Meet Renee Bareno, Director of Student Life and Community Outreach
Renee Bareno is really excited about her new position at Aaron School! Renee is our Director of Student Life and Community Outreach at Aaron School 30th Street. In this creative position, Renee works closely with the Principal, Elizabeth Fay, and the Head of School, Roberta Palumbo, to bring new programs, opportunities, and additions to the current curriculum and extracurricular offerings at the high school level. Renee makes a point of engaging with students, faculty, and parents in order to hear and distill what is important and of concern to the Aaron School community and to cultivate and improve the climate and culture.
Renee started with Aaron in 2009 as Head Teacher of Visual Arts and developed the program at Aaron School 30th Street. Her focus was on developing a fine arts program that provided opportunities to explore techniques and different mediums, and engage in process-oriented work. In 2013, Renee applied to and was accepted in the Art21Educators professional development program, where she learned to bring contemporary art into the school studio as a basis for inquiry, as well as joining an extensive network of international art educators.
Some of the other popular programs that Renee has brought to Aaron School are the high school Culinary Arts program and accompanying Rooftop Garden project. Both of these programs are part of the Arts program at Aaron School 30th Street and allow students countless opportunities to collaborate, problem solve, design, and build projects. Some of the new programs that Renee is bringing to Aaron are a schoolwide digital citizenship program, a senior project, and the 30th Street LIVEbrary. She is also involved as an advisor with the high school student council and working to increase afterschool program offerings at Aaron School 30th Street.
Although Renee is now officially a New Yorker, she hails from California. She grew up in San Diego and moved to San Francisco as a young woman to attend the prestigious San Francisco Art Institute, where she majored in and earned her BFA in Painting. She attended John F. Kennedy University for graduate school, where she earned her MA in Arts and Consciousness from the School of Holistic Studies. Renee is a practicing artist and has always made space in her life to exercise her creative process. She is married to her best friend, and has four children and a dog. Renee loves the outdoors. She loves to hike, camp, beachcomb, garden, cook, and watch indie films and documentaries. Renee also practices yoga and mindfulness meditation.