Around the Table
First Mentors E X O N I A N S PAY T R I B U T E T O F O R M E R T E AC H E R S
T
Guy Monseair and Abigayle Young ’12
Michelle King and Paige Harouse ’15
Emma Lamarche ’13 and Vito Dugan 14
The Exeter Bulletin
S UMMER 2012
his spring five Exonians honored former teachers and coaches whose influence and support changed the course of their lives. These mentors were recognized during Phillips Exeter Academy’s sixth annual “Honoring Earlier Educators” weekend. As a seventh-grader in Centerville, MA, Abigayle Young ’12— Yale University’s No. 1 women’s rowing recruit—met Guy Monseair, a coach for the local rowing club. After observing Young’s passion and talent for the sport, Monseair suggested she might make the U.S. Junior National Team. “From then on, he was my coach,” Young says, “and we worked together almost every day.” Monseair describes Young as a “tenacious competitor with a no frills/no excuses/let’s just get it done attitude. Abbie is remarkably humble for one who has reached the pinnacle of the sport. I will always remember her willingness to push past pain to accomplish whatever goals were set before her.” Monseair encouraged Young to apply to Exeter and later train for the World Rowing Junior Championships, where she earned bronze as a member of the U.S. JW8 boat last summer. “I know that Exeter, the World Championships and Yale wouldn’t have been a strong possibility if he hadn’t dedicated the countless hours and dollars coaching me,” Young says of Monseair. “I thank him for his help in changing my life by opening up the world to me.” For Paige Harouse ’15, from Pittsburgh, PA, it was eighth-grade U.S. history teacher and technology club adviser Michelle King’s modern classroom and curriculum that inspired her study of history. King encouraged Harouse to create a website on the U.S. Constitution for a class project, which helped earn Harouse the Daughters of the American Revolution Award, an honor King nominated her for. “Early in the year, I talked to students about embracing failure,” King says. “Paige continued to challenge herself to take intellectual risks in and out of the classroom. Her choice to go to a competitive, private boarding school, away from the safe path of the mainstream, is representative of her character and tenacity.” Harouse, in turn, credits King. “I’m not sure if I would be at Exeter if I hadn’t met [her],” she explains. “She really helped me pursue my dreams and showed me how far I could push myself when I was passionate about something, and how I shouldn’t be afraid to show my true potential to others. She monumentally impacted my life.” After arriving at PEA, Emma Lamarche ’13, from Berwick, ME, realized how much her eighth-grade social studies teacher,Vito Dugan, embodied the Academy’s founding credo. “Mr. Dugan incorporated Exeter’s two governing principles: goodness and knowledge,” she says. “From the moment I met [him], I was touched by his wisdom, passion and verve. He taught me that you can’t truly achieve something you didn’t put effort into, a mentality that has lent itself incredibly well to my career at Exeter.” Dugan describes Lamarche as having a “top-notch” work ethic and a healthy competitive spirit. “I was … so proud of her when she was accepted into Phillips Exeter,” he says. “Her success still inspires me and makes me proud.” PHOTOS BY NICOLE PELLATON