By Erin Berg
Where in Harley can you design and build a new picnic table, test and create a new irrigation system, attend Middle School science classes, attend Upper School morning meeting, brainstorm and plan a civic community project or find a meditation class or Hospice course in session? The Commons! …And this list is only the start of all of the various courses and activities that occur in this unique building here at Harley. I recently sat down with Maker Educator Kima Enerson to learn more.
You might be wondering, what is a Maker Educator? Her work involves helping students develop 21st-century learning skills such as collaboration, creativity and the elements of STEM. Kima’s background ranges from using power tools, to working with robotics, to utilizing and teaching design thinking, as well as experience with project-based learning. She joins us from Rochester Institute of Technology, where she earned her Master of Fine Arts in Metals and Design Jewelry and has been a full-time adjunct professor in the Jewelry Design and Metals Department and the Foundations Department in the School of Design. There she taught a wide range of courses from 3D Design to Computer Aided Jewelry Design (CAD for Jewelry) to traditional Metalworking classes. In addition to teaching undergraduates, Kima also spent her summers working for Nazareth College’s Summer Science Camp for students in grades 4-9.
As you can see from that list of qualifications, she loves to get her hands dirty with tools, workshop materials and facilitating hands-on learning! This is why she is excited about teaching courses across all levels of school (N-Upper School).
Her enthusiasm for problem solving and working with people is a great fit here at Harley. Kima collaborates with Jeanne Weber—our Lower School Technology teacher—to get younger kids into the Maker Space and she collaborates with Carli Rivers and Anneka Nordmark in their Middle School sciences classes. You may have seen the moving skeletal hand that Ms. Rivers’ students created this past year—just one of the many projects created in our Maker Space.
In the Upper School, Kima is teaching a robotics class each trimester, as well as the Design and Innovation course—an elective. Design and Innovation is a unique course for Upper School students that centers on project-based learning. Students identify challenges and work on possible solutions. This might mean students recognize, for example, a lack of communal seating in the school. Together, they will figure out the best designs for their purpose and then implement those designs by building seating. The goal is to identify authentic STEM and Maker projects within our learning community.
I asked Kima what she is excited about this year, which turned out to be a tough question to answer in one or two sentences. She’s excited about a lot of potential new projects. For one thing, she wants to offer tours of the Maker Space to teachers, as well as organize some training sessions for faculty who want to learn how to use the power tools. Such activities, Kima hopes, will make the space more usable and familiar to faculty, which opens up our possibilities for design-based projects across disciplines.
The courses she will teach and her collaborative work will feature project-based learning; collaborating with teachers on such projects; facilitating students’ hands-on learning, and maintaining the workshop. With her help, Harley hopes to raise students through all divisions to feel comfortable with our workshop and Maker Space; to know when and how to use the correct tools to work together and design solutions to problems; and to enjoy getting their hands dirty (figuratively and literally) while learning and helping the community.
Community Programs
Community Programs
Summer Programs
Driver Education
Afterschool
Extended Day
Adult Programs
Rentals
Key Programming
Science and Math Integration
Beyond STEM
Sustainability
Biomimicry
Maker Education
Project-Based Learning
Whole Learners
Social Emotional Learning
Civic Engagement
Mindfulness
Hospice
Arts
Visual Arts
Performing Arts
Giving
Supporting Harley
2023 Events
2021-22 Sustainability Challenge
Harley Fund
Planned Giving
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.
About
About Harley
Fast Facts
Our Faculty & Staff
History
Horizons at Harley
Dining Services
Key Programming
Science and Math Integration
Beyond STEM
Sustainability
Biomimicry
Maker Education
Project-Based Learning
Whole Learners
Social Emotional Learning
Civic Engagement
Mindfulness
Hospice
Arts
Visual Arts
Performing Arts
Main Menu
About
Academics
Key Programming
Enrollment
Community Programming
Alumni
Athletics
News
Giving
My.Harley
Enrollment
Enrollment at Harley
Enrollment Events
Virtual Tour
How to Apply
Affording Harley
Transferring to Harley
Refer a Students
Academics
Divisions
Academics at Harley
Nursery
Nursery 3
Nursery 4
Lower
Middle
Upper
College Counseling
Visiting Reps
Student Counseling
Library