“Afia Ofori-Mensa, 39, has lived alone for 16 years. For nine of those years she taught at Oberlin College in rural Ohio, where she had a limited social network. Last August, she moved to New Jersey to become director of Princeton University’s presidential scholars program — which provides resources to help undergraduates, including those from populations underrepresented in academia, pursue Ph.D.s. She said she was finally hitting her social stride, reconnecting with Oberlin alumni and family members in the area and routinely hopping on the train to attend events in neighboring cities. But then the coronavirus hit and it brought her feelings of isolation into sharp focus.

“’The moments that are most difficult are when I think about not knowing when I’ll be able to touch another human being again,’ she said. As someone with no pets, no partner — not even a plant — she said she felt profoundly lonely. ‘Sometimes I feel like I’m disappearing,’ she said.”

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