Around the Table
Notable Finishes S T U D E N T S P L AC E H I G H AT PRESTIGIOUS COMPETITIONS Latin Vocabulary Champion
Seung “Daniel” Kim ’12 won first place in an advanced Latin vocabulary examination during the 58th Annual National Junior Classical League Convention, held in Richmond, KY, in July. Kim was awarded a $200 prize and placed fourth in the all-category decathlon—the convention’s most highly contested competition. He also was among a handful of top winners in advanced-level mythology, poetry comprehension, Roman history, Greek derivatives, Latin grammar and the academic heptathlon competition. Having studied Latin since the eighth grade, Kim says he initially struggled but persevered to grasp the concepts of the ancient language. “I noticed from the first day of Latin class that such an in-depth analysis of syntax and grammar gave me a greater appreciation for languages in general,” he says. “The language was difficult and at the same time, clear . . . .The beauty of the ablative absolute, the double dative, and the accusative of respect resonates with me more powerfully than the simple structure of the English language.” Kim was joined in the contest by two other PEA students: Oishi Banerjee ’14 and Gene Young Chang ’13. Competing in more than 15 examinations, Banerjee finished in the top-10 results in prose comprehension, Roman life and creative arts. Chang finished in the top three in an advanced poetry comprehension challenge. High Scores at International Math Competition
David Yang ’13 tied for fourth best score in the 52nd International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). Yang was a member of the six-person USA team, which placed second in this year’s highly competitive global mathematics contest for students. For the first time since 1994, all six members earned gold medals. This year’s IMO was held in July in Amsterdam. Team members were selected to compete following their participation in the American Mathematics Competitions’ Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program (MOSP), a three-week, invitation-only training camp. The IMO is a two-day, annual math competition consisting of six problems. More than 105 nations compete in the event, the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. Each day, participants take a 4.5-hour, three-problem essay exam that covers a wide range of mathematics.
Trustees Welcome a New Member At their fall meeting theTrustees welcomed Jen Holleran ’86; P’11 to the group. During her time at Exeter, Holleran was a proctor in Wheelwright Hall and captained the field hockey, squash and lacrosse teams. She served as class president, and a reunion program chair and attendance chair for her fifth and 15th reunions. Holleran graduated from Harvard University in 1990, where she also earned her M.Ed. in 1995. In 2001 she earned an M.B.A. from Yale University with a focus on management of nonprofit organizations. As an undergraduate at Harvard, she was twotime captain of the squash team, four-time All-American, four-time First Team All-Ivy, and individual and team national title winner. Her time at Exeter formed the foundation of her love of schools—a love and commitment that has led her to devote her career to working in schools, and now with schools, school leaders and school systems across the country. Holleran spent the first years of her career in private schools, first as a teacher, coach and dorm head at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts and then as head of the upper school at the Bullis School in Maryland. For the last 10 years, Holleran has been dedicated to improving our country’s urban schools so that all children, regardless of background, can one day get a quality education that affords them the full range of options in life from college to career and family. She assisted the superintendent of Oakland Unified School District in California in launching small schools, reforming central office departments and training school leaders.This included serving as founding executive director of the Bay Area region of New Leaders for New Schools, a nonprofit group whose mission is to attract, prepare and support school leaders to lead urban public schools so that all students have the opportunity to achieve at high levels. Holleran currently runs Startup: Education, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s (class of ’02) education foundation that was started in 2010 with an initial $100 million commitment to dramatically improve public schools in Newark, NJ. Holleran and her husband, Andy Clark P’11, live outside of Boston with their young twin sons. She shares Exeter with her father Romer Holleran ’58; her sisters Demer ’85, Lauren ’91 and Alexa ’00; and her stepdaughter Zoe Clark ’11.
FALL 2011
The Exeter Bulletin
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