Campus Life

Student Community Engagement

Get Engaged With Your Community

Polytechnic School believes that appreciation for and involvement with the communities in which we live is an integral part of being an educated citizen. To this end, the Student Community Engagement Program provides Poly’s Middle School and Upper School students opportunities to develop responsibility, understanding, and a connection to the community outside the school.

Our Mission
Fosters lifelong passion for community engagement through meaningful service-learning in classrooms, programs, and individual endeavors.

Our Vision
Poly community members will dedicate themselves to meeting local and global needs.

Our Values
Youth empowerment, mutual mentorship, social justice, inclusion, reciprocity, empathy.

Student Community Engagement FAQs

List of 3 frequently asked questions.

What is service learning?

Service learning and community engagement are our goals, and they are directly related to social-emotional learning, equity, and inclusion. With service learning, students investigate the underlying issues of a community’s needs and learn how to meet those needs using their talents and skills. They prepare themselves with new skills and knowledge before taking action. Active listening, reflection, asking questions, building empathy, ethical action, and humility are all important aspects of service learning.
What are the guiding principles for student community engagement?

Poly uses the Global Goals for Sustainable Development as a framework for students to ground their community engagement work. The 17 goals address the global challenges we face in hopes of achieving a better and more sustainable future for all.
Learn more at the Global Goals for Sustainable Development site.
Can students fundraise as part of community engagement?

Fundraising is not part of our engagement program. Students should demonstrate their care and support in other ways. However, they are encouraged to apply for community engagement grants that will support their work or the organizations and causes they care about.

List of 1 members.

Renée Larios

Student Community Engagement Coordinator

626-396-6609

Read Bio
Renée has been serving as Poly's middle and upper school student community engagement program coordinator since 2014, supporting students and teachers with their community engagement experiences. She advises leadership councils, supports student volunteer experiences, builds relationships with community partners, and coordinates off-campus community engagement block classes. Renée graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in English and taught for LAUSD for 11 years, having earned her teaching credential in secondary education with certificates in bilingual competency and language acquisition. She then coordinated academic programs and taught in independent schools in Guadalajara for 4 years. She earned her master’s degree in 2005 and joined Poly’s faculty as the sixth grade English teacher in 2007.

As an educator and community engagement specialist, Renée fosters student empowerment, leadership, and imagination for problem-solving and community connection in the real world. She teaches students to investigate the roots of social, environmental, and economic issues, and to prepare themselves with the necessary academic and life skills to address these at their core. With her guidance, Poly students now dedicate their community engagement experiences to supporting the Global Goals for Sustainable Development.