The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is following the lives of faculty and students like Joey Ye at various colleges and universities in Georgia throughout the first full academic year since the coronavirus pandemic began. We will publish periodic reports about them. This is the fifth of these profiles.
It was 2 a.m. in Chongqing, China, and Emory University senior Joey Ye’s philosophy class had begun.
Ye and about two dozen undergraduate students joined virtually for a classroom discussion about African American scholar Cornel West’s book “Race Matters” that began promptly at 1 p.m. Eastern time.
Ye, 21, looked attentive, but disappeared about 30 minutes into professor George Yancy’s class. A portrait of Ye’s smiling face appeared on the screen. He reappeared a few minutes later, but left again. Ye returned, chuckling at one humorous line read by the professor from the book and stayed until the end of the class, about 3 a.m. Ye’s time.
Ye, who usually participates during classroom discussions, departed without speaking. He later said he was focused on an experiment for another class and was discussing some matters with one of his two roommates.
And, he acknowledged, “I was feeling a little tired.”
Ye was one of about 2,300 students from other countries enrolled at Emory during the fall semester. Some, like Ye, returned to their homeland and are taking all of their classes remotely.
The coronavirus pandemic has certainly tested college students here, but the challenges are greater for those taking courses remotely overseas. They take classes at odd hours. For most, their tuition is about the same, about $60,000 this school year for Ye. They miss their friends. And they miss America.
“It’s definitely challenging because I considered socializing essential to my college experience,” Ye, who is double-majoring in neuroscience and philosophy, said during a Zoom interview in February.
Emory officials said they’ve tried to accommodate international students by offering classes at a variety of times during the day. One official who focuses on academic advising for international students said he’s worked on communicating with them frequently through social media. Its president, Gregory L. Fenves, has said Emory will welcome all students back to campus for fall 2021. Applications from international students to Emory’s main college are up 19.4% this year.
Ye won’t likely be able to appear in person for commencement next month, the student says matter-of-factly during one interview. Yet, he feels fortunate. For example, he noted, his parents recently helped him rent an apartment with two friends. He hasn’t tested positive for COVID-19. His grades have improved.
The adjustment
Ye was with some friends from Emory on a spring break trip in the Appalachian Mountains in March 2020 when they received an email from the university that when classes resumed, they would be online. The pandemic was beginning to take its horrific hold in Georgia.
Some friends from China booked flights to return home, but Ye, who lived off-campus, was optimistic that he could remain at Emory. Ye, who hadn’t seen his parents for some time before the pandemic, caught a flight to China, thinking he wouldn’t be there long. He thought the crisis would be over in a month or two, and he was pursuing summer internship opportunities in Atlanta.
Ye said there were about 5,000 COVID-19 cases in America when he left Atlanta. The number of cases grew sixfold about a week later.
“I just kind of realized it’s going to be out of control very soon,” he recalled.
He’s not been back to the United States since.
Ye wanted to attend college in America for a number of reasons, such as the ability to learn about other cultures and to explore research opportunities. He wanted a school with smaller class sizes, which attracted him to Emory, along with the university’s strong biology and liberal arts curriculum. Ye’s hometown, Chongqing, is one of the largest municipalities in the world, with an estimated 16 million residents. Its downtown area has skyscrapers that resemble Manhattan or Tokyo. His parents work for an agricultural technology-based company.
After a 14-day self-quarantine when he returned to China, Ye eased back into the familiar and adjusted to the new. He lived in his parents’ home while learning Zoom. He naps during the day and sleeps after classes end, about 2 a.m. or later.
Ye hoped to return to Emory in August for the fall semester, but the university, like others, was encouraging international students to take classes remotely as the pandemic’s second wave gripped America.
College is about learning skills to develop a career, but it’s also a time for young adults to grow socially. Ye wanted both when he enrolled at Emory, but for the past year, the social aspect of his higher education has been stunted.
Ye’s kept in touch with some friends through group chats and others via video conversations. He admits some envy when some of them gather in small groups.
“It’s been kind of tough to watch them gathering while I’m sitting alone,” Ye said.
A magnet for international students
The colleges miss these students, too. International students typically pay full tuition, assist more frequently in research and work as teaching assistants.
Emory has been one of the top destinations in Georgia for students from other countries, particularly from China, India and South Korea.
“Students come to Emory from more than 100 countries, making our community rich with a variety of languages, cultures, and heritages,” the university says on its website, saying more than 15% of its new students come from different lands, speaking more than 40 languages.
Fewer international students have taken courses at Emory since the pandemic. Its international enrollment declined by 267 students from the fall 2019 semester, a 10% drop.
Similar declines are occurring nationally, according to some research. Enrollment of students from other countries was declining before the pandemic, which experts attribute to tougher immigration policies enacted by the Trump administration. Some research shows the numbers have declined even more. One survey, based on data from about 700 schools nationwide, found international student enrollment was down 16% for the fall semester.
Federal officials restricted travel to the United States once the pandemic began. Other government regulations concerning international students drew angry responses from their advocates and online petitions demanding changes. Students were confused. Emory allowed only a small number of students to live on campus last fall, prioritizing international students, among other groups.
University officials said they had to become more accessible to international students who left and those who remained, but are living off-campus. Some campus events are recorded for students to view at their convenience. With Zoom sessions now common, administrators can meet with students on the weekend and late at night for urgent issues.
“Flexibility is key when students are around the world,” said Frank Gaertner, the university’s associate director of academic advising for international students in the Office for Undergraduate Education of Emory College of Arts and Sciences.
Emory, with the help of an outside organization, created an in-person program this semester in Shanghai (which is about 1,000 miles away from where Ye lives) for undergraduate students from China. It also allowed undergraduate students from South Korea to enroll directly at its partner university, Yonsei. Twenty students are in the Shanghai program and three are in the South Korean program.
Study buddies
Zariah Jenkins met Ye during orientation for first-year Emory students in 2017 when they were randomly placed in the same group. They took a philosophy class the following year and remembered each other. They became friends, taking more philosophy classes together, now remotely. She calls him her “study buddy.”
One of the words she uses to describe Ye is “thoughtful.” Ye bought her some Muji pens when she told him she liked his. He sends her study materials. He’s introduced her to some of his favorite candies from China. Ye gave her a bag of face masks in the early days of the pandemic. He taught her how to say “I’m hungry” in Mandarin.
Jenkins, 21, who is Black and grew up in Arizona, said what she misses most about Ye is their debates in campus cafeterias over various topics, such as last year’s Black Lives Matter protests in the U.S.
Jenkins says Ye challenges her thinking, and she likes that. Ye, she said, is curious and asks many questions.
If he was here, Ye says he would have participated in the recent protests condemning violence against the Asian American Pacific Islander community after last month’s spa shootings in the Atlanta area.
She’s downhearted about the likelihood that she won’t see her friend in person at commencement.
“It’s going to be sad not taking pictures (with him),” Jenkins said.
The future
Ye plans to watch the commencement ceremony online.
“I don’t know what to expect, but I hope it won’t be just a pre-recorded commencement,” he said.
He plans to take a gap year, doing internships and applying to graduate programs. He may apply to a program in the United States.
Jenkins hopes they see each other in person, perhaps on a vacation somewhere in another part of the globe.
Ye’s future is yet to be written, but one thing is clear. No more late night classes.
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