The sorrow in the voice of Paul Quinn College senior Jennifer Fletcher was heavy and resigned: “I’m packing. I’m packing my things to go home.”
The 21-year-old Dallas student and I talked just before she piled her belongings into the car over the weekend and, with sister and fellow Paul Quinn senior Jazzmun Norman, headed home to Memphis — and an uncertain future.
The coronavirus scare has thrown kids off campuses coast to coast, but nowhere is the abrupt exile more painful and potentially devastating than for Paul Quinn students.
Jennifer, a business management major, ended the awful week feeling overwhelmed, stressed and trying her best to tamp down her anger. “It’s just too much to take in right now,” she said.
Trying to navigate her coursework online from her family’s home, rather than alongside her Paul Quinn classmates, will be a tall order. “I love my family, but I just don’t want to get distracted,” she said.
