by Dacoda McDowell-Wahpekeche, Student Reporter
Northwestern students returned to campus August 17 for the first time since schools closed in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Some Northwestern students who stayed in Alva over the summer said they spent their time with friends, held down jobs in town, and lived their lives as normally as possible.
“It was safer here rather than going home,” Delia Jackson, a sophomore biology health science major from Norman, said.
Due to the COVID-19 virus, Jackson said she wanted to stay in Alva for the summer rather than return home to Norman, where the coronavirus surged in the spring. Norman Mayor Breea Clark imposed a citywide mask mandate, though the City of Alva never did.
Jackson said she enjoyed spending time with her friends on the university’s softball team. Some of them lived in Alva for the summer, and others came back to Alva to visit Jackson.
She said she spent a lot of time cleaning her house, working at Walmart, and going to rodeos in the area. She also made the Vice President’s Honor Roll while taking classes in microcomputer applications, medical terminology, and wellness concepts.
Landry Gaddy, a sophomore political science major from Alva, said the university’s closure did not greatly affect her daily life.
This summer, she stayed in Alva with her parents while working at G&G Furniture. She went swimming in the local country club’s pool, drove down country roads, and took a trip to Creede, Colorado. Gaddy also took summer classes and received a spot on the President’s Honor Roll for completing 10 credit hours.
Stephen “Scotland” McCluskey, a senior health and sports science major, stayed in the United States this summer. With international flights canceled, he could not return to his home in Motherwell, Scotland.
McCluskey quarantined in the Dallas, Texas, area with another Northwestern family. After a few months in Dallas, he returned to Alva to spend the rest of the summer with teammates, friends, and his new dog named Scrappy. He attended a few local rodeos and worked for the university’s recruitment office, helping to bring in freshmen students.
“No one was here, and the classes were rough, so everything was spontaneous and ‘go with the flow,’” McCluskey said. “It was tough because nothing was really open.”