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Student Story: Shatwan Lewis
"This program saved my life."
When most people walk around the city of Boston, they see historic buildings, sleek office towers, old parks, and new bridges. Shatwan Lewis sees his future.
A Boston native who grew up in the South End, just blocks from Northeastern, Shatwan is passionate about architecture. His high school, a magnet school that helps students with architecture certification, was supportive of Shawtan’s goal to work for a major architecture firm. Still, Shatwan struggled to stay focused on his other schoolwork. He graduated, but without the grades or financial resources necessary for college, he began to believe his dream was slipping away.
Foundation Year changed all that.
“Foundation Year gave me the opportunity to better my learning skills,” he says. “My academic interest now is to improve my math skills because I know that the architecture field will require a lot of them.”
With his education on track, Shatwan has big plans and just as much potential. He says he wants to design and develop buildings around the world. Perhaps even earn a master’s in city planning.
“Honestly,” he says, “I don't know where I would have ended up if it wasn’t for Foundation Year.”
But Shatwan does know one thing for sure. In the future, when is a world-famous architect, he’ll look back and remember that it all started in Boston.