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SUNRISE, FLA. (WSVN) - After working hard and studying for four years in high school, a senior in Sunrise will not be able to have the college experience she has wanted for so long, as she will be temporarily taking her classes virtually due to the pandemic.
“I was very excited to visit campus to get that, ‘This is the feeling. This is the school I want to go to,'” said Daneeva Newland.
Newland is set to graduate high school in a few weeks and like so many other soon-to-be college students, her first semester will not be starting off the way she had hoped.
She will be enrolling at Florida State University without ever stepping foot on the campus.
“Even though college is exciting, I’m nervous for what it entails,” Newland said.
Newland doesn’t get nervous too easily, as she is used to thriving in front of crowds of people.
As a high school thespian, she has graced the stage dozens of times.
“Being on stage, front stage and center, and always performing and bringing joy and laughter onto people’s face brings joy to me internally,” Newland said.
“I’ve seen her grow from a little tot to what she is today,” said her mother, Haneefa Pike. “She has dedicated herself. She has been a great big sister.”
Newland is continuing to grow as she is pushing herself to try something new in college.
When she begins her summer term in June, she’ll be majoring in biology.
“I just wanted to have a degree in something that would make my future set,” she said.
Due to the novel coronavirus, her first semester won’t be the full college experience she was expecting, but her mother said she’s OK with that.
“I really like the fact that she’s going to be home a little longer, you know, ’cause I’m not ready to let go,” Pike said.
Her online courses will come to an end eventually, and Newland will be able to step foot onto FSU’s campus for the first time.
She said even though she hasn’t met any of the other students yet, she knows they all share at least one thing in common.
“We went through this together. I understand you, you understand me. I got your back, you’ve got my back,” Newland said.
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