we'll see you tomorrow. good night. >> announcer: this is "nightline." tonight, the class of covid. high school seniors graduating into a pandemic. >> i'm going to finish for him. i'm going to do this. >> dreams derailed but not destroyed. >> it's taught me to be grateful for everything. >> with no pomp and tough circumstance, what the future holds for students this fall. plus, abc news's kaylee hartung journey from covid-19 patient to plasma donor. the incredible story of hope and possibility in these trying times. >> announcer: "nightline" starts right now with juju chang. good evening. thanks for joining us. they are the class that'll go down in history as the class of covid. 2020. with those timeless rites of

passage canceled. prom, senior trips, graduation. but as my "nightline" co-anchor byron pitts discovered, they are determined to rise. >> when i envisioned going to college, i knew that it would create a better life for me. >> reporter: growing up in foster care in los angeles, dreaming about the future sometimes seemed like an indulgence for 17-year-old jenny soto. but she found a passion and a sense of belonging playing lacrosse. the coach's high gpa requirement kept her focused on her goal of going to ucla. >> yeah! >> reporter: this spring the senior at downey high school found out she had been accepted. >> i'm the first generation. just by me going to college it just flips my life around for not just me but everybody after me. >> reporter: the sense of achievement she and so many in the class of 2020 feel dampened by the loss of so many important moments this year. canceled proms, graduation ceremonies moved online, good-bye hugs postponed

indefinitely. those rites of passage impossible in the midst of a pandemic. >> i didn't ever go to a school dance because i thought like my senior year prom is going to be the only dance i'm going to go to. and it didn't happen. >> reporter: instead jenny says she danced with her brother at home, making the best of the situation. something that may be a hallmark for her generation. this weekend oprah winfrey calling on all seniors in her online commencement speech to lead through their newfound resilience. >> there is so much uncertainty. in truth there always has been. what i do know is that the same guts and imagination that got you to this moment, all those things are the very things that are going to sustain you through whatever is coming. >> it turns out that ploorom ha been canceled. that one hurt us a lot. in comparison to everything else going on in the world it's definitely something that we can sacrifice. >> one, two, three. >> reporter: senior prom would have been the cher join top to

18-year-old kenny clapp's extraordinarily successful career at baltimore's archbishop curley high school. >> one, two, three! >> reporter: he's captain of the varsity soccer team, sga president, a member of the youth ministry and has a 3.9 gpa. he's become an ambassador of sorts for the all-boys' school in baltimore featured in the welcome video to incoming freshmen. >> for the past four years archbishop curley has really become my home. >> reporter: the high school a life-changing experience for so many young men. >> congratulations. >> reporter: myself included. class of 2020. meet the class of 1978. kenny committing to play division 1 soccer at syracuse university. his mom, mia, beyond proud. >> he's like the best parts of us. to see him being able to make an impact in his community, it tells me that he is here for something bigger and i'm just grateful to have been a vessel. >> reporter: baptized at his

high school during his senior retreat week, another event canceled due to the pandemic. >> his entire school community was going to be there to support him. that was a bigger disappointment for me than prom. >> you're going to make me start crying now. come on. >> it was huge. it was such -- you know, it was just going to be such a big deal. and he was so proud. >> reporter: what has covid-19 taught you? zbl >> to be grateful. to cherish every single moment you have because in a split second it can be taken from you. >> reporter: that feeling of is sudden loss something jenny soto had to get used to from a young age. bouncing from home to home. pastor alex bernard was always part of her life. but she says it was the six years she lived with him as his daughter that had the biggest impact. zplukla would n >> ucla would not be a thing if i hadn't lived her. >> reporter: but nothing could her for the unexpected cruelty.

she found out she was accepted to ucla when her beloved foster father was at the hospital being evaluated for covid-19. she shared the news with him when he got home. >> and he hugged me. he wasn't supposed to hug me. we thought he was sick. we didn't know for sure. why not, i'm just going to hug him anyways. he was just like i'm so proud of you, mi hija. >> reporter: just eight days later her foster dad passed away. >> it was all happening fast. you always think things happen around us. it's never us. and this time it was us. >> reporter: she plans to study sociology so she can be a social worker who helps young people, carrying on her dad's legacy, who was a foster father to four children. >> i just know liej going to finish for him. i'm going to do this. he always thought i'm someone so smart. like i'm really not. but he always thought i have the smartest daughter. so that's for him. >> reporter: a. tom burnett also knows the toll covid-19 takes. he lost his grandfather at the end of march.

>> he battled it in the hospital for about a week. the only word i could use to describe it was torturous going through that for us and obviously him as well. and just the whole grieving process has been zrilt because of all the lockdowns and not being able to be near the people we love. >> oil into the pan. >> reporter: 18-year-old is known for his viral cooking videos on platforms like tik tok. offline he too is a high schooler grappling with this current moment. >> i did reach out to a grief counselor so i could have someone who's more professional and knows how to deal with it and there was no shame in asking for help. so that's what i'm doing. >> reporter: he's decided to take a gap year and focus on creating content. >> i'm trying stay positive and also know that my school is trying to do the best they can. >> we are definitely getting an uptick in people asking questions about what does it mean to defer, can i do that, and a lot of students just considering it because they feel like the school's not going to go back in session in person, they don't want to have an online experience to start their college career.

>> reporter: kim penney is an educational consultant who specializes in helping high school students and their families navigate the admission process. >> a lot of colleges their deadline is may 1st. high school students make the final decision to let them know they're coming. a lot of schools pushed it back to june 1st. with that we still have a lot of kids grappling with whether or not they're going to go back or go at all. >> reporter: the university of arizona announcing their plan to reopen this fall. will hinge on their own testing program here in their research lab they develop and will process covid-19 diagnostic and antibody tests, promising everyone on campus a test if they want it. the school has even started to convert this dorm into an isolation center. if students become sick with the virus, they'll get a room to themselves. food delivered and treatment by telemedicine. my colleague tom young has spoken to the school's president who is also a cardiothoracic

surgeon. >> what would it take for the university to close again? >> of all the questions that's the question that keeps me up at night. it doesn't keep me up at night. it wakes me up frequently at night. when is this experiment gone so wrong that we have to stop it? and i would say i don't have an answer for that right now. >> reporter: dr. anthony fauci has expressed caution about schools reopening. >> the idea of having treatments available or a vaccine to facilitate the re-entry of students into the fall term would be something that would be a bit of a bridge too far. >> reporter: california state university, the largest public college system in the u.s., with nearly 500,000 students, has already announced classes will be held online this fall. the university of south carolina announcing yesterday they'll hold in-person classes starting in august, skip fall break, and move to online classes at

thanksgiving. for t for the class of 2020 dreams may be deferred but not abandoned. >> i thought i was going to live on campus, live over there, but now my first year is going to be over here. i don't think there's any chance we're going to go. we'll be online. >> for me it's not a what if. it's just a when. i'm just repeating that over and over in my head. i know that until that time i'm still happy and training each and every day, just thinking and knowing that we'll get back to normal. >> our thanks to byron. up next, a potentially life-changing donation and the emotional reunion as one man was able to give thanks.

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tonight we're going up close and very personal on what doctors call plasma therapy, a possible treatment for covid-19. our kaylee hartung donating her plasma after she recovered from the virus. and then the moment she came face to face with the man who received her special gift.

>> reporter: this is a day the macias family feared would never come. daniel and his wife, mar-itsa, he doctors told us myith b >> reporter: rushed to pomona valley hospital, he was immediately put on a ventilator. >> we knew that he would fight with everything in him because how much he loved us. >> reporter: feeling like the hospital had exhausted every option, the family turned to an experimental treatment. taking plasma rich with antibodies to fight the virus from someone who's recovered. and giving it to those who are still battling it. with over 90,000 deaths in 50 states, i was on the ground in kirkland, washington as the virus began to spread. >> we've just seen another person loaded up into this ambulance to be taken to the hospital. >> reporter: this nursing home, the life care facility, the nation's first hot spot. just days after reporting on the story, i became a part of it.

>> congested. got a headache. right here. >> i've got a lot of quarantine time ahead. >> reporter: after recovering from covid-19 -- >> good evening. >> reporter: -- i wanted to help. and learned i met the criteria to donate. >> how many bags do i need to fill up is it. >> reporter: the process painless and taking under two hours. >> the golden plasma. this is your plasma. >> i just can't believe that i have the ability to do something that could be so help be so hel march the fda put out the call for plasma donors. now the mayo squloirnthth bhort 2450u7b9 sites to collect it. >> while the response has been tremendous, qualifying and getting the right donors into

our centers to donate is one of the biggest hurdles. >> reporter: doctors say the treatment is experimental and needs further study. >> we're getting a lot of anecdotal reports back from physicians contacting us, family members contacting us, but i think at the end of the day we need to wait for real data to have a better sense and be able to really say with any confidence that this is working. >> reporter: but some recipients say they owe their lives to it. with the help of the red cross we were able to track my donation. right to daniel. >> whoo-hoo! >> reporter: now home after a 33-day stay in the hospital. the macias family inviting me to the surprise of a lifetime. >> now we're the last car in this parade. there are so many cars. it's incredible.

>> thank you, kaylee. you gave me something that only the lord can do with you. thank you very much. i love you. i care for you. >> daniel, this is the greatest honor of my life to be able to do this for you. >> reporter: daniel and i, who have now both tested negative for coronavirus, embraced, with hospital staff nearby. >> how are you feeling? >> i'm feeling really good. >> yeah? >> really good. >> it was just right away the next day he started doing better. you could breathe on your own only three days later. >> she's got another dad watching over you. you come over, you visit, this is your home. >> a truly remarkable moment. earlier today i got a chance to check in with kaylee. >> kaylee, only a tyiny fractio

of people trying to donate currently meet the fda criteria. why is that? >> well, juju, the concept of convalescent plasma is not a new one but providing it on the large scale this pandemic is asking for that is. in my case i needed to provide proof about original positive covid test. i needed to be asymptomatic for more than 28 days. and then pass a simple health screening that you need to pass before donating blood at any time. the red cross tells me that they are actively trying to increase this donor pool, especially given how difficult we know it has been to get a test in this country in the first place. >> and there are many people like you who want to help their fellow citizens. now, walk us through the donation process. you described it as painless? >> relatively speaking, it really was, juju. it was a pleasant surprise to find that that was the case. i went through that health screening, like i mentioned, and then i was in the recliner at the red cross for less than an hour. and there are four rounds of the process, of that machine drawing

your blood out, separating your plaid m plasma and then sending your red blood cells back into your body. any pain, any discomfort anyone might be fearing, i promise the potential payoff is worth it. >> and we know that this treatment is still experimental, and yet what was it like thinking that perhaps you did save someone's life? >> well, until we have a vaccine this is one of the only treatments out there. i spent so much time right here in this apartment isolated, wanting to do something to help, and i never imagined that this is how the story would unfold. i feel incredibly lucky to now have the macias family in my life, and giving them this gift. whatever help my plasma was to daniel macias, it's been the greatest privilege and honor of my life. >> kaylee hartung, thank you for all you've done. up next, the jaw-dropping surprise none of these students saw coming. >> oh, my god.

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miss. the next generation of our nation's best and brightest, unaware of this very big announcement. >> a donation of up to $8 million with the intent to eliminate student loan debt -- >> what? >> -- of more than 400 students -- >> oh, my god. >> anonymous donors paying off all of their student loan debt. a life-changing surprise for the group comprised of low-income and mostly first generation college graduates. paying it forward by paying it off. >> wow! >> that's a scholarship of hope. that's "nightline." you can watch all of our full episodes on hulu. we'll see you right back here tomorrow at the same time. thanks for staying up with us. good night, america.

now from abc news, real answers, real solutions. real next steps. starting this wednesday, breaking new reports morning through night, streaming 24/7. and then must-see, the vital "nightline" threenight abc news event special. "pandemic: a nation divided." starting wednesday late night on abc, right after "jimmy kimmel." ♪ pa-da-pa, pa-da-pa, pa-da-pa ♪ pa-da-pa, pa-da-pa, pa-da-pa ♪ jimmy kimmel live >> jimmy: hi. i'm jimmy kimmel. tonight's show will be a special show. it will be a sad show. but we will also laugh a lot as we pay tribute to a lovely and

genuinely funny man named fred willard. fred left this earth on friday night at age 86. when i was a kid, i spent a lot of time sitting in front of a tv i had on my desk in my room and one of the shows i would watch religiously on channel 5 in las vegas was "fernwood 2 night." this was a parody of a talk show starring martin mull as barth gimble and fred willard as his sidekick and announcer jerry hubbard. i loved this show. this is one of those shows that probably 80% of the people watching it didn't get. maybe 90%. it was definitely my kind of show. and fred was so great on it. he was the oblivious second banana. he would chime in and say dumb things in a very earnest and genial way. he and martin mull were great together. they went on to make a fake documentary called "the history of white people in america" that i enjoyed. they were a married couple on "roseanne." and then of course fred was discovered by a new generation of fans thanks to the great christopher guest movies "waiting for guffman" and "best in show" and fred was