Picture left to right: Lucy, Anna and Dania. Photo courtesy of New College of Florida.

Three recent graduates are back on the bayfront, this time recruiting the students who will follow them.

Ask a high school senior what they want to know about a college, and the answer is rarely in the brochure. They want to know what it is actually like. At New College of Florida, some of the people answering that question were students themselves not long ago.

Anna Lazzara, Lucy Duke and Dania Hefley have joined the New College admissions team as recruiters. They meet students at college fairs and high schools across Florida and beyond, and on campus they walk families through the place they called home.

On paper, the three have little in common. Lazzara grew up a few miles from campus and graduated from Sarasota High School. Duke came from Tallahassee and Leon High School, Florida’s oldest continually accredited high school. Hefley was born in Barcelona, Venezuela, and lived in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Houston, Texas, before graduating from QSI International School of Tbilisi in the country of Georgia. They studied humanities and museum studies, political science, and creative writing.

What they share is harder to fit in a brochure, and it is the reason they came back. Each of them found someone at New College who noticed them early, handed them real responsibility, and stayed with them.

Someone in Their Corner

Each can name the moment the college became personal. For Lazzara, it was Jim Pulos, Associate Director of Global Education. When she set her sights on studying abroad in Florence, Italy, Pulos helped her navigate scholarships, prepare for the experience and adjust to life overseas, and he kept checking in after she arrived.

“He was my biggest supporter,” she recalls. For a student who chose a college close to home, it was proof that a hometown education could open doors around the world.

Hefley saw the same care from the other side. After years of moving between cities and cultures, she found a creative community at New College, writing for The New College Review and Nullspace magazine and joining the Creative Writing Club. Then she worked as a resident advisor and teaching assistant for the Summer Scholars program and saw what usually stays out of view.

“During my time with the Summer Scholars program as an RA and TA, I began to see all the hard work that happens behind the scenes and how much people genuinely care about the students,” Hefley says. “It reminded me why I loved being at New College in the first place, and I realized I wanted to stay involved.”

Trusted Early

The other thread running through their stories is how early they were trusted. Lazzara served in the New College Student Association, interned with the New College Foundation and helped create Rooty, the college’s official mascot.

Duke played on the women’s soccer team, interned with the Office of Communications and Marketing, and represented her classmates at the Florida Capitol during New College of Florida Day. As a Presidential Ambassador and member of the President’s Inner Circle, she had a close view of how a college is led.

That kind of trust comes more easily at a small college, where students are known by name and expected to step up.

“Attending New College was one of the best decisions I have ever made,” Duke says. “Every day brought something new to learn, a new friend to meet, an unexpected path to consider, and an opportunity to seize. It is the kind of education and environment that every student deserves, and I am passionate about helping others discover everything this school makes possible.”

Coming Back

When the chance came to join admissions, none of them saw it as a detour. “This place gave so much to me in the way of skills, friendships, and connections,” Lazzara says. “I was thrilled about the opportunity to give back and introduce other students to this special place.”

What they bring to the job is evidence rather than talking points. When a high school junior asks what New College is really like, they can answer with a name, a semester, and an opportunity that was offered before they thought to ask for it.

For Sarasota, there is something fitting in it. The college that has sat on the bay since 1960 is now sending its own graduates out to find the next class, and inviting families to come see the campus for themselves.

The timing matters. It is application season, and for any student weighing New College, the best introduction is the one these three had: come to campus, ask questions, and talk to the people who lived it.

They arrived by different paths and left shaped by the same place. Now they are the ones welcoming the next generation of Banyans. Their journeys have come full circle.

Applications for fall 2027 are now open. Students and families interested in New College can learn more, schedule a campus visit or begin an application at ncf.edu.

Iz Demiroz is the Communications Coordinator at New College of Florida.

Picture left to right: Lucy, Anna and Dania. Photo courtesy of New College of Florida.