A Bruin-built playground shows that learning is a community effort

When Stephanie Reynoso noticed a small, underused outdoor space behind her church in Wilmington, she asked if she could use it to create a place where the community's children could gather for creative play.

Her vision went far beyond adding a few plastic Little Tikes climbers or even a mud kitchen. Reynoso, a fourth-year student in UCLA's education and social transformation major program, created tactile-centered stations stocked with repurposed materials for play and art, designed for pre-K to young elementary school-aged children.

There are tires of different sizes for stacking like a Christmas tree and painting, provided by Reynoso's father, a mechanic. A basin full of non-toxic paint and water, with orange slices and holly berries afloat, resembling a "winter soup." For older children, stations where they can design snowflakes with wooden popsicle sticks or sculpt with air-drying clay. These are elements of Reynoso's "Playful Roots Studio," a project she started in 2024 during her work as a teacher for the Community Development Center, Inc. Her mother and sister, who also work at local academies under the center, also played a big role in opening the studio.

"We want the work done at the studio extended in a way that inspires families to make this applicable to their children beyond what we can imagine," said Reyoso, who received her early training in childhood education from Los Angeles Harbor College. "But that requires teamwork and time - a sacrifice that I am willing to make to ensure we can continually inspire our future generation of leaders."

The playground project was not only the building-out of a physical space but also an ethos. The space, which opened on the Iglesia Cristiana Nuevo Pacto campus last December, was a special opportunity for Reynoso to serve a community that had been integrated with her family for a long time. She plans to open a preschool based on this model and hopes to share the concept with more schools to encourage teachers "to learn to play again."

Jeff Share, a lecturer in the UCLA School of Education & Information Studies, said that the involvement of Reynoso's family and neighborhood in creating Playful Roots Studio is a strong example of creating space for community by the community, filling an important need that wouldn't otherwise be filled.

"There's a lot of theory behind this work, and also a lot of love," Share said. "Stephanie's Playful Roots Studio is building meaningful connections with nature and her community through empowering children to be the subjects of their learning, exploring their world in authentic and creative ways."

Read the full story of Reynoso's vision for children and their families from the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies.