Elizabeth Ouanemalay slips on rubber gloves and wraps a black scarf with pink hearts around her face before venturing outside. She obsessively counts how many door handles she touches on the journey to pick up each of her meals: six. No one wants Covid-19, but she really doesn’t want it. She has lupus, an autoimmune disease.
The Wesleyan University freshman is fearing for more than just her physical safety, though. She is a first-generation student from a low-income family, and the virus has also upended her fledgling academic and financial security.
Image: Photographs by Bradley E. Clift for The Chronicle Elizabeth Ouanemalay, a first-generation college student at Wesleyan University, is facing the threat of the coronavirus alone on a largely deserted campus.
