My grandmother was diagnosed with polio as a young child. She was given vaccines and medicine to stop the disease and help her recover. But to this day, she struggles to walk, a lasting reminder of the toll the disease took on her. She always needed help from my dad to get around and, eventually, my brother and I would lend an arm to support her. As she aged, her physical mobility suffered, and by the time she turned 50, she was unable to climb up the stairs of her own house. I still remember the last time I visited her, with her laughing about how she hadn’t seen the second floor of her own home in over 20 years.

The Department Of Health and Human Services has recently found itself under new leadership with the incoming Trump administration — with Robert F. Kennedy (RFK), nephew of John F. Kennedy (JFK), as the new head of the department. RFK is known for his skepticism of vaccines, claiming they cause autism in children. “Kennedy is also the founder of the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, the most well-funded anti-vaccine organization in the U.S,” according to CNBC. With his appointment, RFK has begun to challenge the relevance of many vaccines, including the polio vaccine for children. He has since announced an examination of childhood vaccine schedules after promising not to do so, according to the Los Angeles Times. His review of these programs will question the efficacy of vaccines protecting children from multiple diseases, including measles. My grandmother’s condition has haunted my father and had a significant impact on me. Why would I ever support someone who is trying to take away the very vaccine that spared my grandmother’s life?

This and other troubling developments within the new Trump administration have made me question my university choices. 

I had every intention of moving back to the U.S. for my undergraduate studies, having appled to a total of six schools, all of which I love. After discussing my idea of a perfect campus with my college counselor, we began our search for small liberal arts universities — campuses with strong communities, smaller classes, and peer collaboration, all to encourage thoughtful learning. I spent months curating a list. I spent weeks over the summer touring different campuses and emailing university representatives. I spent my entire summer fixated on research. I had never considered a scenario where I wouldn’t go to one of these schools. But the new administration has shaken my confidence. 

And the second I saw that USAID was forced to withhold resources from countries in need, I knew I had no choice but to question my decision to attend university in the U.S. The House of Representatives and Senate both now hold a Republican majority, meaning the party has control over all three branches of government. There seems to be no stopping the man in power, who is even turning up his nose at judicial decisions and ignoring the rule of law.  We are witnessing the breakdown of international relations and the beginning of tariff wars. 

So I decided to act.

I scheduled a meeting with my college counselor, and we created a broad list of universities and countries that were still accepting applications for next fall, with Ireland at the top of my list. Unfortunately, I had missed the Jan. 31 UCAS deadline, meaning I had missed the window to apply to the United Kingdom by mere days. Suddenly the stress was back on, and I had to set new deadlines for myself and research new systems I had never worked with before such as the direct application systems to University College Cork and University of Galway. All the while, I was watching the country where I was born fall into more chaos and uncertainty. 

And I’m not the only one in this position.

Jaya B., an ISB senior, has also begun a search for European universities. “There is a solidarity in the fear we feel,” Baluci says of the community of students impacted.  “We are kind of bonding over our mutual disdain.” 

Jaya also has a family member working for USAID, one of the agencies the Trump administration has gutted. Although her family member’s job has been labeled as essential to the region, “Nearly 900,000 federal workers could be furloughed without pay and more than 1.4 million could have to continue working,” according to CNN. An article in Fortune emphasizes the impact of these cuts by highlighting that government employment accounted for nearly 1.9% of the nation’s civilian workforce as of November 2024. 

Both Jaya and the head of college counseling at ISB, Curt Nichols, have indicated that the majority of students concerned about the political climate of the U.S. are American citizens. “I think it’s more just because they are American and it’s a conversation at home,” Nichols says. “I’m not sure if certain groups just aren’t aware or that they don’t care.”

In fact, polarization is so extreme that it has emboldened people to act aggressively and without social courtesy. “The scary part is that people act differently,” Nichols says, referencing a previous visit he had to the states during the 2016 Trump administration.

I was never ready to settle in America for the rest of my life, and the current administration has proved to me why.