As first-year students navigate their first few weeks at PAFA, they know they can look to second-year student and orientation leader Andy Fecile (BFA '21).

“I wanted to meet the freshman because you don’t get to meet upperclassman until you are one because the first year tracks are apart from everyone else,” Fecile said. “I loved orientation my first year and I’m still in touch with the people who were my orientation leaders.”

Being a friendly face and supportive friend for their fellow students has been a goal for Fecile since they arrived at PAFA. From working as a student ambassador, volunteering with the After School Studio Arts Program for High School students, to co-founding the diversity and inclusivity board, Fecile strives to help make PAFA a welcoming space for all students.

“I want to form a committee for the queer community at PAFA, specifically geared towards first years who are maybe struggling with their identity or have just come out,” they said. “I want them to feel like they have a safe community here. I want to help however I can.”

Though engaged and active at PAFA, a few years ago Fecile wasn’t even planning on going to college.

Fecile’s AP art teacher at Garnet Valley High School and PAFA alumna Claudia Eckel (MFA ’17) suggested they check out PAFA.

“She called it a unicorn in Philadelphia,” Fecile said. “I took a tour and I applied literally right after and I told my parents, ‘This is it. It’s either here or nowhere.’”

And now Fecile is trying to build on the community they saw in those first few visits to PAFA.

“Even just having a tour as a student I was already meeting teachers and students,” they said. “The professors that I got to talk to made me really feel like I could hone in on myself here and be comfortable with my own art here.”

Fecile’s art has grown and evolved in their time at PAFA. While Fecile focused on mixed-media work in high school, they’ve now developed a love for printmaking and painting. The desire to paint has been the most surprising part of Fecile’s journey at PAFA.

“I never would have thought I would enjoy painting. But then I had portrait painting with Al Gury and he completely changed the way I saw painting and the way I painted,” they said. “By the end of his class, I was so in love with it that I was doing three or four paintings on my own every week.”

Now Fecile’s Instagram feed is peppered with Fauvist paintings showcasing every day scenes.

“I like to do everyday scenes now because in AP art in high school I was so focused on doing art that was all about the trauma that was going on in my life, which is a way people work through it,” they said. “But then I realized I didn’t want to look back at all of my work and only see trauma.”

Fecile lost their brother when they were 16 after he suffered a traumatic brain injury several years before. Art was not only a way for Fecile to work through grief but it also served as a sort of therapy for their brother.

“He was not an artist but I did art with him. He was originally paralyzed and at the time of his passing he had control of his hands and his focus was a lot better. He was able to pick and choose colors when we painted,” Fecile said. “It helped him a lot more than I realized at the time.”

After graduation, Fecile wants to bring art therapy to more people and honor their brother’s memory.

“One of the big things I want to start in my life is a nonprofit. I want to make art therapy more accessible to children and the elderly, so children who are stuck in hospitals and rehab centers and elderly folks that are stuck in elderly homes and don’t really have anywhere to go,” they said. “I want to make artwork more accessible for them.”