Coming to the United States represented the fulfillment of a dream for Amanda Korinihona, but now she's thinking about leaving.
The uncertainty of the global novel coronavirus pandemic and the United States' policies for international students have Korinihona and other international students worrying if they can afford to stay. She wonders if she can take the risk of starting the fall semester at Henderson State University and not being able to finish it.
"I really want to stay," she said.
She's asking as many friends and family members as possible for advice. She'll need to decide soon so she can prepare for whatever her decision is.
"America is going through a lot right now," Korinihona said. "I'm just thinking of where I am right now. There's things I cannot control."
Korinihona, a 26-year-old Master of Business Administration student, is among many international students in Arkansas and across the nation evaluating the future of their education in ways they never anticipated. They are questioning whether they can keep attending the school they've chosen or even stay in the country.
Federal law requires international students to take at least a full-time course load in in-person classes. So an undergraduate student would need to take at least 12 credit hours of in-class courses, but could take an online course in addition to that.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued an exception to that rule this spring, when colleges and universities across the country pivoted to remote-only instruction as a means of preventing the spread of the coronavirus on campuses.
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But last week, less than two months before the fall semester is set to begin at Arkansas' institutions of higher education, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said international students must go home or transfer if their institutions aren't open for in-person classes this fall. International students could take more than one online course, but they must take at least one in-person course, the agency determined.
Following the announcement, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology filed a joint lawsuit, contending the rule threw fall plans into chaos and potentially incentivized in-person courses posing public health risks. Both schools have opted for mostly online-only courses.
The number of international students enrolled at U.S. colleges has declined since fall 2015, according to the federal "Open Doors" report, from about 301,000 to about 270,000 nati0nwide during the 2018-19 academic year. International students have been heavily recruited for years, however, and they often pay more in undergraduate tuition than other undergraduates at a school.
The rule change was a surprise to college advisers, said Blake Smith, international student adviser at Henderson State.
Now Smith has students calling him, worried they wouldn't be able to return home, even if they were forced to.
Arkansas colleges, home to about 3,600 international students in fall 2018, have by and large announced they plan to have in-person courses this fall. Many are planning hybrid online and in-person courses. Moving all courses online is a last resort, but schools are preparing their courses for the possibility.
Still, rising coronavirus cases have some people worried about the likelihood of schools needing to transition to online-only. Such a transition would mean international students must return home.
But it could also complicate how courses are offered, said Beth Katya Zilberman, director of the immigration clinic at the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville. Many international students are graduate students who may be teaching courses. Having them return home could disrupt the course's schedule.
Further, being out of the U.S. for more than five months in a row threatens an international student's visa.
If a student is out of the country for more than five months, he must obtain a new visa, said Donna Allen, vice president for student affairs at Southern Arkansas University. Currently, new international students or returning ones who went home for the summer have expressed frustrations at embassy closures during the pandemic, Allen said. Some already know they can't return and must take online-only course loads from their home countries.
If she returned home, Korinihona's home country, the Solomon Islands, would force her to quarantine on a nearby island nation. She'd have to pay for a place to stay and food and supplies during the temporary stay, and she'd need an internet connection to continue her coursework. She's not sure she can afford all of that.
Korinihona has lost income already from not teaching tennis lessons or having a summer job. She can only hold an off-campus job if she's taking courses, but she couldn't afford the tuition this summer to start with, she said. So she's not sure she can afford to stay, either.
"I'm almost close to giving up finding ways to stay," she said.
Chukwunonso Nwakoby is from Nigeria, which isn't allowing travelers from the U.S. right now. If he can't go back to Nigeria and he can't stay in the U.S., he's not sure where he'll be able to go.
Nwakoby is struggling financially, too. He lost his income as a barista at the campus' Starbucks and doesn't earn a stipend from his job as a university resident assistant. He didn't qualify for a stimulus check, like most college students.
Others could return home but are worried about what awaits them, Smith said. One student from Libya is on the cusp of a December graduation and worries he'll have to return to his war-torn nation without the college degree he left to obtain.
Nwakoby, 25, came to the U.S. to help advance his medical education. He's a biology Master's student and intends to go to medical school.
"If you want to make a difference in the world, the United States is a great place to come," he said.
He's still hopeful.
So is Korinihona.
Korinihona's vision for her future included making connections in business and spending her career here, eventually using the money she made on investments to finance endeavors that would make the world a better place.
The U.S. is the best place to realize her goals, she said.
She's from the Solomon Islands, a collection of lands in Oceania that together are just more than one-fifth the size of Arkansas, in both land size and population.
"For me, personally, it's a very big decision," Korinihona said. "Should I stay or should I leave? Because it's going to affect my future."