Elizabeth Croce
Middle School Friends Program Facilitator
ecroce@pym.org
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Working Hours:
Part-time
A Little About My Role at PYM
As the Middle School Friends Program Facilitator, Elizabeth is part of the leadership for PYM’s Youth Programs team, which consists of the Children’s and Families Program, Middle School Friends Program, and Young Friends Program. This team creates Quaker programming for youth Pre-K through Grade 12. Having adapted to Zoom programming and cooking classes during the pandemic, the Middle School Friends Program has now resumed offering in-person overnight retreats. Elizabeth creates programming for these retreats, recruits, and trains adults to serve as Friendly Adult Presences, leads the retreats along with other staff, and helps to establish and enact PYM policies for youth.
Middle School Friends retreats are open to all youth from PYM meetings and worship groups. Quaker youth are also encouraged to bring a non-Quaker friend. Retreats include activities such as community-building games, worship sharing, youth-led business meeting, cooking, cleaning up after meals, crafting, and outdoor play. Each retreat is centered around a different theme; some past examples include earth care, anti-racism, gender and sexuality, outdoor survival skills, and immigration rights. The Youth Programs team also collaborates with Monthly and Quarterly Meetings across the PYM area to offer youth programming at local gatherings to ensure multi-generational community is present and cared for.
About Elizabeth
Having attended Meeting since she was two years old, Elizabeth considers herself a birthright Quaker. She studied at Quaker schools from grade 7 through college, graduating from a Quaker middle-school boarding school in western North Carolina, and George School in Newtown, PA. At Guilford College in Greensboro, NC, she double majored in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Religious Studies, and minored in Quaker Studies. She remains enthusiastic about these topics and loves to engage in conversation around them. Elizabeth also holds a master’s degree in education, PreK-4, from Chestnut Hill College.
She began working with PYM in 2016 as the Middle School Friends Program Assistant and has served as an educator within Quaker and Montessori schools for almost 10 years. In her full-time professional life, Elizabeth works at Friends Select School as the Middle School Administrative Assistant and Director of Summer Sessions. She is passionate about youth work and loves working with PYM’s Quaker youth. Elizabeth seeks to create a welcoming and joyous environment where youth of all backgrounds can learn about Quakerism, have fun, build community, and experience a safe space to be themselves.
Did You Know?
Elizabeth is originally from DeLand, Florida – one of the skydiving capitals of the world. She has jumped out of a perfectly good airplane three times!
