On a rainy Friday, November 3rd, the Trimester I Rights & Responsibilities class (required for all 9th graders) took a trip to downtown Rochester to hear first-hand memories of the July 1964 race rebellion and gain context for those events. After visiting Joseph Avenue, they ate lunch at El Pilon Criollo, then finished the trip with a workshop at the Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence.

Below is a write-up of the class trip:

The purpose of this trip is to better inform us about the strengths and challenges of our collective community, Rochester, and get us thinking about how we, personally, can make positive change.

We begin by reviewing the history of Rochester through the lens of the race rebellion of 1964.  Luis Perez, a local leader in Rochester who experienced the rebellion at the age of eight, will take us on a tour of Joseph Avenue, the street where the race rebellion of July ’64 took place and show us several organizations that were created in response to the rebellion. The goal is to understand the immediate impact the rebellion had and how it continues to impact us today.

We will stop for lunch at El Pilon Criollo, a local Caribbean restaurant in the city.

Finally, we will stop at the Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, a local nonprofit activist group, to participate in a workshop that helps us digest the tour and consider the role we want to play in seeking solutions toward positive change around topics that are important to us.

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Luis Perez- Director of program Support and Expansion for Greater Rochester Summer Learning Association (GRSLA). Luis also worked as the Executive Director of Horizon at Harley for 6 years.

The Gandhi Institute Mission:

The M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence is a nonprofit that equips people to use nonviolence to create a sustainable and just world for all. The M.K. Gandhi Institute collaborates with local organizations, academic institutions, students, and committed peacemakers in the following areas: nonviolence education, sustainability and environmental conservation, and the promotion of racial justice. We prioritize programming for people between the ages of 12 and 24 as well as those who serve those age groups.

The Institute continuously offers groups and individuals training in skills such as Nonviolent Communication, meditation and experiential interconnectedness, and fosters responses to systemic violence in the Rochester area through projects focused on urban agriculture, racial healing work and restorative approaches to conflict. // The Institute maintains a collection of books, videos, and recordings which cover the lives and legacies of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and other important social activists. These materials are available for use by those seeking to learn more about such topics. By serving as a physical manifestation of Gandhian principles and Martin Luther King’s Beloved Community, the Gandhi Institute seeks to advance the cause of peacemaking regionally and beyond from within a neighborhood challenged by poverty and violence.

The presentation was shared with Harley faculty, administration, fellow students (Seth O’Bryan’s discrete math class), and people from outside of Harley who are involved in small scale farming as well as local food distribution and businesses. Davy began by showing how the Harley Micro-Farm has traditionally been designed (long mounded rows with a few fruit trees), explaining the limitations on growing space that approach presented, as well as the challenge of maintenance. Historically, the growing space of the garden has been around 1750 square feet. Below are photos of what the Harley Micro-Farm used to look like, and then an aerial shot of the garden fully cleared and tilled.

Davy then shared how their thinking evolved from initial designs, considering both aesthetics and productivity/efficiency, to more fully realized designs informed by research and comparative data. With the goal of utilizing more growing space and making the space more aesthetically fun, Davy’s two final designs increase the growing space to over 3600 square feet, allow for more planting variety (perennials, permaculture, “patches” vs. rows, grade-level assigned areas, etc.) and more engagement (labyrinth).  The program used to render the design was Sketch Up, 3D modeling software.

After presenting their designs and the thinking behind the driving decisions, Davy fielded questions from the audience ranging from what will be planted, irrigation, maintenance,  to accessibility and animal/insect considerations. The response from the audience was positive, even when asked to consider ALL of the math-based questions which could be drawn from the garden layout.

Meg Sternowski kicked off the evening’s discussion. She is extremely passionate about sharing knowledge of the great things happening around Rochester and creating a resilient and empathetic community. With a background in Industrial and Systems Engineering and Sustainability, Meg works at Constellation Brands as their Corporate Environmental Sustainability Manager and manages and measures the company’s environmental footprint. Meg has a passion for waste – re-imagining, reusing, repurposing, and recycling to make a long term difference. As one of two employees dedicated to the topic of sustainability in a 8,000-person business, Meg spoke about how essential it is to take every opportunity to help make a difference for good.

Following Meg, Nate August described his work as the manager of the Wegmans Organic Farm & Orchard in Canandaigua, NY. Nate graduated from Cornell University’s Agricultural Sciences program in 2015 and now manages the many facets of the Wegmans farm. The farm works to integrate new research and technology with regenerative farming practices to increase the supply of regionally-grown, flavorful and nutritious food for Wegmans customers. Nate is passionate about exploring opportunities for innovation in the dynamic food production industry, while also finding agricultural practices that are efficient and enhance the land (rather than detracting from it).

The last of the three to share, Davy Brooks reflected back on their first exposure to sustainability work and the food-based courses they took two years ago that piqued their interest in the subject. Davy’s dive into sustainability work came through hands-on projects with the Harley bees, building in the workshop, and eventually independent studies where they considered the social side of community and sustainability, as well as the scientific side of it. Over their two years at Harley, Davy has  been involved in the design of the growing spaces, planting and managing the Micro-Farm, and maintaining the Harley bee hive within the Food and Farm program and maker ed offerings. Davy is currently working in an independent study to redesign the layout of the Harley Micro-Farm to maximize growing space and aesthetic appeal. 

The second half of the evening was a question/answer time for the panel, moderated by Seth O’Bryan, Commons Director.  When asked what schools could do to help increase awareness of sustainability efforts, the panelists answered: provide open-ended problem solving which result in positive changes in the school environment; make sustainability part of the ongoing dialogue of the school culture rather than just a class; bring green spaces to the center of the student experience; and give the students a forum when they can collaborate and reflect on their work.

As a fitting concluding question, Seth asked the panelists what they each hoped to accomplish in the coming year and why they were optimistic about the future.  Nate ended the evening sharing that, overall, people in operations naturally gravitate towards making systems more efficient and sustainable, and that the pursuit of sustainability is like enlightenment — never fully arriving, but constantly striving to be better.

Panelists Nate August ‘11, Davy Brooks ‘18, and Meg (Malone) Sternowski ‘06 will speak at The Harley School October 24 for the next Commons Series event about their sustainability work as well as how their experiences at Harley influenced their career paths. The panelists will also discuss why there is hope for a sustainable future. The format will include a question and answer session with the panel.

Nate graduated from Cornell University’s Agricultural Sciences program in 2015 and now manages the Wegmans Organic Farm & Orchard in Canandaigua, NY. The farm works to integrate new research and technology with regenerative farming practices to increase the supply of regionally-grown, flavorful and nutritious food for Wegmans customers. Nate is passionate about exploring opportunities for innovation in the dynamic food production industry.

Meg is extremely passionate about sharing knowledge of the great things happening around Rochester and with creating a resilient and empathetic community. With a background in Industrial and Systems Engineering and Sustainability, Meg works at Constellation Brands as their Corporate Environmental Sustainability Manager and manages and measures the company’s environmental footprint. Meg has a passion for waste – re-imagining, reusing, repurposing, and recycling to make a long term difference.

Davy Brooks is currently a Harley student who is a leader in the food and farm program and an active participant in the maker education program.  Davy has been involved in the design of the growing spaces, planting and managing the microfarm, and maintaining the Harley bee hives.  

To hear first hand about why we are especially excited about this event, you can access a podcast recorded by Seth O’Bryan, Commons Director, who will moderate the panel discussion and question and answer session for the evening. Enjoy and hope to see you there on Tuesday evening at 6:30!

Podcast — Seth O’Bryan preview of 10/24 Commons Series

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”.

In following up with the visitors after their brief time at Harley, a few shared their thoughts:

“Your email confirms all the good that I think of you and your school. We were very excited to share with our little sisters and I personally the girls inspired me and their teacher. At their age I was not as courageous and persevering and for that I admire them.

You have imputed to them the value of accepting others, of opening up to others what is truly admirable especially in the current context of the world. Congratulations for the formidable work you are doing in making all those children who are eager to discover the world better.”

“Our international visitors truly enjoyed hearing about your many-faceted programs, and the truly holistic way your students learn, and are taught to approach problems. Congratulations on helping form a thoughtful, ethical new generation of questioning young people. There is hope.”