Alumni Spotlight

FRANCESCA CRIMI ’12

along the while learning the language.

The following year, she was accepted as a Rotarian through the Rotary Youth Exchange Program in Bucks County and traveled to Taiwan, where she attended a local public school. This homestay experience challenged Francesca in new ways. She not only junior year of college, I had a strong desire to attend Meeting for Worship again, and began going every Sunday,” she says. “It was . . . a routine revisited . . . that added meditation, breathwork, healing, thoughtfulness, and peace. . . . Even though I was away from home at college, I felt at home in that Meetinghouse.” composure, and unprejudiced ideologies,” Francesca says, adding that it made her want to experience “more new countries, new cultures, new moments of the complete unknown.”

Following two years at George School, Francesca spent a year in China participating in a cultural/ language immersion program after receiving a scholarship through Where There Be Dragons. This year would prove to be one of the most pivotal experiences of Francesca’s young adulthood: to “live” the culture, travel throughout the country, and experience the rich traditions and history of each region—all continued her study of the Chinese language, expanding her knowledge of different dialects as well as learning some Japanese, but also took typical high school classes, such as calculus, without the use of her primary language, English.

These experiences afforded Francesca the ability to complete the studies for her major in Chinese language and culture at Bloomsburg University in less than two years and in the summer of 2019, she received her ESL teaching certification in Barcelona, Spain. While at Bloomsburg, Francesca was also an avid competitive rock climber, even winning first place in the women’s division. “In my

Francesca graduated from Bloomsburg in 2021 during the height of the pandemic. Francesca, like many others, experienced some level of instability and change. While helping her mother move down south, she took what she expected to be a temporary position with a solar company. She impressed the company so much that they moved her to Charlotte, North Carolina; nearly two years later, she is the senior manager at Resilient Energy, one of the largest solar companies in the Carolinas.

Francesca’s true passion is writing, and she hopes to publish within the next five years. “I was awarded an URSCA grant in college and co-published the Linlu Daku Project with a writer and artist from China, which was presented at Bucknell University. That experience inspired me to dive into my own craft and self-publish myself.” When she is not working, Francesca enjoys volunteering with Big Brothers/Big Sisters; attending art venues; rock climbing; hiking; and writing and she promises to send BFS a postcard from her next great adventure!

Francesca says that she is “filled with gratitude that BFS was the backbone to my education and early childhood development years.

I attribute a multitude of my successes and adventures in my high school and college years and beyond to BFS. More important,

BFS implemented SPICES into our lives, and at the time, it was an acronym to remember. But now, they are the qualities that I consciously choose to live by every day.” •

Buckingham Friends School instilled a level of confidence in me at a young age. Reflecting back on those years, I was always encouraged to be authentically myself. The environment that BFS cultivated is one of joy, self-expression, laughter-medicine, kindness, empathy, tangible lessons, open-mindedness, embracing mistakes, and communal leadership.

Faculty Focus

One of the goals of the Upper School English program is to grant students the tools and the space to build their own understanding. The 6th Grade have embraced the opportunity to lead their own discussions in the Book Club unit, as well as present the class with their findings. The results have been extraordinary: One of the groups led their own discussion of the history behind their book, Ghost Boys, which included a discussion about the impact of Emmett Till on the Civil Rights movement. For an educator, it is a gift to be in a community where the love of education enables such moments. As I grow into the BFS world, I am thrilled to see just how far we can go.

—Jack Knetemann

Upper School English teacher Jack Knetemann joined the BFS faculty this fall. We are excited for his continued success as a dedicated educator in our community.