Alumni News: Talethea Best '82

Talethea Best ’82 joined Harley in Grade 7. Although she and her sister Nicolle were doing fine at the public city school in their 19^th Ward neighborhood, her parents were very education-minded people and were drawn to the idea of the smaller class sizes, the one-on-one attention, and the varied classroom experiences offered at both Harley and Allendale Columbia. In the end, they chose both schools, Harley for Talethea and Allendale Columbia for Nicolle.

When Talethea went for a tour of Harley, she had the pleasure of walking the grounds with then head of the Middle School, Bud Ewell ’40. She said, “Mr. Ewell was the champion cheerleader, so happy, so welcoming, so cheerful.” and this made her feel a lot more comfortable about switching schools. She was coming from a fairly diverse city school and when she walked into Harley, she felt a little out of place. Thankfully, her experience with Mr. Ewell and the big welcome from her new classmates and faculty, she quickly made friends, connected with teachers, and learned to navigate her new surroundings.

As she looks back at her time at Harley, she says teachers like Pam Stoffel (English, 1972-1982) and Alan Pavlik (English, 1974-1981) in the English Department were very significant. They provided creative experiences in the classroom that helped students expand their own voices, exposed them to captivating books, aided in building foundational skills when addressing essay topics, presenting, and sharing interests, which was especially helpful when applying to college. Their teaching also gave Talethea a love for English, reading, and communications and influenced her pursuit of a double major at Drexel University in Philadelphia in Marketing and Communications.

Her experiences at Harley went beyond academics. She was curious about athletics and tried basketball and volleyball, and in the end, gravitated to field hockey with Coach Eloise Nielsen (Physical Education, 1966-82). She excelled on the field and stuck with it through her senior year. She also participated in student council and remembers being elected for Student Council secretary. “The Student Council members were being announced and we were all standing together, Tim Douglas ’82 as our president. I felt pretty cool up there!” She also has fond memories of coordinating a dance with friends at one of the many school assemblies.

Following Drexel University, she worked in various sales and marketing positions at companies like Shell Oil Company, Scott Paper Company, Communico Ltd., and AON Hewitt and, while there, she earned an MS in Learning and Organizational Change at Northwestern University. She then took on the position of Global Talent & Inclusion Practice Director at AON Hewitt where she led the full enterprise talent planning process, succession management, and diverse high potential identification to meet business needs.

After 30 years working for major companies—and with a solid plan in place, she started her own consulting firm, Best Innovations Consulting, LLC, ten years ago. Now, Talethea works with organizations in areas involving culture and leadership development, with a key focus on diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI). She supports clients in the design and implementation of a robust DEI strategy from the point where employees are hired all the way through to retirement. One goal is to help companies discover how to help advance black and brown and other underrepresented employees within an organization; offer insights, perspectives, and co-create solutions, so they can continue the practice long after her consulting is finished.

When companies hire her and state they want to attract top talent of color, she starts by asking some tough questions like, “What is it about this company that would be most impressive to a black or brown employee? Why would they want to work here? Do you know what the employee experience is like for the current employees of color?” Employee retention is also a big focus for her work. One way to find out why an employee of color likes working at a company is through a “stay interview.” Many of us have experienced an “exit interview” when leaving a company where they ask you about your experiences and why you are leaving. Talethea says an exit interview can be valuable, but it’s too late to make an impact. Companies need to keep the lines of communication open with current employees on a regular basis so they can figure out things like the strengths of each employee, ways they can contribute beyond their current role, what talents are being underutilized, and simply how the employer can make their experience better. She says when you engage employees, you get a genuine commitment from them. Talethea says she often works with senior leadership teams because they are the key decision-makers and help to create company policies. She acknowledges many companies are not prepared to be inclusive with talent available in their existing team and different strategies and practices can be implemented to address that challenge.

Talethea says her company is going strong and that her steady networking and word-of-mouth keep it growing and moving forward, but she does admit that she has a bit of a “podcast bug.” For the future, she is thinking about sharing her knowledge on business strategy, DEI work and the like through podcasts, creating a broader audience. She wants to make sure her clients feel connected and she is keen on learning the latest technologies to engage more organizations in Rochester to actively participate in diversity initiatives in a meaningful way. She also supports the global CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion initiative designed to help companies take measurable actions to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace. “Rochester has a long social justice history and we need to continue to push, ask the tough questions, and hold each other accountable to the work. I’d like to see more organizations in our region participating in this pledge.”

Talethea recently participated in a panel for a conference offered by the Action for a Better Community entitled Racism in a Public Health Crisis—Attacking the 2 Pandemics. She feels empowered to participate and said the time to talk about these subjects and take action is right now. This sort of social justice and community involvement runs in the family. Talethea’s mom, Wyoma Best, was the first African American female TV reporter, news anchor, and TV host as well as the first African American female to serve on the Rochester School Board, and as an officer at the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce.

Although Talethea is working ardently to move the mark on DEI practices forward, she knows we have a long way to go due to the generations of embedded thoughts, beliefs, and practices. She agrees that as a society, we are definitely more aware, but we need to be more open and have the right conversations to do the hard work ahead of us.

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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

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 News: Talethea Best ’82