Garden Party for Ja’Daiza Johnson

As a festive thank you and send off to our Commons Educator, Ja’Daiza Johnson, an informal garden party was held to celebrate her work and the growth of the garden. Faculty and staff who worked closely with Ja’Daiza and who benefited from her can-do attitude and agricultural expertise wished her...

Commons Speaker Series — #9 Fake News vs. Journalism

On May 31st, Harley hosted “Fake News vs. Journalism” as part of our Commons Speaker Series. The interactive talk focused on the role of journalism in civic engagement, featuring local experts, Erica Bryant and Rajesh Barnabas. This Rochester storytelling power couple took turns addressing their own engagement with media and...

Growing Spaces Community Day

Growing Spaces Community Day, May 20th Commons Educator Ja’Daiza Johnson and Commons Director Seth O’Bryan hosted a work day in the Harley Micro Farm to help prepare the rows for planting by cleaning up from the winter and distributing fresh top soil and compost on the garden beds. Several Harley...

Spring in the Greenhouse

Even though the weather mid-April is still variable, the Greenhouse is starting to show signs of life and growth. Thanks to Ja’Daiza Johnson and the Food and Farm Lab class, many plant starters and seeds are being nurtured so that they can fill the high tunnel, micro farm, and green...

Nazareth/Harley collaboration — by Jocie Kopfman

Nazareth/Harley Collaboration — Jocie Kopfman is a Commons Educator who co-teaches our Rights & Responsibilities class This trimester in Rights & Responsibilities, Harley and Nazareth students began to consider how they could collaborate as community partners. The students are all involved in classes with a similar goal: to empower students...

Youth Climate Summit 2017

Our Harley students who are active in the Rochester Youth Climate Leaders played an important and leadership role in planning and presenting their first Youth Climate Summit on April 9, 2017. The purpose of the summit was to bring together teams from area schools (grades 6 through college) to further...

Commons Speaker Series #6 – Raising Mindful Children

Cheddy Harvey and Siobhan LeGros shared their wisdom and knowledge with a packed house for our Commons Speaker Series presentation on Raising Mindful Children on February 15th. Cheddy and Siobhan have separately pursued mindfulness and the various aspects of it — neuroscience, meditation, self-care, applications for teachers/parents — and have...

Rochester Sustainability Collaborative meeting

On the Friday afternoon before February break, Harley was delighted to host a meeting of the Rochester Sustainability Collaborative. This group is a network of regional organizations that collaborate on projects and assist with the development of sustainability programs. Members in attendance represented RIT, U of R, SUNY Geneseo, SWBR...

DNA in Flag Hall with math connections

In a way to expand (literally) on their study of DNA, Mrs. Rivers’ seventh graders created larger than life strands of our genetic building blocks.  Deoxyribonucleic acid nucleotides are composed of one of four nitrogen-containing nucleobases (cytosine, guanine, adenine, or thymine) and a  sugar and a phosphate group. The nucleotides...