The Exeter Bulletin SPRING 2017
Space for Reflection How we decode identity and community
In 1930 Edward S. Harkness made a gift to Phillips Exeter Academy that launched a style of teaching, learning and living that now defines the Exeter experience. Honor the many dimensions of Harkness with your gift to The Exeter Fund.
www.exeter.edu/give By Phone: 603-777-3473 By Mail: Exeter Fund, Phillips Exeter Academy 20 Main Street, Exeter, NH 03833
The Exeter Bulletin
Principal Instructor Lisa MacFarlane ’66 (Hon.); P’09, P’13 Editor Karen Ingraham Associate Editor Genny Beckman Moriarty Class Notes Editor Janice M. Reiter Contributing Editor Karen Stewart Creative Director/Design David Nelson, Nelson Design 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 Eunice Johnson Panetta ’84 Vice President Marc C. de La Bruyère ’77 Wole C. Coaxum ’88, Walter C. Donovan ’81, John A. Downer ’75, Mark A. Edwards ’78, David E. Goel ’89, Jacqueline J. Hayes, Esq. ’85, Jennifer P. Holleran ’86, Lisa MacFarlane, Sally J. Michaels ’82, Deidre O’Byrne ’84, Kerry Landreth Reed ’91, Dr. Nina D. Russell ’82, Peter M. Scocimara ’82, Serena Wille Sides ’89, J. Douglas Smith ’83, Morgan C. Sze ’83, Remy White Trafelet ’88 and Nancy H. Wilder ’75 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 Telephone 603-772-4311 Periodicals postage paid at Exeter, NH, and at additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA by Cummings Printing. The Exeter Bulletin is printed on recycled paper and sent free of charge to alumni, parents, grandparents, friends, and educational institutions by Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH. Communications may be addressed to the editor; email bulletin@exeter.edu. Copyright 2017 by the Trustees of Phillips Exeter Academy. ISSN-0195-0207 Postmasters: Send address changes to: Phillips Exeter Academy Records Office 20 Main Street Exeter, NH 03833-2460
SPRING
“AS STUDENTS AND FRIENDS WHO LIVE AND LEARN TOGETHER, WE ARE PRETTY GOOD AT ... COMING TO EACH OTHER’S RESCUE IF NEED BE.” 2 • T H E
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—page 22
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IN THIS ISSUE
Volume CXXII, Issue no. 4
Features
24 Cyber Living
How students use social media at Exeter
By Melanie Nelson
30 Play to Learn
PEA faculty members and a Boston-based painter explore sensory perception and meaning in The Lamont Gallery
By Nicole Pellaton
34 The Disruptive Power of Dance
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PEA’s Dance Company rises up to empower women
By Genny Beckman Moriarty
Departments 6
Around the Table: Non Sibi, Meet an Exonian, Exeter Deconstructed and more
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Table Talk with Maria Cabildo ‘85
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Inside the Writing Life: Religion Instructor Tom Simpson
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Sports: PEA Coaching Legend Bill Dennehy Says Goodbye. Plus, winter sports roundup.
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Connections: News and Notes from the Alumni Community
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Alumni Profiles: David Tsai ‘95, Jim Hunter ‘64 and Aida Conroy ‘09
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Finis Origine Pendet: Titles, by Perry Asibey-Bonsu ‘17 —Cover illustration by Mark Smith
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— Cheryl Senter
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AROUND THE TABLE
What’s new and notable at the Academy
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Preparation for the World Ahead By Principal Lisa MacFarlane ’66 (Hon.); P’09, P’13
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joy of my job is to sit in on classes here
at Exeter. I am always delighted by the eloquence of our students. Whether they are distilling a theory, parsing a poem, or presenting a mathematical formula, Exonians do so with clarity and confidence. The same holds true when they then enter into dialogue with their peers and instructors. Classroom conversations are marked by incisiveness, inclusivity, even grace. As anyone who has studied at the Academy, or who has had a child study here, understands, the honing of self-expression and of the ability to engage in a meaningful, constructive exchange are two of the greatest gifts of Harkness. Such respectful, consequential interactions derive from the diversity of backgrounds our students bring to this community. It is here that many students first encounter people who do not look, talk, act, pray, or even think like they do. At the Academy, these students from every quarter are united, and in the welcoming, safe environment of their classrooms and residences, are asked to weave together goodness and knowledge for the sake of one another as well as the world they will enter after Exeter. The sharpening of intellect and the shaping of empathy that occur so naturally around our Harkness tables are also well supported through rich co-curricular
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offerings. Exeter’s Debate and Mock Trial teams regularly challenge our students to engage intelligently and respectfully with those whose opinions differ from their own. Through Model United Nations, Exonians work together to understand, and offer thoughtful means of resolving, some of the world’s greatest geo-political challenges. The many clubs supported by the Exeter Student Service Organization (ESSO) send our students into the town of Exeter and to other Seacoast communities to provide music lessons and tutoring, assist those who are resource-challenged, and help manage blood drives. Critically, our long-established, exceptionally well-run study-abroad programs allow students to immerse themselves in cultures, and often in languages, totally unlike those at home. All of this — the electric exchanges around our Harkness tables and the enlightening interactions beyond our classrooms and even our campus — fuse to create an extraordinary experience that prepares Exonians for a complex global society. Indeed, our deliberate practice of Harkness learning within a heterogeneous community ensures that our students come to embrace collaboration, compromise and integrity as ways of being in the world. Ultimately, then, hope is the currency of this community, and it is my honor to preserve and steward that precious resource. E
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E VA N V O G E L B A U M ’ 1 9 A D D R E S S E S O H I O S TAT E L E G I S L AT O R S By Genny Beckman Moriarty
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CHRISTIAN HARRISON
t’s not every day that high school students find the opportunity or the gumption to address a fractious crowd of state legislators and their divided constituents, but Evan Vogelbaum ’19 did when he stood up to testify against Ohio’s HB554 over Thanksgiving break last year. The bill, designed to renew a freeze on state-wide renewable energy standards, attracted nearly 60 environmentally minded opponents who were eager to testify in front of Ohio’s General Assembly that day. Supporters of the bill, concerned about how regulations would affect the coal industry, were present as well. The atmosphere was emotionally charged, and as the hearings dragged on, according to Vogelbaum, the lawmakers grew testy. “They were asking kind of ‘gotcha’ questions with some of the other people that testified,” he recalls. But the young activist, who had practiced his speech ahead of time, managed to elicit laughter from the lawmakers while inviting them to consider things from a different angle. To prepare for his testimony, Vogelbaum drew on his Exeter experience, taking pains to ensure his remarks would reflect an awareness and understanding of the other side’s concerns. “I could have gone in there with guns blazing, but that’s not that the Harkness way,” he says. “You have to take into consideration everyone’s viewpoints.” Vogelbaum started his remarks by talking about the work he’d done in a solar energy lab at Case Western University the previous summer. “I wanted to highlight the innovative, Ohio-based technology that could be used to build businesses if the state were to invest in clean energy,” he explains. Ahead of the event, he had asked for some language
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coaching from his friend, Justin Psaris ’19, who hails from Hong Kong. When, midway through his testimony, Vogelbaum began to address the crowd in Chinese, it caught the attention of his listeners. Switching back to English, he told them: “You may be wondering why I just chose to speak to you in Chinese. That’s because China is the world’s leader in investing in renewable energy, spending 36 percent of the world’s total investment last year.” Pausing to let the statistic sink in for a moment, he gestured toward his parents and quipped, “I don’t want to have to move to China to be on the forefront of this industry. My mother would really miss me. So please, for me, for my generation, and for the Ohioans who will benefit from investment in renewable energy, please stop this bill.” The mention of his mother drew a laugh from the lawmakers. It was a welcome moment of levity during an afternoon of heated exchanges, and the story got picked up by the local media. Despite his best efforts, HB554 passed through Ohio’s House and Senate sessions, although Gov. John Kasich later vetoed it. Regardless of the outcome, Vogelbaum says, it was a lesson in civics — and the importance of having a sense of empathy and humor. His broader mission was to let the lawmakers know there are young people in their state who are interested and aware. “They’re worried about a particular set of workers, but there’s a whole state out there,” he says, “and the fact of the matter is, there’s an entirely new generation coming up that will be affected by their decisions.” Vogelbaum hopes more of his peers will look for ways to reach out to their state and national lawmakers about issues that matter. “It might not change their minds, but at least it will put it in their minds,” he says. E
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Letters to the Editor ASSEMBLY ON DEMAND
Salve! Reading about some of last term’s assemblies in The Exeter Bulletin, I found myself feeling nostalgic. Assembly was one of my favorite parts about Exeter (even though Mr. Weatherspoon totally busted me for dicking assembly once — he just came knocking on my door, like he knew trouble was afoot? Like a sixth sense...), and reading about some of these incredible speakers made me want to hear their whole talk. Luckily, I learned in the same issue that Exeter posts assemblies, talks, and athletic contests online now. It only took one minute to set up my Exeter.GameOnStream.com account, and I urge all alumni to do the same. The first video I watched was Peggy Orenstein’s talk on her new book, Girls and Sex. She had some really unique insights, including the “psychological clitoridectomy” society performs on American girls, and the idea that today’s girls don’t know the difference between “sexy” and “sexuality,” and why that matters. Can’t wait to catch up on this year’s assemblies! Eva Glasrud ’05 Palo Alto, California
ROWING HISTORY CORRECTED
In reference to the following passage from the winter 2017 “Exeter Deconstructed,” page 14: “In 1952, Exeter’s top four rowers made it to the Olympic trials in Helsinki, where they lost to Navy and Cornell in the semifinals.” Please research more closely and let me know if the
following isn’t rather true: “In 1952, Exeter’s top four oarsmen made it to the semifinals of the US Olympic trials held at Lake Quinsigamond, Worcester, Massachusetts. They were eliminated by Navy and Cornell. The Olympic games were later held [in] Helsinki.” Respectfully, Rolf R. Lium ’60 Rye, New Hampshire Editor’s Note: Thank you for that edit! Yours is indeed the accurate account, and we apologize for muddying the waters on this one.
THE SOCIAL BENEFITS OF INDUSTRIAL INNOVATION
In reference to the feature, “From Ideas to Actions to Solutions: Social Innovation at Exeter”: On page 22 of the [winter 2017] issue, Melanie Nelson writes, “Unlike in industry, where innovation bolsters the company and its shareholders, the value that is created by social innovation flows to society.” I forbear to comment on the supposed value of social innovation (although I see we are to have a course about it), but I do insist that the claim of limited value of industrial innovation is economic nonsense, and embarrassing to see in writing published by a school pledged to excellence. A simple example suffices. Did the innovation of an automatic washer and dryer produce value only to the company, but not to the millions of families spared the drudgery of hard labor and the body odor of the population? Here we had real social value.
CALLING ALL EDITORS! The Exeter Bulletin is your magazine. We work hard to keep you informed, inspired and connected to your Exeter family, both on campus and off. In that spirit, we are seeking your opinion to help ensure this publication serves your needs and interests as we move forward. Please take about 10 minutes to complete an online survey about your reader experience. Your answers will guide us in our efforts to create compelling content and an alumni and parent publication that is relevant and meaningful to you. Thank you for your input! Deadline is May 20.
Arthur Gilcreast ’71 (Hon.) PEA emeritus chair of the History Department Exeter, New Hampshire We’d love to hear from you! Submit your letters for possible publication to bulletin@exeter.edu. Or, mail them to The Exeter Bulletin, 20 Main Street, Exeter, NH, 03833. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.
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Heard in Assembly Hall On Feb. 10 “At what point do you in fact
On March 21 “I wish I could stand up and
step back? That’s a challenge for every
say that race played no part in me going
parent who’s caring and loving and wants
to death row. I wish I could look you in the
to be involved. And this generation of
eye and say the state of Alabama made
parents is the most conscientious. … We
an honest mistake. But if I told you that,
are all in with this parenting thing, and that
I would be telling you a lie. When you’re
doesn’t make it any easier to step back from it. … The
born black and poor in the South, there’s the threat that
question is, can the family find a graceful way to let go?
hangs over your head every day.”
And can the kids find a way to let go? And can people not
—Anthony Ray Hinton, on spending 30 years
get frightened about the stakes?”
on death row for a crime he didn’t commit
—Michael G. Thompson, Ph.D., New York Times bestselling author, on
On March 24 “The best lawyers, like the
surviving the college admissions process
best historians, and the best writers, are storytellers. … I wanted to have a bigger
On Feb. 17 “The media only reports the
social impact and not just settle cases … so
bad news about [teens]. … We live in a
I decided to become a documentary film
culture where the negative gets all the
producer. … I saw the potential for films,
attention, the positive does not get the
and particularly documentary films, to change the way
attention, and we ourselves are trained
people think about and understand an issue. I wanted to
to do the same thing when we think
use the power of story to make films that reached across
about each other. And that’s not a good thing, because
the cultural and social and political barriers that often
when you’re thinking that way, it makes it happen … the
divide us.”
perception is a self-fulfilling prophecy. … Most of you want to do the right thing, but most of you don’t realize that most of you want to do the right thing.”
—William Hirsch P ’16, producer of Audrie & Daisy, a documentary film that examines the ripple effects of sexual assault and social media bullying
— Alan Berkowitz, Ph.D., independent consultant on bystander training to prevent sexual assault
On March 31 “The concept [of hookups] is not new. … What is new is the hookup
On Feb. 20 “Real wages have been flat
culture, which is the normalized view that
for the bottom half of society for almost
physical intimacy should precede rather
40 years. … The concentration of wealth
than arise from emotional intimacy. … It
and income keeps flowing to the top. …
used to be the exception, rather than the
And actually, that is not good for anyone.
pathway. So that has a lot of implications, in terms of
We know it’s not good for democracy.
levels of trust, levels of ability to communicate, sobriety
… Think about what you care about — your family,
in a lot of places, ability to consent. … It’s brought up a
your community, your health, democracy, the sense
lot of more complicated issues, and … created a culture
of whether you have a voice in the system or not — all
where it’s easier for sex to be transactional, and it’s
those are undermined by these inequalities in wealth. I’m
easier for it to be dehumanized.”
actually arguing that it’s bad for everyone, even those
—Peggy Orenstein, author of Girls & Sex
who are the most wealthy.” —Chuck Collins, author of Born on Third Base, on wealth inequality in America
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To watch video of these assemblies and more, go to exeter.gameonstream.com. T H E
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Community Organizer with an Eye on Politics A C O N V E R S AT I O N W I T H E A S T L A N AT I V E M A R I A C A B I L D O ’ 8 5 By Melanie Nelson Editor’s Note: This piece was written right before the special primary election, in which Maria Cabildo finished third in a field of 23 candidates. The regular election between the top two finishers will take place on June 6.
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coveted 34th congressional district seat in a special primary election held on April 4, Maria Cabildo ’85 answers with just two words: “My daughter.” Cabildo, who is a first-generation Mexican-American, says: “After the November election, the first thing she asked me was, ‘What about my future?’ All over the country, and especially here in Los Angeles, people are having similar conversations, and it has caused me to rethink my life of service.” For Cabildo, who has dedicated her entire career to comprehensive urban planning in her native Los Angeles, such a statement is not without significance. While she considers herself the “grassroots, outsider” candidate in a crowded race for the “once-in-a-generation” seat that was vacated by Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra in late January, Cabildo has been endorsed by both the Los Angeles Times and Latinas Lead California. Her campaign slogan — “Builder, Leader, Fighter” — distills her life path and her platform, which is centered on “reconnecting real people and what they are facing to a policy agenda that is reflective of their needs.” Born to immigrant parents in the 1960s, Cabildo grew up in the then-troubled East Los Angeles neighborhood of City Terrace, where, she recalls, waking in the night to the sound of helicopters hovering overhead as police sirens blared through the streets was commonplace. Identified at a young age as academically gifted, Cabildo attended neighborhood public schools. While in eighth grade at Belvedere Junior High, she met Exeter History Instructor Jack Herney ’46, ’69, ’71, ’74, ’92, ’95 (Hon.), who was visiting from the Academy on a recruiting trip. With her older brother’s encouragement, Cabildo applied to Exeter, and she was accepted to the class of 1985.
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The transition from East LA public schools to the Academy was “really, really hard,” Cabildo recalls. “I was a good student in East LA, and had been given the nickname ‘Brainiac,’ but when I arrived at Exeter I felt that I was immediately so far behind everybody. As a prep, we started off with literature and literary analysis, whereas the previous year, back home, we had been doing the parts of speech. I had feelings of ‘Do I belong here?’, but somehow I knew my future depended on it.” Cabildo’s initial struggles were eventually tempered by her involvement in school life, in particular the social justice activism to which she was introduced by Barbara James, the wife of Exeter Art Instructor Bud James. “Barbara was key in my civic awakening,” Cabildo explains. “She took me to my first political protest, and it was at Exeter that I first learned about apartheid, the military coups in South America and the dangers of unchecked nuclear proliferation.” A seed, it would seem, had been planted. From Exeter, Cabildo enrolled at Columbia University, where she majored in Urban Studies and for two years chaired the Mexican-American Student Association, through which she became involved with the United Farm Workers’ “Wrath of Grapes” table grape boycott, which focused attention on the conditions of farm workers as well as the environmental impact of pesticide use. By the time she graduated Columbia in 1989, Cabildo says, protest movements around the world were coming to a head: “Nelson Mandela was freed, and the Berlin Wall came down. I could see that people were joining together and sticking to their causes until change prevailed.” She found the entire milieu deeply inspiring, so much so that, after a year in MIT’s Master in City Planning program, she knew that its (then)-top-down approach “didn’t work for me and my values.” Cabildo decided to return home to LA, working for Mayor Tom Bradley for a year before completing a Master of Urban and Regional Planning at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, where she developed a passion for housing — “I see it as a foundation of opportunity; I feel it should be a right.” — and honed her comprehensive, sustainable approach to city planning. In 1995, she translated her dreams for her native neighborhood into action by founding the East LA Community Corporation (ELACC), a nonprofit whose vision is to “help the members of a 95 percent Latino community create an environment that supports a productive, healthy, and fulfilling life.” Now 22 years old, ELACC, Cabildo says, has become a “force in LA
for social and economic justice” that has built hundreds of housing units, and offers a robust foreclosure protection program along with childcare, after-school care and a food pantry. The organization likewise played a critical role in restoring one of East LA’s most iconic buildings, the Boyle Hotel (Cummings Block), which was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2007 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013. In recognition of her work, the Academy presented Cabildo with the 2011 John Phillips Award. She became the first alumna to receive the honor, which is given annually to an alumnus or alumna “whose life demonstrates founder John Phillips’ ideal of goodness and knowledge united in noble character and usefulness to mankind.” In 2015, after 20 years leading ELACC, Cabildo, who
“MY GOAL IS TO UNITE PEOPLE SO THAT OUR COLLECTIVE VOICE IS STRONGER. THIS IS A SPECIAL MOMENT IN TIME, WHEN PEOPLE NEED TO BE ENCOURAGED TO RE-ENGAGE WITH DEMOCRACY.”
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was able to mentor her successor, left the corporation in order to explore a growing interest in government. “I wanted to learn that whole side of things, to see if I could have a greater impact through that channel,” she says. Putting to use her extensive knowledge of urban subsidized housing, she became, in the summer of 2015, the director of homeless initiatives for the Community Development Commission of the County of Los Angeles, remaining in that role until January, when she decided to launch her congressional campaign. With the primary election, at the time of this writing, just over a week away, Cabildo is as thoughtful, and inclusive, as ever. “My goal is to unite people so that our collective voice is stronger. This is a special moment in time, when people need to be encouraged to re-engage with democracy. What I would bring to Congress is a lot of what I learned at Exeter, which is that it is not about you, it is about what you are able to do for other people.” E As a 501(c)(3) organization, Phillips Exeter Academy does not and cannot endorse the candidacy of any person seeking to be elected to public office. We share this story as we do any other: to celebrate the accomplishments and contributions made by members of our community.
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RACHEL LUO
CALIFORNIA Members of the Concert Choir and Chamber Orchestra in the Coachella Valley in California on a service learning trip that included performance and eco-volunteerism opportunities.
THANK-A-DONOR DAY Rachel Moberg ’18 and the Exeter community shared the reasons for their gratitude to the alumni and parents who support the school.
RELAY FOR LIFE Exonians had fun while raising money to support cancer research in April.
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FEMINIST PRIDE Friends of Exeter’s Fem Club sported pink sweatshirts in support of womens’ health care.
MAINSTAGE A musical production of Two Gentlemen of Verona took to the mainstage in Fisher Theater in February.
NOLS UTAH Students got some hands-on learning as they explored the canyons of southern Utah during a nine-day wilderness and leadership expedition over spring break.
INDIA These lucky Exonians immersed themselves in India during a weeklong trip in March.
INTERNATIONAL TEA Good friends helped to celebrate Exeter’s global community in February. SPRING BREAK Students and faculty deepened their appreciation for the rich history and culture of China on an experiential learning trip in March.
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Cranes work to erect trusses on the new athletic field house.
SOUTH CAMPUS UPDATE The transformation continues on South Campus, where state-of-the-art facilities are taking shape amid a tangle of steel and concrete. The new athletic field house and The David E. Goel and Stacy L. Goel Center for Theater and Dance will be centers of activity and inspiration when these buildings open in 2018. With the help of our partners at Harvey Construction, we’ve put together some numbers to show the size of the job at the new field house:
7,000
CUBIC YARDS
of concrete poured, enough to lay a sidewalk from Exeter to Ogunquit, Maine.
64
MILLION POUNDS
of dirt and rock were excavated to create the parking garage that will sit beneath the field house.
84,574
SQUARE FEET
The new field house will encompass nearly 2 acres of space.
8 MILES
OF CONDUIT 3,750 1,866
TONS
of rebar and structural steel in the project, the equivalent weight of 915 cars.
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dump truck loads required to remove that dirt and rock.
once the building is completed, enough to nearly reach Hampton Beach.
If you are interested in supporting these projects, please contact Chuck Ramsay, director of principal and major gifts at cramsay@exeter.edu or 603.777.3482.
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CHERYL SENTER (2)
A Maker Movement
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n March, Exeter hosted its first Maker Fest, a weekend-long “boot camp” in design thinking and innovation that gave students hands-on practice in coding, wiring Arduino circuit boards, 3-D printing and laser cutting. Armed with new fabrication skills and practice in ideation — a form of brainstorming that uses both sides of the brain to generate creative solutions to real-world problems — participants divided into teams and set about researching, designing, creating and promoting a product that would solve a problem for Exeter students. For a closer look at some of the innovative products they designed, and to find out what they discovered about the rewards of failure and analyzing problems as opportunities, visit: exeter. edu/makerfest. E
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THE ACADEMY ARCHIVES As head of archives and special collections, Peter Nelson serves as PEA’s official memory-keeper — appraising and preserving over 2,500 linear feet of materials within the archives alone, including Academy records, photographs, publications, maps, architectural plans, scrapbooks, diaries and memorabilia objects. Here, he shares some of his favorite historical treasures.
This green fabric wallet with colorful embroidery and an engraved metal clasp that reads “John Phillips Esq. of Exeter” is an obvious symbolic choice, because although our school founder was many things, he was above all a shrewd and very practical businessman, noted for being frugal in small matters, but benevolent in large ones.
The Gentleman Instructed in the Conduct of a Virtuous and Happy Life by William Darrell (London, 1738) bears the signature and bookplate of John Phillips. One of the few volumes from his personal library not destroyed in the Academy Building fire of 1870, the book had been a hugely popular guide to proper conduct for young noblemen of Europe, going through countless editions. With lengthy dialogues and discussions addressing such topics as “Of Duties to Neighbors,” “Of Theft, Injustice and Oppression” and “A Gentleman’s True Business,” it offers a fascinating look at the moral education of an American gentleman.
The Exeter-Andover rivalry is as strong as it was a century ago, but sadly, school fight songs and other marching band ditties are no longer part of PEA’s athletic contests. This song sheet from 1908 tells a lot about school spirit and how it was expressed during a different time, and it has beautiful cover artwork as well. “Cheer now for Exeter and show them our spirit true, no line can stop our men from crashing thro’ the line of blue … .” (Written by Chandler W. Ireland, class of 1909)
No archival collection should be without a weapon or two, and so this is ours: a presentation sword given by John Phillips to his cousin, Lt. Josiah Gilman. Intended for ceremonial purposes only, it has a nice provenance connecting it to our school’s founder and to the Revolutionary history of Exeter. Its original “wow factor” persists.
Presented by students to the Principal Instructor Gideon Soule, this cane was crafted from ruins of the second Academy Building, destroyed by the fire in 1870. An inscription on the handle reads “Made from timbers and bell metal.” The students’ desire to fashion a piece from the ruins into a beautiful cane and present it to Principal Soule speaks of resilience, respect and faith in the future.
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A leather football helmet belonging to Herbert Greenleaf Noyes, class of 1917, reveals football as it was played exactly a century ago. Photographs from the era show that even these were not frequently worn (though oddly, hip and shoulder pads commonly were). The leather is about a quarter-inch thick, so it wouldn’t have offered much head protection anyway.
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Finding Patriotism at School A C O N V E R S AT I O N W I T H T H O M A S W. S I M P S O N
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ast year, the University of North Carolina Press published PEA Religion Instructor Thomas W. Simpson’s American Universities and the Birth of Modern Mormonism, 1867-1940, the culmination of a 14-year-long project that began with his Ph.D. The Canadian literary magazine Numéro Cinq also published “Recovery’s Rhythm and Blues,” the second of two essays by Simpson on Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country he first visited in 2004 via a study abroad program focused on religion, conflict and peace-building. Both Simpson’s academic writing and creative nonfiction contain deeply personal elements. His father’s extended family is predominantly Mormon, and that trip to Bosnia proved seminal, as he expressed in an earlier essay: “My first trip to Bosnia wrecked and remade me in a matter of days, altering forever the rhythm of my heart.” That vital sensation electrifies his writing more than a decade later: Both essays are raw, rich, thoughtful — and a tantalizing taste of his current book in progress. Q: You explore a fascinating dynamic in your academic book, Mormonism’s development via American universities. What sparked your interest? Simpson: The puzzle I was working on was what seemed like a very rapid transformation from Mormons’ oppositional stance toward American culture, to a posture of love and loyalty. Mid-19th-century Mormons experienced a lot of external pressure and coercion in terms of adapting to broader norms and also around their religious kingdom-building project. It was, essentially, a theocratic project, but also a utopian, socialistic and communitarian one. They were trying to maintain a tight-knit community, and there was tremendous tension with the surrounding culture. It didn’t make sense to me as a scholar that 20th-century Mormons would become so deeply patriotic. I started wrestling with these questions while preparing for doctoral exams in U.S. religious history. I went in search of answers, and found stories about Mormons who went to study in colleges and universities as early as the 1870s. I realized that the university was a unique cultural space where Mormons experienced a transformation of
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MELISSA COOPERMAN
By Daneet Steffens ’82
consciousness and identity: They could imagine being Americans without sacrificing their dignity. Q: And you primarily worked on this book while teaching at Exeter? Simpson: I think I needed to spend time at a boarding school to figure out that these are really special institutions where people come from diverse backgrounds and discover what they have in common or what they have in tension. Mormons’ experiences at universities challenged them at a formative stage in their lives — there’s a parallel in that sense to what our students experience at Exeter. The story of Mormons in American universities is really
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about how our schools can be incredible Simpson: There’s more artistic freedom “I TAKE IT engines of diplomacy — Mormons were with creative nonfiction, but both involve SERIOUSLY trying to figure out if they could love a deep sense of responsibility to the people THAT I’M America, if they could be part of the whose stories I’m trying to tell. There’s American project — and I think the U.S. a real ethical risk associated with telling WRITING could be doing more to celebrate our other people’s stories. In Mormon studABOUT university system. There are problems ies, I check with Mormon scholars and ANOTHER with it, for sure — it’s often prohibitively colleagues outside the field to make sure expensive — but in terms of internaCOMMUNITY’S that what I’m writing is both accurate and tional relations, few institutions make tonally. I take it seriously that I’m PAST; I WANT working the United States look better than our writing about another community’s past; TO WRITE A universities: They have the power to I want to write a history that my subjects create ties between people all over the HISTORY THAT would recognize themselves in. world who want education to work, who The same goes for Bosnia. That writing MY SUBJECTS started want to promote scientific and cultural as the only way I knew how to WOULD development. properly thank people who hosted me, who taught me, who spent so much time Q: Was it your familial heritage that RECOGNIZE me. Some of them were with me led you to focus on Mormonism? THEMSELVES with 24/7, for weeks at a time, helping me Simpson: In graduate school, I was IN.” understand and process what I was seeing focused on religion and social reform in the aftermath of war and genocide. It movements; the interest in doing a was something almost overwhelming intellectually and sustained project on Mormonism came as I was trying psychologically new for me; I had haunting questions to discover a dissertation. My father was raised in the about what had happened in Bosnia and why. I was just Church but distanced himself before I was born. And telling students the other day about one example: Why all eight of my paternal grandmother’s great-grandpardid the ultranationalists besieging Sarajevo intentionally ents were in the Mormon settlement of Nauvoo, Illinois, destroy the National Library? Considering that question before the migration to Utah. So I have a deep Mormon ancestry and close ties to my Mormon relatives today, and made me come to terms with human moral sickness in an entirely new way, even after all of my formal education. I part of what drew me to the project was that I would be able to do archival research that would involve reconnect- needed to understand that it’s a strategy of war to destroy what your enemy loves: You want to destroy the people ing with relatives of mine whom I love. and the places they love as a way of utterly dehumanizing So there was a connection, but also a distance. I and demoralizing them. feel a real ethical responsibility to tell the story of the I initially offered my written reflections as a private Mormon past in a professional manner that meets the gift to my hosts, but they encouraged me to seek publicahighest scholarly and academic standards, but there tion. They wanted me to share their stories because one were also personal relationships to consider. So it was a of the things Bosnians struggled with so profoundly was kind of insider-outsider position that can be complex to getting people outside the region to understand what was negotiate. really going on, getting their stories told and heard. That’s Q: That sounds like your explanation of what the still important to them, that people understand what Mormons were facing. happened there. Simpson: Yes, that’s right! When he was at Brigham In that sense there’s perhaps more at stake in my writYoung University, my father struggled with whether there was room to explore his ideas about literature and his love ing about Bosnia. There’s an urgency behind it; I really feel as though the future of humanity, of human civilizaof jazz, his love of all the art he was being exposed to; he tion and coexistence, is on the line. struggled with whether there was going to be a full space for his exploration of artistic and intellectual identity. My Q: In your ninth year as a teacher there, what’s your personal connection to his experience drew me into this favorite thing about Exeter? work. It was striking for me to see how long Mormons Simpson: The students! I love not knowing what’s have struggled with that exact tension: “Can I be of the going to happen in class each day. I love knowing that university and of the Church and hold those two identistudents will take the material seriously, that they’ll ties together, harmonize them?” come in with a spirit of curiosity and collaboration and openness. That’s a gift that I take neither lightly nor for Q: What are the differences between writing scholarly granted. I’m grateful for it every day. E work and creative nonfiction?
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Alumni are encouraged to advise the Bulletin editor (bulletin@exeter.edu) of their own publications, recordings, films, etc., in any field, and those of 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: Bulletin Editor, Phillips Exeter Academy, 20 Main Street, Exeter, NH 03833-2460. ALUMNI 1954 — Robin Magowan. The Mirrored Spectrum, Versions of Bidel. (Longhouse, 2016)
1968—Rob Stucky. A Complicated Legacy. (Eastcliff Editions, 2014) 1968 — Lincoln Caplan. American Justice 2016: The Political Supreme Court. (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016) 1972 — Rob Dinerman. Selected Squash Writings, Volume Two. (Create Space, 2016)
1979 — Nelson Lee, editor. “Juan Cabanilles and his Contemporaries: Keyboard Music from the Felanitx Manuscripts, Vol. II” (American Institute of Musicology, 2017) 1992 — Sean Davis. “Solving the Giving Pledge Bottleneck.” IN The Journal of Wealth Management. (summer 2016) FAC U LT Y/ F O R M E R FAC U LT Y Tennessee Jones [former Bennett Fellow]. “How My Mom Learned to Love Her Son.” IN The New York Times Sunday Review (Jan. 28, 2017)
1954 — Mike Thomas. Fixers. (Melville House, 2016) 1958 — Jay Kadane. Pragmatics of Uncertainty. (Chapman and Hall/ CRC Texts in Statistical Science, 2016)
Todd Hearon. “Caliban in AfterLife” [poem set to music]. AT Carnegie Hall (New York, March 23, 2017)
1961 — Franklin B. Satterthwaite Jr. Becoming a Can-Do Leader. (ADP Press, 2017)
1974 — Christopher Knowlton. Cattle Kingdom: The Hidden History of the Cowboy West. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017)
1962 — Brian B. Kelly. Just Call Me Whitey: A Novel of White Privilege and Black Lives. (iBooks, 2016)
1993 — Greg Brown, composer. “Caliban in After-Life.” (Carnegie Hall, New York, March 23, 2017)
1964 — Robert Dole. What Rough Beast. (Austin Macauley Publishers, 2017)
1994 — Drew Magary. The Hike. (Penguin Random House, 2016) 1994 — Brian Staveley. Skullsworn. (Tor Books, 2017)
CORRECTION 1980 — Peter B. Josephson. “Hobbes, Locke, and the Problems of Political Economy.” IN Economic Freedom and Human Flourishing: Perspectives from Political Philosophy. (AEI Press, 2016). *Editor’s note: Josephson’s work was attributed to the wrong author in the winter 2016 edition of The Exeter Bulletin.
2000 — William Richards. Revolt and Reform in Architecture’s Academy: Urban Renewal, Race, and the Rise of Design in the Public Interest. (Routledge, 2017)
1964 — William Sweet. Climate Diplomacy from Rio to Paris: The Effort to Contain Global Warming. (Yale University Press, 2016)
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B R I E F LY N OT E D 1958 — Putnam Barber and Megan Farwell. “Charitable Solicitations Regulation and the Principles of Regulatory Disclosure.” IN Nonprofit Policy Forum. (v. 7.3, Sep. 2016)
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PEA Coaching Legend Says Goodbye B I L L D E N N E H Y L E AV E S E X E T E R A F T E R N E A R LY 5 0 Y E A R S By Patrick Garrity
B
ill Dennehy and his future
When he was with the Tampa Bay Rays, Sam Fuld ’00 stopped by PEA to visit Coach Bill Dennehy and the boys baseball team.
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came to an understanding sometime between a hockey season and a baseball season long ago: He wasn’t leaving Exeter. Dennehy had arrived in 1971 fresh out of the U.S. Army Reserve and a year after graduating from Springfield College. He had come to town looking for a job as a coach and athletic trainer. A buddy at Springfield had told him about an opening at Phillips Exeter Academy, a place Dennehy had not seen and knew little about. He figured it would be a short stop on the way to a college coaching career. Then, a few years into his stay, came an epiphany: I’m way too happy to go anywhere else. “I realized, ‘You know, I really want to coach in college, but a lot of the kids I’m coaching here are going on to play in college anyway,’ ” he recalls thinking. “ ‘This is a pretty good spot.’ ” So, the seasons passed, soccer to hockey, hockey to baseball, again and again. Dennehy stayed put, coaching all three sports and teaching physical education. And the better part of a half-century went by. Now, 46 years later and four years since officially downshifting from full-time teaching and coaching to a more limited role, Dennehy finally is preparing to move on. He and his wife, Cyndee, are putting their house in Exeter on the market and settling at the family home on Martha’s Vineyard. He has seven grandchildren, and two of them — grandsons Collin Shapiro ’17 and Greg Shapiro ’17 — will graduate from Exeter this spring after concluding their athletic careers here, so the timing is at least tolerable for Dennehy (a granddaughter, Maddie Shapiro ’18, is an upper). But he’s still not convinced he’s ready to go. “I’m betwixt and between about it,” he admits. “But my wife has said enough with this two-houses thing.” “I’ll believe it when I see it,” his son Patrick Dennehy ’92, who played three sports for his father at the Academy and now coaches hockey and is associate athletic director at Choate Rosemary Hall, says with a laugh. “He loves Exeter. I imagine he’ll be back up, watching games, every chance he gets.”
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Wiffle ball, whatever. Just a constant flow of kids.” Dennehy’s demeanor on the sidelines, particularly as a younger man, could be hard-bitten — “pretty intense,” his son described it — a notion belied by his warm, amiable personality. “He’s mellowed, but he made sure his teams worked hard,” Patrick Dennehy says. “Playing soccer for him, we rarely touched a ball. We weren’t the greatest skilled team, but come the second half and the other team was wearing down, we were still running.” Dennehy’s Big Red teams won plenty, too, and scores of his players would go on to play in college. A few hockey players cracked pro rosters, and baseball’s Sam Fuld ’00 spent parts of eight seasons in the major leagues. The coach remembers details of every team, of every season, but he avoids singling out one team or player over another. “I’ve always steered away from All in the family (left to right): Collin that,” he says. “There have been so took over boys hockey duties when Shapiro ’17, Bill Dennehy, Sean many great kids, kids who have gone on mentor George Crowe moved on to Dennehy, Patrick Dennehy ’92, to great things, but if I started naming Dartmouth College in 1975. and Greg Shapiro ’17. them, I’d miss some of my favorites. Dennehy coached the three “I’ve had some great teams, some teams that won sports, served as a dorm adviser (“my fourth team”) championships, but I wouldn’t put those teams above and taught phys ed to preps (“my fifth team”) for most teams that struggled. Those kids never gave up or gave of three decades. He eventually left the boys soccer any quarter. That’s just as special to me.” program to help with the girls teams, and yielded head Most special, Dennehy says of his long tenure at hockey coaching duties to serve as Dana Barbin’s assisExeter, was watching daughter Tracy Dennehy Shapiro tant beginning in the late ’90s, but Dennehy remained ’90 and then son Patrick graduate from the school. omnipresent in Big Red until coaching his final baseball Father and son recounted a conversation the two had game in 2013. on the latter’s graduation day in 1992. Even in retirement, he has stayed at Barbin’s side “He said to me, ‘Dad, I really respect what you’re on the boys hockey bench, helping guide the team to a doing. But I don’t ever want to do what you do,’ ” the 23-win season this winter. His grandsons played leading elder Dennehy recalled. roles for the Big Red. Five years later, after Patrick finished a college hockey “They’re really the reason I stayed around,” Dennehy career at St. Lawrence University and was coaching and says of coaching Collin and Greg. He would meet the teaching at Holderness School, he would call his father boys at The Grill in the mornings during their prep year to pick his brain for pointers. His father reminded him of and enjoy the teenagers’ give-and-take with their friends. that conversation. “It’s been pretty special to me, being able to watch them “He called me out!” Patrick says, laughing. “I was grow up.” hoping he’d forgotten.” Dennehy credits changing sports with the seasons Now two decades into his own high school coaching for his longevity. The turning of the page made for fresh career, Patrick Dennehy is regularly reminded of the starts and fended off burnout, he says. And his players legacy his father will leave at Exeter. were a constant elixir. “People still ask me, ‘Are you Bill Dennehy’s son?’ And “I remember when I was just a kid, all his players were I’m like, ‘Yes, yes I am.’ always in our apartment,” Patrick Dennehy says. “They “He’s left a mark.” E would always be around, playing with me, throwing a He’s been watching them at Exeter in one role or another since that fall of ’71, when he moved into an office at the end of the hall in a new athletic facility that would eventually be dedicated as Love Gym. He was a baseball guy — a one-time slugger at Springfield — and a trainer when he arrived, but he “nestled his way in” to the Physical Education Department. He also coached the boys soccer team and
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WINTER SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS BOYS VARSITY INDOOR TRACK & FIELD RECORD: 0-1
Head Coach: Hilary Coder Assistant Coaches: Toyin Ikwuakor, Brandon Newbould Captain: Marvin Bennett ’17 MVP: Marvin Bennett
GIRLS VARSITY HOCKEY RECORD: 9-15-2
Head Coach: Melissa Pacific Assistant Coaches: Lee Young ’82, Tim Quint Captains: Brittani Chapman ’17, Sydnee Goyer ’17, Bonnie LaBonte ’17 MVP: Lydia Anderson ’19
BOYS VARSITY WRESTLING RECORD: 12-3 NEW ENGLAND PREP CHAMPIONS, NEPSAC CLASS A CHAMPIONS
Head Coach: David Hudson Assistant Coaches: Bob Brown, Ted Davis Captains: Quinn Abrams ’17, AJ Pedro ’17, Joey Rossetti ’17 MVP: AJ Pedro
BOYS VARSITY BASKETBALL RECORD: 14-8 NEPSAC CLASS A CHAMPIONS
Head Coach: Jay Tilton Assistant Coaches: Rick Brault, Bill O’Malley Captains: Mitchell Kirsch ’17, Ben Swett ’17 MVP: Mitchell Kirsch
GIRLS VARSITY SQUASH RECORD: 10-8
BOYS VARSITY SWIMMING & DIVING RECORD: 5-3
Head Coach: Fred Brussel Assistant Coach: Bruce Shang Captains: Yun Min Serena Cho ’17, Ji Won Sung ’17 MVP: Yun Min Serena Cho ’17
Head Coach: Don Mills Assistant Coach: Avery Reavill ’12 Captains: Joel Lotzkar ’17, Liam Oakley ’17 MVP: Joel Lotzkar
BOYS VARSITY SQUASH RECORD: 5-11
GIRLS VARSITY INDOOR TRACK & FIELD RECORD: 0-1
Head Coach: Fred Brussel Assistant Coach: Bruce Shang Captains: Myles Haigney ’17, Darius Kahan ’17 MVP: Stuart Rucker ’18
Head Coach: Hilary Coder Assistant Coaches: Toyin Ikwuakor, Brandon Newbould Captain: Gwendolyn Wallace ’17 MVP: Margaret Hock ’19
GIRLS VARSITY SWIMMING & DIVING RECORD: 5-3
Head Coach: Jean Farnum Assistant Coaches: Chelsea Davidson, Caroline Meliones Captains: Catherine Huang ’17, Emily LaRovere ’17 MVP: Emily LaRovere
BOYS VARSITY HOCKEY RECORD: 23-7-1
Head Coach: Dana Barbin Assistant Coaches: Bill Dennehy, Mark Evans, Tim Mitropoulos ’10 Captains: Bradley Ingersoll ’17, Graham Rutledge ’17, Collin Shapiro ’17 MVPs: Bradley Ingersoll, Kyle Jadatz ’18
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PHOTO CREDITS CHRISTIAN HARRISON: GIRLS BASKETBALL , G I R L S S Q U A S H . D I A N A D AV I D S O N : B O Y S B A S K E T B A L L , B OYS S W I M M I N G, G I R L S S W I M M I N G, B OYS T R AC K , G I R L S T R AC K , B O Y S H O C K E Y, G I R L S H O C K E Y. R AC H E L LU O: W R E ST L I N G
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GIRLS VARSITY BASKETBALL RECORD: 3-17
Head Coach: Ron Kim Assistant Coaches: Ellen Gunst, Susan Repko Captains: Maya Blake ’17, Bella Edo ’17, Ella Johnson ’18 MVP: Maya Blake
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HOW STUDENTS USE S O C I A L M E D I A AT E X E T E R By Melanie Nelson Photographs by Cheryl Senter
Send your thoughts about social media at Exeter to bulletin@exeter.edu.
Follow /phillipsexeter on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
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ccording to the website Small Business Trends, social media, as we have come to know it, was first introduced in 1997 by way of a site called Six Degrees, where users could create personal profiles and connect with one another. Soon thereafter, in 1999, web logs, or “blogs,” were born, and the whole concept mushroomed. MySpace, a social networking site, arrived in 2003. Two years later, in 2005, came the video-sharing site YouTube. Then, in 2006, Facebook — first launched at Harvard in 2004 by Exonian Mark Zuckerberg ’02 — became available to the general public. Since that time, social media and social networking
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have completely transformed the way we interact with the world and with one another. The movement has revolutionized existing businesses and sparked wildly successful new ones. It has permeated education, cultural organizations, politics, sports and romance. Some researchers posit that it is even changing the way we think. While many, many examples exist of ways in which social media can be problematic, even harmful —cyberbullying, the sexual objectification of girls and women, internet stalking — there have undoubtedly been positive influences and benefits to society. Creative startups can compete for seed money through crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research is moving forward thanks to 2014’s Ice Bucket Challenge, a viral fundraising campaign. And the proliferation of online affinity groups has meant that like-minded people can easily find each other, meet, and sometimes start social and political revolutions. In order to better understand how Exonians interact with social media, as well as the implications for our community, the Bulletin recently sat down with a small cross section of Academy students, as well as alumna Nancy Jo Sales ’82, the Vanity Fair reporter whose most recent book, American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers, was published in 2016. The Bulletin is grateful to the four students who shared their stories with us, and acknowledges that both time and magazine space preclude offering a broader survey in narrative form. Moreover, while the picture painted in this feature suggests that Exonians are, on the whole, using social media for good, there have been disciplinary cases involving students who have made poor choices, some of which have resulted in withdrawal.
DIGITAL DICHOTOMIES
“It’s funny, but in terms of social media, when I came here, it felt like being back in seventh grade,” recalls Emily Robb of her first weeks at the Academy. For Robb, a three-year senior who grew up in Brentwood, California, and first learned about Exeter at her sleepaway camp in Interlochen, Michigan, the difference in the way friends at home were employing, and occasionally exploiting, social media compared to how her fellow Exonians engaged with it was stark. “Back home I have friends who have 70,000 followers on Instagram, and their accounts
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Emily Robb 1h It’s funny, but in terms of social media, when I came here, it felt like being back in #seventhgrade.
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Autumn Herness 3h Almost every student here has Facebook, and Facebook at Exeter is almost exclusively focused on #campuslife.
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Rylan Tuttle 3h It’s kind of like an anonymous Harkness discussion, but when you lose the face-toface aspect, it sometimes #devolves.
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are literally highlight reels of their lives. At Exeter, it’s different; there’s more of an innocence to [social media],” she explains. Why the disparity? “I feel like it could be an East Coast/West Coast ... thing,” she offers. Geography aside, Exeter, says Robb, has its own unique culture when it comes to social media, often specific to class years. As an example, she cites the class of 2017 and Facebook. “We started as preps with Facebook,” she says, “and everyone in my grade has Facebook, but I believe we are the cutoff point. Very few preps have FB.” For younger grades, she adds, Instagram and Snapchat are de rigueur. Exeter’s infamous workload, Robb says, also shapes students’ interactions with social media. “We are a bit busy, and so there’s less time, and fewer opportunities, for sharing photos and details of our lives.” However, that doesn’t mean Exonians aren’t on social media. “Many of us are multitaskers,” she explains, “which means that we will be checking our phones while studying — but that can sometimes feel like doing everything and nothing all at once.” What about conduct? Do the principles of non sibi apply to Exeter’s often unfettered social media outlets? “For the most part, yes,” Robb says. “A lot of students use social media to say ‘Happy Birthday’ or send compliments. Many of us also use it to stay in touch with friends who graduate; it’s nice seeing what people are doing after Exeter.” Yet even at a school where “goodness and knowledge” are deeply embedded values and influence the mindset and comportment of students, Exonians occasionally make bad choices. “I have seen and heard of instances where students are nasty to other
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students,” Robb says. “I think where Exeter is different, though, is that the students here are too smart to be obvious.”
OF FACEBOOK AND FINSTAS
Autumn Herness, a three-year senior from Wausaukee, Wisconsin — population 578 — never would have known about Exeter were it not for the internet. “No one from the Midwest goes to boarding school,” she explains, “especially not the rural Midwest. Growing up, I thought boarding schools only existed in movies and in Harry Potter.” In fact, the entire concept was initially so nebulous to Herness that she turned to an online search engine for clarity. “I Googled the question: ‘Do boarding schools exist?’ ” she recalls. “When I learned that they did, my next question was, ‘What is the best boarding school in America?’ and Exeter popped up.” Herness agrees that Exeter is a Facebook-centric school, at least for the moment. “Almost every student here has Facebook,” she says, “and Facebook at Exeter is almost exclusively focused on campus life. Every class has its own Facebook page. We use it for announcements and logistics — like to advertise a dance or a club meeting, or to figure out who is teaching a class in a certain term.” A co-captain of the varsity girls water polo team, Herness adds, “Most Academy sports teams also have a Facebook page or a group chat.” Facebook group chats, whereby one can select a specific set of people with whom to privately communicate, are also handy, Herness says, for academic classes. “Three out of four of my math classes have had group chats,” she explains. “Someone might say, ‘Let’s study for a test at 7 in the library.’ Sometimes we even figure out, through a group chat discussion, that a teacher has made a mistake. Chats are very student-driven and just convenient.” While Facebook appears to be the go-to social media outlet of choice, at least for older students, many Exonians, Herness says, are also fond of Instagram. “Lots of students have Instagram. Normal Instagram is where people post their best photos, and there is a whole politics to it,” she says, referring to the process of selecting the most flattering images to display. “It’s like a culture within our culture.” Other students, Herness explains, have fake Instagram accounts, known vernacularly as “Finstas.” At Exeter, she contends, Finstas are a kind of public diary, reserved only for the closest of friends. “It’s where you post if you are having a bad day.” Even dating at the Academy is not without its own unofficial social media rules and hierarchies. “If you were going after someone romantically,” Herness explains, “you wouldn’t text them, because texting implies that you know them well. For people you don’t know well, you’d use Snapchat, and Facebook Messenger is somewhere in between.” She adds that Tinder, a dating app in which users swipe right on other users’ photos to indicate interest, is used at the Academy, but not for dating. Because the minimum user age for Tinder was recently adjusted to 18, older students mainly
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use it, Herness says, “for goofing around, looking at people’s bios, or to establish friendships.” At least for now, face-to-face communication appears to trump social media when it comes to Exeter romances. Says Herness, “Most people just get a friend to set them up.”
ALL ABOARD
Three-year upper Greg Miller grew up in Coral Springs, Florida, just outside Fort Lauderdale. The son of a single father who sometimes took him along to work, Miller says he first heard about Exeter from Kwame Osseo-Asare ’01, who worked at the same company as his dad. “I got to know Kwame, and he told me, ‘You Greg Miller 2h gotta check [Exeter] out,’ so I went online and Exonians love to take a serious idea or image spent hours on the website.” and make it funny by creating a meme. It’s Miller, who uses both Facebook and intellectualism meets let’s make a joke Instagram, agrees that Facebook is most often #outofeverything. used by Academy students for Exeter-specific 18 9 14 36 purposes — e.g., to message a classmate for homework, or for scrolling through photos Emily Robb 3h from a class event. For at least the past couMany of us are multitaskers ... but that can ple of years, Miller explains, it has also served sometimes feel like doing everything and as a platform where, first via a page known as nothing #allatonce. “Exeter Confesses” and now as a page named “Bus Ride,” students can make anonymous 22 6 10 22 posts about anything from politics to sex. Overseen by an unknown student moderator Rylan Tuttle 4h who goes by the pseudonym of “John Smith,” We are pretty good at standing up for each Bus Ride is a closed group (meaning posts other and coming to each other’s #rescue. can be seen only by those in the group) that, according to both Miller and Herness, peaked in popularity in the spring of 2016. “When the 17 5 17 31
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fire burned bright, everyone was on it,” Miller says. “There would be 10 new posts and a slew of comments every 20 minutes.” Now more subdued, Bus Ride 85 24 38 40 has 1,023 members who are mainly current Exonians or young alumni. Like most social media at Exeter, Autumn Herness 2h it appears to be fairly successfully Normal Instagram is where people post there self-regulated and mostly civil, best photos, and there is a whole politics to it. though there are exceptions. Miller #selfie says tempers sometimes flare over 10 4 10 30 controversial current events, but that more politically conservative Greg Miller 2h students have found it to be a kind When the fire burned bright, everyone was in of refuge on a campus that tends it. There would be 10 new posts and a slew of to be “very liberal.” While he has comments #every20minutes. rarely observed fellow students making rude or hurtful comments, 20 9 12 22 it is not unheard of. As an example, he cites a recent mock post by a girl who said she was going to have to withdraw from the Academy because of dysania (the inability to get out of bed in the morning) and a runny nose. “She was basically equating the mild inconveniences Exonians occasionally experience with some students’ legitimate mental health conditions, which sometimes lead to their withdrawal from school. Her post exhibited a real lack of empathy ... she got maimed in the comments section.” The tendency to derogate, while not exclusive to the Academy, is, Miller suggests, a pillar of Exeter’s “meme culture.” He explains: “Exonians love to take a serious idea or image and make it funny by creating a meme. It’s intellectualism meets ‘Let’s make a joke out of everything.’”
Nancy Jo Sales ’82 1h I have seen kids in the same room, or on the same couch, texting each other, while their faces are only #inchesapart.
SOCIAL SALVES AND STANDING UP
Rylan Tuttle is a day student from Nottingham, New Hampshire. Despite growing up 25 minutes from Exeter, he didn’t learn about the Academy until middle school, when a friend who attended the Unitarian Universalist Church on Elm Street mentioned it to him. Now in his upper year, he is as deeply immersed in the community as any of his peers. He is also one of a small number of Exonians who do not have a Facebook account. “I use Instagram and Snapchat, and after that, email,” Tuttle says, “but I do not have a Facebook account. I may at some point, for alumni connections after I graduate.” Like Emily Robb, Tuttle wonders if Facebook is waning in popularity. “I feel
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like it is leaving [the Exeter community] a little,” he says. “I think it is maybe being taken over by the older generation.” While Tuttle himself doesn’t partake of Facebook, he understands why it has been and continues to be a popular vehicle for many Exonians. “I know kids who have a group chat on Facebook for every class they are in,” he says. “That can be helpful for getting assignments, and for taking the pressure off socially for kids who wonder, ‘Who is my friend in the class?’ A lot of class group chats continue after the term ends. There is one from a winter term Spanish class from last year that is still active.” Tuttle, like fellow upper Greg Miller, is familiar with Bus Ride, and with its offshoot, Bus Ride Compliments, another Exeterspecific closed Facebook page where students can leave compliments for one another. He confirms that politics is a popular topic on the former, and adds that tensions on Bus Ride ran high during the November 2016 elections. Race and gender are other reoccurring themes that can be lightning rods for Bus Riders, but, Tuttle says, agitations ebb and flow: “It’s kind of like an anonymous Harkness discussion, but when you lose the face-to-face aspect, it sometimes devolves.” “My overall experience with social media since I have come here has been positive,” Tuttle summarizes. “The bystander effect is not nonexistent — it’s definitely here — but it is not super present, either. As students and friends who live and learn together, we are pretty good at standing up for each other and coming to each other’s rescue if need be.”
SCHOOLED IN SCANDAL
Nancy Jo Sales ’82 attended Exeter before computers were commonplace, let alone smartphones, yet the Vanity Fair reporter and author has spent much of the past five years talking to American teenagers about how they use social media, and how it is impacting their lives. Her findings, published in the 2016 book American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers, are enough to make most parents hyperventilate, particularly when she cites statistics on, say, sexting (text messages, including words or images, that are meant to titillate or arouse). “Studies indicate that 40 percent or more of American teenagers are sexting,” she says. Such data, while troubling, is somewhat less distressing to Sales than the potential long-term implications for human development and human relationships of constant social media use. “Misuse or abuse of social media is pandemic,” she states, “and it is replacing face-to-face communication. There are all kinds of reasons to be concerned about this, especially when you consider that only 7 percent of face-to-face communication is verbal. Much more of it is about body language, vocal tones and cues, even smells. I have seen kids in the same room, or on the same couch, texting with each other, while their faces are only inches apart. I fear that we are losing our ability to experience life in real time and as real people. If the first thing you are doing with someone you are romantically interested in is sending nude pictures of yourself, rather than taking a walk together or meeting for coffee, how will you ever be able to have a healthy relationship based on emotional intimacy?” Equally unnerving for Sales is the way our society is becoming (Continued on page 94)
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P E A F A C U LT Y A N D A B O S T O N B A S E D PA I N T E R E X P LO R E SENSORY PERCEPTION A N D M E A N I N G AT L A M O N T GA L L E RY By Nicole Pellaton Photographs by Cheryl Senter
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t all started with an email from English Instructor Todd Hearon to Lamont Gallery Director and Curator Lauren O’Neal: Would she consider showing paintings by Deborah Barlow, whose work appears on the cover of Hearon’s No Other Gods, and hosting a reading of poems from the book? This germ of an idea quickly drew the interest of Jung Mi Lee and Jon Sakata, both concert pianists, transdisciplinary artists and adjunct music faculty. After a visit to Barlow’s studio, where the PEA faculty perceived tremendous synergies between their work and Barlow’s abstract, scale-defying paintings, a collaboration of multidisciplinary artists and gallery director was born. Over the next 18 months the initial idea expanded dramatically, fueled by what Hearon calls the “formidable imaginations” of the five collaborators, and they settled on a conceptual framework for an exhibition: the intermingling of text, sound and visual materials; an “amazement of navigation” to encourage discovery and confusion; and promoting sensory perception over analytical “understanding.” “Clew: A Rich and Rewarding Disorientation” opened on January 20 as an immersive, multisensory experience. Like its eponym — “clew” traces back to the ball of thread
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Play to Learn
Ariadne gave Theseus to guide him out of the labyrinth, and also refers to part of a ship’s sail and hammock rigging — the exhibition encourages exploration and risk-taking. A futon on the floor invites you to lie down and look up at a painting suspended at a rakish tilt from the ceiling. A soundscape deconstructs the human voice. Mirrors reflect visitors and hidden fragments of text. Trays of salt and crystals provoke impromptu drawing. Magnifying glasses and flashlights virtually mandate up-close inspection. Videos play throughout the gallery. And nowhere do you find traditional signs explaining the art. Some visitors assess the space warily. Others engage without hesitation. One woman spontaneously performs a shadow play with her hands, using a reading lamp as light and a painting as backdrop. Children cavort, making their own marks in the salt trays, rearranging mirrors and leaving drawings on the wall for others to enjoy. Meditation groups come to feel the energy and slow down. Below are edited excerpts from conversations with the artists that took place at the exhibit.
Q: Can you describe your collaborative partnership? Deborah Barlow: From the beginning, I felt that we
were speaking a visual language. And a word language and a sound language that I didn’t even know I knew how to speak. I don’t know what I could do next that could feel this authentic. Jon Sakata: We’re very responsive to each other — whether we were exploring texts or visual experiences, sonic experiences, tactile experiences. Collaboration means something very different than “I’m from a certain discipline” — that’s what makes this transdisciplinary rather than interdisciplinary. We return to our arts very different creatures. We listen differently, we imagine differently, we verbalize differently and we feel differently because of the work. Q: I love your use of the word “transdisciplinary.” Could you expand on this? JS: The transdisciplinary approach is already active in
the students. It comes from interacting and co-producing with students in their creative work. In some ways this is a kind of, I don’t want to say an amplification because it’s not, it’s more of a … Todd Hearon: It’s not as much an extension but it’s more of an analog to what’s already happening with the
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Lauren O’Neal transformed the gallery space into a series of thresholds that beckon visitors.
students, is that what you’re saying? I totally agree. The energy that happens among the student body, that’s where I always go when I want to be really surprised with quality and inspiring innovative collaboration. They are always doing that, it seems. “Clew” could be seen as an echo of that. Jung Mi Lee: Something like this is an invitation, not just for grown-ups but for students as well. Lauren O’Neal: I agree. It opens up what collaboration can look like for the adults in the community and how that can be extended to collaboration with students. JS: There’s something also about the duration. I think of the collaborative work Jung Mi and I have done with architects that has been going on for years, and our projects just keep on growing. That’s something I would love to see have more nourishment here in the context of the students, and students with adults collaborating together, and adults with each other. TH: The central ethos of this place is collaborative. This exhibit is very much in the spirit of what we bring when we bring our best selves to the Harkness table and to the conversation. Because Harkness does not work if I am so invested in my own viewpoint that I can’t make it open up and absorb and conform with other perspectives. If I’m too invested in my own — that’s not collaboration, that’s juxtaposition. Q: The spirit of play is strong in “Clew.” How did you envisage play when you were developing the exhibition?
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TH: We wanted to provide an experience that was very different from conventional art exhibits. Don’t touch! Don’t get too close! JS: It’s sort of like water — play is everywhere. JML: Play is taking place at all levels. You change the formation of mirrors or do something with water or whatever. But as you’re walking in, mentally the play is already starting. LO: I think of play as having components of being open and also being willing to be in a space that’s not known, allowing for the introduction of imagination and narrative. Every single person negotiates this space in a different way. I wouldn’t always call it playful. Sometimes visitors are physically uncertain and tentative. And you see them touch things, and then they open up. JS: Each visitor is actually part of the performative action of the exhibition. JML: The reinventing of oneself. JS: The dismantling of oneself. TH: We’re accustomed to think of play as something inconsequential and ephemeral, not worth serious consideration. But I think play is the condition out of which art springs. JS: And aspires to. TH: And a willingness to be open to possibility and spontaneity and improvisation. Not being fixated on a destination but simply immersed in a process of seeing what bubbles up and what connects and what diverges.
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Todd Hearon shows how visitors can read his poem with a magnifying glass.
JS: Going back to your question of transdisciplinary — we’re not defined by our discipline. We’re interplaying with our perceptions of each other’s work and each other’s offerings and concepts. And failures. There’s a constant shift going on. And unless each of us were open and receptive and enjoying and playing, it wouldn’t work so well. Q: Could you describe the soundscape that plays in the gallery? JS: Ninety percent of the sounds you hear are Todd’s
voice based on a recitation [of a poem by Hearon] that we recorded in the WPEA radio station. But then his voice has been digitally manipulated so you wouldn’t even
About the Artists Deborah Barlow is a Boston-based painter who has exhibited in more than 50 solo exhibitions throughout the U.S., Canada, Belgium, Italy, the U.K. and Ireland. She documented the development of “Clew” on her blog, slowmuse.com. Todd Hearon is the author of two books of poetry, a devotee of the theater (as playwright, director and performer) and a musician. Jung Mi Lee and Jon Sakata perform internationally as concert pianists. Since 2009, the wife-and-husband team has collaborated with architects in the U.S. and Europe, exploring intersections between music and architecture in site-specific installations. Lauren O’Neal is a curator, artist, author and teacher. See the story online for web extras, including more images from “Clew” and artists’ biographies: www.exeter.edu/clew.
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recognize it’s his voice any more. It’s been liquefied, rubbled. It’s been spun, made astral. DB: Perfect words to describe so much of what I think is happening here: the fragmenting, that sense of breaking apart and reconnecting. JS: And reconfiguring. Early on we discussed the idea that language is often a scaffolding that we use to be able to find comfort. We wanted to at least propose the idea that the only real vestige of language is Todd’s text. And that’s only going to exist in its total form in the gallery antechamber. JML: And you can’t even read it that comfortably. JS: It’s been reduced so that you have to use a magnifying glass. The whole thing with the text being very small, playing on the idea of scale. We wanted to do that with everything — it’s problematizing surface and scale. DB: And knowing. This is an invitation into nonlinear, non-knowing. There’s not a way through here, there’s not a path, there’s not a narrative that holds this in the traditional way. The way language is used in a visual setting is often so disarming for visual artists because it takes people into their minds as opposed to just letting the body experience. I want to understand this painting; this text next to it is going to explain what the artist was trying to do, so I can feel safe. We want to completely dismantle that. I see us as relishing in the rule breaking. LO: This relates to courses like the epistemology class — the idea of what is knowledge and what is knowing. In this show there’s text everywhere, but it’s not going to explain what we’re looking at. Q: You focus on disorientation as a way to broaden perception and experience. How have people reacted? JS: It’s about trying to create a condition that is desta-
bilizing. The more you destabilize yourself, the more there is to discover, to be rewarded by. As Lauren’s beautiful title implies, the disorientation is the payoff. TH: The terms of disorientation, of making strange but in a good way — I think that art wants to make strange. Some artists would say the artist is paying you — the viewer, the participant — the highest respect by making it not facile. JS: I just brought my end-of-term studio class. One prep felt very uncomfortable. “How am I supposed to look at this?” As if someone else was going to jump in to tell her. She deposited herself and settled into her own imaginative radar — which is immense. And then she was
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Jung Mi Lee, left, and Jon Sakata created a soundscape, videos and scrim work for “Clew.”
free. Going from being almost imprisoned in “What am I supposed to do?” to becoming completely free to look however she wanted to look, that says a lot. JML: I entered the gallery with one of my students between the loops of video, when there is a brief moment of silence. She was experiencing the visual stimulation, observing. Then the music came on, and she said, “I can’t look anywhere for a few minutes. I can feel all my nerve endings being activated.” I could see it in her physical appearance. “I need to get out of here.” When she came back the music was going. She said, “You know, the things that I looked at when there was no sound, I look at them very differently.” JS: I don’t know if we actually talked about it as a group, but I know I thought about it — that no age has an advantage or disadvantage. When I’ve had conversations with students in particular about this, that was really galvanizing. Their perception is that when they go to a museum it’s already weighted against them because they’re young in experience and the adults have an advantage of perception, experience, history, whatever. This is exactly what we want to undercut. TH: It’s funny that the art museum would rely on the assumption that the inexperienced or ignorant are at a disadvantage because no artist would think that. The artist loves amateurism. JML: I totally agree. When we play contemporary music, most of the time people say, “I don’t understand it.” I understand what they’re saying — this is not like Mozart or things that they think they know. But it’s not about understanding, it’s about experiencing new energies from a piece of music. LO: We haven’t had too many people saying, “I don’t
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understand.” They’ve embodied that, but it’s less of a not understanding and more discomfort because they aren’t engaging through their senses. I’ve seen people kind of physically recoil. But the people who then, like your student, come back do start to attend in different ways, depending on the sound and the light. With one group, the visitors selected something to look at really intensely and slowly, and came up with their own perceptions. They all had beautiful things to say that were right on. If you had started with “this is what it’s about,” they never would have gotten to that level of nuance and complexity. Q: Has “Clew” affected your teaching? JS: For this show and all the work we do in music or
outside of music, that is a kind of criteria for how successful or not the project has been — has it changed me or changed us? Inevitably, I think that’s what has happened. The valves of perception have gotten more attuned to new things. What’s great about bringing our students here is that it’s happening with them, too. We can now have this very different kind of dialog because we have this shared experience of mutation. We co-produce together in our studies of music, we co-experience, and then I think co-mutation can happen. Being able to have a conversation about that is really vital. LO: This show has had a lot of individual teacher and student connections. But this is still Harkness. There’s this building of a conversation that sort of changes, ebbs and flows. Instead of being stationary, it’s walking, so there’s an element of journey — the journey that unfolds in the gallery as one of you is walking through with a student, or students walking through with each other. These conversations are like Harkness but spatially different. E
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The
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By Genny Beckman Moriarty Photographs by Christian Harrison
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pper Maria Heeter’s clear voice climbs high above the
Katrina Schmitt ’19
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audience, echoing off the ceiling above the Main Stage in Fisher Theater: “Know you are the type of woman / who is searching for a place to call yours. / Let the statues crumble. / You have always been the place. / You are a woman who could build it yourself. / You are born to build.” As she recites the lines from Sarah Kay’s poem “The Type,” the spotlight shifts to stage right, revealing a group of dancers clad in black. They begin to move with purpose and precision across the stage — reflecting the words from the poem in their movements, forming a response to them, and delivering a message of empowerment and self-confidence — while the spotlight moves back and forth between reader and dancers. Their performance piece was part of an interdisciplinary educational Winter Dance Concert centered on empowering women. The theme for the concert, which was driven by the interests of the students and Dance Department faculty, aligned with the goals of One Billion Rising, a worldwide campaign launched in 2012 by V-Day, a global organization that seeks to harness the joyful, transformative and potentially galvanizing powers of the arts to raise awareness about — and help put an end to — violence against women and girls. (The OBR name has its origins in a startling United Nations statistic: “On average, at least one in three women is beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused by an intimate partner in the course of a lifetime.” Given a world population of 7 billion, that works out to nearly 1 billion women and girls whose lives will be touched by violence.) For the second year in a row, Sarah Duclos, a former instructor and interim director of dance at the Academy, organized more than 80
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of
Dance Michael Garcia ’18 professional and student dancers from across the region for a One Billion Rising fundraising dance event at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire — with all of the proceeds going to benefit Haven, a local organization that provides crisis counseling, courtroom advocacy and safe shelter to victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence in the Seacoast area and educates nearly 10,000 local students through violence-prevention programming each year. Committed to using the arts to help students engage with important social issues, Director of Dance Allison Duke says she and her colleague Amberlee Darling were eager to have their students participate in this year’s OBR event when the opportunity arose. “We welcomed the chance to have the students connect with members of the community beyond campus over issues many of them cared deeply about.” Wanting to enrich the dancers’ experience and raise awareness within the school community as well, the department planned the complementary Winter Dance Concert — reaching out to the deans and student advocacy group such as Exonians Against Sexual Assault and the Fem Club during the planning process and inviting students to choreograph dances around relevant themes.
“...feelings are the compelling force that advance any cause.”
STUDENT CHOREOGRAPHERS: LEARNING THE ROPES
Heeter, whose voice alternately embraced and challenged the audience in Fisher Theater, became involved in the Winter Dance Concert at the invitation of her friend Elianne Lee ’18, a co-captain of Dance Company; the two had taken the Poetry Stage elective together the previous year, and Lee suggested they collaborate on a poem set to movement. Heeter chose Kay’s poem for its flowing rhythms. “It doesn’t seem
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to have a real breaking point or end point,” she says, “and I thought that would be cool to dance to.” In addition to Heeter’s piece, for which accompanying dancers choreographed their own movements, there were two other student-choreographed dances at the concert, along with video screenings, vocal performances by two of Exeter’s a cappella groups, and three dances designed by members of the department. A nondancer, Heeter was surprised by the amount of work that went into the performances and moved by the way all of the genres came together at the concert. She admires the way artists make the political feel more personal by engaging the audience on the level of feelings rather than intellect. “People sometimes get tired of hearing the same ideas being pushed into a political argument,” she says. “But even if you have a hard time understanding arguments online, no matter who you are, you can still understand or hear the emotion behind a poem or dance or song.” In designing their dance, “Side by Side,” good friends Emma
“No matter who you are, you can still understand or hear the emotion behind a poem or dance or song.” Ibbotson ’17 and Carolyn Girard ’18 wanted their audience to feel inspired by a sense of possibility, not discouraged by dismal statistics. Interested in the idea that having the support of others can instill greater confidence and independence in individuals, the pair chose an upbeat song and choreographed a high-energy piece with a lot of jumps and turns, selecting movements that would highlight “the joys of working together as well as working alone,” as they wrote in their choreographer’s notes. “We really wanted the partner interaction,” Girard says. “We don’t really stop moving, and a lot of our movement involves doing things [together] and going off on our own.” Student choreographers go through a formal application process at Exeter, submitting their ideas for music, costumes and lighting to their instructors, who help to shape the concepts, monitor progress, and make themselves available to offer suggestions throughout the process. But once the ideas take shape, the young choreographers enjoy a fair amount of artistic freedom. “We might ask ‘Would you consider different music?’ ” Darling says. “But after that, [it’s] in their hands to create.” Katrina Schmitt ’19 has been dancing competitively since she was 10, but she had never choreographed her own work until she came to the Academy. She is grateful for the opportunity to design her own dances, and she can see herself making a career out of it. “I love dancing, but I know
Carolyn Girard ’18
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that performing dance is a very short career,” she says. “You don’t age out of choreography.” Schmitt, who participated in the Women’s March for America in Boston in January, believes dance is a great outlet for speaking out about women’s rights and social justice. Passionate about both, she spent most of her available free time last term designing a dance for the Winter Concert. The Theater and Dance Department is working toward making it possible to offer course credit to student choreographers, many of whom, like Schmitt, put in long hours outside of the formal dance curriculum. For her piece, “I Will Be,” performed to Florence and the Machine’s song by the same name, Schmitt was inspired by the power of solidarity. The piece opens with a row of dancers who are facing a solitary dancer in their center, her back turned away from the spectators. Wearing ethereal costumes that fade from white to gray, the chorus of dancers lead their single counterpart forward while echoing her movements and lending encouragement throughout the piece. The dance ends on a triumphant note: As her friends hold her aloft above their shoulders, they turn her to face the audience and she smiles, her arms confidently outstretched. Schmitt’s objective for the piece was to motivate members of the audience to find the courage to speak out. In her designer’s notes, she writes: “One person may not feel like they have the power to ignite change, but if everyone encourages each other to stand up for what they believe in, those who choose to remain silent can find their voice.”
DANCE ACTIVISM: EMBODYING FEELINGS, PROMPTING CHANGE
One of the benefits of participating in The Music Hall event was the opportunity for Exonians to interact with other members of the Seacoast community. During the first off-campus rehearsal in Portsmouth, a week ahead of a snowstorm that would postpone the concert until April, students immersed themselves in the New Hampshire dance scene, coming together with more than 80 professional and student dancers and choreographers of all genres and ages (“from tiny little girls with no dance experience to women upward of 50,” as one dancer put it). Before the practices began, each of the choreographers had a chance to talk about their pieces, providing a glimpse into their creative process and inspiration. Meghana Chalasani ’17, who joined Dance Company her lower year and now heads up Shakti, Exeter’s Bollywood dance club, enjoyed the sense of fellowship she found with the other (Continued on page 95)
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Meghana Chalasani ’17
“Arts are a means of expression that provide inspiration and induce solidarity.”
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“I’VE FOUND THAT EXETER PARENTS ARE AS ENGAGED, PHILANTHROPIC AND EAGER TO CONNECT ... AS ALUMNI.” 3 8 • T H E
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CONNECTIONS
News and notes from the alumni community
Full Circle By Laura Schwartz ’82; P’20
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ast fall, our son enrolled as a prep, and I now have a new lens
CHRISTIAN HARRISON AND DIEGO MELENDEZ
through which I can experience Exeter. He is making friends from around the globe, learning to find his voice at the table and broadening his outlook. He’s also having a lot of fun in the pool with his swimming teammates. It is a joy to watch and reminiscent of my own time here. I grew up just a short distance from Exeter, but when I came to campus for my prep fall in 1978, I stepped into a world different from anything I had ever known. My peers were diverse, the curriculum intense, and it was understood that we were to challenge ourselves, listen to others and always give back. No one told us this; it was just the Exeter way. As class president, I am now in the midst of planning, with my classmates, our 35th reunion in May. I treasure my friendships with my fellow ’82s — we stay in touch via social media and reunions, and we are a family. We support, challenge, heckle, satirize, advise and celebrate. Harkness learning encourages empathy, openness and candor, and I am forever grateful for the experience. Never in my life have I been immersed in such a rich environment as during my four years here, so I returned to Exeter recently to serve as director of parent giving in Institutional Advancement. I’ve found that Exeter parents are as engaged, philanthropic and eager to connect with one another, and with the Academy, as alumni. My team and I strive to enhance the Exeter parent experience, to communicate the priorities of the Academy, and to demonstrate how parent support makes a positive difference in the lives of all students. Now, as a member of the Academy’s Strategic Planning Steering Committee, I’m looking ahead to how we build upon the defining principles of goodness and knowledge. It’s an exciting time as we begin to unpack how essential the Exeter experience is to students, now and in the future, as they develop into active citizens and leaders in our global community. I can’t wait to see what Exeter, and its students, will be like at my 50th reunion. E
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Civic Activism By Debbie Kane
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n fall 2008, David Tsai ’93 held a sign on a San Francisco street and, despite nasty comments directed his way, urged passers-by to vote against Proposition 8, a California ballot measure opposing same-sex marriage. Tsai, who is Asian-American and gay, later worked a get-out-the-vote phone bank and was hung up on repeatedly. “I thought, ‘We might lose this,’ ” he says. He was right. The measure passed. “Many people thought that wouldn’t happen,” he says. The battle over Proposition 8 was just one skirmish in a larger fight for Tsai: to protect the civil rights of marginalized Americans and immigrants. Tsai, an intellectual property lawyer who has represented such business giants as Hulu, Amazon and Twitter, as well as many Asian companies, is a partner at Vinson & Elkins LLP in San Francisco and manages the firm’s Taiwan practice. Patent law is his avocation but civil rights and immigration law are his passions. Considered a pro bono expert by his peers — he’s won every immigration pro bono case he’s undertaken — he works on behalf of minorities, including LGBT individuals, people living with HIV, and AsianAmericans. In 2016, he was recognized by the California State Assembly and Senate for his civil rights work on behalf of Asian Pacific Islander immigration clients and support of API and LGBT youth. “Giving back is so important,” Tsai says. “I’m committed to helping my community. That’s what my clients expect and what helps motivate me every day.” The son of Taiwanese-Americans, Tsai lived in Michigan and Maryland before coming to Exeter. He credits the school for making him thoughtful and teaching him leadership. More important, after taking a class with English Instructor Christine Robinson, he embraced his sexual orientation. “She changed my life by assigning us literature to read about LGBT people,” Tsai says. “That’s when I realized, ‘This is me.’ ”
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Science was Tsai’s early passion. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Harvard and a master’s degree in biology from Stanford. “I loved teaching and I was set to pursue a Ph.D., but I got distracted by the dot-com boom,” he says. He took a leave of absence from his lab job (“My professor at Stanford told me I’d be back,” Tsai says) and got a job with a small startup. He never did return to the lab. Although successful in the startup arena, he had other plans. “My parents wanted me to go back to school and give back to the community in some way,” he says. During the process of coming out to friends and family, Tsai decided to go to law school. “It was so difficult being gay and a minority that I wanted to see what I could do for minority rights,” he says. Intending to study civil rights law at Santa Clara University, Tsai met the country’s top intellectual property professor, Donald Chisum, who, because of Tsai’s startup and technology experience, encouraged him to study patent law. Tsai now combines his personal and professional passions. As an intellectual property attorney, he represents numerous Taiwanese and Chinese companies (he’s fluent in spoken Taiwanese and Mandarin Chinese) and is active in California’s legal community. He’s won numerous awards for his pro bono work, which includes filing an amicus brief on behalf of Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom and dozens of other organizations in the federal court case that reversed Proposition 8. The president-elect of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area as well as a national board member of Lambda Legal, an organization that supports the rights of lesbians, gay men and people with HIV/AIDS, Tsai also mentors minority students. “My priority is helping children and the next generation feel comfortable and authentic about who they are, so they can be safe in whatever community they choose to live in,” he says. E
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Rethinking Retirement By Genny Beckman Moriarty
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He later worked as a consultant, performing quantitative analyses for clients in the business and real estate ago, and he never quite made his way home. Or worlds. “Eventually,” he says, “I became more interested rather, he made a new home, there in São Paulo. “I in the quantitative methods themselves.” That interest met my wife in 1997, and I’ve basically been here would alter his trajectory. When a colleague asked him since,” he says from his apartment on the last morning of to teach a course in statistics Carnaval. Fluent in Portuguese for researchers at UNIFESP, he and happily assimilated into jumped at the chance. Many of Brazilian culture, he has been a his students had studied statispermanent resident since 2001 tics but never quite grasped the — and in the midst of what concepts. “I tried to apply new many would consider their technologies and techniques to retirement years, Hunter has overcome their fear,” he says. found a new vocation as well. He began to offer a regular In 2014 after working in course at the university. business, real estate and urban About three years ago, planning for many years, Hunter Hunter got a call from a former enrolled in a doctoral program student. Her professor had to study infectious diseases at just had an article rejected and the Universidade Federal de São needed his statistics checked. Paulo (UNIFESP). He was 68. As It took Hunter three days to part of his studies, he provides Doctoral candidate Jim Hunter ’64 helps a work through the numbers and statistical and programming colleague analyze her research data at the provide graphs and statistical support to a team of researchers university in São Paulo, Brazil. results. His grateful client at the Retrovirology Laboratory invited Hunter to work on two more projects with him — of the Paulista School of Medicine, where they are searching including one that involved searching for a cure for AIDS. for a cure for HIV and its related illnesses. “We are reasonThe opportunity to work on groundbreaking HIV research ably sure we’ll find one,” he says. was thrilling, but he would have to complete his doctorate Brazil’s outstanding databases help put his team at if he wanted to join the team. The prospect continues to the forefront of AIDS research and allow Hunter, whose delight him. dissertation is largely about mutations, to conduct This septuagenarian is quick to admit, “It’s not really research without having to run new experiments. His worth the university’s money to make me a tenure-track team has been approached by other universities to work professor at the age of 70,” but he’s making himself on projects together. “Every case has been logged,” he explains. “We keep track of [patients’] cellular anomalies, useful. Microscopic in size — about 150 nanometers, or one billionth of a meter — HIV viruses require multievery medication. We have millions of test results, viral million-dollar microscopes to be seen. That’s where his samples and mutations. It’s all here.” Hunter finds the work, and the knowledge of its poten- expertise comes in handy: “We have to use statistical tools to find them.” Hunter also teaches the statistics tial benefits to society, incredibly rewarding. “I should course for infectious diseases and all the subdisciplines, have been doing this 30 years ago,” he says. Outlining such as virology and microbiology. “We’re going to design a memorable career, he clarifies, “I’ve had some really courses for other disciplines as well.” terrific experiences.” With a master’s degree in urban And he couldn’t be happier. “For the first time in many planning from Yale School of Architecture, he supported years, I love to go to work,” he says. “I’m so grateful that efforts to revitalize downtown Los Angeles and was my students, who are now my friends, got me into this. I involved in the redevelopment of Times Square — an feel I’ve found a calling that I didn’t have before.” E experience he calls the “highlight of my first 40 years.” im Hunter ’64 traveled to Brazil on business 20 years
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Aida Conroy ’09 FROM STUDENT TO HARKNE SS TEACHER By Melanie Nelson
COURTESY OF AIDA CONROY
Aida Conroy ’09 with her students at The Noble Academy in Chicago.
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n Aida Conroy’s bustling Chicago classroom hangs a bumper sticker that reads, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” Given to her in the spring of her senior year at Exeter by English Instructor Christine Robinson, the expression holds a kind of double meaning for Conroy ’09, serving both as a reminder of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which she read in Robinson’s iconic Art of Protest elective, and as inspiration for the critical work she is doing as a global civics instructor at The Noble Academy, the inner-city public charter school where she teaches. Conroy knows firsthand how education can change a life. Having attended Chicago public schools until middle school, when she transferred to one of the city’s gifted and talented centers, she met former Exeter Associate Director of Admissions Susan Herney ’69, ’74, ’83 (Hon.) at an independent secondary school fair. The two struck up a conversation, and Herney stayed in touch, eventually sending Conroy an Academy view book. “I remember thinking, ‘This looks like paradise,’ ” Conroy recalls. Exeter was the only school to which she applied. Arriving in the fall of 2005 on a full scholarship, Conroy found the Academy to be equal parts amazing — “There was lots of cereal in the dining hall and we got to learn all day” — and overwhelming — “I was really homesick and cried almost every night for the first year.” Caring faculty in Wheelwright helped to buoy her, as did making friends with fellow preps and upperclassmen. Getting the hang of Harkness was equally crucial: “I think the Harkness pedagogy really changes your perception of your own worth, because you realize you have things to teach others, and you begin to see others as teachers. That’s a really valuable way to view other human beings.”
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From Exeter, Conroy went on to attend Columbia University, where she double-majored in American Studies and Sustainable Development. Initially interested in pursuing law, she changed tack in her senior year after enrolling in Columbia’s famed Equity in Higher Education seminar with Professors Roger Lehecka and Andrew Delbanco. The course, Conroy says, helped her realize the extent to which education in America has become “a luxury … more a privilege than a right.” After her Columbia graduation, she signed on with Teach for America, working for two years with preschoolers. It was during this period, Conroy says, that she was invited to sit in on a Harkness-style class at Pritzker College Prep, one of 18 public charter schools in Chicago’s Noble Network. As luck would have it, Pritzker had begun collaborating with Exeter in 2007, when the Academy first started recruiting Summer School students from among its ranks. Conroy observed a group discussion of To Kill a Mockingbird. Leaving the classroom afterward, she burst into tears. “It was so wonderful to see something that I only associated with Exeter in a community like the one I grew up in,” she says. The experience solidified her plans to continue teaching, and she soon joined The Noble Academy, the newest school in the Noble Network. Currently in its third year, Noble Academy has grown to 350 students in grades 9 through 11, with plans to add 12th grade next academic year. Situated north of Cabrini-Green and west of Old Town, the school draws students from across Chicago, many from the city’s most troubled neighborhoods. They come to Noble seeking rigor and opportunity, and, thanks to a dynamic collaboration between Exeter and Noble’s instructors, to experience Harkness learning. “I believe we are one of the only public schools in the country that is currently deploying Harkness across all academic disciplines,” says Conroy, who is head of Harkness outreach and training at Noble. With anywhere from 26 to 33 students per classroom, compared with Exeter’s standard of 12, Conroy has had to modify Harkness to fit a larger audience. “One of the first exercises I do centers on listening,” she explains. “We start small, with groups of four students, and then gradually work our way up to groups of 12. We ‘Harkness’ — yes, Harkness is a verb at our school — between two and three times per week, and the students are now at a point where they want to engage in this way. It’s so encouraging to see them finding their own voices and supporting each other. Regardless of their challenges at home or in the city, they are still willing to come in and be vulnerable, which is what Harkness asks of them.” Results are not only tangible in the classroom, where Conroy daily witnesses her students learning with and from each other and becoming increasingly skilled at verbalizing ideas and opinions; test scores are also validating the Noble Network’s success with Harkness. Case in point: During the 2013-14 academic year, Pritzker College Prep introduced Harkness teaching to two of its freshman classes. When, later that same year, the two groups were administered the EXPLORE exam, the American College Testing Program’s college readiness test for eighth- and ninth- graders, 13 percent of the freshman students scored a perfect 25 on the reading portion of the exam, and 30 percent scored a near-perfect 24. Three-quarters of these freshmen scored 21 or higher; a “college ready” score is 22. Conroy’s Noble Academy Harkness learners are on track to attain or surpass these results. With an intense daily schedule — she routinely works from 6:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. during the week and at least 10 hours per weekend — one might think Conroy would be at risk for burning out on teaching. She is quick to disabuse the notion. “I think I have the best job in the whole world,” she says, “and Harkness is responsible for that.” E
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A MOVABLE PHILOSOPHY Besides being an ambassador for Harkness teaching in her hometown of Chicago, Aida Conroy ’09 is also a devoted Exeter alumna who returns to campus whenever the opportunity arises. In fact, for its sixth annual Thank-a-Donor Day program, held on February 14, the Academy welcomed Conroy as its featured assembly speaker. Inaugurated in 2012 as a way to educate the Exeter community about the impact donors have on Exeter’s current and long-term fiscal health, Thanka-Donor Day directly engages students in stewarding the contributions of alumni, parents and friends. In typically humble fashion, Conroy spoke briefly about her own path to Exeter and four years as a student before shifting the focus to her students at The Noble Academy, one of 18 public charter schools in Chicago’s Noble Network. Conroy shared the story of a pupil named Jeff, who travels over an hour each morning to Noble Academy from his North Lawndale neighborhood, where the average per capita household income is $12,548 and 19 percent of residents are unemployed. Before her visit to Exeter, she sat down with Jeff to ask him how he felt Noble’s Harkness approach had changed him. “I have learned how to think and learn,” he replied, adding that “Harkness is like a tug-of-war; we can push and pull against each other, but at the end, we drop the rope and shake hands.” To view Conroy’s standing-ovation-earning assembly talk, please visit www.exeter. edu/ConroyatExeter.
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FROM EVERY QUARTER E XO N I A N S M A K E C O N N E C T I O N S AT H O M E A N D A R O U N D T H E WO R L D Please note, all photos are identified left to right unless otherwise indicated.
NEW YORK The Exeter Association of Greater New York welcomed nearly 400 members of the Exeter family to its annual reception in January.
Featured speaker 2016 John Phillips Award recipient Connie Liu Trimble ’80 reconnected with Susan J. Herney ’69, ’74, ’83 (Hon.).
Principal Lisa MacFarlane ’66 (Hon.); P’09, P’13, who gave an update from the Academy, greets Andre François ’86 and his wife, Wasidah.
Paul Dietche ’49; P’80, Al Forsyth ’49, and Gene Connolly ’49; GP’15, GP’17 were recognized as the most senior alumni in attendance.
Leigh Bonney ’76, Dewey Shay ’76 and Larry Ritzhaupt
Nate Williams ’11, Felicia-Wrae Morgan ’11, Victor Bevine ’72 and Mark Greenan ’11
From the class of ’12, Isabel Mattson, Hope Wilson, Martha Griffin and Trevor Marrero HECHLER PHOTOGRAPHERS
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Greg Moore P’03 and Nick du Pont ’14
Gerard DeBenedetto and Fanghua Jiang P’18, Laura Schwartz ’82; P’20 and Eric Wise P’19 From the class of ’97, Keith Connor, Julia Gray Callahan, Alea Mitchell, Ciatta Baysah and Youn Lee
Christopher Caviedes ’16, Kathy Moran ’13 and Nathan Bray ’15
John Lane ’52 and wife Carol, with Pete Palmer ’53; P’77, P’81
CT Tamura ’92 with Siobhan Stewart, Katherine Post Calvert, Sara Bliss, Edings Thibault and Andy Allen, all from the class of ’91
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COAST TO COAST AND IN BETWEEN Exonians convened at regional events across the country.
DENVER RECEPTION The Exeter Association of Colorado brought together the Exeter family at a reception on Nov. 28. Attendees included Bob Towler ’57; Suzanne and Bill Dakin ’78; P’12, P’15; Robin Pringle Hickenlooper ’96; John Woodberry ’82; and Allyson Mendenhall ’86.
Hutch Stone ’87 and Brooks Pearson ’89
Samantha Jacobson ’03 and husband Phil; Trustee Nicie Panetta ’84; and Kate Bermingham P’09
DENVER BOOK READING Author Lydia Peelle ’96 (center in black) read from her book, The Midnight Cool, for an audience of Exonians on March 8.
NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY Leonard Milberg ’49 (back row, third from right) gave a personal tour for Exonians and their guests of a New-York Historical Society exhibit composed of gifts he made to Princeton University’s Jewish American Collection and his personal collection (front row): Gloria Roberts; Jon Roberts ’73; Beth Ann Zarkin Ditkoff ’81; Larry Scheyer ’73; Gloria B. Roberts P’73; Jon Bonne ’90; Dick Rudick ’57; and Barret Schleicher ’49; (back row) Michael Shao ’16; Sarah Lederman P’04, P’11; Jenny Young du Pont ’78; P’08, P’12, P’14, P’15; Doug Loud ’60; Peter Sobol ’57; P’94, P’97; Leonard Milberg ’49; Myron Magnet ’62; and Aino Jonah.
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TACOMA ART MUSEUM TAM’s executive director Stephanie Stebich ’84 guided Exonians through the museum’s 30 Americans exhibit on Jan. 14.
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EXONIANS ENHANCING EDUCATION The Exeter Association of New England presented an evening discussion highlighting education, educational reform and the Academy’s role in it on Jan. 31. Special guests included Frank Guerra ’69, headmaster, Boston Trinity Academy; Sarah Ritchie Conrad ’93, chief program officer, The Steppingstone Foundation; Shannon O’Halloran Keating ’01, co-founder, The Wandering Scholar; Rick Mahoney ’61, dean of financial aid, emeritus, Phillips Exeter Academy; and Ethan Shapiro, dean of faculty and instructor in modern languages, Phillips Exeter Academy.
Monique Hassel ’10 and Amy Barsky ’97
BOSTON An educational forum and social gatherings made winter enjoyable for Boston Exonians. Bruce Taylor ’75 and Wick Sloane ’71
SELF-DEFENSE CLASS Participants in an Exeter Association of New England-sponsored selfdefense class on Feb. 11 included Sam Tackeff ’04, Janka Lovering ’09, Jeff Cassidy ’91, Tracey Munson (in front of Jeff), Krystle Shumski, Valerie Zhao ’11, instructor Jason Dutton, Omar Wahid ’11 and Peggy Wang.
BOSTON NON SIBI Volunteers sorted clothing for homeless and lowincome families at Cradles to Crayons Giving Factory: John Kelleher ’01, Valerie Zhao ’11, host/organizer Lisa Coburn ’78, Skip Dion ’85, Lauren Holleran ’91 with daughter Eleanor, Luca MacNaughton (daughter of Megan Hall ’92) and son Henry, Katie Salter Holleran, Megan Hall ’92, Jess Torossian ’03 and Christopher Desmond.
WASHINGTON, D.C. AREA Events included a non sibi project, a happy hour and a fireside chat. WASHINGTON, D.C. NON SIBI Taking part in the wreath clean-up at Arlington National Cemetery on Jan. 28 were Christine McEvoy ’12, Lawrence Young ’96 and Caitlin Church Kiley ’00.
TYSONS CORNER HAPPY HOUR on Feb. 22: Tom Perkins ’82, Scott Mitchell ’94, Mike Clemson ’84, Bill Stokes ’82; P’19 (co-host), Simon Wang ’08, Zander Procopis ’80, Andrea Samuelson ’03, Benno Kurch ’75 (co-host), Lawrence Young ’96 (front), Phoebe Bennett ’83, Ken Swanberg ’59 and Jeesun Han ’99.
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FIRESIDE CHAT AT POLITICS AND PROSE The D.C. coffeehouse was the setting for a discussion led by Drew Magary ’94, author of the new book The Hike.
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CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO Principal Lisa MacFarlane ’66 (Hon.); P’09, P’13 was welcomed to the Bay Area by alums in classes 1949 to 2016: Paul Hertelendy ’49 and the principal.
The Exeter Association of Northern California gathered on March 8 and 9 in two distinct locations. Instructor in English Ralph Sneeden ’98 (Hon.), Madeleine Sneeden ’09 and Tyler Page ’09
COMPASS PHOTOGRAPHERS, LLC (ALL)
Kirk Bansak ’05, David Fort ’06 and Andrew Neuwirth ’05
Richard Treadwell ’84, Laurance Narbut ’89, Jason Zintak ’88, Jay Kern ’82 and Dana How ’82
Linc Jepson ’92 and Steve Clark ’68
Kush Patel ’05 and Tom Trowbridge ’56; P’86, P’88
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EXETER AT GOOGLE Christine Robson Weaver ’99 of Google’s Research and Machine Intelligence Group was the guest speaker at a special event held at Google in Mountain View. Trustee Peter “Scotch” Scocimara ’82; P’16, P’18, a fellow Googler, also participated and helped coordinate the event.
Cottrell Armistad ’71, Principal Lisa MacFarlane and Ernest Brown
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CALIFORNIA The Exeter family in Los Angeles enjoyed their annual reception at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
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Attendees included alumni, parents, current and incoming students and guests: Kandis Jaffrey P’18, Theodore Jaffrey ’18, Will Weiske ’90, Principal MacFarlane, Lauren Russell ’06 and Jonathan Jaffrey P’18.
Derek Poirier ’88 and Trustee Doug Smith ’84
Sophia Poa, Mila DeGuere ’18, Claire Jutabha ’18, Lauren Wilson ’17
Stew Lyons ’69 and Jack Herney ’69, ’71, ’74, ’92, ’95 (Hon.)
Grace and Peter Mellis ’92
Philip Poa ’12 and Jan Shi ’12
Elizabeth Song P’18; Nick Song ’18; Michael Song ’85; P’18; Susan J. Herney ’69, ’74, ’83 (Hon.)
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REUNIONS 2018 If your graduation year ends in 3 or 8, mark your calendar for reunions in May 2018! Join your classmates back on campus to reconnect with old friends and discover new ones.
Steve Therrien ’84 connected with Danny Connor, rink manager.
Lex Lyon ’93 and Aymes Bragdon ’83
SEACOAST NEW HAMPSHIRE
May 4-6, 2018 Class of 1988 Class of 1993 Class of 1998 Class of 2003
Skating at Exeter remains a winter favorite.
Jen Dion-Humphrey ’90, Chris Dion ’95 and his wife, Sheri Dion, an instructor in the Modern Languages Department.
May 11-13, 2018 Class of 1963 Class of 1973 Class of 1983 Class of 2008
EXETER LEADERSHIP WEEKEND
May 17-20, 2018 Class of 1968 May 18-20, 2018 Class of 1958 Class of 1978 Class of 2013
September 22 and 23, 2017
May 22-24, 2018 Class of 1948 Class of 1953
1982 IN BOSTON (front row) Pamela Wirt Barter, Gillian MacGregor O’Callaghan, Kevan Gibson, Peter Noonan, Rita Amirana, Jessica Truslow, Frances Dakos Shaheen and Lee Dillenbeck Young; (back row) Rob Hasserjian, Laura Schwartz, Jon Paul, Omar Amirana, Mark Rounds and Art Trapotsis
Reunion, regional and class volunteers will be invited to campus for Academy updates, 2018 planning meetings and gatherings with current students.
REUNION SEASON Mini reunions across the country signaled the start of reunion season for the class of ’82. 1982 IN SAN FRANCISCO Dana How, Susan Ordway, Jay Kern, Amy Faulkner (Hon.), Deborah Freedman Lustig and husband Toby
1982 IN D.C. Justin Castillo, Jon Baker, Bill Monahan, Fiona Candlish, Bill Stokes and Tom Perkins
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ASIA The Exeter family came together in Shanghai, Taiwan and Singapore to celebrate connections.
TAIWAN Exonians and their guests welcomed Chuck Ramsey, Exeter’s director of principal and major gifts, at a reception at the American Club Taipei on Feb. 13.
SHANGHAI Exonians celebrated the Christmas season with a tea at the home of Sara Jane Ho ’03: Sally Ma ’17, Stephanie Pan ’16, Brian Lee ’10, Dana Tung ’15, Diana Wang ’14, Ellen Gao ’14, Adam Nikolich ’05, Joy Zhang ’18, Max Cassidy ’09 and Sara Jane Ho ’03.
SINGAPORE David Fernandez ’83 and Naomi Tinklepaugh hosted a reception for alumni and parents at their home on Feb. 16.
LONDON THEATER TOUR 2017
Exeter Expeditions: Educational Travel for Alumni and Parents July 22-29, 2017 Savor a week of extraordinary drama and lively Harkness discussion in London, the theater capital of the world. Sarah Ream ’75, Exeter instructor in theater and dance, will be your guide to shows in the West End, the London Fringe (Off-Broadway’s cousin), and at the National Theatre. The tour’s home base is the elegant Haymarket Hotel, where each morning you will gather to discuss the previous night’s play. Then you will set out for something new every day, whether a classical voice tutorial at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, a special historical exhibition, or a chat with a leading actor or director. Plays will be selected by Ms. Ream when tickets go on sale in spring 2017.
$5,225 per person based on double occupancy / $1,500 single supplement For more information please contact Christine Fell, Alumni and Parent Relations Office 603-777-3264; cfell@exeter.edu
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Cyber Living (Continued from page 29) increasingly desensitized to the sexual harassment and sexualization of girls and women. “Social media culture is a very sexist culture,” she says, citing a recent United States Marine Corps scandal involving the creation and distribution of “slut pages,” or compilations of nude photos that are nonconsensually shared. “We have a whole generation of girls who are growing up being told that it is normal to be sexualized and that there is little for them to do but acquiesce. It’s very disempowering.” What’s more, she says, women who step forward to protest or put a stop to such behaviors are often “further exposed and vilified for being whistle-blowers.” The interview subjects for Sales’ book hail from all corners of the United States, from the toniest enclaves of Boca Raton to the lower-income projects of the Bronx. Most every variety of school is also represented, with the exception of private boarding schools such as Exeter. This is ironic for two reasons: Sales is herself a product of a residential school, and it is schools like Exeter that she thinks give students many opportunities to transcend some of the more insidious aspects of social media. “I think kids in boarding schools often have a better chance of not getting addicted to social media because they are afforded more opportunities to be together and communicate face-to-face.” She pauses for a moment, before adding, “The closest friendships I’ve made in my life are with the people I met at Exeter, because we were going through all of the stuff you go through at that age together. It’s very magical in that way.” E 94 • T H E
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Dance (Continued from page 37) performers in Portsmouth: “When we rehearsed with the other dance groups, I was entirely taken aback by the amount of talent, dedication and hard work that came together in the making of the One Billion Rising event. I walked away inspired and motivated to keep dancing and reminded that we are never alone in our battle.” Chalasani, who has been dancing since childhood, adds, “Arts are a means of expression that provide inspiration and induce solidarity. Coming to a dance concert like ours entails leaving behind previous thoughts, watching and listening, and taking something away from the performance.” She suggests that the audience takeaway is heightened by the absence of language. “Sure, you can read an article or have a conversation about the exploitation of women,” she says, “but there is something powerful in experiencing the embodiment of the issue through dance. Michael Garcia ’18, who participated in the Winter Dance Concert and rehearsed for the OBR event before it was postponed, has been studying ballet and jazz as well as hip-hop, tap and modern dance since he was a first-grader inspired by his sister’s dance recital. His experience has given him firsthand knowledge of how the arts can put a human face on an issue that might not seem relevant. “It has definitely been interesting being not just the only male dancer in Dance Company but the only male dancer in a performance focused primarily on women’s empowerment,” he says. Garcia couldn’t necessarily relate to all of the same struggles as his fellow performers, but their presence onstage together made him feel more intimately connected and aware of how these issues affect all of us. “I know now why it is important for all men to fight against violence and abuse in whatever way
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they can,” he says. “For me, that was through dance.”
ONE BILLION RISING: USING DANCE AS AN AGENT OF CHANGE
Garcia’s experience, and his belief that “feelings are the compelling force in advancing any cause,” echo the principles behind V-Day and the OBR campaign — the hope that a change of heart will in time help to shape new behaviors as well. Last year’s OBR event, which traced the narrative arc of a woman’s life, was a powerful one for participants and observers alike. Several men in the audience shared with Sarah Duclos afterward that seeing their wives’ and daughters’ experiences reflected on stage helped them view the issues in a completely new, and profoundly personal, way. For many of the dancers, the OBR experience has been transformative as well: “Just by sheer numbers — 74 percent of people working in the dance industry are women — we know we have survivors involved in our cast who have undergone these forms of violence,” Duclos says. “To have that physical connection to the work, to take that pain, that strife, that history of abuse — to take it into your bodies and turn it into something so beautiful and communicative, something that makes people think — that is just so powerful,” she adds. “And it’s really started a conversation in our community.” Exeter’s dancers were honored to help continue such an urgent conversation. On a clear night in early April, nearly 1,000 lovers of dance and supporters of Haven gathered inside the historical venue in downtown Portsmouth for the benefit concert, featuring everything from ballet, modern dance and belly dancing to West-African drumming and dancing, an impressive hip-hop group, and musical accompaniment by local performing artists. Between performances, an offstage voice proclaims the dancers’ reasons for “rising.” As nine Exonians approach the stage for their
first set, the announcer declares: “I rise for the women in their white sashes. They marched, they fought. They were jailed, they were beaten, and some lost their lives, but the battle was won. I rise for all who demanded a woman’s right to vote.” An empowering piece, “We Are,” designed by Darling, is based loosely on the history of the American suffragette movement. It celebrates the courage and sacrifices that paved the way for many of the freedoms contemporary American women take for granted today. More somber in tone, the Exeter dancers’ second piece, “Kathréftis” (Greek for “Mirror”), traces a young woman’s journey of self-discovery as she begins to realize her own self-worth within the confines of an unhealthy relationship. Choreographed by Duke, the dance is announced by the words, “I rise for all of the women who are one half of the seemingly perfect partnership. The public and the private can so often be worlds apart.” The 14 other dances that evening expressed a complexity of experiences and emotions as well — some bearing witness to moments of struggle and pain, others reveling in the joys of solidarity and freedom. Taken as a whole, they reflected the dancers’ common goals. Exeter dancers say they were inspired by the experience of coming together with fellow artists from across the state to support Haven and help create a world free from violence and exploitation. Describing what made The Music Hall event so memorable, Ibbotson says: “It took people of all different ages and walks of life and brought them together to show what we can accomplish when we work together. I believe this issue is well worth fighting for, and to be included in the conversation as an individual and a school was an honor. Being part of such an inclusive, kind and caring environment, especially when every dancer is so different, gave me so much hope for the future and what we can accomplish if we put our heads together.” E
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Titles By Perry Asibey-Bonsu ‘16
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remember the car in Ghana.
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like me. Learning, learning the oath of this free land. African American. “Where do you come from? Is it far? Why do you say your d’s so heavily and why do your o’s float up to the sky? Can you dance? Dance for us. Dance.” African. The product of a place left in the shadow of oblivion, a place with glimmering gold sunk deep into its womb. American. “Dance for us.” I had followed these strange women back to their land, and in my search for them the terrain lit up with familiar pigments, familiar shades. Brothers! Sisters! What need do I have for a mirror when I could just gaze upon you, you do not know how long — “Ey, cool it. Ain’t nobody playin’ around, son, so don’t you be bringing that stuff around here. We run these streets, we run these cities, and if you ain’t trying to respect that then wuz good homie?” Black. Curls of the fingers and gritted teeth. Black. The bearing of colonies and inner-city communities on the back. Black. Torn out, out of the shadow of oblivion into the searing light. But which title shall be mine, which name shall my identity call its home? I would like to forget the yams and the sweetbread but my d’s are too heavy and my o’s reach for the sky. Tell me: Which side of the slash on this application I stand on, which pencil-marked circle can contain the expanse of who I am? Title. Give me a title. Titles. African. American. Black. White. Titles. I remember the special red car in Ghana, the American classic. What a heavy title that car carried, and what made it so special was that it never moved. E
S P R I N G
DANNY ALLISON
I remember walking out of the bending metal shed, sweetbread hanging on the walls and the floors covered with yams, and stepping onto the cracked road that stretched from nowhere to nowhere to see its glimmering red glory. You see, this car was a classic American car, and American was a heavy title to hold because it was unique for miles and miles around. The reason this car was so special wasn’t the torn, caramel-colored leather that covered the seats, or the metal wheel that caught cold each time night fell, or the scratchy windows. The reason this car was so special was the fact it never moved. It was our playground. This stationary vehicle transformed into warships, poorly designed tanks we remembered from old war movies, and a retired stock car in need of serious repair. Only once did the car abandon its role as my imagination’s container and transform itself into a space for extrication. Footsteps. I heard footsteps on the cracked road that stretched from nowhere to nowhere, and suddenly my body froze, caught between the wheel that caught colds and the leather the color of caramel. Certainly I had seen women before, certainly I knew what girls looked like, as I had played with them before … But these walking by the car’s window speaking in a language my motherland had not birthed were not women. If so, where was the evidence of the soil on their skin, where was the darkness Mother Earth gave us so we wouldn’t be found when the terrors of night tried to claim us? Where was it? Where was it? African American. I followed these strange women back to their land a year and a half after they revealed themselves to me. Wading, wading into a new land I had heard myths about. African American. I never saw these women again, but I found myself in a brightly colored room, learning from a brightly pale teacher, surrounded by pupils who did not look
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JOHN AND ELIZABETH PHILLIPS UNDERSTOOD THE POWER OF GIVING THROUGH THEIR WILLS.
What will be the legacy of your estate plan?
Many Exonians choose to put Exeter in their wills. Our Planned Giving Office will help you and your advisers as you consider a lasting gift to PEA. Please contact Phil Perham at 603-777-3667 or pperham@exeter.edu.
20 Main Street Exeter, NH 03833-2460 Parents of Alumni: If this magazine is addressed to a son or daughter who no longer maintains a permanent address at your home, please email us (records@exeter.edu) with his or her new address. Thank you.