Washington Monthly - September/October 2020 - 19

ten miles square

because I didn't know where I was going to live," she said. She described the
debacle, and the ensuing relocation of
remaining students, as confusing and
nightmarish.
Ultimately, RAs were allowed to stay,
and McKinstry was reassigned to oversee some of the remaining students. She
was able to finish her thesis. But forgoing all of the traditional graduation
ceremonies and events was devastating. "It was awful," she said. "I missed
out on a ton of stuff." Under normal
circumstances, she'd have given a talk
about her thesis, attended graduation
ceremonies for the history and psychology departments, and participated
in graduation for the whole university.
Her parents had been emphasizing the
importance of going to college since she
was in elementary school, and she was
going to be the first in her family to
graduate. When your family is so excited, she said, it's hard to celebrate your
accomplishments without those formal ceremonies. "There's this sense of
loss, and just lack of closure after four
years." -GH

Courtesy of the students

KEYONNA JONES
AGE: 21
SCHOOL: Western Oregon University
(Monmouth, OR)
PROGRAM: Bachelor's, accounting
with a communications minor
YEAR: Senior

eyonna Jones has a goal: score
1,000 points in her collegiate basketball career. Under normal circum-

stances, it would be very obtainable.
Right now, the Western Oregon University senior has 704 points. One more
full season and she should cross the
four-figure milestone.
But COVID-19 means that for Jones,
one more full season is far from certain.
The pandemic has already forced her Division II school to cancel its entire fall
sports season. "Our football, soccer, and
volleyball [teams] aren't playing," she
said. She's worried that winter sports
like basketball will be next.
It's easy to see why it would be so disappointing for Jones. She's been playing
basketball since she was a seven-yearold growing up in Bothell, Washington.
She played for her public high school,
winning a conference championship
her senior year, before being recruited
by Western Oregon and offered a scholarship. It was a dream come true for
Jones, who had aspired to play college
basketball since she was a kid. She decided to commit to the school after visiting the campus and immediately feeling at ease with the girls on the team.
The possibility of cancelation, or
even abridgment, is excruciating. "I
don't want to have a half season or not
be able to play games," Jones said. "It's
my senior year. I have goals I want to
reach." -NG

ELENA LITVINOVA
AGE: 31
SCHOOL: Hunter College, City
University of New York (NYC, NY)
PROGRAM: Bachelor's, physics
YEAR: Senior

hen New York City became the
pandemic's epicenter in March,
Elena Litvinova, who was finishing
her junior year at Hunter College, got
lucky. While most of her friends had
their summer internships canceled,
her plan to do research for the U.S.
Department of Energy on how plasmas create fusion energy was able to
go ahead. "They took some time to
make rearrangements, but they didn't
cancel anything," she said.
That was a relief to Litvinova, a nontraditional student who had already
earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of California,
Berkeley, but decided to make a career change and pursue her passion
for physics by getting a second bachelor's degree. "I don't live with my parents, I have my own apartment, and
so I have a steady space that's reliable and not, you know, loud and surrounded by family members."
Her summer job was done entirely from home-and it kept her busy.
Each day consisted of Zoom meetings
with an adviser and other researchers, discussing and deconstructing
their latest findings. She's now studying for the GRE and preparing to apply to physics PhD programs for the
fall of 2021, such as Princeton, Rutgers, and Columbia. She hopes to become a scholar of physics or astrophysics.
In the meantime, she has one more
academic year left at Hunter, which
has announced plans for mostly online learning next semester, with limited in-person courses in a few disciplines, including lab sciences. For
Litvinova, that's less than ideal, but
she realizes that the coronavirus
could spread if students congregate
in lecture halls, and is worried about
the possibility of a second wave of the
virus in New York. "I'm very tired of
being at home all the time," she told
me. "But I also want to stay safe."
-EV.
Nicole Girten, Giulia Heyward, and
Ellie Vance are editorial interns at the
Washington Monthly.
Washington Monthly 19

Washington Monthly - September/October 2020

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