Senior Perspective from Deenat Yusuf

Senior year is typically a time for students to make their final memories, end the year on a good note, say their good-byes, and prepare for a new beginning. For our Class of 2021, we will still maintain these traditions, despite the fact that they may slightly deviate from traditional rites of passage. 

One deviation from the tradition that can work to our advantage is the college application process. While senior year is usually consumed with college applications and college visits and travel plans, we can now receive more personal assistance from admissions counselors through Zoom sessions, and we can virtually visit any college in the country. Most colleges have become test-optional, allowing us to show admissions counselors that we constitute more than our test scores. 

PVS has supported our class throughout this entire transition to remote learning, thus ensuring we have a memorable senior year. Alhamdulillah, my parents enrolled me in PVS when I was three years old. I never thought that I would be attending PVS fourteen years later for my senior year. Nonetheless, I am very grateful for my parents’ decision and I never thought twice about attending a different school. Furthermore, I have always been the youngest student in my class which I found as an extra motivation to excel with determination in everything I do. 

Through PVS’s strong academic and-- most importantly-- Islamic programs, the school has prepared me well for the real world. The most important classes for me are Quran and Islamic Studies because these classes distinguish PVS from all other schools. PVS has done an amazing job adhering to this and I have especially found it beneficial through remote learning. 

At first, when I found out that PVS would continue with remote learning in March, I wasn’t appalled by that decision. I enjoyed it and found it to my liking. When remote learning continued the following year, I was initially a bit disappointed because this is my last year at PVS. I have been preparing for the ‘normal’ senior year for the past three years and now there are fluid changes to everything. However, I have managed to accept these changes and see them in my favor.  I am looking forward to what our senior year holds InshAllah.