First post at the beginning of the school year

Peterson is 19. He was homeless last year and now lives in a long-term transitional housing program for young adults in Brighton, MA. He is originally from the Dominican Republic and immigrated to Brooklyn, NY with his family when he was a child. They then moved to Hyde Park, MA. His first language is Creole; his second is French.

Peterson dropped out of school as a freshman to hang around with friends. After a near miss with incarceration he sought the assistance of Project Reconnect, a Boston-area outreach and recovery program designed to academically re-engage out of school youth. He enrolled at Community Academy, a small, accelerated alternative high school program in Roxbury in September of 2007.

As of this posting, according to Project Reconnect, Peterson is a junior in terms of credits and has not taken any MCAS tests at the high school level. His goal is to attain a high school diploma.