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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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Letter from the Head of School

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Joy Moss: Storytelling Roots

In Every Issue

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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

AN INTERVIEW WITH ATHLETIC DIRECTOR, PETER MANCUSO

HARLEY’S ATHLETIC DIRECTOR, PETER MANCUSO, FINDS HIMSELF THINKING ABOUT SPORTS IN AN ENTIRELY NEW WAY BECAUSE OF COVID. BEGINNING LAST YEAR WHEN SPORTS WERE HALTED ONE WEEK INTO THE SPRING SEASON DUE TO THE NYS LOCKDOWN; AND CONTINUING THROUGHOUT THE PANDEMIC, PETER’S COLLEAGUES CONTINUE TO CAREFULLY BALANCE SAFETY AND TEAM SPIRIT FOR EVERYONE WHO PUTS ON AN HAC WOLVES UNIFORM.

Q: Peter, please share with our readers a few ways that things are different now.

Once the pandemic hit and the 2020 spring sports were paused and eventually cancelled, we all knew the 2020-’21 season was going to be very different. All of a sudden, we were waiting for the Governor’s office to pass along rules and regulations for a restart and the ‘chain of command’ became very different.

Local health departments around the state were weighing in, as were schools themselves; there were a lot of different feelings about a restart in the fall. There were many people with many opinions who now needed to reach consensus on what the right path forward looked like. It took a lot of work, but we made it happen.

Back in Spring 2020, our athletes couldn’t participate in team sports, so some of our dedicated coaches stepped up and figured out ways for students to continue training and stay connected with teammates from home. Our track and field coach, for example, had his runners use Strava, a free online website/app (www.strava.com) that serves as a sort of social network for exercise. They could see who was logging runs, participating in challenges, and they could engage in group chats. It definitely helped with motivation–and keeping the team together.

After much discussion this past fall, we were allowed to move forward with varsity sports teams in tennis, golf, and cross country because they were outside for nearly all of the practices and contests. One major change was that Allendale Columbia decided not to participate in the fall season. This was the first time since our schools joined athletic programs in 1972 that only Harley students comprised the teams. We did not field a boys or girls varsity soccer team based on school administration decisions, so some of our student-athletes gave a different fall sport a “go,” which proved to be a great overall experience.

By only running varsity teams, some of our younger and up-and-coming student-athletes were unable to participate in interscholastic athletics, so we started up some after-school intramural programs that became very popular. Once the winter rolled around, we turned to swimming and both Harley and Allendale Columbia were confident we could make it work for both the modified and varsity teams.

Q: Tell us about the modified swim team this winter.

Well, Lorie Rick and Lee Allen are our dedicated coaches, and they just have such enthusiasm about working with kids in this age group. Allendale Columbia students were back in the mix and many students really wanted to participate–which meant the team was larger than usual. Students were excited about the opportunity to connect with friends, get moving, and, honestly, have the chance to be part of a team. Especially now when they have limitations on socializing outside of school because of the pandemic.

Nearly everything needed to be rethought. For example, how many kids can practice in a lane? We developed clear masking rules and ran practices as multiple small groups instead of one large group. The kids were great about following all the protocols and were very excited to be back participating in athletics. Even busing was different as new guidelines allowed only one student per seat.

Another twist is the fact that Section V covers eleven different county health departments and some were interpreting rules and regulations differently and also adding more stringent guidelines. It added another layer to scheduling and playing contests.

Q: Some districts just aren’t running sports and other “extracurriculars” this year. Why is it so important that we are able to do so?

In my opinion, the team camaraderie is very important for kids in Grades 7-12. There are so many positives that athletics brings to a student-athlete (physical, social, emotional, etc.), and the need was very apparent to me.

There are worries that student mental health will suffer, and sports teams right now can be a safe place to be together. In addition to sportsmanship and physical health, sports provide our student-athletes a way to be united, learn, and feel proud.

There were some districts in Section V that didn’t participate in any fall sports, and they worked hard to get their student-athletes back in play for the winter. I’d say every Athletic Director, coach, and school administrator who worked to get their student-athletes back into athletics this year is feeling very happy they did!