While many students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln went home once the university shifted to remote learning due to the coronavirus, others had to stay in order to finish out their classes.
Many are international students who aren't able to return home, including David Munyaneza.
Munyaneza, a junior at UNL, is part of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources' Undergraduate Scholars Program for students from Rwanda majoring in integrated science.
"For my scholarship program, we are supposed to go back home and do an internship for three months," he said. "But, because of coronavirus, we aren't doing that."
Along with his major in integrated science, Munyaneza has a concentration in agriculture and environmental science communications, which he was hoping to utilize during his internship at MASS Design Group in Rwanda. Because of his interest in visual storytelling, he was going to be working on the visual team.
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"I was really excited that I was going to have an internship until coronavirus," he said. "I was going to have the real experience of what I am passionate about."
Now, Munyaneza is staying on campus with many of the other international students, where he said campus life is very different.
Freshman Joy Ishimwe, also part of the Undergraduate Scholars Program, agrees. Her first year at UNL didn't go the way she expected, and she, too, was looking forward to participating in an internship in May.
"I was supposed to go to Curtis, Nebraska, and help with agriculture on a farm," she said. "I was looking forward to it, and now I don't know what will be happening."
She also was set to go home to Rwanda in July, but isn't sure she'll be able to do that.
"My family and I aren't happy with it, but it’s the only way to keep me safe," she said. "We hope it will end in June so we can go in July."
Munyaneza's family had a similar reaction.
"They are very frustrated because they are seeing cases rising in the United States. They are calling me every day to check in on me," he said. "I'm worried about it, too."
Although both students' plans for the summer are up in the air, they are trying to make the best of the situation.
"I’m trying to figure out some things I can do over the summer if I don’t have the internship," Munyaneza said. "I'll probably look up videos to learn more about video-making and storytelling."
The university has also developed interactive virtual projects focusing on the grand challenges relevant to Rwanda for the students to work on.
"We recognize it is not the same as the in-person internships the students had hoped for, but we continue to offer meaningful scholarly activities for our students,"Â UNL spokeswoman Leslie Reed said.
Ishimwe also plans to use cooking and photography as a way to keep herself busy as well as check in on her family and friends.
Even with keeping themselves busy, they both have the same thought: I wish this thing would end.