During my senior year at Western New England University, I created an anti-bullying enrichment program at John J. Duggan Academy for a small group of 8th graders. The idea for the project had come up a couple of years earlier, when a staff member at my university approached me about wanting to create such a program in memory of a local boy who had recently died by suicide as the result of bullying. After reaching out to local middle schools and recruiting three other students to the cause, Project A.C.E., or P.A.C.E., was born.

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A stood for Acceptance, C stood for Compassion, and E stood for Equity. Each week’s two-hour Friday afternoon session focused on one aspect of the acronym. We made the program as interactive as possible, with ice breakers, videos like TED Talks and celebrity messages, coping skills, debriefs, and discussions. The Duggan students also created an anti-bullying public service announcement and a list of rules called “10 P.A.C.E. Tips.” We wanted to leave the students with the skills and the confidence they would need to be leaders, to believe they can make a difference, and to cope with and prevent bullying.