By Jacob Flores, Staff Writer
The 2025-2026 school year has officially started and Isaac Villegas, a senior at Poly, has high hopes for the year ahead. Issac started in RUSD as part of the DLI program and is currently on track to graduating with the California State Seal of Biliteracy.
On campus, Issac is a part of Mecha club, Link Crew, and Puente. As the President of the Mecha Club he plays an important role in the student leadership of Poly High School. As president, Isaac would like all Poly students to know that Mecha club encourages Latino unity and empowerment on our campus and in our community. It gives students the opportunity to learn about the Latino culture through food, celebration, and tradition. It is also a resource for education on topics such as immigration, protests, and historical movements. “Mecha is inclusive to everyone,” Isaac says, “people may be afraid to join our club because they may not be a part of the Hispanic community, but we encourage all students to join.” Mecha is known for having several events throughout the year such as Loteria’s (game nights), movie nights, potlucks. “The cool thing is when you are a senior and have participated in enough events, you can earn a wonderful sash you get to wear at graduation,” encourages Issac. Mecha club is an important part of Poly culture and is a great opportunity to be a part of something different.
When Isaac is not busy with school activities he really enjoys exploring his creative side through reading and writing. One of his passions is poetry. “It all started on a faithful day of my English class in 8th grade with one of my favorite teachers,” Issac explains, “when we got to the poetry unit I wrote a poem and won second place, and I really enjoyed it; it felt freeing. This inspired him to continue exploring his new found passion for writing. He used writing as a way to express his feelings, even when it felt awkward. As he continued to write, he also discovered the art of storytelling through reading different works. During his freshman year he read The Joy Luck Club which “became my favorite book of all time, oh my gosh I love that book.” This opened his eyes to the world of reading and all of the possibilities it can bring.
By sophomore year Isaac began reading more which he attributes to “expanding his knowledge, the way he thought, his vocabulary, and even his writing skills.” By junior year, reading had brought him to a whole new level of writing. His awkward poetry had turned into award winning poetry. In April of his junior year he wrote a poem for Poly’s Slam Poetry contest called Alien on Earth. This competition is for the entire Junior class at Poly and Isaac was chosen as a finalist to present his poem at the assembly; his outstanding work won first place.
For now, Isaac still thinks of his writing as more of a hobby, but he is hoping to make a career out of it and become a writer in the future. He is aware of the difficulties that the future of AI might bring to the future of writing as a career, but that is not going to stop him because for him writing is therapeutic. Some of the genres he would like to explore in the future are novels, poetry, and possibly even a play. He is open to it all and who knows, with Isaac’s talent and passion one day we might be honoring him as a Poly Bear of Distinction winner for recognition of his transforming published work. For now, we will just get to see his gift for writing in each edition of Poly Spotlight.