The Harley Garden Club is taking on a new project: The Harley Compost Project. Our goal is to be able to build usable compost for the Harley Micro-Farm separately from the compost that goes to Community Compost each week. Because we have different considerations when composting on-site versus sending it off to Community Compost, we are piloting a new compost collection system specifically for our farm.

To avoid confusion, we will be using a new batch of buckets (with lids) for the Harley Compost. These buckets will be yellow, with labels indicating their purpose as well as what can and can’t go in them (See below). As this is an experimental project; we are starting small, with just a few locations in the Upper School. The Garden Club students identified these as places where snacks and other food items are disposed of, besides the Dining Hall.

Members of the garden club will be checking and emptying the buckets routinely throughout the week- emptying them twice a week but checking daily and upping the frequency of the emptying if needed.  Each bucket is assigned to one student:

Bucket locations & Assigned Student:

• Commons Basement  – Davy Brooks
• US Faculty Room- Tess Begley
• Beckerman- Sunniva Sheffield
• Senior Hallway – Bef Mekonnen
• Science Hallway – Eleanor Foster

Sincerely,

Lisa & The Garden Club

The day opened with breakfast and a tabling session in the Main Gallery. Harley’s Dining Hall staff and maintenance crew were integral in providing outstanding food, equipment, and hospitality all day long. Compost and recycling bins where everywhere and reusable dishes were provided to reduce waste. Childcare was also provided, in order to make the event more convenient and accessible, which was ably handled by Tammy Roberts. Several Harley and RYCL (Rochester Youth Climate Leaders) students volunteered throughout the day and were able to attend several of the workshop sessions.

The formal program began in the Theater with Aaron Mair, former president of the Sierra Club, giving the keynote address. His main theme was that “To win on climate, New York must go big!”  He emphasized that environmental and political movements are dependent on people, and people are dependent on a healthy working democracy. Attention must be given to those people who are making policies. Mair also cautioned that we must not lose the human impact when we are working to address the carbon impact.

The second half of the opening session was a panel discussion with Bill Nowak (NY- GEO), Amanda Lefton (Nature Conservancy), Anne Reynolds (ACE NY), and Chris Carrick (CNY RPDB). They responded to questions from the moderator as well as impromptu questions from the audience. They touched on many of the areas which would be discussed in greater detail at the morning case study break out sessions.

The formal case study breakout sessions were held back to back for the rest of the morning in classrooms adjacent to the main Gallery and upper school hallways. The topics being discussed were: Wind Energy with Susan Campbell of Mothers Out Front, Marguerite Wells of Invenergy, and Cat Mosely of Apex Clean Energy; Solar Energy with Susan Spencer of ROCSPOT, Jonathan Comstock of Solar Tompkins, and Adam Flint of Southern Tier Solar Works; Energy Efficiency with Brian Paterson of PUSH Buffalo, Gay Nicholson or Sustainable Tompkins, and Scott Oliver of Pathstone; Environmental Justice with Dorian Hall of PLEX Neighborhood Association, Joe Heath who is General Council to the Onondaga Nation, and Eleanor Stein of Rocky Mountain Institute eLab; Land Use with Tonya Noel Stevens of Cause N’FX, Elizabeth Henderson of NOFA-NY, and Elizabeth Murphy from the City of Rochester; and Transportation with Kat Fisher of the Sierra Club, Heather O’Donnell of PRCC, and Melissa Chanthalangsy of Rochester EV Accelerator. All sessions had presentations, but then broke into small group problem-solving discussions.

After a long working morning, people were ready for a great meal. Luckily, that is what they received! The Harley Dining Hall staff worked tirelessly and creatively to prepare a full salad bar with wraps and special salads which were all vegan in order to support the diet choices and sustainability efforts of the day. The other part of the lunch meal was catered by the local restaurant Fusion 4 which specializes in African, Caribbean, and Soul food. People appreciated the commitment to both sustainability and diversity in the delicious vegan food choices and patronage of a locally-owned family business. During lunch, the audience was addressed by esteemed elder Oren R. Lyons, Jr., a Native American Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Seneca Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Lyons has been an advocate of indigenous rights and environmental justice for over forty years. He spoke on “Indigenous Views on Climate Change: Business as Usual is Over.”

The afternoon breakout sessions were held back in the classrooms and covered the following topics:

• Social Sustainability: Intersectionality and Response for Climate Change  — Kris Walker
• Campaign Planning & Coalition Building 101 — Renee Vogelsang, David Alicea, and Dominic Frongillo
• Engaging Across Political Ideology — Linda Pratt
• Understanding How Our Electricity System Works — Doug Kelley
• Making NYSERDA Work For You — Jason Kulaszewski
• Community Choice Aggregation: Sample Programs in Development — Ben Frevert and Betta Broad
• The Opportunities and Challenges of Creating and Anti-Racist Environmental Justice Movement — Kathy Castania and Ricardo Adams
• Recruit, Train, and Sustain: Building Grassroots Volunteer Leadership — Lisa Marshall and Neely Kelley
• Raising the Business Voice for Climate Solutions — Bob Rossi, Rob Levine, and Suzanne Hunt
• The New York Energy Democracy Alliance: Making REV R.E.A.L. — Adam Flint
• Lobbying for Climate Action — Sarah Mittiga
• Participating in a NYS Public Service Commission Proceeding — Richard Berkley

The day closed with another plenary session, this time in the Dining Hall with some chocolate chip cookies to reward people for making it through the day! The final two speakers were Karen Edelstein and Sandra Steingraber. Karen demonstrated the interactive maps available to follow the landscape of clean energy in New York, showing various intersecting overlays of congressional district, population, solar/wind energy, electric vehicles and more.

Sandra Steingraber is an American biologist, author, and cancer survivor. Steingraber writes and lectures on the environmental factors that contribute to reproductive health problems and environmental links to cancer, and has recently been featured in a documentary entitled “Unfracked” which follows her efforts to get fracking banned from New York State. Her story and delivery were inspiring and compelling as they related to everyone being in the “same boat”. What happens in Pennsylvania directly impacts our lives in New York in terms of air quality, industry choices, and more. Steingraber cited the recent scientific study that shows 9 million people die each year from pollution (primarily fossil fuel combustion byproducts) and warned of the carcinogenic byproducts of the petrochemical industry (cracking to get ethylene).  However, she concluded with a call to action and compared the environmental movement to determined and tireless characters from stories like Prince Igor in “The Firebird” and “The Brave Little Parrot”. Working together to combat the “harmless aspect of the familiar” to improve our world is essential and attainable.

As with most school-based organizations, the summer interrupts some of the momentum gained during the school year. This group was eager to reconnect and get the ball rolling again for the 2017-18 school year.  The first meeting of the year was held at Genesee Community Charter School on Saturday, October 21. The leadership team (including Thomas Neumaier from Harley) led the students through plans for the year including immediate opportunities (helping volunteer for the New York Climate Solutions Summit being hosted by Harley on 10/28; field trip to RIT research lab and bio-digestor) and long-term goals (host another youth climate summit; lobby county officials for single-use plastic bag ban/fee).

Several exciting collaborations and opportunities were discussed, including RIT, Cummings Nature Center, and the Fast Forward Film Festival. Stay tuned to hear more about what this group of climate change activists is doing in their schools and in Rochester!

Fast forward four years, and you have Mr. S. back out behind the high tunnel and Micro-Farm with his intrepid fifth grade history students to reclaim those same terraced gardens so that they can be planted with cover crop for the fall/winter season, and then be ready for new seeds and plants in the spring. The class worked diligently to remove weeds and some very potent poke berries that turned their gloves bright purple. With the help of Lisa Barker, our new Food and Farm Coordinator, the class will consider which crops they want to plant in the spring. In the meantime, the sixth grade history students were more than happy to use the removed poke berries to create their own natural pigment for some trial “cave paintings”.

After a welcome by the leadership team of the RYCL, the audience heard from the morning keynote speaker, Don Duggan-Haas, Ph.D., Director of Teacher Programming at the Paleontological Research Institution at the Museum of the Earth & Cayuga Nature Center in Ithaca, NY. He addressed various forms of energy and the recent transition state-wide from relying on coal-based electricity to more sustainable and renewable sources. He raised the need for broader education about the factors contributing to climate change and spoke about the need for a clear message and collaboration.

After the keynote session, participants were able to choose between listening to a panel discussion on Local Climate Action or Careers in Sustainability. Liam Smith, one of the student leaders of RYCL, moderated the panel on Local Climate Action, featuring: Melissa Chanthalangsy, Energy and Sustainability Specialist from the City of Rochester; Barbara Grosh from Mothers Out Front; Abigail McHugh-Grifa from Rochester People’s Climate Coalition;  and Tonya Noel Stevens from Causing Effects Garden. The Careers in Sustainability panel was moderated by Dr. Karen Berger, Coordinator of Sustainability Studies at the University of Rochester, and featured: Sarah Dobie, environmental sustainability student at RIT; Meg Sternowski, Environmental Sustainability Specialist for Constellation Brands; and Evan Zachary, founding member of RIT’s Student Environmental Action League. During this time, the teacher team leaders met together to share successes and challenges in their own school’s sustainability efforts.

The final session before lunch featured four distinct hands-on workshops led by local experts and organizations pursuing sustainable practices and helping raise awareness about the issue. Paul Barrows and his team from Dream Bikes set up an outside work area to introduce students to the basics of bike maintenance and to speak with them about creating a culture of biking in the Rochester area. Community Composting staff, led by Jessica Hamm, had the students conduct a waste audit on the patio to examine a typical day’s trash to see how much of what was in the trash bins could actually be recycled or composted. Kimie Romeo from the Town of Irondequoit’s Conservation Board explained the usefulness and purpose of rain barrels, and Chris Hartman and his team from Headwater Food Hub explained farm to table practices locally and led the students in creating four delicious salads which were then eaten as part of the lunch menu.

After eating lunch and getting a chance to explore some of the museum exhibits and enjoy the sun, the participants returned to work in their school teams to identify strengths and challenges at each of their institutions and then get to the difficult task of creating an action plan. The groups worked well, often consulting each other for ideas and inspiration. After working as teams, the full group reconvened so that each school’s team had the chance to share out what they intended to do. No two plans were the same, and it was interesting to see how varied they were in terms of which aspect of sustainability and climate change each addressed. The event ended with a group accountability commitment to actively work towards realizing their goals and to report back on progress.

We were appreciative of the media coverage of the event and especially grateful for the individual and organizational sponsorship for the event!

“The students build these models to show sugars/phosphates in the sides of the ladder and base pairing rules in the rungs of the ladder. We built small scale models out of licorice and marshmallows in class first. The posters behind it were a math/science cross-curricular project….Dan O’Brien and I merged our classes one day so we saw kids for two blocks. We gave them a genetics/DNA related question. They had to research the info needed, solve the question, and present it in a poster…all using the scientific notation they were learning in math class.”

Armed with bins of food, individual cook stations, and the ovens of the Harley kitchen, the teams of students and faculty worked creatively and collaboratively to prepare amazing dishes! The final community event of the day was listening to each team explain their food courses, then all members of the gathering sharing food pot-luck-style and enjoying a meal together.

This larger event was prefaced by World of Inquiry students visiting  Headwater Foods and Harley in early December to learn more about local agriculture and sustainability. Plans are already in the works for the next delicious Common Plate event.

Who: This event is free and open to any Harley student in grades 7-12; participants can have anywhere from zero coding knowledge to plenty of experience.  The event is hosted by the University of Rochester’s Women in Computing group.  We are looking for students who have an interest in learning, and possibly building skills to do future projects.

What:  A two-hour workshop with the Women in Computing (WIC) group from the University of Rochester on learning how to code through the MIT Scratch program and some informal conversation about studying computer science and general science in college.  You do not need any previous knowledge about coding to participate, but if you do know coding it will be a chance to share with others and to meet role models from the University of Rochester.  It will be a relaxed, welcoming, and educational environment.  Recent alumni Lily Frye and Sarah Kingsley will be there.

Why: Coding is becoming a part of many different facets of education and careers.  Also, technology that uses coding is intertwined through many parts of our lives.  

Obama’s State of the Union 2016, “In the Coming Years, we should build on that progress…offering every student the hands-on computer science and math class that make them job-ready on day one.”

Women in Computing mission:  Our mission is to bridge the gender gap in computer science at the University of Rochester…We are taking measures to increase the enrollment of females in computer science students through our multiple points of entry…other measures include regional outreach programs.  

 This initial dip into the world of coding and computer science had an amazing response! On a 70 degree Friday night, November 18th, some 35 Harley students joined the computing crew from the University of Rochester Women in Computing group for an introduction to coding, and overview of some of the STEM fields that those students are in, and some interactions with Harley alumni who are in similar fields. Several of the Harley faculty were there, and novices and those with more experience (think Minecraft…) made good connections and furthered their skills.

Be on the look out for more of these exciting events in the future!

St. Joe’s House of Hospitality: by Jocie Kopfman

On Sunday Nov. 6th, students in Beyond Soup went to St Joe’s House of Hospitality to create a meal from food donated by Headwater Food Hub for the guests. Students learned about the the history of the House of Hospitality and the network of shelters that work to ensure that the homeless or those living in extreme poverty have a roof over their head and regular meals. To continue the experience, students will be visiting St. Joe’s Neighborhood Center, an affiliated organization that provides health care, counseling, adult education and social work to individuals and families who lack access to health insurance on Nov. 16th.

St. Joe’s Neighborhood Center

Beyond Soup went to St. Joe’s Neighborhood Center on the morning of November 16th. St Joe’s Neighborhood Center offers medical care, dental care, personal and family counseling, and several other helpful services for the uninsured and under-insured working poor in Rochester. St. Joe’s Neighborhood Center is a unique organization because it has a holistic view of individuals and the systems that they operate within. While the connection to hunger was not as readily present in this trip, the group is learning about the complexity of poverty, making connections between the impact of hunger and poor food quality on other systems, such as healthcare.

*Beyond Soup is a student led group whose purpose is to gain a deeper understanding of the effects of poverty and hunger in Rochester. From that information, students plan to create a sustainable action that addresses some aspect of poverty and hunger.  In order to achieve this goal, students have identified organizations in the Rochester area that address these topics and plan to visit each twice, once to learn more about the organization and second to participate in action associated with the organization.