View our April 2020 Newsletter

Dear Harmony family, near and far,

Spring is in full bloom here in south-central Indiana. Normally at this time of year Harmony’s halls would also be filled with the spring-time energy of our students. Multi-cultural month, Earth Day plans. Our seniors out in the world, deep into work on their projects. But here we are, living with the new reality of a global pandemic and physical distancing. Staying home. Sheltering in place. Our building is closed. Our halls are empty, silent.

In-person classes at Harmony, and all of our local schools, are canceled for the rest of the school year. Our faculty are being forced to push their creativity to new horizons. We’re figuring out as we go not only how to move our curriculum online, but how to maintain a sense of ownership and community among the students as we do it, and how to keep supporting each other as a school family. Obviously this impacts our usual plans for the end of the year (graduation projects, graduation itself, end-of-year trips, etc) – teachers Sallyann, Ursina, and Lana share updates here on how their classes are adapting.

In this moment, when so many are seeking ways to stay connected through the virtual world, I believe it is an important time for us to reach out to our alumni and rekindle our connections. We have thought more and more in recent years about how to stay better connected to our thousands of alumni spread across the world, and this year hired our first Alumni Coordinator – welcome, Mandy Skinner! We want to hear about where life has taken you since Harmony, and how you’re doing in these challenging times. Let’s come together THIS SATURDAY, April 18 at 2 pm (eastern) via Zoom for an Alumni Family Meeting – click here to sign up! Mandy and I will be there, along with teachers Sallyann, Ursina, and Lana; Fern (our Development Director and an alum who grew up right alongside Harmony), and one of our very first students, Marsha Washington. See our Alumni Spotlights on Marsha and Lana.

Our goal with this newsletter is to bridge Harmony’s past, present, and future. We want to share stories that connect our alumni to current students and staff, and keep our community supporters connected too. We hope you all enjoy reading it.

Take care out there, and keep in touch,

Roc (Steve) Bonchek

Email me at roc@harmonyschool.org – I’d love to hear from you.