Story by Sophie Brock, Photos Courtesy of Katie Allen March 18, 2021

March 12th marks the one-year anniversary of the University of Arkansas going virtual. While most students can recall where they were on campus when they received the email that sealed their fate, students studying abroad, were unaware of what was awaiting them at home.

Originally from Batesville, Arkansas, UA senior Katie Allen always knew she wanted to study abroad. It wasn’t until her sophomore year when she was in the lobby of the study abroad office that she decided to go to New Zealand.

“I looked over and this lady was putting a book about New Zealand on the shelf,” Allen said. “I remember being like ‘that’s where I’m going.’”

The University encourages students to study abroad by giving out numerous scholarships and helping guide them in their decisions. The University website lists several benefits that come from studying abroad, one being that 90 percent of students who studied abroad were able to get a job within six months of graduating.

 

When Allen left for New Zealand on February 21, 2020, COVID-19 wasn’t a concern for her. At that point, everything she knew about it had come from a DailyMail article she read. While in customs, Allen was stopped and asked about COVID-19.

The security guard asked Allen why she was coming to New Zealand and after she explained she was there for school, the guard told Allen he had already turned several girls from Beijing away from entering New Zealand.

“The guard told me he turned the girls from Beijing away because of ‘that disease’ due to it being a virus in China,” Allen said. “I walked away thinking about those girls and wondering if they were going to be in any of my classes but now they can’t which is so horrible. Like to get that far and then to be in customs and be turned away because you’re from Beijing is so horrible,” Allen said.

Unlike those girls from Beijing, Allen proceeded to New Zealand where for the next month she would live in a house with 11 people and take four classes at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. 

It wasn’t until two weeks later that COVID-19 began to be a concern for her and her housemates as their universities started to email them and give them the option of returning home. By that time, COVID-19 had begun to spread rapidly throughout Italy—one of the more popular study abroad options—so UA had emailed out it’s first warning to all of it’s students. 

Since Katie was the only UA student in New Zealand, the head of the department emailed her personally to inform her that while they wanted her to be able to stay, there was still the possibility of her being sent home if the disease were to come to New Zealand.

After the first wave of these emails, many students in the other student housing had begun to return home to their home countries in fear of COVID-19 hitting New Zealand. Nonetheless, no one in Allen’s home had left yet. They opted to stay in the house for as long as they could. 

Allen recalls standing in her little kitchen with her other housemates when one of them, Fredrico who came from Cicily, Italy, started to panic due to the increase in COVID-19 cases in Italy.

“My entire house was a safe haven, no one wanted to leave and go into that reality because New Zealand had no cases yet, and it felt like paradise,” Allen said. “The world was crumbling around us and here we were in our little smitten house.”

Then, COVID-19 became real one evening as Allen was getting ready for dinner. 

She got an unexpected FaceTime call from her friends who were back home in Fayetteville. They had just been informed classes would be taught remotely for the remainder of the semester. 

“Everyone was screaming and hollering and my friends who were on campus were FaceTiming me and showing me how people were cheering and driving away and being like ‘woo hoo longer spring break!’” Allen said.  “I remember having that FaceTime and being like ‘my gosh I hope this doesn’t come to New Zealand.’”

The next morning, New Zealand had its first COVID-19 case, and within 48 hours the country began to shut down and UA contacted Allen to tell  her she had to come home.

“I responded to that email with no,” Allen said. “Not only did I not want to leave New Zealand, but it also was not safe in America either. Arkansas had just declared a state of emergency because it just had its first case, so why would I go to a state who just declared an emergency?” Allen said. 

She was then able to talk to her abroad program coordinator in New Zealand to attempt to fight to stay in New Zealand, which felt like the safer option at the time.

Her coordinator told her she could argue her case if she got several statements from herself and others pleading why staying in New Zealand would be safer to send to the Arkansas government. 

After her and her parents both wrote statements, Allen’s mom called the head of Wellington’s CDC in an attempt to get their help. 

Due to the surplus of messages the CDC was getting that day, her mom was sent straight to voicemail where she explained her daughter’s situation and how she was from Batesville, Arkansas. 

By some twist of fate, the head of the CDC had been walking past her phone and heard that message. Seeing as she lived in Batesville prior to moving to New Zealand, she immediately called Allen’s mom back. 

After calling her mom back, Allen got a letter from the CDC arguing for her to stay in New Zealand. Once she got this statement, she sent it in an email to the Arkansas government after 30 hours of no sleep and nearly all of her housemates leaving their house. 

Regardless of the statements, the government rejected her choice, meaning that Allen was no longer represented by the state of Arkansas. Unless she bought an apartment in New Zealand, she had less than 12 hours to leave as she was not  considered a New Zealand citizen and New Zealand was shutting its borders.

After all of this, Allen landed back in America exactly a month after leaving and similar to the other college students, returned home for the next several months.

Allen feels as though she’s grown tremendously since being sent home a year ago, she said. 

“I’ve learned more about myself.  When the pandemic reached New Zealand, I was alone in trying to figure out how it was going to work out for me, and so it was one of those testing moments where I really had to rely on myself,” Allen said. “I mean there was a lot and I didn’t sleep for 30 hours, and there were a lot of tears, and I made a lot of decisions, and I know my parents are proud of the lady that came out of the airport that day,” 

Allen hopes to return to New Zealand again one day. New Zealand currently only has four cases of COVID-19,  and people are able to host social events such as large gatherings and concerts.

Katie Allen’s story is one of hundreds of students of the UA who remember where they were when they got sent home because of COVID-19. March 12 is a day that no one will forget for years to come.