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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.

Click here to read more at Drunken Pen Writing.

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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Citizen Scientists

Joy Moss: Storytelling Roots

In Every Issue

Class Notes

Diane Donniger Award

By the Numbers

From the Archives

What’s (Who’s) New at Harley

Divisional Highlights

Alumni Profile: Vandebroek

Alumni Profiles: Keller

HAC Athletics

2021 Lives of Great Purpose Awards

1000 Words

Commencement 2022

Reunion 2022

In Memoriam

Retirements and Fond Farewells