In­ter­na­tional Stu­dents Ad­just to New On-Cam­pus Liv­ing Sit­u­a­tion

MISHAWAKA--Stu­dents across the na­tion are strug­gling to find a new nor­mal as the pan­demic has forced col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties to shut down their cam­puses. Fresh­man Tar­ryn Williams shared that she has mixed feel­ings about be­ing off-cam­pus cur­rently and misses many fac­tors of be­ing able to live on Bethel’s cam­pus.  

“I love, but hate, be­ing away from cam­pus,” Williams said. “I miss my friends and our shenani­gans… I can’t wait to go back to school.” 

But some stu­dents have been un­able to re­turn home; in­ter­na­tional stu­dents Al­fonso Flo­res and Fe­lipe Mendes con­tinue to live on cam­pus.  

Flo­res, a ju­nior, is cur­rently un­able to fly home be­cause his coun­try is closed.  

“I am from Venezuela and there are no flights right now,” Flo­res said. “My coun­try closed the bor­ders be­cause of the virus.” 

Mendes, a se­nior from Brazil, is wait­ing for of­fi­cial de­ci­sions to be made re­gard­ing his fu­ture in soc­cer.  

“I’m wait­ing for an an­swer of play­ing over the sum­mer for a soc­cer team in South Bend,” Mendes said.  

Many of the stu­dents still re­sid­ing on-cam­pus are pa­tiently wait­ing for their ticket home, while stu­dents off-cam­pus are ea­ger to move back to cam­pus next se­mes­ter and get back into reg­u­lar school sched­ules.  

Dur­ing their time on cam­pus, both Mendes and Flo­res have made dif­fer­ent de­ci­sions about how to spend their time out­side of school­work.  

Flo­res is still find­ing ways to en­joy his time at Bethel, and com­pli­ments those who are striv­ing to make his ex­pe­ri­ence bet­ter while liv­ing on cam­pus.  

“The en­vi­ron­ment is ac­tu­ally pretty good,” Flo­res said. “The res­i­dent di­rec­tors and the RAs have done a great job, we still get to do some ac­tiv­i­ties at the Acorn, like play­ing games, watch­ing movies and they even or­ga­nized an Easter ser­vices for those who were still on cam­pus.” 

Mendes also de­scribes the at­mos­phere as good and en­cour­ag­ing.  

“The at­mos­phere is nor­mal,” Mendes said. “There are a few peo­ple here and we usu­ally help each other out. But, I kind of like to be by my­self. I have the free­dom of re­al­iz­ing we are not alone in this pan­demic cri­sis.”  

Both stu­dents shared some words of wis­dom for other Bethel stu­dents.  

“This is some­thing very se­ri­ous and it all de­pends on how we ap­proach this sit­u­a­tion,” Flo­res said. “Stay­ing in­side is the best we can do,”  

“I just want to let oth­ers know that at this time they have to trust in God more be­cause He is the an­swer to all of this,” Mendes said. “With­out His pres­ence, guid­ance, and love we could­n’t be liv­ing out life the way we do.”  

Both stu­dents are con­tent with the work that Bethel has put into on-cam­pus liv­ing and they re­spect the de­ci­sions that are be­ing made.