On Tuesday, Mar. 4, three of Poly’s community engagement clubs presented their projects before the student body and faculty to win the Paws For Humanity Grant, a $500 award from the Upper School Community Engagement Council (US-SCEC). Their presentations were based on the “hero’s journey,” detailing their experiences from how they founded their clubs to their current work and goals.
After making it past three elimination rounds and receiving personalized one-on-one coaching from Student Community Engagement Coordinator Renée Larios, each club was ready to present to the Upper School student body. The final round began with a presentation by junior Allison Zhang, the leader of Literacy for ELL, a club dedicated to increasing literacy and fluency among English language learners. Her club partners with the Chaohe Elementary School in Taiwan and other organizations worldwide to improve students’ English education through online tutoring.
The next club to present was SPIKE, founded by juniors Jad Ammar and Camellia Ding and sophomore Sam Andrade. SPIKE partners with the Boys and Girls Club of Pasadena to teach underserved children how to play volleyball. Finally, junior Maddie Delbridge, founder of The Speech Collective, presented her club’s work partnering with local libraries to increase student confidence in public speaking.
Each of the clubs’ founders recalled the challenges they faced, from rejection by established organizations to program closures due to recent wildfires to difficulties scaling up their workshops. Despite these obstacles, they demonstrated perseverance, surpassing these difficulties by continuing to think creatively.
“All of the presentations were within a third of a percentage of each other and we waited a day to decide the results,” said junior Jack Gomez, a member of the judging committee, on how the clubs were scored.
Ultimately, Zhang won the $500 Paws For Humanity Grant for her club, Literacy for ELL. SPIKE and The Speech Collective were named runners-up and received $250 each from the committee of US-SCEC members who determined the final verdict.
“We were impressed that Allison told her whole story memorized. She was humble, natural, and humorous. There was global impact and local impact,” said Larios.
The judges were ultimately drawn to Zhang’s presentation because of her presentation’s clarity and solid plan for using the grant money.
Zhang had explained that the money would go towards supporting underprivileged English language learners in Chaohe Elementary School, particularly towards buying textbooks for both English and Mandarin translations and then smaller items like notebooks, pencils, and colored paper.
Ultimately, each club’s presentation not only highlighted each student’s community engagement but also served as a catalyst for inspiring their peers to take initiative and create meaningful change.
“This assembly was a powerful way to get the message of student-led groups out there and create a foundation so that we can garner passion for these goals that these students are working towards,” shared sophomore Naomi Diehl.
