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College Counseling

Harley’s Approach to College Counseling is highly individualized and student-centered. Students have direct access to college counselors throughout their Upper School experience, but really, each student is part of a team including faculty, administration, and staff. It’s our job to support each student and we want nothing more than to send students on to the next step of their journey at a right fit school for them. The student centered and driven process is wrapped in care, expertise, and professionalism.

We host college reps during times students are available (no need to miss a class) so they can make connections and learn more about potential schools. We also arrange campus visits for classes as field trips, host an alumni college day (where recent Upper School graduates return to share advice and answer questions), and help connect students with our international alumni network. In fact, representatives from schools all over the world actively seek opportunities to come to Harley and meet with our students!

Our college counselors are accredited and are part of national/global conversations on admission trends. They also attend and present at conferences across the country.

Beginning with our Grade 11 parent night, we offer informational sessions for parents, including one devoted just to financial aid. Our partnership with families is critical, as the college admissions world changes very quickly and having an expert to guide students and families through the process is essential.

View the downloadable College Counseling Guide

Clubs

“Club Rush” is an afternoon every fall in the Upper School when students have the chance to sign up for clubs for the year, and each year it is very different because new clubs are created based on student initiative and enthusiasm.

A few of this year’s choices: Sports Media, Social Action Club, Journalism Club, Feminism Club, Student of Color & Allies (SOCA), Gay-Straight Alliance, Tri M (music honor society), E-Sports Club, Euchre, Key Club (service), Animation Club, Dungeons & Dragons, Sustainability Club, Jewish Cultural Club, Astronomy Club, Biomimicry, and Beyond Soup (social justice/service).

Athletics

​Each and every year, students at The Harley School participate in HAC Athletics, and their success continues to be impressive, both as students and athletes. Our athletic program is an integral part of Harley, teaching student-athletes invaluable lessons about teamwork, time management, persistence, and competition.  Our program allows them to develop physically, mentally, socially, and emotionally as they represent their school on and off the field. They grow, mature, and work hard to be the best teammate they can, while creating lifelong memories with teammates who often remain friends for life. 

Helping our athletes to reach their potential are some of HAC’s best assets: our coaches. More often than not, they are drawn from the ranks of our faculty and  have a deep understanding of the personalities and abilities of the student-athletes on their teams.  

We strive to find the right balance of academics, exercise, and personal growth for everyone.  By offering a variety of sports at many different levels, all student-athletes find a sport they can be successful in. It is with great pride and pleasure that my team and I work to enrich the athletic lives of all our HAC student-athletes. Go Wolves! 

To learn more check out our athletics page.

Student Leadership

Our Upper School is filled with formal and informal opportunities for students to take on leadership roles. Whether following passions or learning new skills, student-driven opportunities take many shapes.

– Independent study: one trimester, full year, and multi-year projects have included automating our solar chimneys, coding handmade musical instruments, or developing a class on financial literacy for underserved high school students.

– Serving on student council

– STEM: Climate curriculum program, biomimicry program, NASA Hunch program

Clubs

“Club Rush” is an afternoon every fall in the Upper School when students have the chance to sign up for clubs for the year, and each year it is very different because new clubs are created based on student initiative and enthusiasm.

A few of this year’s choices: Sports Media, Social Action Club, Journalism Club, Feminism Club, Student of Color & Allies (SOCA), Gay-Straight Alliance, Tri M (music honor society), E-Sports Club, Euchre, Key Club (service), Animation Club, Dungeons & Dragons, Sustainability Club, Jewish Cultural Club, Astronomy Club, Biomimicry, and Beyond Soup (social justice/service).

Hospice

Unlike this class, death is not an elective. Although it is one of two universal human experiences, our culture often ignores, denies, or misconstrues the true nature of death and dying. What happens when we bear witness to this natural process in the cycle of life and develop our ability to be fully present with others when they need us more than ever? It has the potential to change us deeply and fundamentally while shining a brilliant light on the path of our own lives.

With the support of their classmates, teacher, and comfort care home communities, senior students are offered the chance to care for others who truly need their purposeful, non-judgmental attention. In the home-like setting of a comfort care home, opportunities for learning extend beyond a traditional classroom rubric and conventional methods of evaluation. In this course, students will certainly find tangible “learning outcomes” by studying the medical/physical processes associated with dying and the basic nursing assistant skills of comfort care. The ultimate goal, however, will always be rooted in true relationships and connection, which occurs only through empathy and compassion.

Learn more about the Hospice Program at Harley HERE.

Capstone/Independent Studies

This program utilizes environmentally-focused approaches to education and hands-on learning in order to foster the next generation of leaders through a lens of sustainability and problem-solving.

Food & Farm: These year-long and trimester-long classes are held outside as much as possible, allowing students to become leaders in our various growing spaces. They cover environmental justice issues as well as hands-on work such as planning and overseeing planting, harvesting, and preparation of the gardens.

Past year-long focus projects have included: Creating a native plant shade garden in the Wild Wood area, redesigning our hydroponic system, overhauling Harley’s high tunnel, and improving the irrigation system for the MicroFarm.

Culinary Arts: These classes have a two-fold purpose: to give students practical skills in cooking and the science behind different techniques in the kitchen, learning about food justice, food sourcing, labor topics, and sustainability.

Past topics have included: Examining a plant-based diet, looking at the carbon footprint of different meals and food preparation methods, proposing a low carbon footprint menu to the dining hall, links between food labeling and environmental issues of food production.

Beekeeping: This one trimester class provides hands-on training in beekeeping, how to be a beekeeper, and safety and other techniques for working with bees. Once trained students help with all aspects of Harley beekeeping such as hive inspections, honey collection and extraction, and teaching students in Lower School about our hives.

Students pick a research topic addressing honeybee health and the larger environmental picture.

Social Justice

At Harley, our students learn how to evaluate social systems in order to identify complex problems in society through a lens of social justice. They take a hands-on approach to working for a fair, equitable society by researching, exploring and evaluating different perspectives, and offering solutions—both theoretical and practical.

Our faculty integrate social justice into our broader curriculum to assist students in gaining a foundational knowledge about what makes a democracy function. By gaining skills in ideating supportive pathways they become more exposed and experienced to how communities can undergo healing and restorative actions.

 

Capstone/Independent Studies

Students may create independent studies with supervising teachers throughout their Upper School experience or, during Grade 12, they can design Capstone projects—intensive collaborations with Harley faculty and off-campus mentors—involving rigorous academic study and culminating in public presentations. They are empowered to create their own curriculum, set goals, and work on time management skills in order to accomplish their objectives.

Independent Studies run the gamut from The Psychology of Sports to Furniture Design to The Neuroimaging of Alzheimer’s Disease. Capstones, meanwhile, are as diverse as the students who pursue them: Fictional Rochester, Autobiographical Art, Biomimicry Education, Organic Fuel, and Rochester Refugees. 

Indicative of Upper School curiosity and creativity, pursuits such as these distinguish our graduates in college. Through deep dives of this sort, Harley students master more than speaking, writing, and computing: they learn to communicate, advocate, collaborate, organize, listen, and empathize. 

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Alumni Profile: Vandebroek

Alumni Profiles: Keller

HAC Athletics

2021 Lives of Great Purpose Awards

1000 Words

Commencement 2022

Reunion 2022

In Memoriam

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2010s

The Shenandoah Mountains of Virginia in August were the setting for the marriage of Griffin McGregor Anderson ’12 to Vivian Grace Hagerty. Griffin and Vivian, both avid hikers, climbers, and canoers, chose a small celebration with immediate family and attendants due to COVID concerns. They hope to have a larger celebration next summer. Finley Hamman ’32 was a flower girl, with Rory Hamman ’35 as her escort. Griffin, former communications director for Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) and for the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, is now supporting Ford Motor Company’s Public Affairs Communications in Washington, DC. Vivian is an assistant program manager & military operations analyst for Systems Planning Analysis, focusing on undersea warfare. They currently live in Washington, DC, but have recently purchased a home in the foothills of the Shenandoah Mountains. Stay tuned!

Luisa Barbano ’11 posted this on Facebook:

“A decade ago, I wrote a short story for Patricia Malone‘s (Upper School English, 2009 to present) creative writing class…This spooky season, my Gothic horror piece has finally found a home!

“The Double-Goer

“It is said that if one sees one’s bodily double, bad luck will ensue. If one talks to one’s bodily double, death is imminent. Such is the case for Harold Lawrence, whose misfortune begins, classically, on a dark and stormy night.

“I don’t care which twice-removed cousin of yours is marrying for the fourth time, we aren’t going anywhere in this weather,” the gentleman howls over the violent drumming of the rain on the windowpanes, fumbling desperately with his maroon tie. Underneath the percussion of the rain and wind, a vaudevillian voice resonates from a phonograph in the corner. A woman stands in her evening dress and plumed hat in the hall, throwing her arms to the air and shouting a retort drowned out by a resounding clap of thunder and the hysterical squawking of the caged parrot in the parlor. A car horn can be heard from the slick streets outside the apartment”” https://drunkenpenwriting.com/2021/10/02/the-double-goer/

Caitlin Broman ’11 and Tom Lombardo on their wedding day in November!

A very pregnant Maggie Lloydhauser ’11 stopped by Harley to drop off a Blast! item from Gail McGuire. She ran into James Aldrich-Moodie (JAM) and head of school Larry Frye.

Ulrik Soderstrom ’11 recently shared about his interest in working with Betsy Vinton (Upper School Math and Science, 2001 to present) as she creates Harley’s first climate change curriculum.

Middle School math teacher Dan O’Brien, P ’11, ’13, ’17, ’27 and Grace O’Brien ’13 watching Wagso O’Brien ’27 and the HAC boys modified soccer team beat Honeoye!

American composer, Michael Torke, featured opera singer and recent graduate of the Conservatory of Music at SUNY Purchase, Lydia Brown ’15 in a music video for his latest release, “Psalms of Canticle” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYIiSMeKMvE).

Justin Fox ’15 says every time he wants something, he finds a way to make it happen.

That was the case when he decided to come to Harley. He was a Grade 10 student at Norman Howard School and knew from the time he was a young boy that he wanted to be a doctor. He was speaking to friends one day at school and they were talking about how difficult Harley was and the fact that “that school gives so much homework.” Justin, wanting to challenge himself and be in the best position to make becoming a doctor a success, told his father, “I want to go to The Harley School next year”—and he did: https://www.harleyschool.org/alumni-news-justin-fox-15-making-it-happen/.

Max Bednarcyk ’16 is always our go-to guy when we need tech help. He helped with the upper school Covid Cabaret as well as the end-of-year staff party. Thank you for all your help, Max!

Jasmine Cui ’16, a senior at Emory College majoring in political science and economics, was recently awarded the annual Artistine Mann Award in Creative Nonfiction for her story, “Variations on My Chinese.”

She is an extremely talented writer and this winning essay is actually a revisit of a piece from the poetry class she took with Dr. Pat Malone (English, 2009 to present).

Jasmine said, “Harley is a unique school because it exposes students to contemporary English books as well as the classics.” Even when she started in Grade 8, the texts, compared to those at her previous school, were more challenging. “Harley believes,” she continued,”in the potential of young students and challenges them right from the start.” Jasmine came from a large public school and says that because of the small classes at Harley, teachers can get to know their students and they really “encourage you to challenge yourself.”

Here is an excerpt from her story, “Variations on My Chinese” (after Melissa Lozada-Oliva):

“My Chinese is an exotic heirloom, the kind that is auctioned off at Sotheby’s. My Chinese is blue enamel vases and a silkscreen of koi or delicate girls—case study in feminine. My Chinese is red and urgent, always wanting too much…My Chinese is the wound—not its siren red flight path.”

When Liam Brennan-Burke ’17 first joined Harley in Grade 6, he was already thinking about invoicing. He had started his own business that year, “Liam’s Lawn Service,” and wanted to figure out how to easily bill his neighborhood customers and receive payments from them. So he learned some basic Excel, which helped him organize services, payments, and accounting. He sent out paper invoices and received checks back in the mail. It worked well for an 11-year old running a business, but was not the most efficient in terms of payment processes.

Throughout high school and college, Liam had the opportunity to learn more about financial technology. He was first exposed to “mobile wallets” and companies like M-Pesa that were at the frontier of peer-to-peer payment while doing an independent study with his sister, Erin Brennan-Burke ’15, in Malawi and Tanzania. While in college at Claremont McKenna, Liam returned to East Africa to intern for a tech startup in Uganda. There he learned more about mobile wallets while doing operations/product work at SafeBoda (think Uber for motorcycles), where the ride-hailing app’s drivers used mobile wallets to accept funds for completed rides. His junior year internship at a Buy-Now-Pay-Later FinTech company involved working with four engineers and developing a web extension for credit cards. These experiences showed Liam the power of financial products and cemented his interest in the space.

Click here to learn more about Liam: https://www.harleyschool.org/alumni-news-liam-brennan-burke-17/.

“Maximize your joy in learning.” This is what Aliza Leit ’17 says we should all strive for and she is doing just that.

Aliza joined Harley in Grade 7, following in the footsteps of her brother Jeremiah Leit ’14, who was already here. Their parents decided to move Aliza and her siblings Aidan ’20 and Josefina ’23 from the Brighton School district. Aliza was so excited to join The Harley School as “Brighton had large class sizes and I wanted more one-on-one. That is what I love about Harley.” She said that Peter Hentschke’s (2010 to present) biology classes brought “joy to life” and that she loved her work with Food and Farm Coordinator, Lisa Barker (2018 to present), and the recently retired history teacher, Bill Schara (1997 to 2021). She said the teacher and experience that was most influential for her was with former director of social and environmental sustainability, Chris Hartman ’93 (2007 to ’16), in his Food and Farm Lab and the Harley Microfarm. She said that Harley teachers offer unique experiences and when they are excited about their subject, the students can feel it. “Psyched teachers get kids engaged.”

Click here to learn more about Aliza:

Aliza surveying seaweed in a tide pool at Otter Cliffs in Acadia National Park. National Park research permits were required for this work. (for picture)

There was a mini reunion in Tel Aviv, Israel with Aliza Leit ’17, Rachel Present Schreter ’02, and Aidan Leit ’20.

Former parent Grant Holcomb, P ’18 and alumni non-grad Dylan Holcomb ’18 at Jines!

Lorie Rick (Physical Education, 1999 to present) also shared with me that Ryan Hilton ’19 is making quite a name for himself in the ultimate Frisbee world. According to a write-up in December on ultiworld.com, Ryan was named a favorite player following a game:

“Who’s the best player you’ve seen this weekend? Who’s your favorite?”

Zakk Mabrey (from ultiworld.com): “…my favorite player on the weekend might have been Ryan Hilton for Rochester. Rochester didn’t have an exceptionally good weekend, and Hilton wasn’t an obvious star player. There was something unassuming about him: taller, decently athletic. Hilton won me over during Rochester’s matchup with North Park. He continuously escaped down the field and exploited the deep space, making a number of big plays for the team. As a unit, Rochester didn’t take many deep shots, but when they did, they were to Hilton.”

Rochester Fire Department welcomes Ethan Smith ’19

Ethan Smith, a non-grad from the class of 2019, recently graduated from the Rochester Fire Academy. According to his mom, Terry Fonda Smith, P ’19, ’21 (and head of Harley’s Lower School), “Hard work, long hours, tragedy, and teamwork” pulled the 82nd graduating class through the pandemic and beyond. Ethan’s badge was pinned by his dad, Aaron Smith! Willie Jackson ’77, recently retired fire chief, was also a part of the ceremony to celebrate the newest members of the Rochester City Fire Department.

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Alumni Stories

In Memoriam: Leonard Opdycke

In Memoriam: Leonard Opdycke

Above: Yearbook dedication from the Class of 1964 Leonard Opdycke, Harley English teacher and Head of Middle School...