MILWAUKEE— A student’s dream of walking onto their college campus for the first time is one not realized for college underclassmen across the country due to the pandemic.

The same is true for 19-year-old Danayt Raied. She’s a sophomore at Alverno College and an international student from Ethiopia. Despite this being Danayt’s second year attending the higher education institution, it is her first year being on campus in-person.

"It’s crazy,” she said, still baffled at the fact that she can finally set foot on her college campus. “I really like it here.”

Mixed in with the overall joyfulness she feels, is also periods of sadness. She misses her family. Her parents and brother still live in Ethiopia, which is an eight-hour time difference away. What keeps her going is their daily FaceTime chats.

“My dad and I workout together in the mornings over FaceTime,” she said. “Well, it’s morning for me.”

Danayt has a close bond with her family, which made it even harder for her to move to Wisconsin at only 16 years old. She moved by herself, after her parents pushed for her to seek a better future.

“I was looking into boarding schools in the U.S. and came across Youth Initiative, which is in a really small town,” she said.  “It’s a small school and I grew up in the city my whole life, so I was ready for a change.”

Youth Initiative is the high school Danayt attended in Virocqua, Wisconsin. She eventually moved in with a host family. It’s the same family she lived with, while taking classes virtually during the pandemic her first year at Alverno College.

“It was really stressful at first, but I was surrounded by really nice and supportive people,” she said. “That made it easier for me.”

Danayt is studying to become a nurse, a dream she knew would only be achieved outside of her home country.

“College works differently in Ethiopia because you don’t get to choose your major,” she explained. “You take the national exam and based on your score, the government decides what major you should study and what you’re good at.”

Danayt said she can’t wait to continue this newfound adventure at her dream college, one she traveled more than 7,000 miles to achieve.

“It feels really good to be on campus in-person,” she said. 

Just under 13,000 international students studied at a Wisconsin college during the 2020 school year. The data is slightly down from 2019 and 2018. The same data shows 42% of international students in the state are from China. 

UW-Madison handily outnumbers every other school in the state when it comes to the number of international students in has, according to The Institute of International Education.