When Education Meets Empathy

Francesca grew up in an Irish-Catholic family in a small town in Northern New Jersey, about 20 miles west of New York City. Her childhood and youth were defined by her Catholic school education and by formidable nuns who encouraged their students to strive to make the world a better place.

 

Her college years led her to her mother's alma mater, Trinity College in Washington DC, where she earned a BA in English. She spent her junior year abroad at The University of East Anglia in England, a truly life-changing experience. The time she spent backpacking all over Europe broadened her understanding of the world around her and deepened her resolve to immerse herself in it. 

 

After graduation, Francesca worked for The US National Park Service at Arlington House in Arlington Cemetery, Virginia, the Robert E Lee Memorial. She gave tours in period costume hoop skirts, using sign language she learned at Gallaudet University for specialized tours for the deaf. This experience sparked her interest in teaching and motivated her to earn her MA in Secondary Education from The College of William and Mary. She began teaching English at Yorktown High School in Virginia.

 

At Yorktown, she created a popular elective course in World Literature which examined the texts of the major religions and the literature associated with the rise of these various belief systems. Guided field trips to a mosque, synagogue, and the National Cathedral were part of this program; she worked with students in developing a peer-facilitation program and was Chair of the English Department. She retired in July of 2020, after 36 years in the classroom, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. 

 

Francesca is the founder and President of the Board of Directors of Teen Angel Project, an ensemble of middle and high school students who sing and dance in nursing homes, rehab centers, and veterans' facilities, free of charge, and the founder and CEO of Eire-Go Tours, designing and leading culturally educational tours to Ireland. In 2020, she co-directed the virtual Kids' Camp for the annual Irish cultural immersion program, Musical Arts and Dance Week for the O’Neill Malcom Branch of the Dublin, Ireland-based Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann.  

 

Now in retirement, she satisfies her need to teach and discuss literature and writing with teens and young people through her tutoring business, WriteAwayMoCo. (www.writeawaymoco.com.)