FEATURES

Meredith Prince, prinmc21@wfu.edu Chase Bagnall-Koger, bagncm21@wfu.edu Una Wilson, wilsui20@wfu.edu

OLD GOLD & BLACK PAGE 5

THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2022

Photo Courtesy of Mingxuan Zhu/Old Gold & Black Behind the mask: returning to WFU amid COVID

Exploring the impact of COVID on one Wake Forest international student

KIARA KAMLANI Contributing Writer

In May 2020, Mingxuan Zhu waited in line to board a five-hour flight from Charlotte International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport. She could feel the scientific goggles pressing into her eyes, with black gloves covering her hands and two KF94 masks — express shipped from her mom in China — covering her mouth.

Zhu’s heavy backpack weighed her down as she made her way down the airplane, avoiding the outstretched limbs of passengers in other rows and gripping her ticket close to her body until she found her window seat. Nobody sat directly to her right. But the aisle seat was occupied by a man using his t-shirt as a makeshift mask to cover his nose and mouth.

“It was my worst nightmare,” she recalled.

Stepping off the plane in Los Angeles, all Zhu could think about was food. Hundreds of passengers ran past her with masks either under their nose or chin. Since she did not want to take her mask off on the plane for even a second; her next meal would occur in Beijing.

Zhu then had to board an additional flight to Beijing, China. She prepared to leave her dorm at Wake Forest University with exactly 14 days worth of clothing, enough to last through the entire quarantine.

Months earlier, the former president, Donald Trump, and his administration sealed the border and restricted travel in and out of China. At the time, an unknown disease, now termed COVID-19, was spreading and the American government decided that closing the border was their best option to protect the country. However, this strategy left Zhu with no way of getting home.

“All I wanted was to fly home, I got more homesick by the day,” Zhu said. “ e process was too complicated and I just had to wait it out.”

For any Chinese student to get home during this time, they would need two negative covid tests — rapid and viral — a lung scan and a 14-day quarantine once arriving. If a person had been infected with COVID-19, they need to be recovered for six months, making it impossible for certain students to get home.

Given that 46% of Wake Forest’s international students are Chinese, the university made as many accommodations as possible with their limited staff.

“We asked, they listened, and we all made it work,” Zhu said. “We all were moved to the same dormitory building, but at least we had housing. e Pit was open, but that was our only option.”

On June 8, 2020, Zhu was able to board a flight back to China and after a two-week quarantine, reunited with her family. However, her expectation of returning to Wake Forest's campus in August was destroyed.

In early July, the Trump Administration rescinded visas for all international students taking fully virtual courses, which was Wake Forest’s plan. Students became aware of the change through an email sent by the university.

“I opened the email and was devastated,” Zhu said. “I could not come back to campus; I did not know when I would ever be able to come to campus.”

However, multiple universities sued the federal government in response to this policy. Wake Forest joined as an amicus curiae, a status that allows a person or institution to submit a brief as a third party.

“ is extremely affected all of our students abroad and we felt like we now had no control of the situation,” said Great Smith, Senior Advisor for International Students and Scholars at Wake Forest University.

In response to the lawsuit, the Trump administration rescinded the policy allowing students to legally remain in the country. Students with valid visas could now return to campus, but Zhu’s visa expired. e Trump administration stopped processing and renewing visas for applicants abroad due to a lack of resources, so universities were forced to replan the upcoming Fall 2020 semester.

Zhu checked her emails every day, waiting for updates from the university on what her courses would look like in the fall, if she could take any at all. Her biggest fear was falling behind, not being able to keep up with her coursework or graduate in time.

At exactly midnight on Jan. 10, 2021, Zhu sat down at her desk, in her small, dark room to begin her school day. Her blue star patterned curtains stayed closed on her left; behind them was the dark, lifeless city of Beijing.

“I would rather have the little stars with me than the darkness,” Zhu said. She opened her laptop and logged onto Zoom.

Since August 2020, Zhu had been taking classes every night from her bedroom — there was no other option. Fluorescent lights glared down on her, almost as if they were trying to keep her awake. She was in China living in a United States time zone.

She finished class around 6 a.m., about the time when her parents got up to start their day. ey were living in the same space, but not living the same lives.

“Good night,” Zhu would say, and her parents would respond good morning.

Many days she started her homework but became stuck when she realized many American sites were blocked by the Chinese government.

“ e censorship was getting worse; I had no access to a lot of information I needed,” she explained.

Canvas and Zoom, essential to virtual learning, crashed often.

Many times throughout the semester, she woke up her father during his sleep because the internet connection was not working or unstable. is meant that their VPN, which allowed her to use foreign internet, was down. Zhu lived this daily cycle for about nine months — the entirety of her junior year.

Zhu:

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Ironically, from her professors’ point of view, she did really well. Professor Justin Catanoso, Zhu’s journalism professor, explained how her performance was the same or better than students taking News Literacy on campus.

“Other than her looking a bit sleepy, her participation was just as regular and insightful as any others in the class, often more so,” Catanoso said. “While she was doing her reporting from Beijing, much of it over Zoom with sources in other parts of the world, her work was not hampered or different from those working on campus.”

He noticed her trying to fight a fog in her head, but he always called on her as much as any other student as participation was not an option. He did not treat her any different than a student physically on campus.

On Aug. 17, 2021, Zhu sat by herself at a small table in Benson University Center. She took in the people around her, the noise, the shuffle and the smell of American fast food. She took her first bite of waffle-cut french fries and Chick-FilA sauce, the moment she has been waiting for.

“I missed that so much,” Zhu said. “Nothing compares to that in China.”

Life was finally returning to a new type of normal on her first day of senior year.

“I felt that air at Wake,” Zhu said. “It is so much fresher than the [air] in Beijing, I could breathe well.” Then she unpacked her suitcases at Dogwood Residence hall and felt like a normal student again. She went directly to her favorite place on campus; the track.

“I missed the track more than anything,” Zhu said. She ran 28 laps before she was so out of breath she had to stop. Life felt real again.

The transition back to campus was not as easy as Zhu assumed. Because she was in China a whole year she had to readjust to living away from her parents.

“I felt like a freshman again, being independent was a big struggle,” she said. “This is the time I have to be an adult.”

The initial anxiety was put aside by the beginning of classes. Even though she enjoyed in-person classes instead of virtual ones, the workload picked up and overtook her daily life.

“Campus was lively. I felt happy again,” Zhu said.

In those first months, when she looked at a classmate, half their face was covered, but that was better than looking at them in a little box.

A/perture Cinema: A Winston-Salem Arthouse

SOPHIA MARCHELI

Tucked in next to Jeffrey Adams and across from Mellow Mushroom, the cozy, four-theater A/perture Cinema recently became one of only seven local film theaters across the United States to host the well renowned Sundance Film Festival.

After starting the cinema in 2010, Executive Creator and one-time Winston-Salem native Lawren Desai worked to bring people into the world of arthouse cinema.

Rashad Little, a board member at A/perture, spoke about the community feel and the importance of the showing, as well as the city’s connection to the cinema.

“Being a part of this community, any time you say film, I think being a part of this community is kind of crazy because it’s a global community but it’s also like a local community,” Little said.

The location of A/perture Cinema is also significant as it is in the heart of downtown on Fourth Street near the Stevens Center.

“The buzz right there in the middle of the city is just a great concentration of people,” Little said. “ I think that location gets every facet of the community from old to young, to different races and populations and genders and all these different things.”

The pull towards this film festival hosted at A/ perture was, in part, due to COVID-19. Desai noted that the festival being hosted at the smaller U.S theaters was the only way the Sundance films could be screened in person.

When looking to find local film cinemas to host their festival, A/perture not only offered the southern presence Sundance wanted but demonstrated quality cinema.

“With Sundance it was just the quality of our programming,” Desai said. “You look at what’s on screen in bigger cities and oftentimes we have films that they’re not even playing.”

Little also spoke to the importance of bringing the Sundance Film Festival to Winston-Salem.

“When she [Desai] told us about that opportunity, I was obviously excited about it because when you have a breath of fresh air with independent films and being in that community and being able to show those films I think it’s always an exciting time for the city,” Little said. “We worked hard to try to bring people here into the world of arthouse cinema. I think Sundance recognized that.”

Karen Absher, a staff member at A/perture, was also able to participate in the film festival.

“Sundance is a name you hear a lot and see a lot, but I never had a chance to see those films until we were able to show them here,” Absher said. “It gave you a chance to see things here you wouldn’t get a chance to see anywhere else.”

Absher was initially drawn to the A/perture Cinema and its community connection despite having no background in theater or cinema.

“What drew me to this cinema was how community based it is. The Winston-Salem community is very close and there really is a good connection between us and them.”

Not only was the Sundance Film Festival a draw for the Winston-Salem community, but it also managed to bring in audiences from around the United States as well.

“The best thing about it was we had several people come from out of the state even. They treated it like they were going to Sundance and they stayed overnight in hotels,” Desai said. “If you’re a film lover, Sundance is huge and I think people are willing to travel for it.”

In order to support the company’s continued growth and growing popularity, the Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County recently gave a $10,000 grant to A/Perture.

Page 7 | Thursday, March 17, 2022

Old Gold & Black | Features Campus Garden celebrates the spring equinox

UNA WILSON Asst. Features Editor

As cherry blossoms and da odils have begun to speckle Wake Forest’s campus with color, Campus Garden is preparing to celebrate the spring equinox on Sunday, Mar. 20 from 4-6 p.m. e event is open to the student body and is expected to draw crowds to the garden at 1141 Polo Rd to enjoy the sunshine and celebrate the coming of spring.

In the northern hemisphere, the spring equinox occurs when the sun moves north across the celestial equator. During an equinox, direct sunlight shines on the equator, so that the length of day and night is nearly equal for both hemispheres. Historically, the spring, or vernal equinox, signi es the rst day of spring.

Celebrating the spring equinox is a centuries-old tradition that has a di erent signi cance for many cultures. Crowds gather during the spring-- and fall-- equinoxes at the ruins of Chichen Itza, the ancient Mayan city in Mexico, to watch as the afternoon sun creates shadows that resemble a snake moving along the stairs of the 79-foot-tall Pyramid of Kukulkan, also called El Castillo. In Northern India, the spring equinox is a time to celebrate Holi, a colorful festival that involves throwing colored powder to celebrate the many colors of spring. In Central Asia, it is known as Norwuz, and is a day for spring cleaning, growth and bon res. ailand celebrates the coming of spring with the Songkran Water Festival, which involves street-wide water “ ghts” and splashing. e U.S. First Lady hosts the annual White House egg roll party, a tradition that has been around since the 1800s.

At Wake Forest, Campus Garden plans to hold their own celebration of the event, with a focus on sustainability, environmentalism and “plant-forward” lifestyles. e garden interns have tried to incorporate elements of traditional equinox celebrations from other cultures as well as an emphasis on nature and gardening in their event planning.

“We really want this to be a celebration of the coming of spring and new life,” senior Caroline Walker, a Campus

Garden intern, said. “ ere will be music, pins and badges to take home, plant-forward food available, and baby chicks and bunnies to meet!” Walker said.

According to Walker, the Spring

Equinox festival used to be an annual event, but it has been canceled for the past two years due to COVID-19. “I am so glad we can nally start this tradition again,” said Walker. “It’s such a great opportunity to introduce students to the garden and educate them about the earth.”

In past years, the Spring Equinox festival has marked the beginning of

Earth Month, a month-long extension of Earth Day put on by the O ce of

Sustainability. is year, Campus

Garden plans to restart the tradition.

Campus Garden Manager Nathan

Peifer emphasized that the ecological signi cance of the spring equinox is part of Campus Garden’s desire to host a celebration geared towards sustainability.

“Since 2017, the Spring Equinox

Celebration has been the signature event that starts the O ce of Sustainability’s

Earth Month programs. It’s a time to celebrate life and the newness of spring,” Peifer wrote in an email.

“Over the past couple of years, we’ve introduced students to baby chicks and honeybees, plant-forward dining and vegetable gardening, the Jewish celebration of trees called Tu BiSchvat, which happens in January, and a variety of campus organizations including our partner Campus Kitchen,” Peifer wrote.

“Some years have included poetry readings and meditation practices that promote balance and harmony. It’s primarily a social event (with some undertones of wellbeing) that provides a few hands-on experiences related to sustainability and agriculture.”

Campus Garden Intern Ty Zanders added that spending time in the garden provides many bene ts to wellness. “It’s easier for people to access nature when the weather gets warmer, so we wanted to jump on the opportunity to invite students to spend time outside.” Zanders said. “Going outside and feeling the sun radiate on your skin; it’s free dopamine from the sky.”

Zanders also expressed excitement about partnerships Campus Garden has formed while hosting the event. “We have tried to include a lot of di erent aspects of campus life, so there will be involvement from the Intercultural Center, the Women’s Center, Wakerspace, and many others. It should be a time lled with art, music, creation and connection and hopefully a time to introduce newcomers to the magic of the garden,” Zanders said.

“Spring is a time of growth and connection, so we wanted to represent the bonds we share with as many other campus involvement groups as possible at the celebration.”

Walker says she hopes the festival will introduce some students to the garden who haven’t engaged with the space before.

“I have learned so much from my time at the garden; not just about the environment and sustainability, but about other people too. I am continually fascinated by the people I have been able to connect with while cultivating the garden, and I would love for other students to be able to experience that as well. Hopefully, students will feel the beautiful energy of the garden and join us at our ‘connect and cultivate’ volunteer hours, which are held weekday afternoons from 5-6 p.m.”

“Going outside and feeling the sun radiate on your skin; it’s free dopamine from the sky.”

Photo courtesy of Una Wilson

Native insects and pollinators are buzzing around the campus garden, indicating the coming of spring.