Students can meet with Ms. Anna, our School Counselor, through self-referral, teacher referral or parent request. She can be reached via email.
Keeping It Kind with Ms. Borrelli (aka Ms. Anna)
Ms. Anna’s theme for the year is “Keeping it Kind”. She will be holding kindness-based workshops in classrooms, creating lunch bunches for students to make new friends and will be working to create community-based change centered around being kind to peers and practicing self-compassion.
Education & Professional Experience
Ms. Borrelli earned her Master’s of Social Work degree with a clinical specialization from Virginia Commonwealth University. During her time in the Master’s program, she knew she had a passion for working with children and had the opportunity to intern at Saint Mary’s.
Following the completion of her degree, Ms. Anna began working as an Intensive In-Home counselor. Within this role, she worked with children between the ages of 5-17 who experienced behavioral challenges and emotional processing difficulties.
Ms. Anna returned to Saint Mary’s in September 2022 through a contract with Commonwealth Catholic Charities to perform the role of a part time school counselor.
Full Time Focus Areas
As Ms. Anna begins her full time position with Saint Mary’s this fall, she is excited to do individual work with students, group work with peers, and community work within classrooms and grade levels to include:
- Individual check-ins with students
- Group work with peers when similar challenges arise
- Classroom or grade level topic discussions
- Providing resources to families for additional support outside of school
Ms. Anna will also be holding workshops with Saint Mary’s parents who are in the clinical field throughout the school year for parents to learn how they can support their child’s mental health.
PeaceMaker Program: A Tool in our Kindness Toolbox
Love one another. A simple commandment. One that is central to all that we do at Saint Mary’s. But as simple as the commandment is, we often need to be reminded. As students grow and learn, they too need to be reminded that respect for others and care for each other is not optional – it is a core value of our school. The scriptural-based Peacemakers Program is a yearlong set of lessons and activities made available by the Office of Catholic Schools to provide students with the skills and understanding to prevent bullying.
Parents are encouraged to learn more about the program (see Bullying – Mission of OCS) and reinforce the lessons. Beginning in September, a monthly theme is highlighted, scriptural passages are suggested, and instructional materials are made available to the teachers. Students are rewarded for demonstrating their compassion and respect for others, and classes share information on how best to be true Disciples of Christ.
In conjunction with weekly homilies, daily Religion instruction and modeling of appropriate behaviors by adults, the Peacemaker program is an opportunity to address teasing, name calling, gossiping, rudeness and bullying and help our students to grow into respectful, confident and loving adolescents.
