Students mourn the loss of their study abroad programs amid the spread of COVID-19.

By Lily Rhook O’Connor

College students at the University of Georgia have had to adjust to a new normal as classes switch to online as a result the COVID-19 crisis. The spread of the virus also brought study abroad students back to their hometowns.

The state of Georgia went into isolation after Governor Kemp issued a stay at home order on April 2, leaving many students studying abroad scrambling to find the fastest route back to the US.

Mary Catherine Dematteo, a 21-year-old psychology major and pre-med student at the University of Georgia, was forced to come back to the U.S. two weeks earlier than expected after her study abroad trip to Oxford, England was cut short.

Dematteo has since returned home to New Orleans, which was once considered a hotspot for the coronavirus.

“The lack of cases in Oxford at the time made it more difficult to leave, knowing how many cases there were in New Orleans” said Dematteo. . “It was scary, and frustrating.”

But Dematteo is grateful for her study abroad professors and their handling of the situation.

“The professors in my program were amazing, I got lucky,” said Dematteo. “I was able to contact them over Zoom whenever I needed to, they were incredibly helpful and that was my biggest concern.”

Some students did not have an easy transition from studying abroad to online classes at home.

Carly Clayman, a 21-year-old marketing and real estate major at the University of Georgia, had to leave her program in Barcelona seven weeks before it was scheduled to end.

“It was so overwhelming, it felt like I had no time to process the transition,” said Clayman. “It felt as if no one, not even the University, knew what was going on.”

Upon returning to the U.S., Clayman struggledto adjust to a new time zone in Atlanta as her professors could not change her class schedule to make up for the time change.

“I had to do my classwork at 6 a.m. because of the time change,” said Clayman. “Some of my classmates had to wake up even earlier depending on where they lived. It made the transition extremely difficult on everyone in my household.”

Other students feared they would not be let back into the U.S. after President Trump issued an international travel ban on March 11, leading to airport closures.

“I had to travel through three different airports in Australia due to the closures,” said Caroline Plansky, a 21-year old student at UGA who was studying abroad in Sydney. “It was scary, I was worried about getting stuck over there.”

Despite the obstacles these students face, they still remain optimistic and hopeful that education will return to normal in the future. Until then, they are making the most of their time at home.