ASU students describe chaotic return from China due to coronavirus

KTAR News
Date: March 1, 2020
By: Hannah Foote, Cronkite News

ASU students Kylie Kennelly, Edward Witte, Margaret Zheng and Ryan Featherston visit Sun Yat Sen Mausoleum in Nanjing, China, before their study abroad program was canceled due to COVID-19 concerns. (Photo courtesy of Maggie Zheng)

LOS ANGELES – Study-abroad student Margaret Zheng was vacationing in Taiwan when she learned she had seven days to return to the United States, abandoning her studies in China, because of safety concerns about the spread of COVID-19.

Panicked, the 22-year-old Arizona State University senior in biomedicine reached out to friends and family to decide whether to risk returning to China to gather her belongings, or return to the U.S. without them.

Program officials discouraged her from returning for her things, so Zheng flew home to Arizona on Feb. 5. Two days later, she signed a document stating there is no guarantee of recovering her belongings.

Zheng and two other students in the ASU Chinese Language Flagship program students interviewed by Cronkite News said they have not received their belongings or reimbursements for their unplanned flights home. Four Flagship students in Nanjing were affected.
[FULL  STORY]

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