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.

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.

The evening began with Wade Norwood (Harley Parent ’16), Chief Strategy Officer for Common Ground Health, sharing the history of the ground-breaking regional health care in this area that served as a national model in the 1960s. He commented on his past experience and current work providing strategic direction for integrating the agency’s clinical, public health, and prevention programs and overseeing the agency’s programming and processes while building critical partnerships with other regional organizations. He shared Tom Frieden’s health impact pyramid and McGinnis’ model of potential life lost, especially as they relate to the different zip codes in and around Rochester.  According to Norwood, “health improvement requires us to address culture and how environment and health behaviors are dynamically linked.”

Dr. Elizabeth Murray was up next to talk about her work as an Attending Physician in the Pediatric Emergency Department of the Golisano Children’s Hospital, but more specifically about her work in the REACH Program within the Bivona Child Advocacy Center as one of the region’s two Child Abuse and Maltreatment specialists. She presented the ACE (Adverse Childhood Experience) factors and pyramid, and walked the audience through a case study of a child she treated. For children who receive an ACE score over 4, their lives are already shortened by 20 years. Dr. Murray addressed the many kinds of abuse, neglect,  and dysfunction which can dramatically and negatively impact the physical and mental well-being and growth of children. She shared the many ways that the Rochester health community is working to advocate for these children, provide social services, and nurture their recovery and development.

The final group to share were therapists from The Healing Connection, Victoria LoMaglio, LMHC, NCC (Harley graduate in ‘06), and Alexandra Wilkosz, LCSW.  Both Vikki and Ali work to support patients with eating disorders, helping with recovery and the motivation for recovery. They explained the different kinds of eating disorders (and binge eating has just been added to that classification recently) and the impact they can have on a person’s physical and mental health. They believe that eating disorders are diseases of disconnection. Their organization, The Healing Connection, offers a variety of treatment options, depending on the severity of the condition.  As they shared about their work, it was easy to draw the line of connection from adverse living environment to abusive or self-harm situations to the need for direct intervention and support of individuals who face such difficulties.

At the end of the individual presentations, the four experts formed a panel to answer questions from the audience. While the attendance was a bit sparse, the questions from the people in the audience were deep and probing, ranging from providing meals for children living in poverty to self-care to resources for schools and educators.

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 families came out on a beautiful Saturday morning to get dirty and work hard to help ensure a strong growing season for the fruits and vegetables that will appear in our dining hall in the fall and serve as curricular material for our summer programs and fall classes. All ages found meaningful ways to plug into the activity. Thanks to everyone who volunteered their time and energy for our community garden!

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!