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Simon Williams ’88 says when he set off for his year abroad at Harley in the late 1980s “Travel was expensive, phone calls were expensive, there was no internet—America was still a long way away.” He’d exchanged a couple of letters with the McLear’s, but arrived with only the haziest of ideas of where he was going and what to expect. And despite the (mostly) shared language, he walked into Harley feeling “very foreign.” But, he says the joy of Harley was that despite this, he never felt like an outsider. Instead the school took him in on his own terms, and while he needed time to find his place, “Harley allowed me to be me in a way that my much more familiar British schools hadn’t–it was a demanding environment but also a safe space. I Ioved it.”  He says he looks back and is struck by how readily his new friends (“no shout outs, they know who they were”) let him be part of the rites and rituals of senior year and how proud he was to be part of the Harley community.

Some of the academic experiences have also stayed with him. “In England, we specialize very early, but at Harley there was a breadth of opportunities to learn, and faculty who had such a passion for what they taught.” Thirty years on, he says he still thinks of Ron Richardson whenever he visits a modern art gallery and can feel adrenalin pump at the idea of debating English Lit with Michael Lasser. He loved Psychology with Maggie Schneider and says that Edna Deutsch encouraged him to make the most of all that Harley offered.

Outside of academics, he played a lot of sports, earning varsity letters in soccer and even baseball (his son still uses his Harley baseball glove). He also learned he had no prospect of ever being an even half-way competent cross-country skier. He participated in mock trial, sang in choir, read to kindergarten, performed in school plays, saw Shakespeare in Stratford (not that one), went to prom and graduate. He wishes he’d had the nerve to join his more heroic ’88 class peers and tried to dye the swimming pool Harley green. He also remembers representing California in the school’s mock electoral college ahead of the 1988 presidential election, and it helped him out this past year. He was one of the few Brits who watched the 2020 polls already knowing how many delegates a candidate required, and why.

Straight after Harley, Simon spent two months traveling the US by Greyhound, getting a taste for road trips that has never gone away. He returned to the UK to study at the London School of Economics, leaving with a decent degree and, more formatively, a year as editor of the university student newspaper. He took a few months off after graduation and visited Israel. He says the trip was spur of the moment “I had no connections there, but I also had no money and it was cold in London, while Israel was warm and I could work my stay on Kibbutz.” However random, the trip proved serendipitous, as he met the woman who is now his wife, and began a fascination with the Middle East that has turned into a career.

Indeed, he went back to the Middle East a few years later, this time to Syria, spending three years in Damascus learning Arabic and teaching English. He got there overland from London via Moscow (where Ian Watson ’88 gave him emergency Chinese lessons—he says he can still count to 10), Beijing and the Karakoram highway into Pakistan and Iran. He left Syria to return to London to get a Master’s Degree from the School of Oriental and African Studies before starting for The Economist as a Middle East analyst. From there he moved to the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC), moving to the United Arab Emirates with his family in 2006 to run the bank’s economics research. After eight years of booms, busts, and revolutions, he returned to London where he continues to work as an economist for the bank. He says that though he can’t quite believe he’s spent 14 years “as a banker,” the work involves a lot of economics, a lot of politics, a lot of writing and a lot of talking—all the things he loves. In normal times, the job also requires a lot of travel to the Middle East, the United States, Europe, Africa, and Asia. But since the pandemic hit, he’s been working from home.

Simon says he looks back at Harley with enormous affection and appreciation for a year that no doubt changed the direction of his life. But he says that the key to it at all was his host family, the McLear’s, who “opened their home to someone they’d never met, and then treated him with such love and kindness.” He says that he knew at the time how lucky he was, but its only now that he has teenage children of his own he really appreciates how generous Eleanor, Bruce, Rob, and Gavin were to let him be part of their family. And while time and distance means he doesn’t see them as much as he’d like “I think they’d be surprised how often I think of them. And when we do cross paths, I feel at home again, straight away.”

Simon can be reached at simonjonwilliams@yahoo.com.

 

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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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