Following a long career on Wall Street, Bob Palleschi decided he wanted to give back to his community. For more than a decade, he has done that by helping adults learn English.
Today, Palleschi and fellow volunteer Adrienne Carlton co-teach free English as a Second Language classes at the Bellmore Memorial Library, offering lessons in reading, grammar and conversation for adult learners from around the world.
“I’m not a teacher by trade,” Palleschi said. “I’m retired from financial services.”
Palleschi spent 35 years in the financial industry, including time at Morgan Stanley and UBS, before founding a bond trading firm and later running a consulting business. After retiring, he looked for ways to volunteer. Around 2014, he trained with Literacy Nassau, a nonprofit that provides adult literacy programs, including ESL instruction.
“I decided I was going to give back,” Palleschi said. “I looked around and found Literacy Nassau, and I started with one student. Then it went on and on.”
Carlton, a retired social worker from Rockville Centre, discovered the same program through a library posting and has been teaching adult English learners for about eight years. The program benefits greatly from her experience as a professional in the education system.
“We were both tutors through Literacy Nassau,” Carlton said. “One of the services they offered was teaching immigrant adults English.”
The two first met during the COVID-19 pandemic at virtual meetings for Literacy Nassau tutors.
“During the pandemic we had meetings as a staff, just to put our heads together about how we were going to manage,” Carlton said. “Bob was in one of these Zoom meetings, and that’s where we met.”
Palleschi and Carlton taught live ESL classes from 2021 to 2024. Literacy Nassau later narrowed its ESL program to beginner-level learners. Palleschi and Carlton had been teaching more advanced students, many of whom had already lived in the U.S. for years. While other programs existed, many required tuition or had residency limits. But the two tutors saw an opportunity to continue serving their students.
“Bob lives in Bellmore and is very involved in library programs,” Carlton said. “He knew many of the staff, so he asked if we could use some space, and they said yes.”
They presented their idea to the Bellmore Memorial Library board, which approved the program and provided classroom space and equipment. The library also helped build a robust collection of ESL resources, including textbooks, books on idioms and grammar, and subscriptions to Easy English News, a monthly publication for adult learners covering current events in clear, accessible language.
Martha DiVittorio, Assistant Director and Head of Reference at the library, said the program highlights the library’s role as a welcoming space for the community.
“The library is… a safe space for absolutely everybody,” DiVittorio said.” You don’t have to belong to any club, denomination, political party, absolutely everybody can come in here and get service… we want people who are new to this country, new immigrants, to think about this as their first stop when they come to this country.”
She added that the program enriches the lives of both local residents and visitors from other communities.
“I hope we enrich and enhance the lives of people who live in the community or people who make it to the library from other communities. There’s no question, and this program is one of the ways in which we do that.”
Classes began in September 2024 and are held Mondays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to noon. Since then, roughly 20 to 25 students have participated, with five to 10 attending each session. About 15 students are currently enrolled, from countries including Peru, Colombia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Japan and Russia.
Lessons combine grammar, reading exercises and conversation. Palleschi focuses on reading and speaking, while Carlton leads grammar lessons.
“When you’re a native speaker, you don’t learn English in terms of the grammar,” Carlton said. “Nobody tells you, ‘Let’s use the present perfect tense.’ I had to relearn it myself.”
Carlton emphasizes confidence-building for students.
“The first thing I learned was to engage the students. Not so much the content, but to make them feel like they can learn.”
Palleschi has seen students make significant progress, including obtaining U.S. citizenship. One even sent him a message on Independence Day after passing the citizenship exam.
“She said, ‘My first Fourth of July as an American citizen,’” Palleschi said.
Palleschi said the goal is simple: to continue offering the free classes and expand awareness of the program.
“It’s a service that a lot of other people could take advantage of if they knew more about it,” Carlton added.
