Sofia Aguilar ’21

Study abroad programs at Sarah Lawrence have long been a hallmark of the college’s curriculum, offering students once-in-a-lifetime experiences in places like Oxford, France, and Italy at little extra tuition cost However, due to the sudden COVID-19 outbreak and the immediate end for all study abroad programs, it cost many students a lot of stress and uncertainty.

For students like Jamilyn Taylor ’21, the choice to study abroad during her time at Sarah Lawrence was a no-brainer. After living in New York for years, she was excited to seek adventure elsewhere.

“I needed more perspective and space,” said Taylor. “I commuted for the first two years to Sarah Lawrence and studying abroad would give me more opportunities.” Her choice of Oxford as a destination was also a personal one: she was born in England and still has family ties to the country.

Caiti Jane French ‘21 chose her program in Italy based on her academic interests. “I’ve always loved art history, and Florence and Renaissance art go hand in hand,” she said.

Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many students abroad had begun exploring new options for themselves both academically and personally. Amelia Brennan ’21 studied abroad in her junior year where she improved her Spanish and knowledge of local slang in Cuba. She thrived in a laid-back culture where taking “a taxi to the art studio to be there for three hours doing screen printing” was not only common but encouraged, she recalled.

Taylor similarly declared being abroad to be “the best five months of my life. I felt like my whole, authentic self.”

The program in Italy was the first of the SLC programs to experience an outbreak. “We had a meeting on [a] Tuesday where we were told that more people die from the flu than COVID,” French said, referring to a week in February that would soon prove to be a turning point for her trip. “By Saturday, Italy had moved to stage four crisis.”

At the beginning of the spring, other program offices around the world underestimated the seriousness of Covid-19, assuring their students that it would have little effect on their activities, only to backtrack and give their students several days to pack up and fly home.

“Everyone thought we were safe,” Brennan said. “And then one case came up [in Cuba], and we were given six days to leave.”

In hindsight, she was at least grateful for the six days because other programs had told people to leave immediately. In Paris, SLC students were initially given the option to either stay or return home.

“The next day, Trump decided to close the borders…I had a day to pack and leave Paris,” Alexis Nanavaty ’21 recalled. “It was a very stressful and sad way to say good-bye.” Though she didn’t blame the program for this, she still feels unsatisfied with the poor response from Sarah Lawrence’s study abroad office.

“They provided no clear information and waited until the last minute to inform us of what the next steps were,” she said. “They didn’t offer any help or advice to students trying to return home.”

The study abroad experience worsened for many upon switching to online classes for the remainder of the spring semester. Luckily, Nanavaty’s professors were well-prepared for virtual learning and “classes genuinely continued like we’d never left Paris.”

For French, however, “all we had were pre-recorded videos of the professor talking. It wasn’t engaging or easy to pay attention.” After constantly being surrounded by other students, being confined to their houses also affected study abroad students’ ability to stay productive. “The quarantine depression definitely made it harder to be an effective student,” French said.

Taylor stayed in her Oxford accommodation until early July due to the worsening COVID situation in New York but faced challenges of her own. Though the Oxford office checked on her frequently, she was terrified to go outside, as guidelines about masks and social distancing were inconsistently followed. She found solidarity through her interactions with other Sarah Lawrence students who also couldn’t go back to their home countries.

“In a way, I was glad that I was there,” Taylor said. As opposed to many students experiencing isolation in their home countries, Taylor “felt supported...and always had someone to talk to.”

Many study abroad alums have already made plans to return to the countries they were forced to leave.

“Oh, I definitely want to go back,” Brennan said. “I missed out on some things and I want to finish the trip.”

Despite COVID’s disruption of the study abroad experience, students remain hopeful that international travel will be feasible again soon and know that they “learned to be more flexible and quickly cope with uncertain situations,” as Nanavaty described—regardless, or perhaps because, of what happened.

This year, for the new group of students studying abroad in Oxford, the only program still in session, the experience of being in a new country while undergoing COVID restrictions will be entirely new. For Ning Xu ’22, moving from her home in China where cities had already begun reopening to Oxford “was a huge shift, and has made me think more about how to utilize this time in a meaningful way.”

At Oxford, for the foreseeable future, all tutorials will be online. Even using the Wadham Library has new restrictions, like requiring students to book a space online beforehand and study by themselves.

Because of the uncertainty and unpredictability of COVID,, Ning focuses on the aspects of her life that she can control: completing assignments, watching movies with her flatmates and making communal meals.

“Are we afraid of COVID or its uncertainty?” asked Ning. “What is it that really haunts us? The best approach is to accept and embrace what life has given me.”

Students Reflect on Study Abroad During the Pandemic, Discuss What’s Next