My Story

Hello, I’m Andrew Lee ’22. I found Homage to Harkness in the Fall of 2021, during my senior year of high school at The Lawrenceville School with my two friends Richard Zhou '22 and Michael Sotirescu ’22. At the time, I was one of the two co-sports editors on the 142nd Board of our school publication, The Lawrence, but saw an opportunity where writers could express themselves free of the limits of traditional print journalism—such as word count, as well as (necessary yet overbearing) faculty oversight. I envisioned the HTH as a platform where fellow students could voice their opinions on sports, campus life, and the arts in a non-traditional publication—no word limits, videos, graphics, gifs, and social media add-ons, as well as a lack of faculty supervision.

We operated as a cohesive team for a full year, and by the springtime of 2022, the publication had run its course. We had all graduated, many were on their way to college, and I was on track to take a gap year before entering my freshman year of college, and thus, the first phase of Homage to Harkness concluded.

However, throughout my gap year, I still had the itch to share my life, my ideas, and my opinions, so I continued with the publication, but this time in a different route.

Let me take you back to the Fall of 2021 when I took a course called Statistical Reasoning in Sports, taught by Mr. David Wilcox P‘20. It was in that class and through Mr. Wilcox that I found an affinity for data science in sports. I was mesmerized by how I could merge my strengths in mathematics with my passion for sports. And through HTH’s healthy tenure, I would occasionally write articles about my findings from that class.

During my gap year, I used HTH as a platform where I could conduct statistical experiments in sports of my own, and publish my conclusions (or sometimes lack thereof). But through this, I reminded myself of what Homage to Harkness really is: a platform to share voices without the confines of conventionalism. Typically, the experiments I perform and conclusions I come to are locked away in a multi-billion dollar sports franchise office, in a book listed for $35.99 on Amazon, or lost in a cluttered stack of papers on a college professor’s desk. Not here.

While the content and makeup of Homage to Harkness may have shifted to a more specified look into sports statistics, the root values of HTH are intact. With that in mind, I have left the founding mission statement of Homage to Harkness below:

Our Mission Statement:

“Through the Harkness method, we’ve been taught that our student voice has power. In light of this principle, Homage to Harkness seeks to foster powerful Lawrentian voices by writing about what is most passionate, engaging, and important.”