The Exeter Bulletin, winter 2023

The Exeter Bulletin

operation non sibi

AARON EPSTEIN ’04 LEADS COMBAT CASUALTY CARE TRAINING ON THE FRONT LINES IN UKRAINE

Reunions 2023

MAY 5-7

15th Reunion Class of 2008

20th Reunion Class of 2003

25th Reunion Class of 1998

30th Reunion Class of 1993

35th Reunion Class of 1988

40th Reunion Class of 1983

MAY 18-21

50th Reunion Class of 1973

MAY 19-21

5th Reunion Class of 2018

10th Reunion Class of 2013

45th Reunion Class of 1978

55th Reunion Class of 1968

MAY 23-25

60th Reunion Class of 1963

65th Reunion Class of 1958

70th Reunion Class of 1953

Yesterday.

Today.

Together.

The Exeter Bulletin

Principal William K. Rawson ’71; P’08

Director of Communications

Robin Giampa

Editor Jennifer Wagner

Contributing Editor

Patrick Garrity

Class Notes Editor

Cathy Webber

Staff Writer

Sarah Pruitt ’95

Production Coordinator

Ben Harriton

Designers

Rachel Dlugos

David Nelson

Jacqueline Trimmer

Photography Editor

Christian Harrison

Communications

Advisory Committee

Daniel G. Brown ’82, Robert C. Burtman ’74, Dorinda Elliott ’76, Alison Freeland ’72, Keith Johnson ’52, Yvonne M. Lopez ’93

Trustees

President

Morgan C.W. Sze ’83

Vice President

Deidre G. O’Byrne ’84

Una Jain Basak ’90, Wole C. Coaxum ’88, Suzi Kwon Cohen ’88, Elizabeth A. “Betsy” Fleming ’86, Claudine Gay ’88, Scott S.W. Hahn ’90, Ira D. Helfand, M.D. ’67, Paulina L. Jerez ’91, Giles “Gil” Kemp ’68, Eric A. Logan ’92, Cornelia “Cia” Buckley Marakovits ’83, Sally J. Michaels ’82, Samuel M. Maruca ’73, William K. Rawson ’71, Michael J. Schmidtberger ’78, Peter M. Scocimara ’82, Sanjay K. Shetty, M.D. ’92, Kristyn A. (McLeod) Van Ostern ’96, Janney Wilson ’83

The Exeter Bulletin (ISSN No. 0195-0207) is published four times each year: fall, winter, spring and summer, by Phillips Exeter Academy 20 Main Street, Exeter NH 03833-2460

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Copyright 2023 by the Trustees of Phillips Exeter Academy.

ISSN-0195-0207

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WINTER

HEATHER TAYLOR

—page 36

“THE CURRICULUM IS UNIQUE IN ITS FOCUS ON HANDSON LEARNING AND EMPHASIS ON HARKNESS-STYLE UNDERSTANDING. ”

IN THIS ISSUE

Volume CXXVII, Issue no. 2

Features

30 I Belong

Affinity and identity groups have supported students for decades. Now alumni can benefit, too.

By Sandra Guzmán

36 Unlocking the Code

Forty years of computer science learning at Exeter.

By Debbie Kane

42 Combat Care

Aaron Epstein ’04 offers front-line support in Ukraine.

By Andrew Faught

Departments

6 Around the Table: Sasha Kramer ’94 honored, Harkness in Hollywood with Janet Yang ’74 and Christina Kim ’95, meet the new Lamont Gallery director and more

23 Inside the Writing Life: Kenji Yoshino ’87

26 Sports: Parent, coach Nicole Benson named new equipment manager

Plus: Big Red rolls rivals during fall E/A

46 Connections: Gene Lynch ’79, Grant Goodall ’20, Hugh Thompson ’53 and Angira Sceusi ’98

58 Class Notes

104 Finis Origine Pendet: Raisa Tolchinsky

It’s standing room only as Academy instructors rock the Assembly Hall stage during Faculty Follies.

PHOTOGRAPH BY PATRICK GARRITY

Letters to the Editor

GAMESMANSHIP

I cannot let the admittedly charming article about Cilley Ball pass without staking a claim to what is likely the best, albeit most unheralded, dorm-based game in all of Exeter history. I refer, of course, to Common Room Hockey, invented in Merrill Hall circa 1971ish. A common room, a book, a tennis ball and a fireplace were all that it required.

Common room: chairs pushed back to make a “rink” of wall-to-wall carpet, just soft enough to keep players’ knees from bleeding.

Book: the goalie’s stick. Thin enough to easily swing against blistering slap shots, wide enough to have a decent chance of blocking them.

Tennis ball: the “puck.” Easily replaced when confiscated by faculty busting up a game.

Fireplace: the goal mouth. Not sooty because we never built a fire in it.

Teams alternated playing offense and defense to see how many goals either side could score in five-minute rounds. Timing was also important to avoid discovery by faculty. Four players on offense, two on defense, all on hands and knees. Players were honor-bound to keep their stick hand straight and not grip the

ball to handle or shoot it. Passing was important to set up the shots. With practice, shooting and passing gained power and accuracy. Playing defense was tough, basically like a two-man-down power play.

I believe my team dominated the league. I perfected a slap shot that had both high speed and pinpoint accuracy. For a reliable goal and to please the fans, I would just aim at the goalie’s face (no masks back then; remember Gump Worsley in the NHL — shudder!) and he would reliably duck.

Although we responsibly closed the curtains to avoid accidental window breakage, faculty nevertheless banned the game. Too much fun to quit, though! After futilely confiscating dozens of “pucks,” the Merrill authorities finally conceded defeat and legalized the game. (To my knowledge, knee football remained forbidden. Stories for another time.)

I hope this letter will influence a new generation of Exonians to revive this awesome game. My greatest gratitude to all my friends who played — you know who you are!

Jeffrey Hotchkiss ’73

ABBOT HALL

I enjoyed your piece on Abbot Hall. From my reading in the past, I believe Robert Todd Lincoln lived there. The president sent him to Exeter in order to have a better chance to get into Harvard. He succeeded.

Barry Baron ’63

Science for Humanity

ECOLOGIST AND ACTIVIST SASHA KRAMER ’94 RECEIVES

THE 2022 JOHN AND ELIZABETH PHILLIPS AWARD

By Sarah Pruitt ’95

Sasha Kramer ’94 has worked for nearly 20 years to combat the twin crises of food insecurity and lack of sanitation access in Haiti by transforming human waste into a vital resource to restore depleted ecosystems. During an all-school assembly in October, she was presented with the John and Elizabeth Phillips Award, which recognizes an Exonian who has contributed significantly to the welfare of community, country or humanity.

“As an ecologist, human rights advocate and champion of dignified and safe sanitation, you have channeled your passionate devotion to ecological research into the pursuit of basic human rights for people in Haiti and around the world,” Trustee and General Alumni Association President Betsy Fleming ’86 said when delivering the award citation in Assembly Hall.

In accepting this year’s award, Kramer spoke of initially feeling out of place at Exeter when she arrived as a prep from rural upstate New York. “Through the daily practice of sitting at a table with my classmates from a wide diversity of backgrounds, my confidence grew,” she said.

Kramer traveled to Haiti for the first time in 2004, while she was pursuing a Ph.D. in ecology at Stanford University, as a human rights observer for a Bay Areabased action committee. “I learned that … the most pervasive human rights abuse in Haiti and globally is poverty,” she said. “While I witnessed terrible suffering, I also witnessed true courage.”

Two years later, Kramer co-founded Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL) and used her academic research to improve lives. SOIL develops and deploys a container-based sanitation system that transforms human waste into rich compost, while reducing the spread of disease and creating jobs for Haitian citizens. Now one of Haiti’s largest waste treatment operations, SOIL focuses on developing social business models to provide safe household sanitation in the country’s most

vulnerable urban communities.

“In a world rife with challenges related to water shortages, unsafe sanitation and food insecurity, yours is a model that many people seek to emulate,” Fleming said, adding that SOIL has joined forces with a global network of groups, including research institutions and scientists, to develop sustainable alternatives to water-based sewage.

While on campus, Kramer connected with students by attending classes in religion and integrated studies and by meeting with several groups within the Exeter Student Service Organization (ESSO). She also shared with the assembly audience the greatest lessons Haiti has taught her, which she hoped would be relevant to students’ lives as they grow into global citizens. “Much of my academic training focused on objective observation,” she said. “But Haiti quickly taught me that emotional intelligence — the ability to empathize with others, no matter how painful — was the most valuable tool for building the relationships that are pivotal for making change.”

Haiti taught her perspective, Kramer said, as she set aside personal challenges in the face of “the everyday heroism of my team, who literally would walk through burning roadblocks to ensure sanitation to families cut off by insecurity.”

Finally, she learned perseverance. “Undoing centuries of inequality is a lifetime commitment,” Kramer said. “It requires a dedication that takes strength in small victories and the tenacity to persist in the face of immeasurable setbacks.” E

The John and Elizabeth Phillips Award was inaugurated in 1965 at the behest of the Academy Trustees and the Executive Committee of the General Alumni Association. The award honors Exonians whose lives and contributions to the welfare of community, country and humanity exemplify the nobility of character and usefulness to society that John and Elizabeth Phillips sought to promote in establishing the Academy.

To watch the award assembly, visit exeter.edu/live

A Message of Gratitude

By Principal Bill Rawson ’71; P’08

As we begin the new year, it seems a good moment to reflect on some highlights from our fall term.

This year we welcomed the first wave of new Exonians admitted under the school’s need-blind admissions policy announced last November. In all, 341 new students sat in the gymnasium for Opening Assembly, which began with a procession of students bearing the flags of the 37 countries of origin represented among our

faculty, and a thought-provoking interactive theater production of Everybody by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Audiences filled the Forrestal-Bowld Music Center for the start of our 2022–23 concert series, including performances by the Concert Choir and Symphony Orchestra and our fall student soloist concert.

We headed to Andover for E/A Weekend, where the predicted rain held off long enough for a trio of decisive wins by our boys soccer, girls volleyball and football teams, valiant efforts by all of our athletes, and an impressive display of Big Red spirit by our students and all Exeter fans, led by our new Pep Band and the irrepressible Red Bandits. Girls volleyball capped off a perfect 14-0 regular season, while boys cross-country captured a third straight Division I title.

student body. In my remarks that day, I told students what I tell them every year: You can do the work. You will make lifelong friends. Absolutely, you belong here.

This fall, we also saw the opening of New Hall, which provides a home for 60 girls and five faculty families as well as a new academic space for our Health and Human Development Department. The dorm has brought a new liveliness to its corner of campus, and I am especially appreciative of the flexibility the building gives us to renovate other residence halls, starting with Merrill and Langdell and the construction of a new dining center on the site of Wetherell, which will begin this spring.

At The Goel Center for Theater and Dance, we saw a stunning fall dance performance, “Moments In Time,” featuring original choreography from our students and

Being able to welcome visitors to our campus in ways we could not do a year ago added excitement to the fall term. We heard words of inspiration from distinguished alumni on the Assembly Hall stage, including Veronica Juarez ’00, Tomi Suchan ’08, Lt. Cmdr. JeanPaul Christophe ’00 and Dr. Sasha Kramer ’94, winner of this year’s John and Elizabeth Phillips Award, along with other visiting speakers. Over Exeter Leadership Weekend in September, we welcomed trustees, members of the General Alumni Association and alumni and parent volunteers, all of whom relished the chance to meet in person for the first time in three years, including a Friday night dinner with the senior class. We also had a terrific Family Weekend in October, during which families were thrilled to be able to attend classes with their children again.

These are just a few highlights from the fall term. During the Opening Assembly, I proposed starting the academic year in a spirit of deep appreciation and gratitude for the opportunities and privileges we all enjoy as part of the Exeter community. In that same spirit, I want to say how grateful I am for the support of the alumni, parents and other friends of the Academy who help make it all possible. Thank you. E

Scholarly Endeavors

THE JOHN AND ELIZABETH PHILLIPS DISSERTATION YEAR FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM EXPLAINED

What is the fellowship program? Established in 2013, the program provides advanced doctoral students who might not otherwise consider careers in a residential secondary school the opportunity to gain experience in such a community while working on the completion stage of their dissertations.

Who are the 2022-23 fellows?

Dominique Branson is a Ph.D. linguistics student concentrating in sociolinguistics at the University of Pittsburgh. Her dissertation topic, “Sounding Guilty: Criminalization and Black Racialized Speech,” investigates whether speakers who are assessed as “sounding Black” are also criminalized. “In my linguistics courses, I learned about the many ways that African American English (AAE) differs from standardized American English, or what we usually call ‘proper English,’” Branson says. “Since then, I’ve wanted to know whether Black Americans who speak AAE experience negative outcomes in our criminal legal system because of how listeners hear their speech.”

Maya Singhal is a doctoral candidate in anthropology at Harvard University. Singhal teaches courses on anthropological research at Harvard and a writing course on business and labor in fiction and film at New York University.

Singhal’s dissertation is a historical and ethnographic study of African American and Chinese American collaborations, solidarities and mutual aid in New York City from about the 1960s to the present. Singhal says, “I’m interested in how criminal and criminalized activities work as sites for a variety of pragmatic collaborations, from the African and Chinese counterfeit designer goods sellers in Chinatown to extralegal community defense patrols working to prevent anti-Asian violence.”

How do the fellows

benefit the community?

The fellows teach online seminars and connect on campus with departments and students interested in their fields. They also make themselves available in an informal way to students interested in and student organizations related to their fields.

What do the fellows hope to accomplish?

Branson: “I hope to learn how I can better make my research relevant to youth. … I would also like to know what connections students see between language and justice and how they can use their voices to promote justice. I’m excited to work with diverse students and learn from their perspectives at Phillips Exeter Academy!”

Singhal: “I’m excited to see the really urgent political and social movements we’re faced with, especially since the pandemic, through students’ eyes. It strikes me that a lot of students see their generation as the ones who need to save the world, and I’m excited to think about the histories of social movements and our political issues in the present with people who feel this kind of urgency.” E

Singhal

Branson

Harkness in Hollywood

JANET YANG ’ 74 AND CHRISTINA KIM ’ 95 CONNECT OVER GROWING ASIAN REPRESENTATION IN FILM AND TV

By Sarah Pruitt ’95

Janet Yang ’74 entered the ranks of Hollywood’s power players in the 1980s, when she brokered the first sales of American studio films to the Chinese market. She confirmed her star status by producing The Joy Luck Club (1993) — the groundbreaking adaptation of Amy Tan’s best-selling novel — and a multitude of other acclaimed

What was it like arriving at Exeter for the first time?

Janet Yang: I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood on Long Island and we were the only Asian family in the area. But my mother worked at the United Nations so I was used to visiting her at work and seeing people from all over the world. New York City is an incredible microcosm, with a mix of everything. To arrive at Exeter and see Asians, Blacks, people from all over the world and with different levels of socioeconomic class … that felt so good.

films, from The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) to Over the Moon (2020). In 2022, she was elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Yang is the first Asian person, and only the fourth woman, to hold that position in the academy’s 95-year history.

We recently invited her to sit down for a conversation with fellow alumna Christina Kim ’95, an award-winning TV writer and creator, showrunner and executive producer of the network drama Kung Fu. Yang and Kim met virtually for a wide-ranging discussion that covered their respective experiences at Exeter, the evolution of Asian representation in film and TV and the impact of Yang’s inspiring new role.

Christina Kim: I was born in Chicago in a very white suburb. When I was 10, I moved to Korea. That was a bit of a culture shock. [When I] came to Exeter as a lower, I knew nothing about boarding school life. Like you said, Janet, it felt like a perfect microcosm of what the world should be. Educationwise, too — I look back and wish I could do it again and really appreciate it.

Yang: We’re sometimes too immature to truly appreciate what we’re given. Later in life you realize, I’ll probably never be in such a diverse, inclusive group of people again. Those words didn’t exist back then, by the way. One didn’t talk about diversity and inclusion, it just was.

Did Exeter help prepare you for your roles in Hollywood?

Kim: My first job as a staff writer was on Lost … and it was exactly the Harkness table system. Ten to 12 people sitting around a table and just throwing out ideas, and the best ideas win and get to go up on the board. I remember

Yang

Kim

sitting there thinking: This is literally Exeter, but in a professional setting. It felt strangely comforting because it wasn’t new to me.

Yang: I can relate that to sitting in boardrooms now, or when pitching to an executive and sitting around a big table. That model repeats itself again and again in our lives.

The Joy Luck Club made history as one of the first major Hollywood films to feature a mostly Asian cast. Could you both talk about the changes you’ve seen during your careers in terms of Asian representation in film and TV?

Yang: [Before The Joy Luck Club] I was so new to Hollywood, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I kept thinking, I want to do something with Asians; I didn’t quite know how near impossible it was. That kind of naiveté was helpful because if I had been a seasoned executive, I would’ve instantly put the notion out of my mind. I don’t think [the movie] would’ve been made today in the same way. The studios took more chances, and … they don’t do that anymore. A movie with no stars, a third of it in a non-English language, a lot of flashbacks. All of it broke so many rules.

Kim: That is still one of my favorite movies. It’s an incredible accomplishment, and it influenced so many people.

Yang: Thank you. My parents were extras in the movie, so they could finally brag about what I did, as opposed to being embarrassed. [laughs]

Kim: It’s interesting to see how much the business has changed even in my shortish career. When I first started, I was one of two women in the writers’ room, and it was very racist. Things were said that would be on the cover of Variety now, with people getting canceled, but it was just the way it was. In retrospect, that first experience helped me, because it made me figure out what kind of person and writer I wanted to be. [When] I started developing my own material, I wrote a Korean American soapy drama and sold it to NBC. It ultimately didn’t get made … but the studio really liked it and said: “We have Kung Fu the property. You’re Asian, what do you think?” I was like — I’m not Chinese, I’m Korean.

Yang: [laughs] Close enough.

Kim: But I thought, if there’s an opportunity to make this and I’m the person that’s closest to being able to make it, then I should try. I did a lot of research to make sure I got the details right. When we sold the show [in 2020], the executives told us this was the first network drama with

a predominantly Asian cast. That was just crazy to think about, and it’s something I’m really proud of. I remember sitting at Warner Bros., and the head of casting said to me, “I’ve never seen the hallway look like this.” The entire hallway was full of Asian American actors. After starting on a show where I was the minority, and felt ostracized many times, to create an environment where that’s not the case makes me happy.

Yang: I think we both feel that responsibility to keep pushing the envelope because we know that’s what it takes. We still have to prove ourselves.

Speaking of pushing the envelope, what are you hoping to do as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to further its evolution?

Yang: I got more involved with the academy after the 2016 Oscars and #OscarsSoWhite. I remember the conversations we were having as an industry that year, and I remember seeing a skit early in the 2016 show that played into Asian sterotypes — and honestly, that was a punch to the gut for us as a community.

I’d been a member for over 20 years. I got my DVDs and I voted. That was the full extent of my involvement, but I was moved to do something. I signed a group letter with some very high-profile people, like Ang Lee, Sandra Oh and George Takei. [The academy] did listen, and they had already started to think about diversifying membership. They started the A2020 committee [which set the goal of doubling the number of women and people of color in the academy’s membership] and put me on it. One thing led to another, and I just got more and more involved.

I think the prior leaders, and certainly [current academy CEO] Bill Kramer and I, feel like we have to be ahead of the curve. We’re talking to all the studios and distribution companies and trying to get everyone aligned. How do we create guidelines? How do we find diverse members? How do we keep encouraging people to think about this? There are so many efforts on so many levels that are happening as we speak.

Kim: I just wanted to say thank you, Janet, because taking on these roles is a job on top of a job. I know that it’s coming from a place of real passion. Because of you, there are people like me, and a show on TV like Kung Fu with an almost entirely Asian cast. Thank you for being a trailblazer. You’re inspiring me to get more involved.

Yang: Thank you, Christina. I’ve admired you from afar, so we’re mutually fangirling. E

CAMPUS LIFE AT A GLANCE

SERVICE LEARNING

Students explore Phoenix, Arizona, and volunteer at a local refugee shelter over Thanksgiving break.

GIVING THANKS

Hundreds of students, including William Weber ’24, write heartfelt notes of appreciation during Thank a Donor Day.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARY SCHWALM AND PATRICK GARRITY

FAMILY WEEKEND

For the first time in three years, families join their students in class during Family Weekend.

WALK OF FAME

The entrance to Thompson Field House gets a facelift thanks to a generous alum.

VISITING LAMONT POET Distinguished writer A.E. Stallings reads for Classics students in the Latin Study.

A Lesson in Non Sibi

JEAN-PAUL CHRISTOPHE ’00 HELPS EXETER HONOR ITS VETERANS

By Patrick Garrity

Lt. Cmdr. Jean-Paul Christophe ’00 stands on the Assembly Hall stage, recounting his journey since Exeter. He tells of his philosophy classes at Yale University, then his decision to apply to Officer Candidate School; of his inaugural march across a parade deck as a commissioned naval officer and his first pilot training flight over the Oklahoma plains.

His story reaches the coast of Somalia and the cockpit of a Navy Seahawk helicopter hovering 5 feet above the Indian Ocean. Below bobs a tiny lifeboat full of pirates holding the merchant mariner Capt. Richard Phillips at gunpoint.

The crowded Assembly Hall is still.

“Turbines and the rotors screaming, saltwater spray kicking up all around the aircraft,” Christophe says. “It’s like your own little personal hurricane.”

“That lifeboat was making a run for the Somali coast for the territorial waters, and we were doing everything we could to stop it,” he adds. “We were flying so low that I was nearly at eye level with pirates, and I saw out of the corner of my eye them looking right back at me from behind an AK-47.”

Exonians don’t often share such harrowing tales, but Christophe is far from the only member of the Exeter community to serve in the military. To honor those veterans and all who serve, the Academy plays host to Exeter Salutes. Now in its fourth year, Exeter Salutes features a speaker and other events to celebrate those who exemplify the spirit of non sibi through their service and to raise awareness of the effect their service and sacrifice has on our community and beyond.

Christophe’s Navy career has included two dozen postings, from the Arizona desert to the Persian Gulf. Along with his training as a helicopter pilot, he has served in Navy Intelligence. He assumed his current duties as the joint staff deputy director for analysis and warning at the Pentagon in 2020.

He opened his assembly address in November with a disclaimer: “I am here in my personal capacity. … I am here as one of you, as an Exonian. I’m not a recruiter, I’m not a cheerleader. I didn’t even put on my uniform

because I didn’t want you to see it. I wanted you to see yourselves.”

He tried to convey to his student audience why he chose his path and why the concept of non sibi he was taught at Exeter laid the foundation for his views on rights, responsibilities and duty.

“Rights are what everybody else owes to you,” he said.

“Responsibilities are what you owe to everyone else. You can’t have the first without the second. When people act collectively out of a sense of responsibility and duty to one another, that’s when rights are preserved.”

Christophe closed his remarks by relating the ultimate sacrifice of his service to the lessons his audience encounters daily at Exeter: “It seems to me there’s no greater way to show one’s dedication to anything or anybody than to give blood for it; to give that which supports one’s very life. There is no more potent display of love or any higher sacrifice that a mortal can make.

“In other words, non sibi.” E

More than 700 current Exeter alumni, faculty and staff have served or are serving in the U.S. armed forces. Scores more have died in combat or in active service to the country. Please add your military status to Exeter’s official record at www.exonians.exeter.edu/veterans.

Heard in Assembly Hall

SOUND BITES FROM THIS FALL’S

“If you want to bring a change, you need to be agitated in your mind, which will lead to the innovation. That innovation, with a proper structure around it, will ultimately be the change. This has happened in a number of different arenas in medicine, when we think: OK, the current standard of care is not the way we should be treating a patient. We need to bring change.”

To watch videos of these assemblies, go to exeter.edu/live.

“If you are a creator, an artist, best of luck. Focus on doing your work but know that doing the art itself is just part of the work. The other is being in a community, being of service to others and finding a creative home for yourself and your work.”

“There have been many times throughout my life and my career that I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be of a meeting or an endeavor or a request I was making, but I’ve come to believe that most of it is just showing up. If you show up with your whole authentic self, you’re 95 percent of the way there.”

“Exeter’s Deed of Gift calls for usefulness to humanity.

I am at my most creative, my most good, when I have agency, safety and self-determination. If Exeter and society around us demands our usefulness to them, we as trans people will continue to demand our agency. Our agency and our lives are not up for debate.”

“[Writing] helped me make sense of my life, and it still does. I think why I continued to pursue it is it felt like the thing that brought me the most joy. It still is the thing that brings me the most joy. Sometimes that’s scary. I get a lot of people being like: ‘Oh, is it practical? What are you going to do?’ And I’m doing it, so far.”

“I firmly believe that times of hate call for poems of love.”

Khalid Shah, neuroscience researcher, professor at Harvard Medical School

Veronica Juarez ’00, social enterprise investor

Jaime Cortez, writer, visual artist

Tomi Suchan ’08, professional hacker, security engineer/architect at Apple

Raisa Tolchinsky, writer, George Bennett Fellow

Martín Espada, poet, professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst

SPEAKER SERIES

Compiled by Sarah Pruitt ’95

LAUREN MARIE SCHMIDT

New Curator and Director of Lamont Gallery

PAM MEADOWS BRINGS EXPERIENCE, NEW IDEAS

By Jennifer Wagner

When students ask Pam Meadows what she does as a curator, she often tells them that she’s a visual storyteller. “I make stories that are driven through the scope of the artists whose work I’m exhibiting,” she says. “I’m nurturing a story that hopefully prompts a dialogue.”

Meadows, who began her tenure at Exeter last summer, has been telling stories in academic and gallery settings for the past 14 years, most recently at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art in Colorado. Her style of curation — interactive and site-conscious — often pushes conventional definitions and expectations. At the University of Northern Colorado, for example, Meadows transformed the gallery into a 1950s soda fountain where visitors could not only view photographs and artifacts from the atomic era, but also order a 25-cent hot dog.

“I really want to lift the veil of what a gallery space or museum does, how it functions,” Meadows says. “I want the gallery to feel like less of a pristine white cube where there are these implied behaviors or norms. I want it to feel more like an elevated community space, a safe space for students to come and just look at things.”

In her curatorial debut for the Academy — “Still No More,” on view at the Lamont Gallery through April 15 — Meadows stays true to her ethos and invites artists and students alike to reconsider preconceived notions. “What would a still life look like in the contemporary moment as we think about books being replaced by iPads and cellphones?” she says. Six artists, working in ceramics, photography, sculpture, painting and installation, tease the modern out of the 15th-century tradition. “The work expands the potential of what a still life can be, while preserving the essence of what makes the genre iconic and memorable,” Meadows says.

Much the same can be said of Meadows’ hopes for the Lamont Gallery. “I’m challenging myself with thinking through what our students want to see and how can I make this space a place to help facilitate that,” she says, adding, “If I can impact their experience here so that when they leave they think, ‘Wow, I learned something from her’ or ‘She made me think about something that I otherwise wouldn’t have thought of’ — that’s the ultimate reward.” E

MARY SCHWALM

ON STAGE

This fall’s “Moments in Time” dance performance featured original student and faculty choreography.

(Above) Violinists William Lu ’24 and Minseo Kim ’23 delight audiences during a November orchestra concert. (Right) The spotlight shines on Chloe Becker ’23 in the fall play, Everybody.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARY SCHWALM

Borges and I

A FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT OF ARGENTINE POET JORGE LUIS BORGES’ VISIT TO THE ACADEMY AS THE FIRST LAMONT POET IN 1983

By Francesca Piana, translated by Molly King ’82

Francesca Piana, who taught Spanish at the Academy from 1976 through 1986, was instrumental in arranging Borges’ visit. The following is her narrative memory of that time. Originally written in Spanish, this excerpt was translated by Piana’s former student Molly King ’82 and edited for space. Read the full Spanish text online at www.exeter.edu/borges.

In the autumn of 1982, a colleague in the English Department of Phillips Exeter Academy, where I was an instructor in Spanish, told me that her department wanted to invite Jorge Luis Borges to spend a week at our institution. She wondered if I would be able to make such a miracle happen.

be as a guest. I learned that he was known to abandon the podium midspeech if he didn’t like an “impertinent” question or grew tired of others’ interpretations of his work. Not to mention the quality of meals or lodgings that were required to suit his needs.

I was quite familiar with Borges’ masterly writing. He was a favorite author in our Spanish literature classes, in spite of the level of difficulty his work posed for students. However, I knew little about the man, thus I dedicated myself to reading all I could find about him. I decided to prepare for his arrival as thoroughly as possible, in the hopes that I could avoid having one of his temper tantrums ruin the visit.

Spring days in New England can be dark and rainy. It was one such day in April that I was to meet and escort Borges to Exeter. The trip from Connecticut (where Borges had just participated in a colloquium in his honor) to New Hampshire would be a few hours drive. At 9 in the morning, I walked into a library where Borges, seated alone, with his ubiquitous cane and his blind gaze lost in the distance, awaited me. He sensed my steps and lifted his head in my direction. I introduced myself. Almost immediately, a young woman entered the hall. Her name was María Kodama and she was Borges’ companion.

As it turned out, it would take a miracle. Borges, then in his early 80s and blind since the age of 50, had stopped answering his mail long ago. Those seeking access to him had to do it through his inner circle. And he was not lacking for invitations. It was only with the help of the Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies at Harvard that I managed to get PEA on his schedule.

In the months leading up to his visit, whenever I spoke of the project with colleagues from other academic institutions, I was warned of how exacting Borges could

Once in the car, we began to make our way down the rainy highway. Borges took an interest in my background. I told him of my youth in Ecuador and my upbringing among beautiful Baroque churches in Quito. I don’t know how it began, but for a long while we sang childhood nursery rhymes, echoes of our shared Latin American youth. By the time we reached Concord, Massachusetts, Borges and I had established an unexpected camaraderie.

Having learned that Borges was a great admirer of 19th-century New England writers, I had called the National Park Service to find out the hours of Louisa May Alcott’s house and museum. I thought we could stop there on

Francesca Piana and Jorge Luis Borges

our trip north so that Borges could rest. The person who answered the phone informed me that the museum would be closed the day we hoped to visit. “What a shame!” I said. “I wanted to bring a well-known Argentine author who will be visiting the country.”

“You don’t mean Borges, do you?” she replied with astonishment.

“Why, yes!” I answered.

“For him, the museum is open any time, any day.”

It was still raining when we entered the home of the author of Little Women. There, by the warmth of a wood fire, we were greeted with steaming cups of hot tea and a freshly baked apple pie. An enormous park ranger, with little literary knowledge but a keen awareness of the importance of the guest, offered Borges her arm saying she was expert in guiding the blind. Borges enjoyed the special privilege they granted him to touch the spines of the books in the Alcott library. Before leaving, the park ranger took off her large hat, put it on Borges’ head, stood by his side and asked me to take their photo.

It was the logical choice to host Borges at the stately Exeter Inn on the edge of campus. I watched as Borges entered his room and touched the walls to familiarize himself with his new surroundings. I surmised that this would make him less dependent on others.

The students had prepared for Borges’ visit by reading some of his work in several languages. Those who didn’t study Spanish read translations of his work in French, English, German, Russian or Italian. The night of his arrival I asked Borges to speak to the general assembly of students. “What do you want me to talk about?” he asked.

“Whatever you’d like,” I answered.

Flanked by the head of school, [Principal Stephen Kurtz] on one side, and me on the other, Borges sat in the middle of a long table on the stage of the Assembly Hall. With a voice weakened by the years and in British-inflected English, he spoke briefly to the student body. His message was simple: Read. “Reading is the shortest and safest way to achieve happiness,” he said.

When he stopped speaking, the assembly erupted into deafening applause that lasted longer than Borges had spoken. As we listened to the enthusiastic reception, his hand found mine at the edge of the table. “Did I do well?” he asked me, with unexpected humility.

“You are hearing the answer,” I replied.

In the days that followed, the sight of Borges walking the paths of campus beside Kodama became so familiar that it felt as if he had always been there with us. It was then that I realized that the irascible Borges, prone to fits of temper,

of whom I had heard so much, had lost his sharp edges. He had become a kind old man who basked in the glow of the attention he received. Borges went in and out of classrooms, enthralling the students.

In the afternoons, Borges, Kodama and I would gather for tea. These were delightful moments of conversation. When I wanted to talk about the authors of the Latin American Boom, he told me he hadn’t read them. Snobbery? By contrast, he cited from memory books, texts, pages of the classics he grew up studying, as though he were seeing them. What an ironic twist of fate, to take away the sight of a man whose very life was reading.

I understood why many critics had said that Borges was not a Latin American writer — he was much more a product of European culture in general (and English in particular), rather than the newer strain germinated in Latin America. It was not only his hermetic style that separated him from his contemporaries, but also the unexpected narrative twists and turns that produced such unusual results in his work. His inspiration was not based on immediate reality, nor did he practice magic realism, a style prevalent among other Latin American writers of the time. In the vault of his library in Buenos Aires, he extracted and honed the gems of his stories amid the silent company of books. Thus, he made us understand that the words of El Quijote by Pierre Menard, though they may seem identical to those of Cervantes, are not, because Menard wrote in the 20th century and Cervantes at the beginning of the 17th; that it would take Funes the memorious another lifetime to remember all that he had experienced in the first; or that Judas, the traitor, could be Jesus Christ himself, since his betrayal was essential to Christ’s act of redemption.

Borges was not interested in the present, or in politics, the state of the world or contemporary society. He lived in an elitist past that accepted without question the division of classes, as well as racial, social and economic differences. If Borges had an Achilles’ heel, it was an absurdly naive view of the world. Perhaps this is what allowed him to accept a decoration from the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, and, according to some, cost him the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The night before his departure, Borges, Kodama, Peter Greer (a colleague from the English Department) and I dined at my home. The after-dinner conversation lasted into the wee hours of the morning. We discussed books. Borges asked for copies of particular books to confirm his quotes or to read a passage. The next morning, when I went into my dining room, I found it scattered with books, some closed, some opened, silent witnesses all to those last hours with Borges. E

“Reading is the shortest and safest way to achieve happiness.”

SCENE AND HEARD

Advanced Artistry

STUDENT PORTRAITURE PAINTS STRIKING PERSPECTIVE

By Adam Loyd

Daylight falls evenly through a vaulted skylight into Room 107 of the Frederick R. Mayer Art Center. Showered in the glow are eight of Exeter’s most dedicated student artists, immersed in creation as part of ART408 Advanced Projects: Painting Portraits. Having filled their sketchbooks with ideas earlier in the term, they are well into their portraiture work, which will occupy their class time for the remainder of the term.

As colors swirl, figures are coaxed to life, with subjects ranging from the dearly departed to the unfamiliar. Ariana Thornton ’24 glances up, then down, then up again at a photo taped to the top of her easel. The snapshot shows Thornton as a 4-year-old in the arms of her beaming grandfather on a visit to China. Next to them, her grandmother, in a late stage of Alzheimer’s disease. The painting takes on a linear gradient from light to dark, a deliberate choice by the artist. “The brighter colors symbolize liveliness and youth,” she says. “I wanted to use more muted tones with my grandmother to represent aging and disassociation.”

On a canvas in the corner of the room, a striking woman sits in a pensive pose, her qualities captured so precisely, it’s as though she might start talking. “It’s my grandma,” Lionel Hearon ’25 says. “It’s a face she makes a lot, like her resting face.”

Hearon’s talent in capturing his grandmother’s likeness is undeniable. He takes pride in doing the work to get the more subtle details just right. It’s a labor of love, from the jewelry (“The green ring is really special to her,” he says) to her dress’s chrysanthemum pattern (a flower Hearon associates with his grandfather and her husband). “I’ll step back from it, go in and paint one stroke, then step all the way back and look at it again,” he says.

“The hurdles and complexities of portraiture are real, and also rewarding,” says Clowes Chair in Art and Instructor in Art Tara Lewis. “There is wisdom in working on one large piece for an entire term and evolving as an artist through a series of aesthetic decisions, critical thinking and feedback from fellow portrait ‘colleagues.’”

The expansive room is quiet, save for the sounds of brush bristles on canvas, paints being mixed or the occasional words of encouragement by Lewis or between classmates. “I often feel that for them, it feels less like a class at school and more like a professional studio experience,” Lewis says. “When they arrive to the studio for class, they dive right into their easel space with fantastic focus and a love of the process, no matter how tricky or simple it may be day to day.”

Minjae Suh ’25 unfurrows her brow and relaxes her concentration slightly as she leans away from her canvas to consider her progress. “It’s supposed to be me, but I’m not worried about it looking exactly like me,” she says. The largerthan-life-size doppelgänger is posed evocatively, head tilted back, mouth open, tongue pierced by a fishhook. Suh says she was inspired by themes of freedom (or lack thereof), disability and speech, but she delights in subjectivity and the feeling that she has offered only part of the equation. “The viewer has a huge role in making art,” she says. “They finish the piece in their head. It’s up to them to make sense of it, however they want.”

As the period draws to a close, the students are that much closer to presenting their pieces as a finished product. “At the end of the term,” Lewis says, “the class installs a final exhibit, which provides a professional exhibition for the artists and a fabulous event for the school community to attend and celebrate.” E

Lionel Hearon ’25 PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARY SCHWALM

Minjae Suh ’25

Ariana Thornton ’24

EXETER DECONSTRUCTED

THE SCHOOL WE LOVE IN DETAIL

By Patrick Garrity

The Red Bandits

Wanted: Exeter students. The noisier, the better. Must have school spirit and a thing for face paint. Lots of red clothing is a plus. Kilts provided.

Exonians with the requisite qualities have been answering this call for decades, serving collectively as the accelerant on the Exeter-Andover fire in their role as Red Bandits. Each time the E/A games roll around, the Bandits rile the crowds and let all within earshot know that “WE ARE E-X-E-T-E-R!”

The Academy officially recognizes the Bandits today, and they are chosen by Student Activities from a pool of applicants. But their origins are less formal and somewhat murky. A 1988 story about a pre-E/A assembly in The Exonian tells of “not-so-traditional cheerleaders showing their stuff.” Six years later, The Exonian reported “the idea of having Red Bandits started when a nonathletic, somewhat … angry group of guys got together for the purpose of adding more spirit to Exeter.”

The lack of school spirit is a time-honored lament at Exeter. Newspaper editorials dating to the 1890s bemoan a shortage of support for Exeter teams. “It should be unnecessary to again call attention to what is nothing more than a lack of school spirit,” the editors wrote in 1895.

Last fall, with the advent of a pep band and a student fan section called The Big Red Zone, many Exeter varsity teams enjoyed vocal support. And when E/A arrived in November, the Red Bandits were in Andover, the noisiest of them all. E

PATRICK GARRITY

Crucial Conversations

KENJI YOSHINO ’87 OFFERS PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR MEANINGFUL DISCUSSION

By Sarah Pruitt ’95

When it comes to conversations about race, gender, sexuality and other core aspects of identity, the stakes have always been high. That’s especially true today, in an era dominated by stark political divisions, the ubiquity of social media and the ever-present threat of being “canceled.”

With his latest book, Say the Right Thing: How to Talk About Identity, Diversity, and Justice, Kenji Yoshino ’87 aims to give readers the tools they need to navigate these challenging yet crucial conversations. A professor of constitutional law at New York University School of Law, Yoshino is also the faculty director of the school’s Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. He co-wrote the book with the center’s executive director, David Glasgow.

“We kept hearing from people who wanted to do the right thing but were terrified of getting the words wrong,” Yoshino says. “They feared they would either hurt somebody they cared about, or alternatively just get canceled themselves. That kind of overwhelming fear would stymie them as allies.”

Using real-world examples drawn from the authors’ own experiences and those of their colleagues and friends, as well as from TV appearances, social media posts and other public examples of noninclusive behavior, Say the Right Thing outlines a set of actionable principles that help readers meaningfully engage in difficult conversations. Beginning with how to avoid common conversational traps such as falling silent, deflecting blame or going on the attack, the book moves on to cover topics such as how to take a learning posture when it comes to identity conversations, how to disagree respectfully and how to apologize authentically.

As a gay Asian American man, Yoshino admits to drawing on deep personal experience for the book, including past conversations in which he came out to his loved ones.

“We all remember those conversations we’ve had on these core issues of identity that have either gone really well or really poorly,” he says.

He also freely acknowledges how it feels to be on the other side of a difficult conversation about identity, in which he was the one who stumbled. “I have misgendered individuals who are trans, I have confused people of the same ethnic background for each other — everything that you have ever heard of, I have done myself,” Yoshino says. “It’s not a question of whether, it’s a question of when you’ll mess up in one of these identity conversations … and part of [the book] is to ask whether we can set aside this notion of canceling each other with the empathy that comes from the fact that someday this is going to be you.”

Unlike his previous books, which include Speak Now: Marriage Equality on Trial (2015) and A Thousand Times More Fair: What Shakespeare’s Plays Teach Us About Justice (2011), Yoshino emphasizes that Say the Right Thing is not a high-concept book. “This book is like a screwdriver,” he says. “It’s meant to be super practical, so people feel like they have the tools to have these conversations, and some safeguards on how badly they can go awry.”

JOE HENSON

In addition to his books and contributions to major academic journals, Yoshino also writes for popular media outlets such as the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and The Washington Post. Writing has been a constant in his life since his years at Exeter, where he gravitated to the Religion Department, taking one class after another. “I learned how to write and how to love writing and reading at Exeter,” says Yoshino, who particularly remembers a class he took senior year with English Instructor Charles L. Terry. “I knew even then that he had mentored many great writers in the past, and he was willing to give students that kind of individualized attention.”

Yoshino also gained a guiding principle from one of Exeter’s core values: the need to combine knowledge with goodness. “I’ve always tried to think about how to bring whatever intellectual gifts I have to bear in the service of some moral end,” he says.

After majoring in English at Harvard, Yoshino studied at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship and earned his law degree from Yale Law School, where he specialized in civil rights. He was debating his future career path even as the Supreme Court handed down the first in a series of key decisions affirming LGBT rights in Romer v. Evans (1996). “I was writing up a storm and trying to decide whether to go into impact litigation for LGBT rights, or go into the academy,” he recalls. “I ultimately felt the academy would be a better pathway because I’m interested in writing about utopia as much as I am about litigating the real. That pathway was all about writing about LGBT rights and trying to bring the intellectual and the moral imperatives together — and I’ve never looked back.”

Yoshino returned to Yale Law as a professor, then moved to NYU a decade later. His current work with diversity and inclusion began as a result of his first book, Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights (2006). It combined autobiographical anecdotes with an analysis of the continued discrimination faced by members of marginalized communities who refuse to “cover,” or play down aspects of their identity. “The reason that this form of discrimination has had such a robust life is in part because the law has very little to say about it,” Yoshino says. “I’m not sure the law can provide the solution because these interactions are so infinite and infinitesimal. We don’t want the courts to intervene and tell us what the core of anyone’s identity is.” Instead, the work must be done on the level of communities, organizations and ordinary people — people Yoshino hopes will benefit from the principles set out in his latest book.

Going forward, Yoshino plans to use Say the Right Thing as a text in his Leadership, Diversity, and Inclusion course at NYU Law. Gabriel Delabra ’13, who previously took the class with Yoshino, is co-teaching it. Now an associate at a law firm and an adjunct NYU Law professor, Delabra worked as a research assistant for Say the Right Thing and plans to clerk next year for United States Circuit Judge Guido Calabresi, a longtime Yale professor whom Yoshino also worked for years ago.

Although they only recently learned of their Exeter connection, Delabra recognizes in Yoshino the hallmarks of a good Harkness-style student — and teacher. “Kenji really takes his time with everything, not only in his social interactions, but in his written work,” Delabra says. “He takes everyone’s feedback very seriously and takes his time evaluating what I’ve contributed to the discussion. I think that’s kind of an Exeter contribution: Teachers were always very receptive to the ideas that students bring, and he has very much embraced that.” E

“I’ve always tried to think about how to bring whatever intellectual gifts I have to bear in the service of some moral end.“

EXONIANS IN REVIEW

Alumni are encouraged to advise the Bulletin editor (bulletin@exeter.edu) of their own publications, recordings, films, etc., in any field, and those of their classmates, for inclusion in future Exonians in Review columns. Please send a review copy of your published work to the editor to be considered for an extended profile or review in future issues. Works can be sent to: Phillips Exeter Academy, The Exeter Bulletin, 20 Main Street, Exeter, NH 03833.

ALUMNI

1953—Peter M. Wolf. The Sugar King, Leon Godchaux: A New Orleans Legend, His Creole Slave, and His Jewish Roots. (Bayou Editions, 2022)

1956—Peter Brooks. Seduced by Story: The Use and Abuse of Narrative. (New York Review Books, 2022)

1956—William Peace Nebrodi Mountains: The Billionaire and the Mafia. (Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Agency, 2022)

1957—Carl Pickhardt Holding On While Letting Go: Parenting Your Child Through the Four Freedoms of Adolescence. (Health Communications Inc., 2022)

1962—Paul S. Ulrich Topography and Repertoire of the Theatre, book series. (Hollitzer, 2022)

1964—John Kohring “Report From the Midwest,” a collaborative online photo and prose exhibition.

1966—James E. Coleman Jr. “Living in the Shadow of American Racism,” article. (Law and Contemporary Problems, Volume 85, Issue 3, 2022)

1967—Robert Matisoff. Red Ivy. (Self-published, 2022)

1974—Julie Scolnik, with Sophie Scolnik-Brower. J.S. Bach: Complete Sonatas for Flute & Piano, CD. (Navona Records, 2022)

1977—Kathleen Engel, co-author. “Student Loan Reform: Rights Under the Law, Incentives Under Contract, and Mission Failure Under ED,” article. (Harvard Journal on Legislation, Volume 58, Number 2)

1981—Claudia Putnam. “Hardening,” poem. (ABQ inPrint, Issue 6, 2022)

—Book review of Suzanne Edison’s Since the House Is Burning. (MER Literary Journal, September 2022)

—“Raiment,” poem. (The Bookends Review, September 2022)

—“We Don’t Know, We Think Different Things,” fiction. (Variant Literature, Issue 12, Fall 2022)

1987—David Hollander, producer. Robert Irwin: A Desert of Pure Feeling. The documentary film premiered at DOC NYC in November 2022.

1989—Jeff Locker, actor, writer. Oliver, of Three, play. (Short+Sweet Hollywood theater festival, 2022)

1996—Eirene Tran Donohue, writer. A Christmas Spark, TV movie. (Lifetime, 2022)

The 12 Days of Christmas Eve, TV movie. (Lifetime, 2022)

2003—Sara Jane Ho. Mind Your Manners, streaming series. (Netflix, 2022)

2004—Megan Halpern, producer. Deborah, film. (Streaming sites, 2022)

2006—Dwight Curtis. “Glasgow One,” short story. (Pangyrus, Nov. 1, 2022)

FACULTY

Willie Perdomo El Cofre, short play. (Huizache: The Magazine of a New America, Issue 9, Fall 2022)

Nova M. Seals. “The Librarians, Arthurian Tradition, and Attainable Heroism,” paper presented at the Northeast Popular & American Culture Association’s annual conference in October 2022.

Nicole Benson’s Triple Play

EXETER PARENT, COACH TAPPED AS NEW EQUIPMENT MANAGER

By Adam Loyd

Seated on a stool sandwiched between racks of red and white jerseys, Nicole Benson P’20, P’23, P’25 thumbs through a binder of dog-eared pages. “We call these our bibles,” she says. “We’re working out of the winter one now.”

Contained in the well-worn folders: all the essential information Benson, the newly appointed athletic equipment manager, needs to outfit 60 Big Red teams across 23 sports over three terms. “I would love to integrate some technology into our process,” she says, “but for the day to day, this system really is valuable and simple.”

The no-tech method is a holdover from recently retired Donald “Mac” McElreavy, who held the post for four decades. Benson trained under McElreavy for a year, soaking up the tools of the trade. “Mac made it look so effortless, but the hamster in my brain is constantly running,” Benson says. “He always seemed to keep on top of things and have everything ready to go seamlessly. I’m just sitting here like, ‘When’s the shoe going to drop?’”

Inspired by field trips to equipment rooms at the University of New Hampshire and Harvard University, Benson has begun implementing her own approach to the position, which includes managing an endless stream of laundry and patching gear. “You’re thinking of three

things at one time, all the time,” she says. “You’re thinking about what we need to do for the day, what needs to be done for the week, what needs to be done for the season, and then for the year.”

Before taking on her current role, Benson was well acquainted with Exeter and the athletics department. As a former Division I swimmer, she began coaching junior varsity boys in the pool in 2015. A short while later, three of her five children, Andrew ’20, Amy ’23 and Ali ’25, talented swimmers in their own right, enrolled at the Academy. Around that time Benson’s husband, Tom, was given the option to retire early, prompting her to seek a new opportunity. She says: “My friend Kate told me about the opening and said: ‘No one’s more organizationally based than a mom of five. This looks like it could be a good match.’”

Now entering her third term working out of the stockroom in the George H. Love Gymnasium — while also coaching girls varsity swimming and diving — Benson continues to settle into the role at the school she has come to know from many angles. “I’m proud to be here, and I’m also humbled that I get to be part of a huge tradition like working at Exeter,” she says. “If I get to leave a little bit of my own stamp on that in some way, that’s fun.” E

MARY SCHWALM

BIG RED ROLLS OVER RIVALS

THE MOST ANTICIPATED SPORTS WEEKEND ON THE FALL CALENDAR

By Brian Muldoon INTERSCHOLS

Exeter boys cross-country continued its run of dominance at the New England Interscholastic Championships with its third consecutive Division I title. Byron Grevious ’24 led the way with his second straight individual title and a course-record time of 15 minutes, 35 seconds. The girls cross-country team also enjoyed a great day and placed second overall. Boys water polo earned a 14-11 victory over Williston in the opening round before falling to Greenwich Country Day, 13-9.

FALL E/A

Another chapter in the historic rivalry between Exeter and Andover concluded with three victories for Big Red. Girls volleyball capped a perfect 14-0 regular season with a 3-1 (25-9, 25-14, 23-25, 25-22) triumph over the Blue. Sofia Morais ’23 and Coco Barton ’23 were solid for Big Red.

Big Red boys soccer scored the lone goal of the game in the first half when Thaniel Illuzzi ’23 headed in a beautiful cross from Jaylen Bennett ’25 to earn a 1-0 victory. Trevor Piltch ’23 was outstanding in goal, making several key saves including a diving stop with three minutes to play.

The Blue girls varsity soccer team capitalized on their scoring chances by potting one in the first half and three in the second to take a 4-0 win. Andover struck first in field hockey as well with a goal in the opening five minutes. Exeter evened the score at 1-1 when Eloise Goedkoop ’23 found the back of the net. Andover capitalized on a corner before adding a pair in the second half in the 4-1 win.

Exeter’s football team concluded E/A weekend in emphatic fashion, earning its second straight victory over the Blue by 42-7 in their 138th meeting. Andover held a 7-6 lead and was driving in the final minute of the first half when Tommy Dunn ’23 picked off a pass and ran it back to the Blue 20-yard line. Big Red claimed a lead they never gave back when Tristan Aboud ’23 scored on a quarterback keeper to give Exeter a 14-6 lead at the break. The second half was all Exeter: Running back Xaviah Bascon ’23 racked up four touchdowns as Big Red scored 28 unanswered points. The victory capped a tremendous 7-1 season. E

MARY SCHWALM

HILLARY YOON ’24

HILLARY YOON ’24

FALL SPORTS

GIRLS CROSS-COUNTRY

2ND PLACE IN NEW

ENGLAND

Head Coach: Diana Davis ’03

Assistant Coaches: Dale Braile, Emily Quirk

Captains: Tristen Crotty ’23, Lassiter Foregger ’23

MVP: Tenley Nelson ’24

FOOTBALL RECORD: 7-1

Head Coach: Panos Voulgaris

Assistant Coaches: Patrick Bond, Tom Evans, Bill Glennon, Dave Hudson, Max Lane, Stephan Lewis, Matt Miller

Captains: Anderson Lynch ’23, Brandon Wong ’23

MVP: Xaviah Bascon ’23

GIRLS VOLLEYBALL RECORD: 15-1

Head Coach: Bruce Shang

Assistant Coaches: Sue Rowe, Sophia Scola

Captains: Coco Barton ’23, Sofia Morais ’23, Jackie Wood ’23

MVP: Sofia Morais ’23

BOYS CROSS-COUNTRY

NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONS

Head Coach: Brandon Newbould

Assistant Coaches: Matt Hartnett, Nick Unger

Captains: Mateo Bango ’23, Oliver Brandes ’23, Mateo Connelly ’23

MVP: Byron Grevious ’24

GIRLS SOCCER

RECORD: 5-12-2

Head Coach: Alexa Caldwell

Assistant Coaches: Austin

Washington, Kerry McBrearty

Captains: Bridgette Martin ’23, Ryan Pate ’23

MVPs: Ryan Pate ’23, Samantha Smith ’23

FIELD HOCKEY

RECORD: 8-7-1

Head Coach: Samantha Fahey

Assistant Coaches: Mercy Carbonell, Sarah Nelson

Captains: Kate Nixon ’23, Grace Puchalski ’23, Eden Welch ’23

MVP: Grace Puchalski ’23

BOYS SOCCER

RECORD: 8-4-5

Head Coach: A.J. Cosgrove

Assistant Coach: Nolan Lincoln

Captains: Cam Guthrie ’23, Atticus Ross ’23

MVP: Atticus Ross ’23

BOYS WATER POLO

RECORD: 14-4

Head Coach: Don Mills

Assistant Coach: Meg Blitzshaw

Captains: Dax Knoll ’23, Patrick McCann ’23, Nate Puchalski ’23

MVP: James Faulhaber ’26

I Belong

AFFI NITY AND IDENTITY GROUPS HAVE SUPPORTED STUDENTS FOR DECADES. NOW ALUMNI CAN BENEFIT, TOO.

B y Sandra Guzmán

Illustrations By Kim Salt

Two decades after her graduation from Exeter, Rhoda Tamakloe ’01 still prizes her Afro-Latinx Exonian Society T-shirt collection. Being a member of ALES played an important role in her days as a student coming of age at the Academy in the late ’90s. “It was the first time in my life that I was able to find community and people who shared my background,” says Tamakloe, whose father is Nigerian and Ghanaian and whose mother is African American and of Indigenous descent from the Narragansett and Wampanoag of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. “It helped me step into my own.” Tamakloe cherishes her three years at Exeter, but she acknowledges that she struggled with being seen as a learning prop instead of a peer in certain instances. One unforgettable moment during a history class stands out. “I remember the lights went off and a video came on; it was that scene in Amistad where they are drowning the

slaves,” she recalls. “Then the lights came on and the teacher said, ‘Rhoda, how do you feel about this?’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t know, I was never a slave. How do you feel about it?’”

The incident left her confused, hurt and unclear as to what more her 15-year-old self could have added about the murder of human beings by despotic slavers. She was grateful, however, that later that day she could count on classmates in ALES to help her process what happened. “Without that support, I would have carried and swallowed what happened,” she says.

During her senior year, she adds, she found support in the classroom as well. Black Experience in White America, a course taught by Russell Weatherspoon ’01, ’03, ’08, ’11 (Hon.); P’92, P’95, P’97, P’01, she says, provided an additional safe space to explore the intersection of class and race with her peers.

Celebrate ALES!

Join us on campus October 28-29 to commemorate 55 years of the AfroLatinx Exonian Society. All are welcome.  More information to come!

Now as an elected General Alumni Association (GAA) director and chair of the GAA Alumni Affinity Engagement Committee, Tamakloe is leading efforts to curate identity and affinity spaces like ALES for Exeter alumni. Her focus is on intersectionality.

“I am working to create sustainable, accessible pathways for Exonians to connect with each other and continue to reimagine how we can work together to leave this world a little better than we found it, which is at the heart of the school’s non sibi philosophy,” she says.

ON-CAMPUS AFFINITY SPACES

In educational settings, affinity spaces are meant to create a sense of belonging so students feel affirmed and encouraged and, most important, they can exist freely without the oppressive gaze that regards them as “others.”

In predominantly white and heteronormative environments, people who are differently abled, LGBTQ+ and from various racial and ethnic backgrounds can often feel invisible and stressed, even if the behavior toward them is unintentional.

“Affinity spaces provide opportunities for people to find cultural reflections and affirmation,” says Stephanie Bramlett, the Academy’s director of Equity and Inclusion. “They are a well-documented key ingredient in how we foster connection and belonging for all at Exeter.”

Bramlett says the Office of Multicultural Affairs currently sponsors two types of identity-based groups: cultural groups and affinity groups. Since these groups are student-driven efforts, numbers fluctuate from year to year. Of this year’s 30 groups, 10 are affinity groups.

Bramlett says that cultural group members come together to learn about and celebrate a particular social or cultural group. They are open to anyone who wants to be in community with others discussing a topic around a particular culture. Examples include ALES, the Exeter Feminist Union and the Gender and Sexuality Alliance.

By comparison, Bramlett says, affinity group members come together because they have a shared social identity and can speak to the unique experience of being a member of the group. “You know you are in the right affinity group,” she explains, if you can “speak to that group’s collective cultural identity and experience from the ‘I’ and ‘we’ perspective.” Examples include La Alianza Latina, Exonians With Disabilities and Different Abilities, and the Association of Low-Income Exonians.

“At the Academy, affinity groups play an integral part in the student experience,” says Associate Dean of Multicultural Affairs Hadley Camilus. “Being in a familiar space with other students who share a particular salient identity is paramount, for some, to being able to thrive here. We don’t prescribe that. The students get a sense of when they need to be around those who feel familiar. It’s important for students to know that others are having similar experiences here, and to learn how to be authentic in a community that doesn’t always allow for that, from their more seasoned peers.”

“It was the first time in my life that I was able to find community and people who shared my background.”

RHODA TAMAKLOE ’01

CHRISTIAN HARRISON

Academic literature supports the power of affinity groups to increase self-esteem and achievement, and improve mental well-being. Beverly Daniel Tatum, one of the leading authorities on the complexity of identity, says affinity spaces help young people in identity development. In her book Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?, Tatum writes that if you are growing up as a young person of color in society, part of that experience is to get messages from the wider world about who you are, and responding to them. Tatum, who is also the interim president of Mount Holyoke College and president emerita of Spelman College, says that teenagers start to think about questions of identity in ways that lead them to seek out people who are having similar experiences. It should surprise no one to see young people, particularly in adolescence, gathering in similar groups, she writes. And it’s not just Black children. Asian, Latinx, Native American and white youths do this as well.

BRINGING ALUMNI TOGETHER TO CONNECT AND HEAL

Adults can also benefit from affinity groups that help fortify the human spirit. As a member of the GAA’s Board of Directors, Trustee Una Basak ’90 was the founding chair of the Alumni Affinity Engagement Committee. Basak, a Harvard University graduate, says that in 2021 the GAA directors quickly identified three alumni needs: to engage and solicit feedback, to improve communication with young alumni and to create affinity groups. It became very clear, she says, that they needed to respond with

some level of programming and safe space creation for alumni to engage with one another. The Alumni Affinity Engagement Committee was formed and focused first on bringing affinity groups together during the 2021 virtual reunion program, a practice that had begun with reunion classes prior to the pandemic.

Basak says she learned a lot organizing these groups, not the least of which was just how difficult it would be to identify BIPOC and LGBTQ+ individuals. In the beginning, the committee relied on word of mouth, she says. The Academy has since updated its directory to allow alumni to self-identify and add race, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation to their profiles.

The committee invited alumni to join affinity breakout sessions for those who identify as Asian, Black, Hispanic/ Latinx and LGBTQ+. Although not very well attended, the alumni who participated in the virtual events expressed an enthusiastic desire to keep going.

The excitement motivated Basak, and she worked with Exeter’s Office of Institutional Advancement and Alumni Relations to begin a more robust virtual program for four alumni affinity groups — Asian American Pacific Islander, Black, Hispanic/Latinx and LGBTQ+. The alumni who gathered hailed from graduating classes as far back as the 1960s, adding to the richness of the conversations and the variety of experiences.

“It was emotional and very valuable to each and every person on the Zoom,” says Basak, who is of South Indian heritage. “Some of the alums have been carrying traumatic stories for years, but in creating these containers

“In creating these containers to share experiences, we have built a support system that in a way heals and brings back alums who love the Academy.”

UNA BASAK ’90

MARY SCHWALM

to share experiences, we have built a support system that in a way heals and brings back alums who love the Academy but were not as engaged. The engagement is deeper and more meaningful.”

Trustee Paulina Jerez ’91 attended a Latino/x affinity gathering in December and says, “Not only was this program a great opportunity to [get to know alumni], but it provided a space where we could share our stories and common experiences with Exonians of similar backgrounds.”

Basak says that the alumni affinity groups are mirroring the extraordinary work being done through the Office of Multicultural Affairs on behalf of current students. “We did not have that when we were students in the ’90s,” she says. “For example, there was an Asian Society when I was a student, but it was mostly about food, and there is nothing wrong with that. But we are going deeper. ... I am hoping for stories, when brought to light, that are going to create some paths toward a better engagement between alumni and the Academy. And healing.”

HOW FAR THE ACADEMY HAS COME

Nat Butler ’64 wishes an LGBTQ+ space had existed when he attended the Academy more than 60 years ago. Butler, a newly appointed General Alumni Association director and vice chair of the GAA Alumni Affinity Engagement Committee, wrote an article for the winter 1994 edition of The Exeter Bulletin outlining his initial efforts to connect gay alumni with the Academy and one another. It was a first attempt to build a gay alumni affinity group, and nearly two decades later, Butler is realizing the dream. “I am a dinosaur,” he says, chuckling, “and to see how much progress has happened at the Academy is very exciting.”

Butler attended the Academy when it was a predominantly white male institution. There were two Black students in his class and, he says, the only women he ever saw were faculty wives and food servers, besides the girls who attended occasional dances. It was a time, he recalls vividly, when boys openly made fun of boys for being queer. To this day he flinches when young gays openly embrace the word queer because it caused him so much emotional damage. “The last thing you wanted was to be called that by your classmates or have anyone suspect that you might be homosexual,” he says. “It was a very difficult time to be gay.”

Identity + Affinity Virtual Events

The directors of the General Alumni Association and alumni volunteers are organizing a series of Harkness and panel discussions that connect multi-generational Exonians around shared identities and experiences. For more information or to get involved, please contact alumni@exeter.edu.

In the ’60s, same-sex sexual activity was illegal in most states. For Butler, the stress was mostly about keeping his nascent gay identity a secret. He says he lived in constant fear and “was totally petrified that anyone would find out.” He was in his mid-20s before he came out to his father, Jonathan Butler ’35.

Despite the challenges of the time, Butler excelled at Exeter. He was elected president of his class and president of the Student Council. He graduated from Harvard College and, at the height of the Vietnam War, followed in his father’s footsteps to enlist in the Navy.

Butler’s mother died of breast cancer soon after he turned 11, and his father fell apart. At 14, he arrived at the Academy. In many ways, Butler says, the Exeter community became his extended family. That is why the school is so important to him, he says.

“As time went on, I remembered how difficult it was to be a gay student at Exeter, and I didn’t want other students to go through what I went through,” Butler, now 76, says, tearing up. He gradually let his Academy friends know he was a gay alumnus, and in 1991 he volunteered to return to campus to give a talk.

The first time the topic of homosexuality was openly discussed at Exeter, he says, was in 1987, when a group of alumni spoke at an assembly. Butler’s talk was the second time. His activism and organizing on behalf of LGBTQ+ alumni has not stopped.

After his father died, Butler established a scholarship in his name. He has been happy to learn that some of the scholarships have gone to LGBTQ+ students. In 1994,

Butler received the President’s Award “in recognition of his work as a liaison between the Academy and its gay and lesbian alumni/ae.” In 2006, he was presented with the Founders’ Day Award for his exceptional and sustained service to the Academy.

“For years I would send an email to every single alumni class president introducing myself as a gay alumnus and suggesting an event for gay alums,” he says. “Some wrote back saying they don’t have any gay classmates. But they had to have a conversation with me, and I am happy that at least this issue got on the radar.”

Butler is excited to see how far the Academy has come regarding LGBTQ+ and BIPOC inclusion, and especially to see alumni affinity groups blossom. “The tide is shifting, but it is slow,” he says. “As much as has been done, there is so much more to do. Until we can really be who we are when we come from out of the womb, then we are never going to be comfortable. We develop prejudices at a young age; we pick them up and learn — it’s in the air. And if you are not aware of them, you can’t work on them, so it’s a constant vigil. We may never get to the point where there is no racism or no homophobia, but that does not mean we won’t try.”

He acknowledged he had never imagined that more than six decades after graduating from the Academy, he would be considered an important LGBTQ+ leader. “I don’t consider myself a leader,” he says. “I consider myself being myself, and that is all we can be: ourselves. If I can be a good example for someone else, that is terrific.” E

“We develop prejudices at a young age. ... And if you’re not aware of them, you can’t work on them, so it’s a constant vigil.”

NAT BUTLER ’64

CHRISTIAN HARRISON

<title> Unlocking the Code Computer Science Learning at Exeter

<author>> Debbie Kane

On a Friday afternoon in November, Davido Zhang ’25 and Clark Wu ’23 huddle around their open laptops in the Phelps Science Center discussing ... cats. They are deep into the task, perfecting code for a game they’ve created called “Catguessr.” It’s their final project for CSC590: Selected Topics in Computer Science, which this term focuses on database development. The game rewards players for identifying up to 70 breeds of cats. Classifying an American shorthair may be simple for a cat lover, but developing the game’s back end hasn’t been easy. Zhang, Wu and their classmates have had to master four web programming languages — HTML, CSS, JavaScript and SQL — to specifically manage the data and databases they’ve created for their projects. “The students have to know what a website looks like, what would make it more attractive to people looking at it, then how to make it interactive,” Computer Science Instructor Ranila Haider says.

CSC590 is Exeter’s highest-level computer science course, and one of seven courses offered as part of the Academy’s wide-ranging curriculum. Based on algorithmic thinking, the curriculum is unique in its focus on hands-on learning and emphasis on Harkness-style understanding of technology and its societal impact. The goal is not only to inspire students to explore their passion for writing code or designing mobile apps, but also to help students recognize the relationships between computer science and other disciplines, such as physics or the humanities, and encourage them to study further.

“Our courses create a pathway for students who don’t consider themselves ‘computer science people,’” says Sean Campbell, Alfred H. Hayes ’25 and Jean M. Hayes Teaching Chair in Science and instructor in Computer Science. Director of Studies Scott Saltman agrees. “Before the graduation requirement was put in place, there were kids who didn’t take computer science or just took one course,” he says. “Now mid- and upper-level courses are attracting students into the program.”

A Brief History of Computer Science

Computer science has been a part of campus learning since the 1960s, when the Academy first subscribed to Dartmouth College’s time-sharing computer system. Through this pioneering arrangement, faculty and students in Exeter accessed Dartmouth’s giant mainframe in Hanover, New Hampshire, through a General Electric-235 computer and teletype, a typewriter-style keyboard, housed on the first floor of the Academy Building. Information processed at Dartmouth was printed on spools of paper in Exeter. Students and teachers used the system to write programs in BASIC (Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) — a computer language created by John G. Kemeny and

Instructor Ranila Haider works with students on their term projects for CSC590, Exeter’s highest-level computer science course.

MARY SCHWALM

Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College in 1964 — to solve math problems, but playing games like tic-tac-toe, roulette, golf, baseball and bingo were equally popular. According to The Exonian, more than 100 people used the GE-235 in 1966. The Exeter Computing Club was founded the same year, heralding a new passion for exploring computer languages on campus. There was so much interest in burgeoning computer technology that discussions began about adding courses to the curriculum. In 1968, the math faculty recommended a two-week noncredit course in writing BASIC. Four years later, the Curriculum Committee recommended adding an interdisciplinary course for preps, teaching computer techniques alongside “skills of observation, selection, arrangement of data, generalization from evidence and communication of results.” The first dedicated computer science course, an advanced placement course focused on learning the PASCAL language, was officially added to the curriculum in 1983. The course “marks the acceptance of the personal computer as the indispensable education and communications tool of our time,” Principal Stephen Kurtz wrote in the fall 1983 issue of The Exeter Bulletin

The same year, an interdisciplinary committee developed guidelines for future computer science courses

and called for making personal computers available to each student and instructor. Exeter also led the way in instructor training when it started a mathematics and computer conference for secondary school teachers in the early 1980s. Now called the Anja S. Greer Conference on Mathematics and Technology, it’s the school’s longest-running teacher conference.

Navigating Change

Change does not come without challenges. Students and faculty with computer expertise were recruited to shepherd Exeter through its early transition to the new technology. Cedric Antosiewicz ’79 was part of a small group of Exonians charged with helping maintain the school’s computers while he was a student. He returned to campus in 1983 to teach a weeklong summer class about PASCAL to math, science, English and classics faculty.

Math Instructor Bill Campbell taught interested faculty, staff and spouses a course on BASIC.

Math Instructor Eric Bergofsky, an early school computer coordinator, recruited students from his classes as well as the Computer Club to help him maintain Exeter’s state-of-the-art Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-11/44 time-sharing mainframe (it had 256K of internal memory and two disk drives). Located in Room 103 of the Academy Building, next to a classroom that contained teletypes

<Students and teachers used the system to write programs in BASIC ... to solve math problems, but playing games like tic-tac-toe ... were equally popular.>

A student at work on an early teletype machine. (Right) Math faculty members Rick Parris ’95, ’97 (Hon.), Anja Greer ’81 (Hon.), Bill Campbell ’79 (Hon.) and Patricia Hindman in the 1980s.

hard-wired into the mainframe, it had to be backed up daily onto large circular disks “that held less memory than an average cellphone,” Bergofsky says. “We had to learn the Digital Equipment Corporation language to administer the machine, check the manual when there was a problem or call Digital Equipment if we had questions.”

Peter Durham ’85 was among the students working alongside Bergofsky to help manage the computer room. He was one of the few students who arrived at Exeter with his own personal computer, a TRS-80 color desktop “microcomputer” from Tandy Radio Shack that he happily shared with classmates. “It was plugged into a TV,” Durham says. “I had to get special permission to have a television on campus.” He says he developed his knack for teaching at Exeter, where he held workshops for students and faculty on the C and PDP-11 assembler languages.

Durham became the chief software architect of the technology that powered MSNBC.com and later NBC News Digital. In true non sibi spirit, he’s now a senior software engineer developing programs that power Microsoft’s Accessibility Insights, open-source tools

helping make computers and the internet more accessible to people with disabilities.

Hard-Wired for Success

In 1996, each dorm was wired for internet access and each dorm room was wired for a landline telephone. As Exeter became “hard-wired” for success, a support system was needed. Academic Technology Coordinator Vi Richter, who joined the Math Department that year to teach classes in applications like Microsoft Word and Excel, became the school’s first dedicated computer support desk person. “I was on the phone eight hours a day, fielding questions,” she says.

Christine Robson Weaver ’99 was one of two female students recruited to troubleshoot tech issues in girls dorms as each came online. “We called ourselves ‘The Technical Ethernet Crisis Helpers,’” says Weaver, a former Bancroft Hall resident. “Any time there was a problem after a dorm went online, we checked it out. My dorm and one boys dorm were the first to come online, and we had an instant connection because we knew we could phone or email each other.”

Ishaan Vohra ’24 Develops New Computer Sim Program

Like many tech-savvy Exeter students, Ishaan Vohra ’24 pursues personal projects outside of the school’s formal computer science curriculum. Working last summer with physics faculty at the University of Liverpool in England, Vohra combined technology skills and his lifelong interest in physics to develop NuSmear, a computer simulation program that helps measure hard-to-detect subatomic particles called neutrinos. These particles are typically tracked in large accelerator experiments by shooting trillions of neutrinos into giant tanks of water or argon (called detectors); when the particles collide with atoms, the resulting showers are measured. By quantifying the “smearing,” or resolution, of the particles created by the atom-neutrino collisions, NuSmear mimics particle collisions and the way detectors respond. Vohra presented his research at the 14th Conference on the Intersections of Particle and Nuclear Physics. “The knowledge I had in physics and computer science are related,” Vohra says, “but the challenge was piecing them together to create the simulation.” NuSmear is now available to neutrino physicists around the world through an international commununity of scientists called the GENIE collaboration. “I’d like to keep using computer science to do physics experiments,” he says. “This experience showed me computer science and physics are complementary, and combining them is a way to make amazing progress in the field.”

AIx Teens Summit

Adding to the list of tech-centric happenings on campus in 2023, Pranavi Vedula ’25 and Hannah Park ’24 are teaming up to produce the third annual AIx Teens Summit, a one-day event focused on computer science and artificial intelligence geared to middle school and high school students. “We want to expose students to fields in AI they may not know about,” Park says. “Another goal is to inspire students, especially minorities and women, to pursue AI.”

Through presentations from college professors and professionals in the field, and smaller group discussions, the students hope to showcase the sometimes surprising ways AI can be used in nontech-related fields like environmental science, physics and the humanities Park and Vedula were intrigued by AI after attending prior AIx Teens events. “I attended the conference when I was in middle school,” Vedula says. “It really opened my eyes. AI is not just about robots. For example, you can use AI to analyze languages. There’s so much more to it.”

In an era of Hotmail accounts and accessing the web via CD downloads of America Online (AOL) software, the campus was changing. “Everyone was excited about the potential of the internet,” Weaver says. “A lot of students became quite tech-savvy and came from families who may not have had computers or internet access. It was a big step forward.”

After receiving undergraduate and graduate degrees from MIT in mathematics and computer science and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley, Weaver started her career at IBM, doing predictive modeling and machine learning. She joined Google in 2012 as the company’s first product lead for machine learning. Now Weaver is involved in diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at Google and draws on her Exeter experiences to maintain connections. She returns to campus often as a mentor and speaker, and founded an Exeter alumni employee group at Google. “At Exeter, I was surrounded by bright kids who were nothing like me, but we all loved to learn,” she says. “That common sense of belonging was magic.”

20th-Century Learning

The dot-com boom of the late 1990s popularized personal computing and computer science as an academic discipline. When the Phelps Science Center opened in 2001, computer science classes were relocated from the Academy Building to a designated space in Phelps. The move was both practical and symbolic. Three years later, the Curriculum Review Committee approved a course on algorithmic thinking as a diploma requirement for all four-year

BULLETIN

Christine Robson Weaver ’99 and Vanessia Wu ’00

Isaac Robinson ’18 Explores Tech for Social Good

Isaac Robinson ’18 wasn’t interested in computer science prior to coming to Exeter, but an introductory course with Instructor Sean Campbell was revelatory. Inspired by Exeter’s dress code, his final project was a web application that helped users color-coordinate shirts and ties. “It was a ton of fun to build,” he recalls. “I wondered what else I could do with the technology.” He dove further into the computer science curriculum, taking several more courses. “I found them widely applicable to things I was interested in, like government and politics, physics and biology,” he says. “Computer science seemed like an all-purpose tool.”

Now a senior at Harvard College and recently named a Rhodes Scholar, Robinson is interested in applying computational thinking to address public policy issues and build equity in the tech sector. As a member of Harvard’s Tech for Social Good, a student-run group developing products for under-resourced social impact organizations, Robinson is helping introduce a bill into the Massachusetts legislature related to auditing algorithms for fairness in hiring. “Hiring platforms use AI, and if the algorithms are biased in any way, it perpetuates negative biases in hiring systems,” he says.

Robinson graduates this spring with degrees in computer science and mathematics; he will pursue master’s degrees in advanced computer science and comparative social policy at the University of Oxford. “Technology can be used to do incredible things and raise the standard of living of people around the world,” he says. “It won’t solve all of the world’s problems, but it can be an incredible source for good.”

students, further legitimizing computer science as valuable coursework and making Exeter one of the first prep schools to require computer science for graduation. Instructor Matt Brenner recommended the course, believing that understanding computers would help students fully understand contemporary social issues; the new course was first offered during the 2005-06 school year.

As computer science has evolved over the last 20 years, so, too, has Exeter’s curriculum. Now led by three fulltime computer science instructors teaching more than 30 sections of computer science a year, the program combines practical learning with less structured room to explore (course content for CSC590, for example, is suggested by former students, and the class can be taken more than once). “We have a lot of hands-on learning,” Sean Campbell says. “People don’t perceive computer science as a creative act, but students are creating and they bring all kinds of other interests, connections and abilities to their projects. It’s cool to see what they come up with.” E

Students collaborate in groups of two and three, writing code for their 500-level computer science class.

MARY SCHWALM

AARON EPSTEIN ’04 OFFERS

FRONT-LINE SUPPORT

Combat Care

By Andrew Faught

Aaron Epstein ’04 teaches trauma care in Ukraine.

They came in a roar, a pair of Russian cruise missiles flying a mere 50 feet above the Lviv, Ukraine, streetscape. Chain link fences rattled, while car alarms and air raid sirens sounded plaintive wails. For Aaron Epstein ’04, the vision of the projectiles zeroing in on their target that March evening in 2022 was in a way unreal, but he had too much work to do to consider the personal danger.

“You can imagine a telephone pole flying over your head, they’re that long,” says Epstein, a physician who, as founder of the nonprofit Global Surgical Medical Support Group (GSMSG), was in the country for five weeks to teach civilians, doctors, medical students and members of the military a crash course in combat casualty care. His primer included instructions on tying tourniquets, keeping airways open, placing trauma chest tubes and suturing blood vessels. The Russian invasion of its western neighbor had started only days earlier and everyday people were organizing en masse to prepare for every eventuality.

Moments before the flyover, Epstein was offering his medical team’s services to Ukraine security officials in the event of air raid casualties. He watched as the missiles struck an oil storage area less than 2,000 feet away. No one was injured at the explosion site, and Epstein and his rotating squad of 10 to 20 volunteer civilian doctors and nurses — many of whom had learned steely equanimity

as members of military special forces — were far enough away to escape injuries.

Epstein does not blink in the face of danger. He has a job to do, and he carries it out with gallows-style pragmatism. “If a cruise missile is going to hit you, you’re not going to be able to do much to survive,” he says. “What’s the point in being worried? It’s wasted energy.”

Epstein and his team taught medical procedures daily from 7 a.m. to what was then an 8 p.m. curfew. The group spent its nights at safe houses selected by Ukrainian security services and remained on call should medical and surgical needs arise. They dined on traditional Ukrainian borscht and other Eastern European fare, such as pierogies. “I’m not going to lie, I’m not a foodie at all,” he says with a laugh. “I liked it all.”

To date, he has made three separate visits to Ukraine while the GSMSG teams of medics and physicians have maintained a continuous presence on the ground since the start of the war. In total, he and his teams have trained more than 20,000 Ukrainians in combat casualty care ranging from basic medical interventions to advanced trauma surgery.

Epstein’s work has been officially recognized back home in the United States. In July, he received the Citizen Honors Service Award from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society at a ceremony in Charleston, South Carolina, for his “commitment to providing medical relief

“if a cruise missile is going to hit you, you’re not going to be able to do much to survive. What’s the point in being worried? It’s wasted energy.”

Aaron Epstein ’04

to communities in conflict zones, austere environments, and disaster areas around the world.” He started GSMSG in 2014 and has led his volunteers to strife-torn nations such as Iraq, Syria and Venezuela. Epstein credits Exeter’s non sibi ethos with guiding his humanitarian efforts over the years. “That stuck with me from the day I got [to the Academy], and from then on,” he says.

Joining Epstein on his March tour of Ukraine was fellow Exonian Rob Lim ’87, a graduate of Davidson College and New York Medical College. Lim is a retired Army colonel who served six tours in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq as a trauma surgeon. These days Lim is a bariatric surgeon and the residency program director at the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine in Tulsa.

Lim learned about Epstein in 2017 by reading about him in The Exeter Bulletin. “I basically called him up and said, ‘Who the heck are you?’” says Lim, who eventually met Epstein at the American Association for Surgery of Trauma’s annual meeting in Baltimore. “We hit it off and have been talking ever since.”

In Ukraine, Lim helps GSMSG build relationships with local hospitals, Ukrainian police and the military, to ensure that they know why they are there. He praises Epstein and GSMSG for working with the American College of

Surgeons to enlist the help of more trauma surgeons, burn surgeons and orthopedic surgeons. It wasn’t a hard decision for Lim to volunteer: “When you’re in the military, you feel a pull toward doing something like this.”

When he’s not abroad, Epstein is a fourth-year surgical resident at the University at Buffalo. But he did not take a straight path to medicine. Epstein was on a flight from his home in Miami to Boston on Sept. 11, 2001, when his plane was forced to land in New Jersey. The Federal Aviation Administration was racing to ground all flights after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He and his parents drove the rest of the way to Exeter, where he was set to begin his first day as a new lower. The day’s events, Epstein recalls, shaped his worldview and set him on a path to work in national security.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in international policy and economics from Rice University in 2008, after which he got a master’s in intelligence and security at Georgetown School of Foreign Service. But his outlook changed while serving in a number of overseas internships. Doctors, rather than diplomats, were often winning the “hearts and minds” of local populations, he says. He also noticed that nongovernmental medical aid groups often didn’t have enough doctors in combat zones. The

revelations helped lead Epstein to enroll at Georgetown Medical School. Now he plans to keep working with global populations in upheaval.

Helping him operate the business side of GSMSG is another member of the Exeter community, Jim Gray P’19, a Richmond, Virginia, business developer. Gray met Epstein at an Exeter parent and alumni mixer held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. (His daughter, Grace Gray, is an Academy alum.) Gray offered to volunteer his expertise to solicit government contracts that could help GSMSG broaden its outreach.

“GSMSG has some significant donors, but still not a lot,” Gray says, noting that the organization is funded mostly through private donors. “I’ve been trying to match GSMSG with contract opportunities so we can have a larger and more sustained presence in areas, and so we can pay our employees.”

Although Epstein is focused on trauma surgery, he’s considering changing to general surgery because, perhaps surprisingly, it’s the way he can save the most lives.

“When you travel around the world, ultimately what kills people is the basic bread-and-butter surgical stuff — like your appendix ruptures or your gallbladder has a problem,” he says. “In the U.S., you have a surgery and you’re

out the same day. But in the rest of the world, there are no surgical options, and people die from sepsis. General surgeons can help a huge portion of the world, and it doesn’t have to be sexy, like trauma or surgical oncology, or cardiothoracic surgery.”

Among the many memories of his time in Ukraine, one episode stands out. During the first week of the Russian invasion, Epstein was teaching a group of Ukrainian medical students how to suture blood vessels and stop major arterial bleeding. The gravity of the moment was sinking in among his pupils.

“I remember the faces of all of those students, who literally thought the next week they were going to be on the front lines against Russia, handling battle trauma,” Epstein says. “These are people who up until the week prior were normal kids and medical students. But they all showed up to learn, with the full anticipation of going to the front line. You’ve got to give them credit.”

Epstein’s work goes well beyond healing war injuries, he says. It goes to the heart of Ukraine’s future governance. “Really, my work is about building the capacities of people around the world to be able to take care of themselves,” he says. “The ability to take care of yourself is the ultimate definition of independence.” E

“my work is about building the capacities of people around the world to be able to take care of themselves. the ability to take care of yourself is the ultimate definition of independence.”

Epstein and his team on the ground in Ukraine. They have trained over 20,000 Ukrainians in combat casualty care.

The Power of Engagement

By Gene Lynch ’79

In my role as a General Alumni Association director and chair of The Exeter Fund Participation Committee, I’ve been given the opportunity to discuss a few thoughts on the importance of engagement with the Academy. Many of you will assume this is a subtle attempt to get you to open your wallets and support The Exeter Fund, but please bear with me and let’s see if it can be more than that.

When I think of my participation with the school, I approach it from the “Why?” and then the “How?” As a four-year scholarship student who was connected to Exeter as a result of my paperboy job in Chicago, I was one of those students that Hammy Bissell might say was “long on brains and short on cash.” Exeter took a chance on me and funded a high school experience and education I did not know existed or was possible, and for that I mentally balance the books by giving back with time and resources as I am able. As a class agent since 1979, I’m still working on it.

As for the “How?” the easy answer is to help the Academy by participating in The Exeter Fund. As I often say to classmates, please give until it stops feeling good. There is so much more need than there are resources in this world, but a gift to Exeter, as an institution that embraces excellence, can be part of an annual philanthropic budget that also enhances the human condition. It is not an either/or proposition, in my opinion. But there are also many nonfinancial ways to engage with the Academy. Attending a local PEA event, for example, is an opportunity to renew and extend one’s network — something the younger classes seem to appreciate keenly.

Don’t forget those five-year reunions, which I generally question whether to go to and then always return feeling uplifted and energized by the progress of the institution and the relationships and friendships I have been lucky to have developed over the decades. I also felt engaged with the Academy while watching our smart-as-a-whip classmate Sam Buttrey ’79 win the first Professors Tournament on Jeopardy!, then reach the final of the show’s Tournament of Champions in November. Participation can be entertaining!

Finally, don’t underestimate how powerful a quick note to an influential Exeter teacher, coach or faculty member can be. After sharing my Exeter backstory with Principal Rawson over Leadership Weekend, he encouraged me to connect with his old pal and former Admissions Office colleague Lew Hitzrot ’60 to compare notes. Over a cup of coffee in the Elm Street Dining Hall a day and a half later, I was able to give Lew a glimpse of how a decision he made in 1975 had such a profound impact on my life. This type of connection with Exonians who had an important influence on one’s experience can be a rewarding form of engagement.

Participation and engagement are what you make of them. Someone advised me a few years ago to find more reasons to say yes when extended an invitation. Whether by an annual donation, attendance at a local event or a “like” on an Exeter Instagram story, think of ways you can find to say yes to the opportunity to participate. E

CATCHING UP WITH A YOUNG ALUM GRANT GOODALL ’20

Engineering Change

By Danielle Cantor

Grant Goodall ’20 is well familiar with not only the exceptional innovations technology facilitates, but also the waste it generates. That’s why, last spring, Goodall, 20, took up the challenge of figuring out how to recycle waste plastics from the 3D printing process.

With a small team of classmates at Olin College of Engineering, Goodall developed a closed-loop recycling system for polylactic acid (PLA) that was so impressive, Olin invested $15,000 to build it on campus. To date, the system has reduced the school’s PLA purchase by 50 percent each semester.

Anne Rankin, with serving as a tremendous guide as he explored the sciences.

Goodall spoke with us from the Olin campus in Needham, Massachusetts, where he was gearing up for finals week.

What were the challenges of getting a new recycling system up and running?

To start, we looked at the science of recycling PLA — confirming that it could in fact be reused — and designing the system that would take us from bins of waste plastic to having actual new filament. Then came the challenge of how to use [the machine], and how it fits in Olin’s ecosystem. We met with many groups on campus to find the perfect fit. In engineering, as well as at Exeter, I’ve learned a lot by going out and talking with communities … because with any project, at the end of the day, the people you’re talking to are going to be the people using [a design or system].

Is engineering that benefits the environment of particular interest?

Whatever I do in the future will need to have some aspect of helping the environment because we live on a dying planet. So even if what I’m doing isn’t explicitly about saving the environment, it should be made with sustainable resources, and finding a way to use the least resources, and there should be a way to recycle it at the end of life.

Recycling, game-based learning. What’s next?

The project is one of many Goodall, a Chicago native, has worked on since he graduated from Exeter. Over the summer, he studied whether replicating hands-on experience with game-based learning is effective in preparing students for their future occupations. (By several key measures, it is.) He co-presented the findings in October at the Frontiers in Education Conference in Sweden.

It’s a topic that hit home. At Exeter, Goodall says, the electronics and robotics classes he took with Science Instructor Brad Robinson were “especially hands-on and taught me the benefits of project-based learning versus lecture.” He also credits his adviser, Science Instructor

I’m currently building a “powerchair” that will enable a mobility-impaired older adult to go bike riding with his friends. In half a semester, we’re going from a pile of scrap pieces to a motorized wheelchair that can go 20 miles per hour down off-road bike trails. For another class, I’m creating a drone delivery system. Off the east coast of Canada are barrier islands that get most of their supplies by ferry. But medical supplies such as insulin often can’t survive the trip, so there’s a dangerous lack of access. Our goal is for people in that area to use our opensource guidelines to build the drones and use them for medical deliveries. E

HUGH THOMPSON ’53

Sculpture and Spirit

By Juliet Eastland ’86

In 1992, Hugh Thompson ’53 received what he calls “a nudge” from the universe. Its message was clear: “There’s more out there. You’ve got to retire.” But he had spent years building his Tucson, Arizona, orthopedic practice and couldn’t afford to leave. The next year the nudge returned: “There’s something else in life for you to do.” By the third nudge, Thompson surrendered and retired from his life’s work at age 59½. The last prompt was helpfully specific: “Try art.”

Art? Thompson was an adventurer, athlete and accomplished surgeon. At 16, he packed two bags and left Arizona for the Academy on his first train ride (it lasted three days). He rowed in the 1956 Olympics. After three years of residency at Columbia-Presbyterian in New York, he shipped to Vietnam in 1967 to serve as the lone surgeon in a 350-bed field hospital.

But an artist? Gamely, he tried drawing, watercolors and ceramics. Nothing clicked. Then a retired friendturned-sculptor offered Thompson hand chisels and a chunk of alabaster and said, “Here, play with this.”

“I hammered away for a few weeks and, man, I fell in love,” Thompson says.

In 2000, he attended a quarry workshop in Colorado. Inspired by his son’s year in Spain, he crafted “Flat Tire, A Tribute to Miró” — his first, particularly meaningful marble, as Thompson’s son died of melanoma at age 36.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Thompson’s curvilinear structure suggests a hipbone. Stonework “is so much like orthopedics,” Thompson says. “Tools, hammers, chisels and good old calcium carbonate, expressed differently in bone and marble,” not to mention the required patience and dexterity.

As a sculptor, Thompson begins by making a small clay model, or maquette, placing it on graph paper and photographing it from four angles. He enlarges the photos to the desired size and traces the image onto a stone of

commensurate size. Finally, he chips away the extraneous rock until the image emerges in three dimensions. A large marble might take six months to complete, softer alabaster two to three. Thompson uses mainly hydraulic tools with carbide-tipped chisels or diamondcoated grinders and 40- to 1,200-grit sandpaper to create the roundness he loves. It’s a loud, dusty process.

Despite their solidity, his sculptures dance. A piece of stone clasps a twisted ironwood root in an abstract yet recognizable embrace. A soaring marble hawk, held aloft by a metal stalk, swoops toward a bronze mouse on a rock. A honeycomb-calcite leaf glows like gold.

“I was lucky to find a passion so late in life that came out of the blue,” Thompson says. But he has not retired to the atelier full time. In addition to decades as a hospice caretaker, he’s a 35-year member of Rotary International, volunteering near (mentoring students at a high-risk Tucson school) and far (transporting wheelchairs to Mexican children in need). For years, he biked for Rotary’s annual 30-plus-mile Tucson Valley fundraiser, although lately, he sticks to a 90-minute indoor ride. A sculpture he donated, an ethereal alabaster lily with brass stamens, helped Rotary raise $5,200 for a vocational high school.

Rotary’s motto “Service Above Self” jibes with Thompson’s commitment to Exeter’s non sibi values, and with a tenet of Eckankar, a spiritual practice Thompson embraced shortly before retiring. “Our goal in Eckankar is for each individual to choose their own path and build a life they want with their consecutive choices,” he says. “If we do the service and see the love in every instance and are grateful for all the gifts we have individually, however tiny, we’re going to grow spiritually and have a joyful life.”

Eckankar’s universal name for God is HU, pronounced Hugh — perhaps another nudge affirming Thompson’s sculptural and spiritual path. E

GIVING BACK ANGIRA SCEUSI ’98

Equitable Education Advocate

By Sarah Zobel

Angira Sceusi ’98 spent a decade working in finance as a successful oil and gas trader before she focused on different kinds of futures — those of students. Her move from Wall Street director to math teacher was the start of a pivot that today finds Sceusi engaged in the systemic improvement of an urban school district. She is the chief of staff at the public education nonprofit redefinED atlanta.

Sceusi’s career shift was spurred partly by a relocation to Texas when her husband, Eric, was matched with a Houston hospital for his medical residency. Sceusi volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters and was struck by the reality of academic inequity. She was paired with a little sister who attended the city’s lowest-performing elementary school. “She was a bright little girl and just had never been exposed to what was possible,” Sceusi says. “That was eye-opening to me. Here’s a kid who has all the possibility in the world, but we’re putting a cap on it from the time she’s 8 years old.”

Unsure of what to do, Sceusi soon found direction amid the swirl of emotions surrounding the unexpected death of her sister, Trisha Apte ’03, in 2009. She says her sister “talked about how she wanted to do something that had meaning and purpose and made her feel like she was making a difference at the end of the day, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that when I retire.’”

Instead, Apte’s death moved up Sceusi’s time frame. “It really forced me to think about what I wanted to be true about my life,” she says. “If I died tomorrow, was I happy with what I had done? Did I feel like I had made a difference to people?”

Recognizing that volunteering would not be enough, Sceusi obtained her math teaching certification and quickly found her footing at a Houston high school. In 2014, she received a Symantec Innovation in Teaching Award, one of five given to educators nationwide, for her computer-based geometry curriculum. The award announcement reported that Sceusi’s students outperformed

all other geometry classes in her school by up to 30 points on assessments and noted a partnership with a local nonprofit to provide a refurbished laptop and technical support to each of her students. She also used a distinctive supplemental tool: Exeter math problem sets, accessible free online.

“I started offering them as extra credit for my kids,” Sceusi says of the problem sets. “I had kids who were coming in with the kinds of gaps that I had never experienced at Exeter — brilliant students who could understand the concepts I was teaching in 10th grade math, but they needed a calculator to add a negative number because they had never learned how that works. To see them figure out the answer to some of those problems was really exciting.”

Eventually Sceusi, now a mother of two, sought more time with her own children. She traded in her whiteboard for a position in a Houston-area school district’s central office, handling budgets and later talent strategy, as part of the district’s efforts to improve teacher retention rates.

Then in 2017, Sceusi and her family moved to Georgia, where she learned of the progressive education-focused organization now known as redefinED atlanta. It was looking for someone who understood finance and business execution as well as education, someone who could effectively invest foundation gifts in local schools and communities.

It was a difficult time in Atlanta: The city was reeling from a public school cheating scandal believed to be the largest in U.S. education history, and some schools had reading and math proficiency rates below 10 percent. The job was just the challenge Sceusi was looking for.

Since joining redefinED atlanta, Sceusi has helped to begin turning those numbers around by championing community engagement efforts, equitable education advocacy, and school and school system efforts with almost $20 million in funding over the past five years. Sceusi channels investments into three areas: schools and districts, with the goal of equitable school systems; talent pipelines to support new teachers and leadership; and grassroots, policy and advocacy organizations that empower parents and communities. Of the latter, she says, “If we want to fundamentally improve education for all of our kids, it has to start with the people most impacted by what’s happening in the system.”

One point of pride for Sceusi is redefinED atlanta’s success in attracting the Relay Graduate School of Education to Georgia. The school uses a residency model to train teachers who are helping to close the opportunity gap and boasts a higher retention rate for its graduates who teach in urban classrooms.

Another redefinED atlanta achievement is helping to seed and fund the launch of Atlanta Thrive, a grassroots organization that has facilitated passage of crucial policies at public schools, including a goals and guardrails policy — the first of its kind in Georgia — to measure growth and achievement for all students in the district. RedefinED atlanta has also funded public charter schools that outperform many of the city’s wealthier, majority-white schools.

Sceusi credits the Academy with not only challenging and enhancing her math abilities, but also planting the seeds for her education work. “I recognized early on, especially as I got to Exeter, the opportunities that were afforded to me because of education,” says Sceusi, who arrived on campus as an upper from Hong Kong, where she had lived most of her life. “Exeter was my first real experience with how race, class and privilege play into every aspect of life. It was eye-opening, and I think in many ways set me up to ask a lot of the questions later in my life.” E

“I recognized early on, especially as I got to Exeter, the opportunities that were afforded to me because of education.”

FROM EVERY QUARTER

EXETER COMMUNITY THRIVING AROUND THE WORLD

Please note, all photos are identified left to right unless otherwise indicated.

EXETER LEADERSHIP WEEKEND

The Academy welcomed General Alumni Association (GAA) directors as well as alumni and parent volunteers on campus to participate in their respective programs and dine with the class of 2023.

Principal Bill Rawson ’71; P’08, 2022 President’s Award recipient Lori Lincoln ’86, GAA Vice President Sam Maruca ’73; P’04, P’07, P’10, 2022 President’s Award recipient Nadia Saliba ’95, GAA Secretary Genisha Saverimuthu ’02

Vinny Kurup ’19, GAA Director Terry Vogt ’64

GAA Director Anthony Chen ’78; P’08, Bregtje Hartendorf, TC Cook ’78; P’01

GAA Directors: Genisha Saverimuthu ’02, Lori Lincoln ’86, Kwabena Safo-Agyekum ’02, Susannah Clark ’84, Seisei Tatebe-Goddu ’01, Rhoda Tamakloe ’01

Alex Robinson ’92, GAA Director Veronica Juarez ’00, GAA Director Sam Brown ’92

Susan Ordway ’82, Amy Faulkner ’82 (Hon.), regional director of major gifts, Vicki Fuller Geis ’82, Dan Brown ’82, Principal Bill Rawson ’71; P’08, Laura Schwartz ’82; P’20, P’22, director of family engagement and giving

SEACOAST

Dan Brown ’82 welcomed alumni, parents, faculty, emeriti and guests to his home to hear remarks from Principal Bill

For a listing of upcoming events, visit exeter.edu/alumni

NEW! ALUMNI EVENTS INSTAGRAM

Want an easy way to learn about regional, on-campus and virtual alumni events? Check out our new Exeter alumni events Instagram!

Follow @pea_alumnievents for information on upcoming events to connect with classmates and fellow Exonians. Make sure to turn on post notifications to not miss anything!

Start the new year right and follow @pea_alumnievents!

Ron Suduiko ’68; P’13, Dave Bohn ’57; P’81, P’84, P’90; GP’11, Anne Campbell P’80, P’82, P’89, Lois Graham P’13, senior researcher of major gifts, Faculty Emeritus Bill Campbell ’79 (Hon.); P’80, P’82, P’89

Katie Adams ’01, Emily Wilson ’01, Anthony Wilson

Katie Stein ’92; P’25, Faculty Emeritus Rick Mahoney ’61; ’70, ’72, ’74, ’95 (Hon.); P’88, P’92, Linda Mahoney P’88, P’92

Johna Vandergraaf ’18, Alexa Mocklis ’18

Kathy Damiano, Faculty Emerita Susan Herney ’69, ’74, ’83 (Hon.), Faculty Emeritus Jack Herney ’46, ’69, ’71, ’74, ’92, ’95 (Hon.), Andy Deardorff ’79, Jen Dion-Humphrey ’90, Sandra Kassin-Deardorff

Rawson ’71; P’08.

CALIFORNIA

Camaraderie was high in California this fall as alumni and families joined together to watch the E/A games, explore renowned parks and catch up over food and drink.

Tracy Sundlun ’70; P’10, Alex Stormer ’02

LA JOLLA McKenzie and David Roman ’00 hosted alumni, parents and friends in their home to cheer Big Red to victory over Andover in the 145-year-old football rivalry.

Host David Roman ’00, Stephanie Nguyen ’01

SAN FRANCISCO Alumni convened at the California Tennis Club to plan regional events for the coming year. Pictured here are Summer Hua ’20, Chrissie Chick ’03, Gabrielle Kivitz ’93, Conrad Diao ’15, Exeter Association of Northern California President Katherine Post Calvert ’91, Catarina Schwab ’92; P’25 and John Heyl ’71.

For a listing of upcoming events, visit exeter.edu/alumni

PALOS VERDES Exeter Association of Greater Los Angeles Vice President Lisa Liu ’13 hosted rallying Exonians for an exciting E/A watch party.

Emy Li ’20, Jasmine Liao ’20, Josh Lum ’21, Sumit Chandra ’19, Pavan Garidipuri ’19, Rachael Kim ’21  Laura Gifford ’99, Cameron Gifford

Eunice Ko ’13, Blake Chaintreuil, Jess Chaintreuil ’99

Matthew Ngai ’21, Summer Hua ’20, Zofia Kierner ’21, Tatiana Harrison ’93, Kirsten Vernon ’84; P’25, Chas Bickel ’59, Katherine Calvert ’91, Gabrielle Kivitz ’93, Anna Jacobowitz ’21, Grace Pan ’18, Celeste Wu ’18, Jane Li ’18

SAN FRANCISCO Exonians including Celeste Wu ’18, Grace Pan ’18, Summer Hua ’20 and Matthew Ngai ’21 spent a magical afternoon exploring the Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park.

WEST

Exeter alumni and families reunited across the West to learn about the current state of the Academy and its hopes for the future.

MIDWEST

Exonians in Chicago gathered at The Gage before enjoying a performance of Wild Symphony, by Dan Brown ’82, presented at the Chicago Symphony Center.

Jean Platt, Aneek Mukherjee ’16, Geyang Qin ’17, Dirk Komarnitsky ’17, Anthony Chen ’78; P’08, Tom Platt ’67, Diana Davidson ’18

DENVER Exonians convened in the Magnolia Hotel ballroom to hear from Dean of Students Russell Weatherspoon ’01, ’03, ’08, ’11 (Hon.); P’92, P’95, P’97, P’01 on the ways Exeter prepares and inspires today’s students. Pictured here are Juhi Asad ’93, Brooks Pearson ’89; P’23, Kris Koval ’88 and Marsha Tharakan P’22, P’22, P’26.

Carolyn Atwood ’04, Victoria Glidden ’18, Patrick Livingston, Chelsea Kellner, Scott Thomas ’98

SEATTLE Exonians gathered for an evening of conversation and connection. Chair of the Department of Science Albert Léger shared an update on the Academy’s ongoing values in action. Pictured here are Ed Jones ’64, Bob Wiley ’48; P’74 and Marilyn Jones.

CHICAGO Raul Galvan ’17, Aleeza Hassan, Isadora Kron ’19, Meagan Ceballos, Maya Pierce ’17

For a listing of upcoming events, visit exeter.edu/alumni

EAST COAST

The Exeter community was strong on the East Coast as alumni, friends and families attended social events and educational Harkness discussions.

PHILADELPHIA Cletus Lyman ’63 hosted the annual garden party for Exonians from the greater Philadelphia area. Pictured here are Beez Dentzer ’20, Michelle Park ’22, Leah Cohen ’20, Sophia Chang ’20 and Michael Singer ’20.

Janet Mullin, Steve Mullin ’73, Trevor Prichett ’93

WASHINGTON, D.C. Alumni gathered at the home of Suzi Guardia ’86 for a Harkness discussion honoring D.C. native Dolores Kendrick, instructor in English emerita. English Instructor Willie Perdomo led the group poetry discussion. Participants included (back row) Karen Moore ’80, Exeter Association of Washington, D.C., Vice President Kwabena Nsiah ’06, Wilson Compton ’77, Luis Guardia, Suzi Guardia ’86, Erin Velasco ’03, Sophia Berhie ’10 and Conway Wilson ’62; (front row) Willie Perdomo, Exeter Association of Washington, D.C., President Lori Lincoln ’86, Laura Browning ’87 and Melanie Anderson.

George Quinlan ’84, Irina Del Genio

Michael Rawlings, Lauren Rawlings ’07, Claire Abisalih ’07, Ronnie Dixon ’07, regional director of major gifts, Alexis Gage ’07

CHICAGO (CONT.) Candice Dias ’97, Exeter Association of Chicago President Joe Duffy ’07, Dominic Cairo ’99

Exeter hosts week-long professional development programs for secondary and middle school teachers. Most conferences introduce teaching in the Harkness tradition.

Anja S. Greer Conference on Mathematics and Technology

Focus on mathematical modeling and the impact and applications of technology in the classroom.

Biology Institute at Exeter

Explore phenomena-based biology instruction with labs, classroom work and field trips.

Environmental Literature Institute

Spend a week in the classroom and doing fieldwork with fellow educators in the environmental humanities.

Exeter Diversity Leadership Institute

Learn new methods for leading efforts in diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, and for guiding lasting change in schools.

Writers’ Workshop

Discover what it means to be a teacher who writes and a writer who teaches.

Exeter Humanities Institute

Explore the Harkness method of teaching, as taught by Exeter’s experienced instructors.

Exeter Humanities Institute – West Join us in La Jolla, California, July 9-13

Experience Harkness teaching on the west coast. Features the materials, instruction and faculty of the flagship New Hampshire program.

REGISTER TODAY

Scholarships are available !

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Exeter, NH 03833-2460

Parents of Alumni:

If this magazine is addressed to an Exonian who no longer maintains a permanent address at your home, please email us (records@exeter.edu) with their new address. Thank you.

Collaboration. Enrichment. Discovery. Fun!

EXETER SUMMER

JULY 3 – AUGUST 4, 2023

At Exeter Summer you will learn alongside and from — students from all around the world. There are a wide variety of course options in our middle and high school programs. Whatever sparks your interest, you will find it at Exeter Summer.

Learn more at exeter.edu/summer23