The Grade 8 students of St. Demetrius Catholic School are in many ways like every other class – they’re nervous about going to high school, but excited for graduation. They’re also mostly refugees from the war in Ukraine, so they are also grappling with learning a new language and culture, and trying to set up a new life without knowing how long they’ll be here.

The Globe’s education reporter Caroline Alphonso tells us the stories of some of these students, what they went through to get here and what it’s like starting a new phase of their lives somewhere they never thought they would be.

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