Study Abroad: COVID-19 Edition
In a year of many adjustments for Elon students, one major loss was that of the coveted semester abroad. However, some programs still went on, and many students are learning to make the best of their experiences, even with COVID-19 restrictions.
We sat down (virtually) with Meg Rude, an Elon junior who decided to stay in Elon’s International Business Dual Degree program, to discuss both the challenges and positive outcomes of her experience so far. The dual degree program gives students the opportunity to study at Elon for two years and then a partner school abroad for two years—Rude has been at the NEOMA Business School in Reims, France since fall 2020.
Although it’s the absolute dream to study abroad in a European country (see: The Lizzie McGuire Movie), Rude says that it hasn’t been without its challenges and certainly isn’t how she originally pictured her abroad experience. The biggest difficulty? France’s constant struggle to keep the coronavirus under control. Right now, the country is still facing 20,000 to 30,000 new cases a day, while only about 3 million people have received the first dose of the vaccine.
In order to combat the rise in cases, France has a curfew in place from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., which Rude says has been one of the most difficult parts of the spring semester. In the fall, the curfew started at 8 p.m. which meant she could at least go to friends’ houses for dinner. Now, the earlier curfew makes evenings with friends and weekend trips nearly impossible.
Still, Rude and her friends have found alternatives and have been taking advantage of the gorgeous weather by having lunches and picnics in the park and taking day trips to nearby cities when they can.
“I would say I’m definitely making the most of it, doing these day trips, and if you’re traveling you can come back after six…but even then, it’s so weird because it’s like, you just go home and have dinner,” says Rude.
The inability to travel far has definitely been a disappointment in Rude’s experience so far. Most surrounding countries are either locked down or have intense restrictions and curfews, and even some places in France itself are restricted. Dunkirk, in the north of France, had to institute weekend lockdowns in order to handle a severe case spike.
Photo curtesy of Meg Rude, pictured living out our Emily in Paris dreams.
Even so, our conversation with Rude revealed the abroad-in-a-pandemic experience isn’t all bad—it just takes some creativity to combat the new challenges presented. When we spoke with her, she was getting ready to go over to a friend’s house for teatime.
“It’s been interesting, but my whole mindset was like, because I’m in this program and I want to do it, I’m going to make this work even if it’s not so perfect,” says Rude. And it’s clear that she has made it work—even though she’s not only the only Elon student but the only American in her program, there are about 40 Irish students who have taken her under their wings.
Rude also explained what a typical day looks like for her this semester. Since she doesn’t have classes until the afternoon, she’ll usually wake up and go for a run along a canal she says is about 100 feet from where she’s living. She said the beauty of it has made her enjoy running. One day she even ran 8 miles because she wanted to see how far the canal went. After that morning routine, Rude says she’ll catch the tram to campus at 1:20 p.m. if she’s going to class in person, because it’s too far to walk.
We ended our conversation with her by asking what the most positive part of her experience has been so far. She said there were two: the first, that even though she’s not getting to visit other countries, she’s still meeting so many people and learning about their cultures. Though right now, she obviously can’t visit them in their home countries, Rude said it’s nice that she’ll have people to go visit in Germany, Spain and Ireland someday.
The second positive—and perhaps most significant—is how proud Rude is of herself for sticking it out and pushing herself not only to continue on in the program, but to make the most of it while she’s there.
“Every day I’m like ‘Wow, I don’t know how I’m doing this.’ One day I might just crash and burn, but for now we’re holding it together,” says Rude. “I made this work, I’m making the most of it and I’m having a great time.”