{"id":5484,"date":"2020-12-19T17:42:34","date_gmt":"2020-12-19T13:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/?p=5484"},"modified":"2020-12-19T18:36:50","modified_gmt":"2020-12-19T14:36:50","slug":"how-covid-19-broke-dreams-to-study-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/how-covid-19-broke-dreams-to-study-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"How Covid-19 Broke Dreams to Study Abroad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

COVID-19 has caught international students\u00a0by surprise. And they had suddenly to re-think their education choices abroad.\u00a0Shirley\u00a0Sherif, a 19-year-old Egyptian undergraduate,\u00a0is among thousands of international students who have been affected by the\u00a0disruption\u00a0caused by the coronavirus pandemic.\u00a0She finished high school at\u00a0Nibras\u00a0International in the United Arab Emirates, then traveled to the United States to get a university degree.\u00a0She\u00a0was studying at her dream university, Grand Valley State University,\u00a0in\u00a0Michigan. Shirley was majoring in\u00a0Prelaw studies when she first heard about the virus.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of what universities would\u00a0do\u00a0during the pandemic\u00a0was\u00a0to provide helpful resources to their\u00a0international\u00a0students. Universities were forced to evacuate thousands of students from dorms. This decision created\u00a0hardships for\u00a0some students who, like Shirley, had nowhere to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Shirley\u00a0Sherif\u00a0at the\u00a0GUC campus. German University in Cairo,\u00a0Egypt. November 6, 2020.\u00a0(Photograph by Salma Ismail)\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“I had to make sure that I was able to go back home to my family before the travel ban started,” Shirley said. “So one can only imagine the chaos.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luckily for her,\u00a0she\u00a0had a return ticket to the UAE\u00a0for\u00a0April 25.\u00a0She\u00a0brought her flight date forward to\u00a0March 8,\u00a0which\u00a0was right\u00a0before the travel ban\u00a0occurred.\u00a0\u201cEverything felt like the world lifted off my shoulders, knowing that I was not one of those people who got stuck and felt lost away from their family,\u201d Shirley said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But not all international students were able to return to their home countries due to travel restrictions.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UAE had travel\u00a0limitations\u00a0in place in mid-March due to the COVID-19 outbreak, with only select\u00a0repatriation flights\u00a0operating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic has also affected enrollments for exchange program students at universities. At the American University in Dubai,\u00a0Yuchun\u00a0Schmidt, study abroad and exchange coordinator, said there’s a decrease of about 80% in enrollments. \u201cMost of the institutions around the globe have been forced to suspend their student mobility programs or substitute with virtual exchange\/study abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic,\u201d Schmidt explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Egyptian Layla Mohamed, 20, was already experiencing financial problems while studying International Economics and Management in Italy. She used to work part-time in a marketing agency to have her allowance covered. And she relied on her parents for university fees, until the pandemic hit the globe. \u201cDue to the pandemic, my dad has lost his job, and my mom\u2019s salary wasn\u2019t going to cover my fees,\u201d\u00a0Layla said\u00a0during the zoom interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Italy was one of the European countries with the highest rate of Covid-19 and, at the beginning of the pandemic, Layla\u00a0couldn\u2019t travel back to her family who was then living in the UAE. And with no financial support, it was a hard time for her.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shirley\u00a0is now back\u00a0in her home country, studying at the German University in Cairo, Egypt.\u00a0\u201cMy dream was\u00a0to study in the U.S.,\u00a0but\u00a0I perceive\u00a0that everything in life happens for a reason.\u00a0I choose to ignore the negatives and focus on the brighter side of things, and find myself opportunities\u00a0in a broader way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COVID-19 has caught international students\u00a0by surprise. And they had suddenly to re-think their education choices…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5484"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5484"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5487,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5484\/revisions\/5487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}