Junior Chris Fortune chose to stay at home in Overland Park, Kansas, in fall 2020 to take his classes online. He was surprised when the pandemic initially hit in the United States. He went home for spring break and has not been back to campus for classes since.
Online school has been an adjustment for Fortune because he had never taken or planned to take an online class at KU. He feels like it is more difficult to make connections with peers and build relationships with professors when classes are not in person. He is glad the Journalism School is providing students the resources they need, such as equipment for projects.
Fortune’s workload has stayed the same, but now that he is not coming to campus, he saves time on his commute and gets some extra sleep. He is hopeful there will be a vaccine soon and things will return to normal. In the meantime, he keeps in contact with friends to keep his spirits up, but when they do see each other he makes sure they are safe and socially distant.