Sebastian was a thoughtful, quiet and diligent student throughout the Capstone class experience.  Many of the conversations we had during the year related to his perceptions of American schools and society through an immigrant lens.  His project and internship experience put him in a position to examine questions of alienation, community and the differences in Boston's neighborhoods.

PAR Essential question:

What/Why are there so many safety differences between Boston’s neighborhoods?

Notable quote:

“…We know that there is inequality in our neighborhoods; we realize the difference in Boston’s neighborhoods and face those facts without a glance on our faces.  What we don’t think of or have any idea about is the reason, the question of why this is happening.  Are they the structural conditions of overcrowding and poverty in the neighborhoods, bad school systems, busy parents working double shifts to make the payments and having no time for the children, or maybe the juvenile court and the whole system in punishing people working improperly?  As we see so many questions need to be answered in order to understand why our communities in too many areas make us feel unsafe.”

Link to Sebastian's Digital portfolio: http://bcla.digication.com/.../