BriaClassBlog

After a slight pause, her eyes wavered as she shifted in her seat. It was the first time I had ever seen Fiona Shea look uneasy. “My brother has severe autism, which is probably the most interesting thing about me,” she says. All it took was fifteen minutes to learn that it’s not. Fiona is a 22 year old French Studies major, with an unwavering love for SZA and the determination to make others happy. “She’s truly a one of a kind person,” her friend Bergen explained gleefully. Fiona’s from West Hartford Connecticut, a large town about two hours away from both Boston and New York. Close enough to visit her family when she’d like, but far enough to gain independence. She talks about her town with excitement. Each description bounces off the other. “There’s not much to do in Hartford,” she says, “but I’m obsessed with where I’m from, everyone has a sense of pride about our town.” It’s one of those places that people don’t tend to leave. With a proud smile she adds that her m...

             It was a typical afternoon on the West Side of Chicago. A 12 year old Tony McNeal had just finished football practice in Seward Park, only a couple blocks away from his childhood home. Afterwards, a group of his teammates asked if he wanted to hang out with them and some local gang members. The boys were only in seventh grade, but desperately wanted to fit in with the older kids in their neighborhood. Their plan was to buy weed from the group, in hopes that they would let them stick around after.   Tony declined the offer, and despite ridicule, proceeded to walk home alone. Later that evening, the area his teammates were in was attacked by a rival gang. Two boys were caught in the violence. One survived, but the others injuries were fatal. “They weren’t even gang members,” Tony says, “just in the wrong place, at the wrong time, hanging around the wrong crowd.” Unfortunately, this was a common fate for inner city ...