Poly Alums Return As Faculty and Staff

This year, several Poly alumni are returning to campus as faculty and staff, bringing expertise that ranges from science and technology to library services and the arts. While their paths back to Poly are different, each has found meaning in reconnecting with a community that was an important part of their lives. 

For Peter Lifland ’06, returning to Poly has been an especially full-circle experience. A Poly lifer who attended from preschool through 12th grade, Peter has joined the Upper School Computer Science and Mathematics faculty after spending years working in technology. He was also welcomed back by his brother, Eric Lifland ’12, a fellow Poly lifer and Performing Arts teacher.

“I really liked working in tech, and I wanted to do something that felt like I could use those skills, use that part of my brain, but help the world more,” Peter says.

Returning to Poly has allowed Peter to see how much the school has evolved since he was a student, particularly in the breadth of opportunities now available. He sees students having more choice and independence in shaping their education - valuable preparation, he says, for life beyond school.

In his computer science classes, Peter hopes students will learn more than technical skills. He wants them to understand that computational thinking can offer new ways of approaching problems.

“One of the things that I argue is that computer science lets you sort of change how you approach things in your life,” he says. “It lets you just think about problems in a different way and solve them in a different way.”

For Peter, having his brother already on campus has made his return to Poly even more meaningful. The students have embraced the connection, too. Eric says they enjoy discovering that their teachers are siblings and will sometimes tell him, “I just had your brother as my teacher!”

For Helen Foley ’05, P ’30 ’34, returning to Poly also means bringing a broad range of experiences back to the classroom and sharing the campus with her daughters, Maggie and Lizzie. Helen attended Poly from sixth through 12th grade before pursuing an academic career that eventually led to a PhD in marine biology. She spent eight years as a research scientist at USC’s MADRES Center, studying environmental factors affecting maternal and child health in underserved communities in Central Los Angeles.

Now teaching AP Biology at Poly, Helen sees a connection between her own Poly experience and what she hopes to offer students.

“One of the things I got from Poly was this breadth of education,” she says. “I’ve done so many different things that having the chance to share that experience to the next generation of science-supporting students, I think that’s going to make the world a better place.”

Returning as a parent has also given Helen a new perspective on learning at Poly.

“There’s so much more independence, autonomy, and responsibility given to the students,” Helen says. “I really enjoy how much my kids get to ask questions and contribute to their learning, and that’s something I’m trying to bring into AP Bio.”

Her classroom reflects that approach. Students are exploring their questions about snowflake formation and will follow the growth of mangrove propagules throughout the school year, connecting their coursework to larger questions about ecology and the environment.

Laila Jaffer ’15 returned to Poly after completing a master’s degree in library and information science and interning in Poly’s archives. She has joined the library staff as the Upper School Assistant Librarian, giving her the opportunity to return to a community she knew well while beginning a new chapter in her career.

“It was really amazing, you know, to come back to a space that was so familiar to me, but a field that I was really just getting into,” Laila says.

In this role, Laila appreciates the hard work and dedication that go into supporting Poly’s students. 

“It feels like I’m really getting to see the behind the scenes of everything here at Poly,” she says. “I’ve just been really inspired by how much passion everybody has on the faculty and staff side, how much effort and thoughtfulness goes into what the students are presented with.”

That perspective has made returning feel especially meaningful. “In a lot of ways, I’m just like a grown-up version of the kids who are around here,” Laila says. “So it’s pretty cool being able to come back and be part of that journey for them.”

For alumni who return to Poly as employees, the experience is both familiar and new. They recognize the campus, traditions, and community they knew as students while seeing the school through an entirely different lens.