Upper School
Grades 9, 10, 11, 12
Our Approach
In Upper School, Harley students learn how to advocate, both for themselves and for others.
Our small class sizes (7:1 student-to-faculty ratio) build the foundation for this work where students routinely participate in round-table discussions, debates, and hands-on workshops. They grow comfortable asking questions, sharing their views, and listening to perspectives different from their own.
During Upper School, students have many leadership opportunities, such as working with Rochester City School District students through our Horizons at Harley program, presenting through the Commons Capstone program, and caring for Hospice patients. Our student council organizes many aspects of Upper School student life from new student orientation to elf day. The Upper School experience is uniquely tailored to each student’s goals and interests.
When they leave Harley, our students go into the world as confident thinkers, speakers, and writers—young adults able to articulate positions and defend them. They are ready for college—and the next chapters of their lives.
Upper School Highlights
Capstone/Independent Studies
Hospice
Social Justice
Student Leadership & Clubs
Food & Farm
Athletics
College Counseling
An Opportunity-rich Environment
At Harley, our Upper School students are known. Their peers and our faculty combine to create a unique learning community not duplicated elsewhere. Curiosity and drive for learning open up conversations and studies across disciplines, allowing for sophisticated connections and analysis. Our outstanding teachers guide students in exploring the rich environment around them, where they can take advantage of classes and electives to both follow passions and deepen interests.
Harley’s motto—”Become What Thou Art”—is lived by our Upper Schoolers as they prepare for their journeys with confidence and reason.
I can’t imagine being anywhere else! Harley is truly one-of-a-kind, and my classmates are no different. The teachers are so accommodating; they don’t try to fit you to a mold, instead they let you shape your mold. I know this sounds cliche, but I experience the magic of this school daily. —Grade 11 Student
Academics and Outcomes
With 18 APs and plenty of other offerings, including over fifty electives each year, student inquiry and interests are spurred by topics such as: Computer Science, Economics, Food & Farm, Multimedia Journalism, Net Zero Energy, Philosophy & Ethics, and Hospice.
We are, at heart, a college preparatory school and we have the SAT/ACT scores, National Merit Finalists, college merit awards and acceptances to prove it. However, we are not interested in graduating students who learn to be outstanding test-takers but aren’t inclined to explore big questions and the larger world around them. As global life becomes more complex, each student needs to be ready to think critically and commit themselves to pursuing lifelong learning as active members of a healthy, thriving society.
Our whole person approach doesn’t force students onto one track or another. At Harley, students can participate in sports, performing and visual arts, clubs, and social activities in addition to academic pursuits. This vibrancy creates a close community, and friendships that last for decades.
STEM AP Scores--Harley vs. National Mean, 2018-2022
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Acorn Grants Are Now Available!
Interested in learning how to make a Harley education possible for your child? Acorn Grants are smaller grants awarded to families who may not be eligible for need-based financial aid. It is a grant of up to $5,000 intended to put the Harley education within reach for your family. The Acorn Grant stays with your child until graduation.
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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.
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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