Harley’s Approach to College Counseling
“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.
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. 
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 
According to the United Nations, social sustainability means identifying and managing business impacts, both positive and negative, on people. One part of social sustainability requires involving citizens, which leads to understanding, engagement, and knowledge. If we start with involving citizens, while focusing on varying individuals’ quality of life and how a sustainable, healthy, and just society can be created, then education is one key component.
The way Chris sees it, The Commons at Harley serves many aspects of education that can help support the idea of social sustainability. Within the building itself there are sustainable features such as solar panels and the technology systems that run them and gather data. Students have the opportunity to review the data and look for trends that can be used in planning, accessing, and experimenting future modifications to the systems. Design/build thinking, a cornerstone usage of Commons spaces downstairs, allows students to work with their hands, problem solve, innovate, and understand green technology. Not everything they design works the first time; sometimes projects fail, but the process is invaluable. The challenges, and the thinking behind them, lead students to creative approaches backed by systematic problem-solving steps.
In the upstairs portion of The Commons are the Briggs Center for Civic Engagement and the Center for Mindfulness and Empathy Education, where students come together in groups and to engage as a population as they learn how to take action within the larger community. By learning to listen, understand, and value different perspectives, while having productive dialogues (even when they disagree), Harley students become well prepared for college and the post-college world. Many of them also become lifelong proponents of social sustainability.
As Chris puts it: “All of this is important groundwork because if communities cannot understand and listen to each other across differences, or come together to form some type of consensus on what needs to change, they cannot collaboratively solve problems, such as economic, environmental, and even food availability.”
Food Brings People Together
Headwater Food Hub is building a Good Food System model, bringing together people, farms, and local businesses with a focus on social and environmental sustainability and community health. They work with a network of local, sustainable farmers and artisanal food producers to provide convenient access to this region’s best foods. Through their direct-to-consumer project, The Good Food Collective, they offer year-round deliveries for individuals and families across Central New York, and via their wholesale program, they serve restaurants, institutions, and other distribution partners.
“Part of what we’re doing in the world of sustainability is trying to understand in an action/research-oriented way. Not just as an intellectual exercise, but to dig deep into an understanding of what a sustainable food system can, and should, look like—and ask how we can work to practice and model successful versions of this.”
At Headwater, their efforts focus on trying to build and steward a “good food” marketplace where farmers, food processors, logistics partners, and customers all benefit. The company’s customers include individuals, families, schools, and retailers who are trying to collectively and collaboratively build a real alternative to the big systems of food growth and delivery. Part of this involves agreeing upon a set of principles that define what constitutes a good, sustainable marketplace. Another key aspect is identifying measurable components and outcomes that allow various stakeholders to see where and how progress is being made.
Harley, Horizons at Harley, and Headwater—
Sharing the Bounty
This summer, the three Hs — Harley, Horizons, and Headwater — came together on behalf of families in the Horizons program, a transformational summer learning experience that helps students from low-income Rochester families who have trouble accessing enough food in general — and healthy food in particular — needs that have been further exacerbated by COVID.
Over the summer, each Horizons family received a weekly box containing fresh fruits and vegetables, along with recipes and cooking tips. Students were supplied with everything they needed to create a family meal as part of their Horizons experience, with the goal of building community and enthusiasm by connecting people over the shared story of making a meal together.
This innovative strategy filled several needs at once. It connected people facing hunger and food insecurity with small and midsize family farmers struggling to find marketplaces, especially during COVID.
When it was time for Horizons to hold one of its largest fundraisers, organizers needed to reimagine the event as an experience that could be shared from home. Headwater helped create meal boxes for the dinners, since people couldn’t be together in person. Participation was high, helping to raise funds for the program.
Pandemic Pivoting
As restaurants were shuttered or found themselves with greatly reduced business, Headwater looked at how they could authentically support small businesses and provide fresh food for families. Using an innovative logistics/production strategy that relied on a unique web of relationships/partnerships with both individuals and organizations, Headwater was able to make a significant contribution to local and regional emergency food programs. The business model spun from 80 percent wholesale to zero in March, while the roughly 20 percent that was sold directly to consumers “just exploded,” according to Chris.
The company was able to become a valuable food access point for the Greater Rochester and Finger Lakes communities, making it a very interesting time to be in the alternative, resilient food space.
“The weaknesses of our national agriculture infrastructure came to light. The lack of flexibility became clear — all of these small alternative, regional, diversified food systems were able to shine and show how they could be available to increasingly interested communities.”
Based on the dramatic shift, Headwater’s warehouse infrastructure and business process had to change practically overnight.
“We were hiring when many laid people off, and we are very lucky with the talent we have at hand because we face the tremendous task of creating a nearly statewide emergency food infrastructure. Our scope has increased; the need has increased,” Chris says.
This larger mission is one that Chris and the team at Headwater are eager to continue:
“Within social sustainability, a fundamental component of communities and societies is that they are able to come together with equitability and compassion in mind to become supportive, caring, and growing communities,” he says. “I’m excited that our network of connections and relationships has never been stronger. More people than ever are signing on to be part of this vision.”