Beyond Soup: by Viccy Tausk, ’17 Beyond Soup is a group composed of upper schoolers dedicated to learning about the hunger issue in Rochester and what students can do to help. Part of this process consists of visiting different organizations currently doing work to help solve...
The Rochester Youth Climate Leaders are back in action! After giving all of the members the chance to settle into their new school year, the eager group started their monthly meetings in October. At this meeting, Ryan McMullan, RIT graduate student and Rochester People’s Climate Coalition intern, shared his current...
From Commons Educator, Jocie Kopfman: World of Inquiry trip: In early October, a group of students from three different clubs, Beyond Soup, the 10th grade Global Youth Leadership Institute (GYLI) team, and the middle school Diversity & Advocacy Round Table flextime club, went to the World of Inquiry school to...
Please welcome Kyle Graves to the Commons team as our Designer in Residence for the month of November. As we have a great wealth of shop equipment, tools, and technology in the Workshop and Project Space, it is an excellent turn of events that we have identified someone with exactly...
The Harley School has been composting for several years now, started by Chris Hartman and the student Green Team in order to create rich compost for the Harley Micro-farm. This has been widely successful–even to the point of generating more compost than we can use! In an effort to broaden...
Kicking off this year’s Commons Speaker Series was none other than the community-oriented, artistically-gifted, show-up-and-make-things-happen spokesperson, Shawn Dunwoody. Shawn has connections to Harley that go as far back as working on the Bridges project with Chris Hartman and Horizons graduates and Harley Upper School students (building boats and understanding), as...
We are delighted to welcome three new teachers to the Commons this year: Chris Becker, Kevin Boyd, and Lars Kuelling. These three teachers are weaving their way into the established fabric of the building and the learning opportunities therein, as well as working closely with veteran Commons educators. Chris Becker...
Embarking on our third full academic year in the Commons means the addition of new classes and evolved approaches. Seth O’Bryan, co-teacher of the new Sustainable Systems course (co-taught with Chris Hartman) offered this introduction and scope for the course. “What does sustainability mean? Can it be used as a...
The Rochester Youth Climate Leaders had a strong presence at the Brighton EcoFair on June 6th. Their latest efforts revolve around pursuing a fee or ban on single-use plastic bags, and part of the their work at the EcoFair was to educate people about why reducing plastic bags is good...
On Thursday, April 21, the fourth Commons Speaker Series presentation was held in the BCCE. This event featured five of the current student leaders associated with the various strands or tracks of the Commons: design and innovation; sustainability and data systems; community engagement; social justice and advocacy; and overall student...
