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Danusha Jebanesan

Danusha Jebanesan is in Grade 12 at Scarborough's L'Amoreaux Collegiate Institute. Her parents are from Sri Lanka, but Danusha was born in Canada. Her favourite subject is science, and although Danusha studies for every test she always wears her lucky socks, just in case.

Danusha was drawn to the story of her classmate Stone Qi because she admires how upbeat he is, even though he works much harder than most of the other students. Stone is a visa student from China and speaks English as a second language.

L'Amoreaux

Although the community of L'Amoreaux has a French name less than one per cent of the people who live there speak French as a first language. Situated east of Victoria Park Avenue, south of McNicoll, west of Kennedy Road and north of Huntingwood Drive, the area is named after Josue L'Amoreaux, a French loyalist who settled there.

L'Amoreaux is an extremely diverse neighbourhood. Less than half of area residents speak English as a first language, and the Chinese and South Asian communities are now the two most predominant ethnic groups.

There are several low-rise public housing projects in L'Amoreaux, which struggle with issues including gang violence and youth crime. A recent proposal to expand the Bridlewood Mall and build eight new multi-story residential buildings has residents concerned about the strain on existing services and resources.

But the community can also be described as a mini United Nations. The local high school, L'Amoreaux Collegiate Institute, boasts a diverse student body coming from over 70 countries. They proudly display the flags of those students in the main hall.

Related Websites

Danusha Jebanesan

Meet the Participants

Bilingual Participants

Three of our French-speaking students also prepared English versions of their reports. More reports in French are available at http://www.radio-canada.ca