Life of a Fellow: Ellie Gallo
A lot of us remember our first day of high school. Standing at the school’s entrance— filled with a mixture of uncertainty and excitement— eagerly anticipating how the next few years would unfold.
For our team at Furness High School, it wasn’t just the first day of school but also the first day of a brand new 12 Plus partnership. Ellie shares and reflects on how she and her team joined the Furness community.
Meet Ellie
Ellie comes to us from Hawthorne, New Jersey! She received her Bachelor's in Entertainment Marketing from Saint Joseph's University and this upcoming fall, will be pursuing a Master's degree from Rutgers University in Mental Health Counseling!
Stepping Up at Furness High
The first time I was faced with the stairs at Horace Howard Furness High School, I thought to myself, “This’ll get easier as the year goes on. I just have to adapt and get used to it.”
The PLUS Center at Furness High School is located on the 3rd floor, which is technically 4 floors up as we have a ground floor. There is no elevator, just stairs that have been here since the school was built in 1914. In such an old building, there’s not much you can do but suck it up and climb the stairs every morning. I often find myself ecstatic to get to school and see my team and my students, but dreading the staircase. All of the dread vanishes once I make it to the top.
The stairs were just the first thing I hoped would get better as the school year went on. As a Fellow working at Furness, I was faced with a unique challenge. This is the first year 12 Plus is partnering with Furness High School. The students did not know who we were or why we were here. Our entire team, Site Director, Dr. Hannah Loo, and my co-Fellow Ms. Kendal Vassar, were all new to 12 Plus as well. We didn’t really know what to expect, and Furness didn’t exactly know what to expect from us, either.
On the first day of school, we had our door wide open and stood outside to greet kids when they arrived at school. As the day went on, we had kids walking past our room, curiously peaking their heads in, and running off before we could introduce ourselves. We wondered, will we ever be embraced? Will we find our place in this new school community?
Our worries were silenced when a student named Moses came to the PLUS Center to eat his lunch on the first day of school. We talked a bit about his hopes for the future, where he might like to go to college and how he felt being a senior and his current classes for the semester. We felt extremely excited for this first interaction, but remained wary as to not get our hopes up. This was needless, however, because the next day, and every day after that, Moses brought his friends to the PLUS Center to eat lunch with us.
As the year went on we made ourselves known through programming. Through pushing into senior seminars, speaking at grade-wide town halls, holding FAFSA nights, and hosting college rep visits, we started to get more traffic into the Center. Pretty soon, every lunch period had kids eating in the Center, and every day we were averaging about 10-15 check-ins with students. So far, we have met with over half of the senior class- with that number closely reaching 75%. With the largest senior class of any of the 12 Plus partner schools by a mile, this is an incredible feat.
Over time, our team has found a seamless way to entwine ourselves into the Furness community. Once filled with sad silence, our PLUS Center is now a place students beg their teachers to go during class, whether it is for help with college applications or for the unlimited candy and snacks. We are a safe haven for students experiencing a hard day, or students feeling like they have no idea what their future holds. We are here to make sure they are equipped for the day they leave these halls.
Our integration into the Furness community is a lot like my daily climb up the stairs in the morning. It was hard, and took some time to get where we needed to be. But once we got there, it was rewarding and fulfilling. While making connections and getting students into the PLUS Center got a lot easier as the year went on, the same can’t be said for the stairs. I still find myself catching my breath and gasping for air as I reach the third floor. But knowing what is waiting for me when I get there makes the climb worth it.