International ORU Students Make A Home Away From Home

While Oklahomans are staying home right now, hundreds of students at Oral Roberts University can't.

Now, they're making ORU feel like home.

There are about 400 students still living on campus, including about 100 international students.

Two of them said they're just trying to adjust to their new normal.

Polly Tjihenuna and Alejandro Contreras are studying different subjects and from different countries, but while most of their peers have already gone home, they can't.

"I wish I was home for sure. With everything going on, I would like to be with my family," Alejandro said.

Alejandro is a senior at ORU from Guatemala.

He wants to stay in the US for at least another year and wants to get a job as a graphic designer.

But he says his plans to fly home next week aren't going to happen since his flight was canceled.

"It is a weird feeling," he said.

Polly, a junior, studying sociology, is from Namibia.

She said she already planned on working at ORU this summer.

But she said with so few students on campus, nothing feels normal.

"ORU is about the community culture, so now to take out your food to go and not being with more than three people at a time, it's so un-ORU," Polly said.

Communications director Stephanie Hill said the roughly 400 students that can't go home are able to stay in dorms alone through the summer if they need to.

Polly and Alejandro Both say the adjustment to online classes has also been hard.

"Doing online school has been a great adjustment," Polly said. "I'm more of a verbal processor."

Both students said they're trying to make living at ORU feel like home.

"This is the new normal for me," Polly said.

Both students said their families are safe in their home countries.

Alejandro hopes to go home in May but says everything is up in the air for now.