Penn State students reflect on the abrupt end to the school year due to COVID-19

“I never got a chance to say goodbye to people. I haven’t gotten a chance to move out of my house."

• By Brannon Dewolf/WPSU

Coronavirus concerns meant a shift to online learning for Penn State students. It was an abrupt end to the school year and, for some of them, to their college experience.

“This really just blindsided all of us,” said Luke Lacher.

Lacher is a senior broadcast journalism student at Penn State. Like millions of graduating college seniors around the country, COVID-19 cut off his last semester at school and the life he had known for the last three and a half years.

“I never got a chance to say goodbye to people. I haven’t gotten a chance to move out of my house. I’m still paying rent. I don’t even live there anymore,” Lacher said.

Lacher said he of course understood the precautions.

“I certainly hope this is all worthwhile because the disruption it’s causing is pretty catastrophic,” Lacher said.

“It really does affect me, not only because I’m not at school being able to pay my rent,” said junior student Emily Catlett.

Catlett is a junior telecommunications student at Penn State. Although her time in college isn’t over just yet, Catlett said she has other worries like an internship – a necessary career step for many college students.

“I’m also really scared about the summer with summer internships. I don’t know what’s going to happen with that. I don’t know if they’re going to get canceled,” Catlett said.

College students like Catlett often depend on internships and other jobs to help pay their way through school. Students like her are now left uncertain about future finances and career prospects.

Annie Mae Weiss is another Penn State student relying on her internship work to pay some of the bills.

“So, I had a job and internship that I was using to be able to pay for stuff at school. I don’t have that job anymore. I don’t have any school anymore. I’m paying for rent at school and I’m not living there anymore,” Weiss said.

Although she’s sad to see her final semester cut short, Weiss believes money is what’s on a lot of students’ minds.

“I think that’s kind of what a lot of people are worried about,” Weiss said. “People are paying for school. People are paying for meal plans. People are paying rent. People are paying water bills or electricity for a school that they pretty much got kicked out of.”

Penn State is giving students prorated refunds on meal plans and housing, but that doesn’t help those who live off campus.

Despite the chaos, Weiss said her newfound time at home has allowed her to pursue hobbies like hiking.

Penn State sophomore and finance major Jack Davis said being home has given him some rare time with his often-busy family. Davis, his two brothers, sister and parents have been quarantined together.

“Basically, we have just been doing family stuff every night, trying to take drives, take walks, playing on the golf course,” Davis said. “But besides that, we’re basically confined to our homes and just doing our work from our remote locations.”

Davis is a finance major in the Smeal College of Business. His upcoming summer internship with the United Bank of Switzerland was canceled. That, along with the transition to online classes, leaves Davis worried about his future and struggling to figure out what’s next.

“I won’t be there to sort this out with my advisors and teachers. It’s much more difficult doing it online than it would be in person meeting with an actual advisor instead of having a Zoom conference call where my face isn’t even shown to them and I’m in a group of 200-plus people trying to figure out what they want to do,” Davis said.

As other Penn State students are figuring out online classes and mourning the abrupt end of the school year, sophomore Kenny MacPherson was worrying about his mother’s COVID-19 infection.

“Around late March my mom tested positive for the coronavirus. Thankfully it was only a mild case and she just fully recovered,” MacPherson said. “I’m definitely not the only person to say this but I cannot wait until life goes back to normal.”

Senior Kayla Thomas says the pandemic has made her goodbye to Penn State harder than it already was.

“It’s happening so abruptly, which takes away the chance to get closure on my college experience,” Thomas said. “These were the best four years of my life and I met such amazing people, so I’m just sad to see it end this way.”