Black Women On The Front Lines Of The Coronavirus

Callay Coleman is an 18-year-old freshman at SUNY Brockport who had to go home for the semester due to COVID-19.

Source: Callay Coleman / Courtesy of Callay Coleman

MN: How were you notified to leave campus?

CC: At the beginning of March, we were told to leave campus. With my SUNY, at first, there was no definite decision. They were telling us not to worry about it and a couple of days before spring break they were like the governor has made their decision and SUNY’s will close and partake in online classes, 

MN: Were you surprised when you were told to vacate?

CC: I didn’t want to come back home, like I said I was getting the hang of things. I’m also a nursing major and we have classes where we have labs and they are sending us emails about how it would work. It was disappointing.

MN: Are you taking online courses?

CC: I haven’t started yet but they might be difficult just because they’re online and professors will probably overload them more. Some of the classes are fine but the main classes like science and classes that are hands on or lectures, we had to teach ourselves. At the same time the labs are very useful and we have one lab a week and they basically sum up what we learn in one week in a lab and it helps more than listening to lectures, so we get more of a feel of the material.