After being evicted from her dorm and living through two months of quarantine lockdown, Madison Marsh had a summer of uncertainty.

“At first I wasn’t sure if I would continue being a student at Purdue,” said Marsh, a junior hospitality major. “The pandemic came like a tidal wave, first thing campus was running with no problem, the next thing I found myself being told by my room advisor to pack my things.”

Northwest Indiana was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and many residents and businesses still face uncertain times. Thousands of Purdue Northwest students were taken by surprise as campus was placed on lockdown.

As Marsh found herself packing her belongings, unsure of her future, she got even more bad news. She was laid off from her job in May. Suddenly, she had neither a place to work nor a place to live.

“It was shocking to find myself leaving the dorms so soon because I didn’t think the coronavirus would spread as fast as it did,” she said. “I could understand the reasoning behind the closure of the dorms but when I was laid off from my position at work, I thought things were getting really bad.”

Despite these events Marsh eventually got her job back.

To get her mind off things, she spent as much time as possible with her family and boyfriend. They went on vacation to a private beach resort in North Carolina in July. She rehearsed for a musical and exercised to stay healthy.

Eventually, the COVID-19 situation calmed down enough that her employer called her back to work.