"It's unbelievable how many people are looking out for you..."

Sarah - Class of 2010 Surrey, England

Sarah was absolutely dead set against attending boarding school. There was no way she’d end up across the Atlantic, thousands of miles away from her family and actually enjoy her life—or so she thought.

“I went to an American school in England but there were no extracurricular activities and the turnover rate was so high for students that I kept having to make new friends every year,” she says. So slowly, she opened her mind to other options including PA, where she sought stability and a sense of community.

“I came to Andover and, right from the start of the new international orientation, I really felt welcome,” says Sarah, who is a dual citizen of the United States and England, having lived in Chicago until she was eight years old. Sarah quickly acclimated to PA, making friends and becoming involved with mock trial, the international club and the soccer and tennis teams, confessing that she really has no time to be homesick.

Her most rewarding activity though, is serving as a prefect in a freshman dorm where she serves as a role model and ‘big sister’ to younger students. “It’s unbelievable how many people are looking out for you here.”