Elizabeth Ouanemalay's college journey has not been easy. The California native spent part of high school homeless, living in a car with her mom and working as a waitress and at other jobs to support the two of them.

Now she is facing the threat of the coronavirus, alone on a largely deserted campus and uncertain what her future at Wesleyan University will look like.

The burden of the pandemic crisis has illuminated and reinforced the staggering class divides in higher education, especially for first-generation and low-income students like Ouanemalay.

Dreama Gentry, executive director of Partners for Education at Berea College in Kentucky, worries about the impact of the coronavirus on incoming rural college students.

Students from rural areas have historically struggled with college access. Now, the coronavirus is likely to exacerbate that reality.

Through her program, which focuses on rural academic success in the Appalachian Mountains, Gentry and colleagues are taking new measures to ensure high school students keep on track to college amid a pandemic.