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International students at Lycoming College who are still unable to return home have not been forgotten by the community as they were invited to a barbecue at St. Boniface Catholic Church on Sunday.
"It makes me feel like I matter," said Aseel Tork, a student from Palestine.
Although she was prepared for a "depressing" summer, the community developed by international students and the Williamsport community has made their time enjoyable.
"I thought that I'm going to just work and go back to my room to do nothing but then it turned out that I got to know a great community and a great city here," she said.
"I actually love it, it's becoming like a home away from home," she added.
Shania, of Mauritius, said getting groceries in the area can be hard when restricted to either traveling by city bus or walking.
"Sometimes it takes you like an hour to travel," she said. "Having someone bring you food once in a while -- that's amazing. You just feel that you're cared for by people and they understand that you're struggling."
Dan Miller, vice president for student life and dean of students, said that although students were allowed to live in the dorms without rent, given $100 gift cards for groceries and a food pantry was also set up, they certainly could have felt cut off from society.
"There's a great testament to the resiliency of the students to manage through this pandemic in a manner of one where they've created community amongst themselves," he said. "There was a real risk of loneliness, a sense of isolation, but the generosity of St. Boniface and reaching out to support has been uplifting for them."
Under the programming of college President Kent C. Trachte, Miller said the institution has worked to create opportunities for the college to be engaged by the community and vice versa.
This time it was Rev. Bill Corcoran from St. Boniface who reached out to the college and helped organize the meal for the students, of which there were plenty of leftovers that were taken back to the dorms.
"They've been shocked that we have any concern whatsoever for them," he said.
After speaking with college administrators, Corcoran said that although the college is their neighbor, they often rarely know anyone who attends.
Not wanting the students to feel like another group sidelined by COVID-19, "this is a way of seeming more neighborly," he said.
"I think they're really touched, because it's not just that we're feeding them, but it's also just giving them the warm feeling that somebody cares," said Corcoran.
Tork said all of the students are grateful for the church.
"We all know that after graduating we're going to come back here and invest because we're now part of this community," she said.