According to CSUN Counts, there were only 1,068 international students enrolled at CSUN in Fall of 2020 compared to the year before with 1,377 international students enrolled. 

In the U.S. alone, there are about 1.1 million international students who enrolled in schools in the school year 2019/2020. 

In the summer of 2020, Immigration and Customs Enforcement updated their policy, stating that international students on F-1 and M-1 Visas may not remain in the U.S. or legally enter the U.S. if their classes are online unless they transfer to an institution that offers in-person classes. 

“So, I thought I couldn’t stay here because I didn’t have a class that requires me to be present, so I was thinking I need to find a class that needs me to be here even though it’s useless for me,” Yu. “One of my friends told me that she was going to take a jazz class so she can stay here.”

This policy was rescinded on July 14, 2020 thanks to Judge Allison Burrough, a federal judge in Boston, who announced that the schools had reached an agreement with ICE and the Department of Homeland Security. 

Yu was happy that the government was able to resolve the issue. 

Although Yu is able to stay in the United States she hasn’t seen her family for almost a year, so loneliness has affected her and she is angry that the U.S. didn’t handle the pandemic well.

When she wakes up in the morning, Stephanie Yu listens to a news podcast and starts her morning routine. She brushes her teeth, makes breakfast, prepares a cup of coffee and logs in to Zoom in her Northridge apartment. 

Yu is an international student from China who’s majoring in film production and minoring in photography. She is 22 years old and is currently a photojournalist for the Daily Sundial, CSUN’s campus newspaper.

Before the pandemic, she worked part time at the Sierra Marketplace as a cashier but lost her job when CSUN’s campus closed in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. 

Yu had this job so she could buy equipment for her photography projects. 

“It was nice to have extra money in hand to purchase props and it was helpful to work there financially,” Yu said.  

The pandemic changed international students’ lives because their schools transitioned to remote learning, many lost their on-campus jobs and they couldn’t visit their families back home.

Because Yu is an international student, she’s not allowed to work outside of campus so she immediately applied for a Mata Care Grant and was able to receive more than $100 to cover her expenses. Also, her parents send her a sufficient amount of money so she doesn’t struggle financially like other international students.