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“Curiosity, freedom and trust—that’s what Harley means to me.”

–Lissa Green Eaton ‘78

Harley’s Hospice program has been in existence for almost 20 years making empathy and wellness an educational focus. In the 1970’s, while empathy and wellness were definitely part of the learning, it was not done in the purposeful way it is now. When Lissa Green Eaton ’78 shared that she was a hospice chaplain, we wanted to hear about her journey.

Lissa joined Harley in Upper School after previously attending Brighton. Her days there were filled with sitting at a desk in a classroom, reading a text book, listening to lectures about the reading, and then being tested on the reading. When she arrived at Harley, it was different because it sparked “such curiosity in so many subjects.” She recalls her first English class. “We watched the movie The Lottery and following the viewing, we all sat on the floor (gasp) and discussed it. At Harley, we were reading new and old stories, but the actual books, not excerpts from text books.”

She says Harley had a creative way of thinking and accepting. At Brighton, Lissa was in a high-level German language class and she wanted to continue this track at Harley. One problem: her German class conflicted with a required math class. Instead of making her compromise her studies, Lissa’s teachers found a way for her to do both by creating a self-study on probability and statistics, overseen by Len Wilcox P ’01, ‘03 (Mathematics, 1969-1982, 1986-2020). She felt such freedom! Lissa said there was a true trust between teachers and students, both in the classroom and out. She remembers being allowed to go off campus for lunch without needing school passes. The teachers trusted students would not take advantage of these opportunities.

Two main themes emerged in Lissa’s life, music and religion. At Harley, she worked closely with Guy Brown (Music 1970-1987) in choir, acapella, and madrigals. She also participated in the musical production of Fiddler on the Roof. Though Harley has never been inherently religious, she took an interesting elective about the Bible as literature, taught by Michael Lasser P ’77, ’80 (English 1966-1998) and says the class kept a careful balance and they never spoke about faith. She was also very active in her church, Third Presbyterian, participating in handbell choir, musicals, youth group, and, in later years, as a Sunday school teacher. These activities influenced her choice of Goucher College, a women’s college at the time, and a double major in music theory and composition and religion.

At Goucher, she continued involvement in music and most her of social life was with friends from her various musical groups. At the end of her sophomore year, she met her husband, Jim, a member of the Naval Academy, when Goucher and the Academy combined forces for a show. After they married, she became a “Navy wife” and for the next 7 ½ years she and her growing family moved with Jim’s job at Lockheed Martin, living in places like Virginia Beach, VA, Charleston, SC, Cherry Hill, NJ, Fredericksburg, MD, and Salisbury, MD. Throughout all of these moves, Lissa was always involved in her local church, often directing youth and adult choirs.

When the family finally settled in Maryland and when her youngest daughter was in grade 6, Lissa starting seriously thinking about seminary. She started researching and discovered there were a couple of schools within an hour of Fredericksburg. She then saw a link to a seminary on a church website, opened it and her curiosity kicked in. She thought about easing into it and taking a class here and there, but in the end, joined Baptist Theological Seminary with a double major in Biblical Interpretation and Faith Formation (Christian education). 

Lissa loved seminary and learning about the different philosophies of education. In her studies she was asked to choose a specific style of education and she thought about her Harley days. She went to The Harley School website and learned that Harley’s educational philosophy was considered a “classic education” in that it “focuses on the art of living well, where career or college prep are by-products and not the ends of education.”

At Seminary she was required to do an internship so she decided her goal would be to find a church with areas of dysfunction where she could make a difference. As an intern she was very helpful in strengthening the church and was hired. Eventually she moved on and her next step was her CPE, Clinical Pastoral Education. As a chaplain, she worked a unit at a local hospital and it was the hardest, most educational thing she has ever done. She said she didn’t know how to do anything and the first time she was asked to comfort a family without telling them their loved one just passed away, and it was very difficult. These challenges have given her extraordinary people skills and the competency to “read the room” and approach families in the appropriate manner. She was a hospital chaplain for 10 years and after Jim retired, they moved back to Salisbury, MD, to be near family and friends.

She recently accepted a position as a hospice chaplain at Coastal Hospice and she’s been there for the past seven months. She says it is an excellent hospice and a very team-based environment where she works closely with nurses and social workers.

Lissa looks back at her schooling, from Harley to Goucher to Seminary and she sees a “spider web” with one line building off the other, building bridges in between, connecting them all. She is excited about Harley’s hospice program and hopes to speak with students about her work sometime this spring.

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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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