Learners being seen, heard, and challenged to do more; these SHOULD be the foundations of our methods. – Sylvia Beltran

Part of RTP’s philosophy is that we believe we have a duty to educate our students to be proactive members in their communities, and then to teach their students how to be proactive advocates for their own self interest and for their neighborhoods.

The power of voice is only recognized when we: feel confident in our voice and believe it matters, see that our voice makes change, helps us navigate hierarchical domains, and participates in making the changes we believe are necessary to enhance the  world we experience together.

In order to elicit similar values from our students, we encourage them to engage in aspects of policy and reform, and community issues represented by community boards, local civil servants, town halls, individual meetings, etc. Our students should keep up to date about their community’s structural components and changes, and engage whenever possible.