As a teenager, a significant portion of Layna Adams’ life was oriented around a single goal: graduating from college. Neither of her parents had a bachelor’s degree, and her brother had left community college with a certificate in computer programming. “My parents always wanted me to go to college,” Adams says. “They wanted me not to go through the struggles they did.”
At her small high school in Udall, Kansas, Adams racked up achievements she thought would help get her into a degree program. She was class president. She participated in athletics. She excelled in the classroom and out. By the time Adams graduated in 2019 as valedictorian of her class, she had accepted an offer to attend Wichita State University.
Within a year of beginning her studies, however, Adams was struggling. As with other schools, the COVID-19 pandemic had forced Wichita State to move classes online. For a young student like Adams, it was an isolating and disorienting time. Her singular focus on getting into college hadn’t prepared her for the experience of navigating it…