In New Milford, Connecticut, sprawling across 150 acres of green hillside, there is a small Roman Catholic private high school. Canterbury School is where SUNY Purchase junior journalism major Sarah D’Andrea began to spread her wings, and is a place she still considers home.
“Sarah was what we called, one of the ‘Little Miss’ gang,” says Amy Omaña, a teacher at Canterbury that still keeps in touch with Sarah regularly. “Meaning, she was considered ‘Little Miss Canterbury,’ among her faculty and peers because of her dedication to the community and how thoroughly she contributed to the overall spirit and tenor of the school.”
Sarah found a niche at Canterbury she never seemed to have before high school. Applying almost on a whim, being accepted, and enrolling as a day student, D’Andrea took about a 15-minute drive each day from her hometown of Gaylordsville, Conn. to a world she loved.
“Sarah was involved in a myriad of activities here at Canterbury,” Omañasays, “Which was a more challenging feat for day students because the school is so boarding-centric. It was not uncommon for Sarah to arrive on campus at 7:45 a.m. and not leave until 10:30 p.m. I’m pretty sure I saw more of Sarah during certain weeks of the academic year than her family did.”
The involvement wasn’t restricted to her school life either. During high school years, Sarah traveled a number of times; visiting corners of the globe most would normally shy away from.
Omaña was the teacher that guided a small group of students through “one of the most remote northern mountain communities in Nicaragua, where there is scarce running water or electricity, and enormous malnutrition and simple disease.”
“There aren’t too many people in my world who fit that bill,” Omaña says. “And I’d take her with me again tomorrow if she could take the time off.”
D’Andrea is a world traveler, having visited France numerous times, Nicaragua twice, taking trips to places like Mozambique and Monaco, hitting either end of the economic spectrum. A woman on a mission, but to look at her, you wouldn’t guess it.
Sarah looks like a prom queen, and admittedly, she was, but her down to earth attitude and humbling behavior would never allude to the fact. Especially since when she talks about winning the title, she remarks, “I was waiting for the pig’s blood.”
Straight brown hair pulled back into a simple pony tail, small pearl earrings, manicured nails, a thin silver necklace comfortably resting above the cut of a flattering, though modest, black and white flower patterned dress that compliments her tall, thin frame, Sarah fits in pretty well with the Westchester landscape.
“We’re not yuppies,” Sarah says of her family, pulling her chin toward her neck, making a goofy turtle face and rolling her eyes. “The truth is, I just don’t know how to act like a hipster. But I also don’t know how to be myself.”
Sarah spent an uncomfortable freshman year at Endicott, , when illness wormed its way into the D’Andrea family during Thanksgiving break of her freshman semester. At a point in the college process when students are discovering what relationships are worth holding onto and realizing how freeing it is to be away, Sarah’s only thoughts were, “I don’t care about school. Get me home.”
For convenience, Sarah transferred to Purchase as a sophomore, nearly three hours closer to home than she had been previously, due in large part to her parents’ belief in the SUNY system, both having attended SUNYs themselves.
“I didn’t know gay people,” Sarah says, very frank about the time she spent at Canterbury. “I didn’t know black people. I love the weirdness here.”
Since her move to Purchase, Sarah has been on a journey to once again find that motivated, involved girl everyone in her life knows her to be, rather than the introverted bystander she somehow has become.
“If my high school friends saw the way I’ve been at Purchase,” says Sarah, “they would be totally confused.”
Despite concerns of finding oneself and discovering a niche on a campus she has committed to settling into, Sarah’s tone of voice, through an endearing western Connecticut accent, does not falter or show any signs of weakness.
“Not that Sarah’s not going to have hard times,” says her mother. “But I’ve never really worried about her. For the most part, I think she has a really good attitude and outlook toward life. Really positive, but also realistic. I do think her first two years of college involved a lot of changes that set her off from what people typically see about her, but she’s always going to find the strength to get through the less than ideal situations.
“I have always felt like Sarah was going to be okay.”