Ms. Francesca Pileggi ‘06 Launches Peer Support Training; Named One of Delaware’s Top Teachers
Francesca Pileggi ‘06, Archmere School Counselor & Director of Wellness, received a grant from the Pennsylvania Care Partnership through the PA Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services to develop peer support training for students. The training, which equips students with basic helping skills and knowledge to assist peers who are struggling emotionally, will be launched at Archmere this fall and available to any interested school free of charge. Francesca also worked with Penn State PRO Wellness, who received a grant from the Hollister Confidence Fund, to research her mental health and suicide prevention curriculum, which has been a part of Archmere’s health curriculum for the past five years. Ms. Pileggi was also recently recognized by Delaware Today Magazine as one of Delaware’s Top Teachers!
From the September 2021 Delaware Today article on Delaware's top teachers:
Meet Delaware’s Top Teachers Making an Impact on Education in 2021
At Archmere, Francesca Pileggi wants every student to feel the support of the school community. After losing two family members to suicide when she was a teenager, she went on to pursue a degree in psychology. Wanting a clinical component to create more change led her to Archmere, her alma mater, where she works with a class of students from their first day until graduation.
Meet Delaware’s Top Teachers Making an Impact on Education in 2021
At Archmere, Francesca Pileggi wants every student to feel the support of the school community. After losing two family members to suicide when she was a teenager, she went on to pursue a degree in psychology. Wanting a clinical component to create more change led her to Archmere, her alma mater, where she works with a class of students from their first day until graduation.
“The most rewarding thing is seeing how people can really transform and change… and being able to provide that safe place and that connection to help them be able to do that,” Pileggi says. She values face-to-face interaction with students, so counseling during the pandemic was challenging. To offer as much or as little support needed, she had to be more intentional in the virtual realm to create connections.
Pileggi also founded the nonprofit Aevidum, a word created by students that means “I’ve got your back,” in which they pledged to look out for one another after a student committed suicide. “It kind of stands on the idea that every student, really every person in a school, deserves to feel accepted, appreciated, acknowledged and cared about,” she says. “And if we can create a community where every person feels those things, in turn, that will hopefully help with mental health issues and help to prevent suicide.”
This upcoming school year, Pileggi will have her first group of Aevidum Ambassadors, a group of 16 rising juniors and seniors who are trained peer helpers.
To read about all of Delaware's Top Teachers in Delaware Today, click here.
To read about all of Delaware's Top Teachers in Delaware Today, click here.
Archmere Academy is a private, Catholic, college preparatory co-educational academy,
grades 9-12 founded in 1932 by the Norbertine Fathers.
grades 9-12 founded in 1932 by the Norbertine Fathers.
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