have been canceled.
It feels surreal. Like, it's...
I'm not even, like, sad.
And I know I should be sad and disappointed,
and I guess I am to an extent,
but it doesn't feel real.
Huma: Just having to pick up,
you know, leave everything,
has been very, it's been a lot for me to process.
Emily: Not getting to say goodbye to friends in person
has led to a lot of really emotional
FaceTime calls and texting calls
just thanking them for being a friend for four years.
And I should have said stuff
before coronavirus happened, and I'm learning that.
Elizabeth Camele: I go through periods where I feel
very angry about the situation,
and I also go through periods
where I'm just in shock.
Like, I can't believe this has happened.
Emma: So, a high moment of this experience
is, you know, just the sense of
community and love and support.
Daniela: Going on Facebook, different pages
have been really uplifting with other students
and new graduates being in the same position.
And it's making me feel a lot better.
Katrina Jackson: They're just a nice dose of humor
and a place for all the students
that are more or less my age to come together
in solidarity and just laugh about things
and provide support if things are more serious.
Daniela: Like, we're all in this together,
and the class of 2020 will be remembered,
for sure, with all of this.
And we will be celebrated one day or another,
even if it's months after this pandemic.
Genevieve: It's terrible.
I may not get to have a graduation ceremony.
I may not get to see some of my friends again,
but in the end it hopefully
will be because lives were saved.