Teenager Shows Grit After Hurricane

Obstacles to Graduation

As you listen to the audio story, record any obstacles to succeeding in school that the main character may face in finishing her last year of high school in Massachusetts. In the right-hand column, record how the student in the story dealt with that obstacle.

Language Identification Organizer

Listen closely and check off each sentence or partial sentence as you hear it.

• that is the case at Holyoke High School, where Myra Angelique Rojas DeLeon has completed her last exam and is in the class of 2018
• She lived with an uncle before her mother and sister came about a month later
• DeLeon's diploma could be from Holyoke High School, or it could come from the Puerto Rico Department of Education
• But even with a principal's help, some seniors who came from Puerto Rico this school year are not graduating
• you had all your grades in A when you started here
• Her father is still there
• Like any other adolescent in a high school senior year, she's juggling family issues and society issues
• Holyoke may be better prepared for the ambiguity brought by Hurricane Maria
• As for seniors, the Massachusetts Department of Education has on record 119, though the Department doesn't have data on whether all are graduating or where the diplomas will come from
• DeLeon wants to study media production-- here, not in Puerto Rico