The Exeter Bulletin SPRING 2016
NEXT-GEN MEDICINE
Five alumni whose science is saving lives
Almost as good as being back on campus
Exeter’s new alumni site connects you to a worldwide network of more than 21,000 Exonians. Mobile-friendly and easy to use, the site helps you keep in touch with friends, meet up with nearby alumni, and stay updated with Exeter news and events. A world of connections awaits.
exonians.exeter.edu
The Exeter Bulletin Principal Instructor Lisa MacFarlane 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 Staff Writers Mike Catano Nicole Pellaton Exonians in Review coordinator Alice Ann Gray 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 Mitchell J. Bradbury ’78, Wole C. Coaxum ’88, Flobelle Burden Davis ’87, Walter C. Donovan ’81, John A. Downer ’75, Mark A. Edwards ’78, Jonathan W. Galassi ’67, David E. Goel ’89, Jennifer P. Holleran ’86, Eiichiro Kuwana ’82, Lisa MacFarlane, Sally J. Michaels ’82, Deidre O’Byrne ’84, William K. Rawson ’71, Kerry Landreth Reed ’91, Dr. Nina D. Russell ’82, J. Douglas Smith ’83, Morgan C. Sze ’83 and Remy White Trafelet ’88 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 2016 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
“EXETER IS OPENLY POLITICAL. IT ALLOWS KIDS TO EXPLORE WHERE THEY ARE IN THE SPECTRUM. ... I CAN LEAD A CLUB I DON’T NECESSARILY AGREE —page 36 WITH.”
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IN THIS ISSUE
Volume CXI, Issue no. 3
Features
30 Next-Gen Medicine
Meet five alumni whose science is saving lives
By Daneet Steffens ’82
36 Primary Fever
Living civics the Exeter way
By Janet Reynolds
42 Activism Through Art
Student artists inspire social awareness
Compiled by Genny Beckman Moriarty
Departments 6
Around the Table: Non Sibi in a Minute, Meet an Exonian, Molecular Genetics, Exonians Offer Thanks, Skull Session and more.
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Table Talk with Courtney Emerson ’05
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Inside the Writing Life: A Conversation with Stephanie Clifford ’96
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Sports: Big Wins, Hard Goodbyes. Plus, winter sports roundup.
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Connections: News and Notes from the Alumni Community
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Profiles: Bob Dodson ’43, Werten Bellamy ’82 and Sara Jane Ho ’03
104 Finis Origine Pendet: Letters from Siberia, by Sarah LindemannKomarova ’72 —Cover illustration by Stuart Bradford —PHOTOGRAPH OPPOSITE PAGE, CHERYL SENTER
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AROUND THE TABLE
What’s new and notable at the Academy
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Taking Stock By Principal Lisa MacFarlane P’09, P’13
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first year as principal instructor. I have spent that time living and working in a truly inspiring community of individuals. My colleagues have been a wellspring of support and knowledge, and our students continue to dazzle me with their character, their kindness, and their courage to pursue their great passions. At the same time, the spring term at Exeter has been a challenging one for us all, as we wrestle with the disturbing news that two former faculty members engaged in acts of sexual misconduct with students decades ago. Additional reports remain under investigation. The aftershocks of such revelations continue, but I write this now with great faith: in our shared commitment to confront the darker elements of our past with courage and integrity, and in the resilience and compassion of Exeter, and of Exonians. I have heard from hundreds of you with positive memories that reaffirm what is good and right about our school, as well as criticism that humbles us and reminds us there is still much work to do. I am moved by each act of correspondence, by your willingness to begin a dialogue that will enable all of us to better steer through this time of uncertainty. Many of you have expressed a desire to support broader conversations, to help Exeter restore justice, and to find a way forward with greater compassion and cohesion. We are exploring ideas that would provide for those, and I’m deeply thankful to those alumni who have reached out with advice and offers of help. In the
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meantime, I encourage you to visit www.exeter.edu/ response; we will continue to provide updates there on the work we are doing in this area. Many of you have also asked about what we are currently doing to protect students. My answer is: A great deal. I urge you to read the webpage, “Our Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program,” at www.exeter.edu/ response, to get an overview of the breadth and depth of our programming. Ours is a multi-pronged, iterative strategy grounded in credible data derived from participation in national surveys and partnerships with organizations like the University of New Hampshire’s Prevention Innovations Research Center. We strive to understand as fully as we can the lived experience of students today: what they think, what they do, what they mean by the language they use. We use data to inform the ways in which we can be more responsive and timely within the quickly changing world of teenagers. We can never become complacent in our work to ensure the safest possible environment for our students, where each can thrive. Our students are at the center of all we do. We are reminded that when one lives and works at a school, there is spring: the vitality, energy, optimism and joy of students as they go about their classes, toss Frisbees on the oval, roast s’mores at dorm check-in, or revel in the feel of the grass under bare feet. In these moments, and in so many other ways, we at Exeter find light and inspiration. E
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Hannah MacKay ’17 H I P - H O P D A N C E R O N A R U S S I A N S TA G E By Sarah Zobel
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annah MacKay ’17 is happy to talk about her experiences as a
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dancer, and she’s equally happy to discuss her three trips to Russia, but she isn’t sure where to start. The beginning, a logical place, takes her back to her first ballet lesson, at age 2. Yet by the time she was living in St. Petersburg in the fall of 2015, MacKay had moved on to hip-hop and commercial dance. She’d also become fluent enough to attend a Russian high school full time. The in-between for the Massachusetts native included the Maine-based Bossov Ballet Theatre’s summer program, where director and ballet master Andrei Bossov invited MacKay to join a handful of dancers he was taking to Russia to perform in a festival. She was in eighth grade. “It was a little strange because I didn’t know the language,” she says. “I had a view of Russia just from what I’d seen in the movies and on TV.” But that trip was the genesis of MacKay’s interest in the Russian language. And when she had to decide between a dance-focused high school in Florida where the learning happened largely online and Exeter, with dance on the side, she chose the latter. “That’s where I set my path. I figured the most reasonable thing would be to get a better education and keep dance as a passion, something that I want to continue professionally,” MacKay says. It’s a passion that already fills her days. With another trip to Russia over the summer between her prep and lower years — this one, again to St. Petersburg, accompanying a dorm mate to properly learn the language — MacKay came home and went straight to a six-week program at the San Francisco–based Alonzo King LINES Ballet. There she was introduced to a variety of contemporary dance genres, including hip-hop. “I just kind of fell in love with that style,” MacKay says. With her characteristic enthusiasm, she joined a company that competed in Los Angeles at World of Dance, an international event at which hers was the only American team to place. She’s now a member of the Static Noyze Dance Company, traveling to Boston three days a week for rehearsals. MacKay has continued to study Russian at Exeter, but she also wanted to immerse herself in the language. “Every time I went abroad I was picking up on things, but I feel like I left at the peak of my being able to jump in” and become fluent, she says. Dusting off a term-abroad program that hadn’t been used in six years, MacKay received the Modern Languages Department’s blessing and support, and, accompanied by her mother, went back to St. Petersburg last year. From August through November they lived in an apartment in the heart of the city. MacKay enrolled in a public school located in a building that housed kindergarteners through 12th-graders. With about 20 students per grade level, it was, says MacKay, “like a family.” She tutored one student in English and was amused to observe the relationships between teachers and students. “They’ll hug them, they’ll throw a shoe at them,” she says of some teachers. One of them invited MacKay to a conference in Novgorod that turned out to be a Model United Nations, where, after two and a half hours, MacKay’s resolution on women’s representation in politics passed. This summer, MacKay will be in one of the former Soviet states — Estonia — through the U.S. Department of State’s National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y), an immersion program for languages that are less commonly taught in U.S. high schools. “I really love Russia. I love the politics, I love the language, I love the culture. Any chance I have to go back, I’ll take it,” she says. And after locating several hip-hop studios online and joining classes around St. Petersburg last fall, MacKay is looking forward to the chance to get back to more hip-hop. E
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Share Your Memories of the Cage CHERYL SENTER
Celebrating the Cage T H E A C A D E M Y P R E P A R E S T O S AY G O O D B Y E
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community will gather for a special luncheon and a chance to say goodbye to the Thompson Cage, which will be torn down to make way for a new field house — featuring a 200-meter track, four indoor tennis courts, a multipurpose infield, two batting cages and a dedicated wrestling room — to better meet the needs of its young athletes and expanding athletics program. Coinciding with several reunions, this special event will feature displays of Cage memorabilia and photographs; collections of alumni memories; and remarks by alumni, former coaches, Principal Lisa MacFarlane and Vice President of the Trustees Marc de La Bruyère ’77. Join the extended Exeter family — along with our youngest Exonians, and current and former faculty, staff and coaches — in creating a warm, final tribute to the beloved Cage. Commemorative for this event, bottles will be available for transgo to www. porting a bit of that old dirt floor, exeter.edu/ so don’t miss out on your chance cagefarewell to take home a special reminder of this iconic building. E
The Academy is working to preserve and showcase the legacy of the Thompson Cage, and we need your help! Celebrate the building that helped propel Exeter athletics forward and influenced generations of young athletes. Share your memories and photographs at: www.exeter.edu/ cagememories.
“So many memories: The sound of the starting gun, fired by Bucky Bruce during track practice and in meets, echoing off the walls and ceiling. Running the 300 yard run and trying to keep from colliding with the walls coming off those awful square turns. Watching in awe as my classmates Don Forte, Jay Mahaney and Bill Terry cleared what seemed prodigious heights in the pole vault. Ralph Lovshin with his ever present tote sheet on which he compared meet results with the predictions he had made the night before.” —Lew Hitzrot ’60. “Every time I opened the door to the Cage I felt like I was going back in time. The smell, the sounds, the sights felt like they belonged to another time and place. It was the Cage where I felt connected to every Exonian of the past, even more so than the marble steps of the Academy Building. It is rare for a building to be so well preserved from renovations or retrofittings; indeed in my memories the Cage bore no visual signs that it existed in the 21st century. Even though I was never much of an athlete, the Cage was one of my favorite places to visit when returning to campus — its atmosphere was so visceral and enveloping that I felt tangibly connected to Exeter. I will really miss it.” —Emily Ritterhaus ’05
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TOD WILLIAMS BILLIE TSIEN ARCHITECTS (2)
Court Street aerial looking South
View down former Gilman Street
SOUTH CAMPUS RENEWAL BEGINS Construction has commenced on Exeter’s South Campus to make way for the new theater and dance center, outdoor tennis center, and field house. The renderings above depict what the area will look like when completed in 2018. The existing Court Street tennis courts have already been removed and the installation of foundation piles is underway. Gilman Street will close after graduation on June 5 and ultimately reopen as a pedestrian walkway. For the latest on South Campus , go to www.exeter.edu/southcampus.
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Going the Extra Mile for Molecular Genetics By Genny Beckman Moriarty
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t is the end of a fat block, G format, on a Thursday afternoon during winter term. The students in Science Instructor Anne Rankin’s Molecular Genetics course have been hustling to get their DNA sequencing reactions bagged up and ready to submit to the lab for testing. The same lab had unfortunately mishandled an earlier batch of samples, and the students are now in a race against time. They will need the results quickly in order to get through the next phase of their research project before the end of the term. G format is over at 5 p.m. but at 5:25 p.m., the students are still at their stations, pipettes in hand. By 5:28 p.m., they have bagged up the last of the samples. They have two minutes remaining to get the samples to a FedEx dropbox if they want to wrap up their research before spring break, and Rankin ’92 is getting ready to dash across town in her car. Suddenly, Mahesh Kumar ’17 shouts out, “Ms. Rankin, I can run there faster than you can drive!” Grabbing the FedEx package out of his teacher’s
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hands, Kumar “[takes] off in a dead run across campus and makes it with seconds to spare, waving the driver down as he’s leaving the lot,” recalls Rankin. She chuckles as she relates his heroic feat and offers up a possible headline: “Student runs the extra mile for Bio 372!” That kind of enthusiasm is something she’s witnessed throughout the term. “The kids are fired up,” she says. “They are super invested in what they’re doing.” Exactly what they were doing and why they were so fired up is a story that leads back to Rankin and her fellow science instructor, Erik Janicki. “Erik and I have worked together for a number of years and always enjoy talking about our teaching,” says Rankin. Those conversations led them to join forces in creating a Harkness experience that would go beyond the confines of the classroom table into the realm of real-world scientific inquiry and collaboration. “I think our upper level students should be put in the positions of being scientists,” says Janicki. He and Rankin asked students in three different sections of Molecular
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Genetics to work together throughout the winter term to design and carry out their own research project. “We knew that having three formats collaborating together would generate a much larger data set, [providing] students with a more robust experience when it came time to analyze the data and draw sound scientific conclusions,” Janicki says, To begin their research, students collected soil samples from three geographically distinct locations in the town of Exeter, including an organic blueberry farm, a hemlock and beech forest, and an organic home garden. Next, they cultivated colonies of bacteria and sequenced a particular gene used for DNA barcoding. “Using DNA barcoding techniques to discover the identity of the soil microbes allowed students to assess the microbial richness and diversity of the soil,” explains Janicki. Once they had analyzed the results in their individual classes, they teamed up with the other sections to write and submit a research paper, titled “Bacterial Composition of Soil Samples in Southern New Hampshire,” to the Journal of Emerging Investigators — a peer-reviewed journal for middle school and high school science students — for feedback and possible publication. Janicki had attempted a similar research project with another class last year, but those students had run out of time before they had a chance to analyze the data or generate a paper. The success of the project in winter term was a testament to teamwork — on the part of the teachers as well as the students. “Our work in Molecular Genetics took an enormous amount of conversation, coordination and trust and it only worked because of our strong personal relationship,” Rankin says. While their combined efforts helped students make it to the finish line this time around, the process didn’t always go smoothly: They lost samples due to human error and some of the gels failed to run. But students agree the mishaps were part of the education. “The biggest benefit was how much we messed up. It made us think critically about what we wanted to accomplish,” says Rohit Rajiv ’16. Wrestling with uncertainty proved to be another blessing in disguise. “With teacher-designed labs, the results are expected,” says Kaitlyn Kang ’17. With this project, however, it was new territory, even for the instructors. More than once, the young scientists were surprised by their results and forced to shift gears. That led to some moments of panic, but it also created the opportunity for students to own their learning in a way that even the
typical Harkness classroom can’t provide. “Sometimes, there was no answer,” says Rebecca Ju ’16. “That was frustrating, but we had the opportunity to fight through the frustration, and I think we learned a lot more. I liked how we went from A to B to C to D and that our answers and end-products were based on our discussions,” she adds. Another big hurdle was figuring out how to find consensus among 30 different students during the writing process. Each class had a slightly different approach to their analyses, Rankin explains. “They were using the same data, but they had different interpretations based on how the individual classroom discussions went,” she says. It wasn’t easy, but after many deliberations and false starts (and the help of a shared Google Doc), they figured out how to incorporate their different approaches into one paper. Dr. Kyuson Yun, a scientist who studies brain cancer stem cells at the Jackson Laboratory’s Yun Lab in Bar Harbor, Maine, visited classes to offer feedback on the paper before it was submitted to the journal. Yun, who is the mother of Thomas Gallup ’16, a student in Rankin’s G format, was joined by Peter Frank, a dissertation fellow at PEA. Although it wasn’t always easy to receive, students agreed the reviewers’ feedback was helpful. The review session also marked the first time many of the students had been able to read the paper all the way through, and they realized they would have benefited from better communication: “While writing the paper was an extremely collaborative process within each class,” says Rajiv, “upon reviewing [it], we found sections that had the same information contributed by each of the three formats.” Learning how the publication process works was eye-opening for everyone. As of this writing, their paper has passed through the first review at the Journal of Emerging Investigators and made it into the hands of individual readers for specific feedback. Regardless of whether or not it is accepted for publication, students agree that the process was a valuable one. “Creating a paper based [on] our work and submitting to a journal was a very fulfilling way to end the term, and it’s definitely something I can be proud of,” Gallup says. “Normally, in a lab class, you might talk about the challenges scientists face, but you don’t see them,” adds Andrew Tuchler ’16. “Here, we realized how much those obstacles can affect deadlines and the end results. … I have a much better idea now of what science is really like.” E
“SOMETIMES, THERE WAS NO ANSWER. THAT WAS FRUSTRATING, BUT ... I THINK WE LEARNED A LOT MORE.”
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n the United States, women have outvoted men in every election since 1980. Yet
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despite their presence at the polls, women are under-engaged by almost every other measure of political participation. According to recent research, women are less likely to write letters to their representatives or op-eds to local and national publications. They are less likely to speak up at town hall meetings, or to read blogs and political magazines. They are less likely to consider running for office (even at the college level), and are even less inclined to take political science courses. To address these discrepancies, Courtney Emerson ’05 co-founded and serves as the chief operating officer for All in Together, a nonprofit organization dedicated to closing these gaps and improving gender equality in social, political and economic terms. “The goal of AIT is to amplify women’s voices,” Emerson says. “We need more women speaking up, engaging, collaborating in political life.” Unlike EMILY’s List and other groups that support women candidates, AIT is nonpartisan and focuses on broad engagement. Launched in early 2015, the organization seeks to bring more women into the political process and start conversations about the role of women’s voices in leadership. All in Together now employs five people (most are part-time) and boasts an advisory board made up of leaders from government, the media and business. Its sponsors include multinational companies such as Daimler, Deloitte, EY, PwC, Sanofi and State Street. As COO, Emerson is chiefly responsible for partnerships, programming and general operations. She was instrumental in planning AIT’s launch event in Washington, D.C., which brought together Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY), along with other government officials and business leaders. “Our goal was to focus on the things we share in order to collaborate and drive change,” Emerson says. “There are so many polarizing issues and dysfunction in politics. It’s imperative to bring together women leaders from both sides of the aisle; change won’t happen unless we work together.”
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To that end, Emerson organized an AIT event in Dallas in February featuring the CEO of the Democratic National Committee and the chief of staff of the Republican National Committee. That event was also attended by local business and government leaders. Additional events are in the works, including AIT forums this July at both the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. AIT’s latest venture is the Action Center. A new platform on the aitogether.org website, the Action Center seeks to level the playing field when it comes to women’s engagement with their elected officials by providing useful tools and resources that make it easy to take action. “Studies show that Congress receives approximately 2 million more phone calls and letters from male constituents than female constituents every year,” Emerson says. “Women are taught to be ‘good girls’; we vote because it’s our civic duty, but then don’t hold our politicians accountable once they take office.” The Action Center provides a quick and direct way for users to engage with members of Congress (writing letters, scheduling meetings, even tweeting) on topical issues such as the recent Supreme Court nomination, data security and encryption and the Zika virus. To build AIT’s profile and to bring attention to the persistent gender gap in political and civic engagement, Emerson is an active blogger and presence on social media. She credits the Harkness table with helping her find her voice — and developing the confidence to use it. “It’s a game changer,” she says. “The entire mode of learning encourages you to speak up. Having the opportunity to try out your voice, to articulate your views in a space where that is encouraged and safe, is invaluable.” Exeter also planted seeds that helped Emerson weather the challenges of starting a new venture. In an English class, Instructor Becky Moore, the JV girls crew coach, identified Emerson, who is 5-foot-8, as someone who might take to rowing. Emerson took to it indeed. She served as captain of Exeter varsity crew her senior year and rowed throughout college at Princeton, even competing for the United States Junior National Team. Emerson cites her rowing experience for teaching her about maximum effort. “You learn to push yourself beyond what you
think you can do,” she says. “How well you do is proportional to how much work you put in. It’s empowering.” She also appreciated the camaraderie of the boat. “You know there are a team of strong women who have your back.” While rowing took up much of Emerson’s time at Princeton, she earned her degree magna cum laude in politics with a minor in Near Eastern studies. But, unlike her more directed classmates, she did not have a clear sense of what she wanted to do after college. “I was very lost when I first graduated,” Emerson says. “Everyone else seemed to have a structured path.” She worked first as a research assistant to a professor at Princeton, but soon heard from an Exeter friend, Savannah Sachs, class of 2004, about the Center for Talent Innovation. Emerson was hired by CTI and began advising Fortune 500 and global companies on leveraging talent and creating workforces that tap fully into the global talent pool. While at CTI, Emerson co-led Levers to Leadership, a proprietary leadership program to provide resources that empower professional women to accelerate their careers. Through her work, Emerson recognized that empowerment for women was more than a private-sector issue. “Part of me kept thinking that I needed to broaden my focus,” she recalls. “Political engagement is central to the women’s movement, but it wasn’t attracting focused attention.” This realization led Emerson and her supervisor and mentor from CTI, Lauren Leader-Chivée, to jump from an established organization and start All in Together. Even with strong confidence, a powerful work ethic and a clear mission, establishing an organization is a daunting proposition. As COO, Emerson must handle everything from lining up speakers for events to figuring our AIT’s taxes to ordering paper for the office. “It’s amazing — and horrifying!” she says with a chuckle. “It’s like an iceberg; I knew it was going to be a challenge but definitely underestimated that huge chunk that’s under the water.” Despite the effort required, Emerson finds her work satisfying. “Starting AIT has shown me how much I’m capable of, how much I can take on.” And confidence begets confidence. Emerson concludes, “The more choices and decisions I make, the more emboldened I am to make more choices.” E
“WOMEN ARE TAUGHT TO BE ‘GOOD GIRLS’; WE VOTE BECAUSE IT’S OUR CIVIC DUTY, BUT THEN DON’T HOLD OUR POLITICIANS ACCOUNTABLE ONCE THEY TAKE OFFICE.”
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Exonians Offer Thanks A N N U A L D AY O F RECOGNITION HELD TO HONOR DONORS
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eart-shaped sticky notes seemed
like the perfect medium just after Valentine’s Day for students to pause after assembly and jot down some of what they are most thankful about regarding their Exeter experience. During the annual Thank-a-Donor Day on Feb. 16, organized by the student-run Giving Thanks Club, dozens of students, as well as faculty and staff, posted heart stickies or wrote longer cards at other locations to thank donors for making it all possible — from Grill cookies to the “dorm of 34 sisters” to Harkness. A few of those reflections are shared here. On-demand video of the special “Thank-aDonor” assembly that day is available at www. exeter.edu/exeterlive. “I would not be here if it weren’t for you … . I have encountered so many new things [that] I thought I’d never try, especially crew which is now a huge part of my life. Thank you so much!” —Alex ’17 “Thank you for those brilliant comments at the Harkness table that make my day; the forest trees sprouting bright leaves in the spring on the cross-country trails; and so much more. You give us more than you know.” —George ’18 “To me, Exeter is … my happy haven: A place where I have met ‘my people,’ a family.” —Nicole ’17 “Because of your generosity, I am able to spend the best hour of my week in the WPEA booth doing what I love.” —Aiyana ’18
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“I love Exeter because … it has challenged me every day — whether that was on the track, in the class, or on stage! I wouldn’t be who I am today without the growth that those challenges pushed me to make in my life.” —Joanna ’17 “I came from a good public school, but Exeter has opened new doors for me I never could have imagined. Through the clubs, teachers and sports on campus, I have had the chance to meet the most interesting peers in the world.” —Tim ’18 “Exeter has given me the opportunity to develop my identity as a black woman amongst an incredibly supportive black community. I’ve had teachers and met people with whom I never imagined I would share this experience. … I am incredibly grateful for the diversity of our community and the growth opportunities I’ve been given as an athlete, student, musician and person.” —Charlotte ’18
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Skull Session F A C T A N D S P E C U L AT I O N O N T H E T R A I L O F A N E X E T E R M Y S T E R Y By James Ekstrom, emeritus instructor in science
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n 1978, the science building, which is now the Phelps
Academy Center, was undergoing a renovation. As a member of the Science Department, I was assisting in this process by cleaning out a storage area in the attic. In one of the dust-covered boxes, I found a great number of bones belonging to all sorts of mammals, plus a large turtle skull. What particularly catches your attention about this skull is the inscription on the dorsal side (the top in this case): “U.S.S. Warren, Sea Tortoise By B.F.K., 350 Weight, 1800.” Who was B.F.K. and how did the Academy end up with the skull? Puzzles with a biological bent have always intrigued me, and I decided to investigate. The skull was subsequently identified as that of a loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). We tend to associate the word tortoise with a land-dwelling turtle, but the names tortoise, turtle and terrapin were commonly interchanged in the 19th century and do not represent
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biological distinctions. The loggerhead, which is now an endangered species, can be found in oceans around the world, but has a major breeding area near the barrier islands of Georgia and Florida. An adult typically measures around three feet in length and has a weight of about 300 pounds, although much larger specimens have been recorded. My research revealed that the USS Warren was the third American warship to be named after Dr. Joseph Warren, a patriot who fought in the Battle of Lexington and Concord. He was appointed a major general by the Provincial Congress in 1775 and was killed by a musket ball at the Battle of Bunker Hill. The ship was a sloop-ofwar built in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1799. Before being decommissioned and sold in 1801, the vessel served primarily as an escort ship in the Caribbean. Shortly after finding the skull, I took my teenage sons down to what is now the Peabody Essex Museum in
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Salem, Massachusetts, to see if we could find more information about the ship. We were rewarded by fragments of the ship’s log, from a voyage in 1800. These yellowed pages described the overtaking and searching of vessels and life on board the ship, including punishment by lashing for a whole gamut of infractions. It also detailed the capturing of sea tortoises for food. These giant tortoises could be stored upside down in the ship’s hold and then butchered at some future date for fresh meat. There is a well-defined indentation on the left side of the skull. Was it the grazing from a bullet used to stun the tortoise? All manner of speculation is possible, but there is fairly good evidence that the sailors aboard the USS Warren captured this 350-pound sea tortoise on their Eastern Caribbean journey. The name Bartholomew Kimball occurs in Academy records for 1786. Given that the Academy was quite small at the time, it is conceivable that this Kimball was the skull’s engraver, but while the records tell us he was here in 1786, they don’t indicate how long he stayed or where he went afterward. While Kimball is a fairly common New Hampshire surname, this precise name has not yet come up in any census records or probated wills. Rare Academy records of the skull include its appearance in a photograph from 1898, depicting student and faculty members in the Golden Branch Society debate group, which was founded in 1818. In the photograph, the skull is shown in the foreground with a bone in its jaws. This “mascot” occurs in a number of the group’s photos in yearbooks from the late 19th century. Was Bartholomew Kimball somehow connected to this group? Did he ever sail aboard the USS Warren? For now, the mystery remains unsolved. E
Facing page: Close-up of the mysterious skull. Top: Members of the debate club pose with the skull in 1898. Bottom: Painting of a sloop-of-war ship similar to the USS Warren.
Special thanks go to Elizabeth Garrity and Edouard Desrochers at the Class of 1945 Library and to the research staff at the Peabody Essex Museum for their assistance. Please direct further comments or speculations to James Ekstrom at jimekstrom8@gmail.com.
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Heard in Assembly Hall GULNARA NIAZ PHOTOGRAPHER BOSTON, MA
On Feb. 5
“Having a cancer diagnosis is terrifying. A lot of the time it means having … major, disfiguring surgery. It means having to get treatments that make you really sick, like chemotherapy and radiation. Chemo and radiation make you sick because they don’t just kill cancer cells, they kill normal cells, too. But, what I’ve just shown you is a glimpse of how we can use something that’s already inside you, your own immune response, to target abnormal cells and not normal cells. ... “I used to say in a sort of half-joking way that my goal in life was to put myself out of business. Until really, really recently it was kind of a joke. But the other day I thought, ‘You know something? It could happen.’ ” —Connie Trimble ’80, professor of gynecology and obstetrics at Johns Hopkins University On Feb. 23
“What can we do to make change happen in the world? You have to stop worrying about who you are not, and start trying to do something with who you are. Once you get people talking about an issue, once they are paying attention, that’s when you have a chance to really do something. … “Change in tiny but meaningful ways is beginning to take root around the country. The reality is if we are waiting around for some genius to solve the world’s problems, we are going to wait a long time. The change we need looks a lot more like a garden than a formula and it’s the kind of thing that all of us are going to need to figure out how to grow together.” —Curt Ellis, producer of the awardwinning documentary King Corn
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On Feb. 26
“Maybe my early happy experience with revolution in Eastern Europe meant that I, and people like me, were more optimistic than was warranted when the Arab Spring rolled around. Maybe we should have been more cautious. “But what I worry about, for you, is that if the revolutions of Eastern Europe made us too optimistic, too ready to see change where none was in the offing, my worry is that your experience with the Arab Spring will render you the opposite. I fear that your early unhappy experience with revolution will endow you with a stultifying pessimism, rendering you unable or unwilling to see the possibilities for positive change that always exist when long-beleaguered people take their first tentative steps to making their voices heard, no matter how unlikely and inhospitable the terrain.” —Tarek Masoud ’93, Sultan of Oman Associate Professor of International Relations at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government On March 25:
“I have come to realize how much I have … bought into this narrative, this alluring myth, of personal responsibility and excellence. I realize how much I believe that all good things come, if we just work hard enough. This attitude leaves me always relentless, always working hard enough, and then harder still. I am ashamed that sometimes, a part of me believes that we, as a people, will be saved by those among us who are exceptional, without considering who might pay the price for that salvation. … “We are, it seems, still looking for that solution, even as some say that we are living in a post-racial era. We forget that we should not only measure black progress by the most visibly successful among us, but by those who continue to be left behind.” —Roxane Gay ’92, author of Bad Feminist, reading from her essay “The Price of Black Ambition”
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COURTESY CHRISTINA BREEN
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A Team Built on Service By Christina Breen, English instructor
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’m proud of my varsity girls lacrosse players because
they attempt to build a culture of non sibi every day in their athletic pursuits. Individual glory is pushed aside for the goals of the group, so the idea of them reaching out past our team toward service and education comes naturally. This spring the girls will be volunteering with the Special Olympics, and in April they participated in the second annual Officer Stephen Arkell Community 5K, which honors a local police officer who was killed in the line of duty two years ago. Arkell was also a beloved coach for a local girls lacrosse team. Several of the players on our team knew his daughters from elementary school and were affected by their friends’ loss. We participated in the run last year, too, but as Josie Russ ’16 points out, “It’s more personal this year because Lauren [Arkell’s daughter, a new lower] is now a part of our team.” For the past four years, the girls have adopted the cause of ovarian-cancer awareness in honor of Bridget Jenkins, mother of two-year captain Marley Jenkins ’15, who fought bravely against ovarian cancer but sadly passed away during Marley’s senior year. They wear teal socks and teal warmup jerseys on game day, and last year they orchestrated a campuswide Teal Butterfly Challenge,
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in which more than 400 students painted their nails teal, took pictures, and posted them on social media to spread awareness. For the final game of the season, against Andover, both teams donned teal hair ribbons in solidarity. The service piece began four years ago as well, when the team noticed some younger local players coming to watch their home games. We reached out to local club teams, welcoming them to a free clinic hosted by our players. The annual clinic is for area sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade girls and provides an opportunity for them to learn more about the game, about the priorities of sportsmanship and teamwork, and about the specific skills that will ready them for high school lacrosse — all at no cost to the local players. This is a wonderful opportunity for our players to give back to the community and to model for these young girls the balance between physical challenge and fun. The girls on the team really look forward to this annual event as a way to look beyond the win/loss record toward an even more important measure of success: non sibi. As Emily Ryan ’17 says, “Being part of a team is not just about sports. It involves community and leadership.” E
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PERFORMING ARTS A dense forest, thick tangles of vines and brightly colored stage lighting provided the stunning setting for the winter musical production of Into the Woods, a rollicking sensation by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. Colorfully executed by a cast and crew of 40 students, the darkly comic tale weaves together the familiar stories of fairy tale favorites in their timeless pursuit of happily ever after. The Dance Company Winter Concert, held on Feb. 25 and 26, turned to recognizable characters and scenes from the past as well: The student choreographers of “Moments in Time” explored historical themes through dance, with subjects ranging from Greek mythology to immigration to the earliest days of commercial airlines.
Little Red Riding Hood, Daisy Tichenor ’18, and The Wolf, Eric Regis ’16.
The Witch, Madison Hillyard ’16.
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CHERYL SENTER (3)
Rapunzel, Charis Edwards ’17, and her prince, Miguel Perez-Glassner ’17.
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Samantha Resnick ’19 and Jaden Wood ’17. Moving in harmony at the Winter Dance Concert.
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EXETER DECONSTRUCTED T H E S C H O O L W E L O V E I N D E TA I L
IN APRIL
1987, flooding in southern New Hampshire brought the waters in the Exeter River nearly to the height of the bridge’s arch.
HAMMY’S WAY AND HILL BRIDGE
HILL BRIDGE
is a single span, single lane, reinforced concrete, closed-spandrel arch bridge, approximately 12 ½ feet wide and spanning more than 100 feet across the Exeter River.
The road leading behind the athletic fields toward the bridge and the stadium beyond was renamed Hill Bridge, the site of many a thrilling but unsanctioned dive into the Exeter River, was erected in 1914. It was a gift to the Academy from George Hill, class of 1865.
Observant readers of “A Turn With the Sun,” a short story by John Knowles ’45 from his book, Phineas, will recognize the author’s nod to the iconic bridge: “He crossed over the bridge with Bead, and his heart stopped for an instant as it always did on this bridge … he crossed over the little arching bridge, observed the water where his heroic reflection had shone down, and stepped onto the turf on the other side, the varsity field.” 2 2 • T H E
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“HAMMY’S WAY”
in 2002, in honor of H. Hamilton “Hammy” Bissell ’29, a beloved administrator and director of scholarships who enjoyed traveling that way to visit with the athletes. Once called the “grand bridge,” Hill Bridge was designed to connect the older playing fields on the Academy side to those on the east side of the Exeter River — referred to as the “fields beyond” in the 1920s.
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An Outsider in High Society A C O N V E R S AT I O N W I T H A U T H O R S T E P H A N I E C L I F F O R D ’ 9 6
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tephanie Clifford’s 2015 debut novel, Everybody Rise, recasts Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, setting the tale neck deep in the eye-watering extravagances preceding the 2008 financial crisis. As protagonist Evelyn Beegan wends her progressively shortsighted way through Manhattan’s upper crust’s upper echelons, Clifford nails the specifics — from the social set’s glamo-rustic Adirondack family compounds to the perpetual whirl of parties — just as Wharton did before her. “She has an incredible eye for detail,” notes Clifford of Wharton. “Everything carries significance, from the flowers somebody is holding to the hairstyles. She takes these things that you could write off as superficial and silly and makes them important.” Everybody Rise’s cinematic flair has paid off in other ways, too: Film rights recently sold to Fox 2000.
ELENA SEIBERT PHOTOGRAPHY
By Daneet Steffens ’82
Q: I was fascinated by your acknowledgements, with shout-outs to Wharton, Booth Tarkington [PEA 1889] and his Magnificent Ambersons, Louis Auchincloss, David Carr, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. You’ve also mentioned Maggie Shipstead’s writing being part of your research. How did she inform your work? Clifford: I had been thinking about a book set in this world for a long time, but until I read Maggie Shipstead’s Seating Arrangements ... she has this almost vicious but incredibly funny way of describing this upper-class world that neither of us are from — she’s a California kid who kind of happened upon the East Coast, as I did. Her book made me realize, “OK, this is doable. You can observe this as an outsider and still have something to say about it.” Reading her, I felt like this world was really relevant and fascinating; the way she wrote about it, it seemed modern and interesting and vibrant. As a New York Times reporter, I was covering retail, which meant a lot of covering luxury, so that was a way in. After 2008, when the economy imploded, there was this big shift in how everybody thought about the rich and the over-elite; people thought everything was going to change, and it didn’t really. I wanted to write something set in that time just before the crisis that looked at this excessive spending and the sense that everything was just going to continue and go on and on in a crazy manner. Q: At a certain point, you show Evelyn in full breakdown mode — which also happens to be when she starts getting some of her gumption back — and it’s a terrific set piece, taking place in the middle of a lake during a regatta. There’s also the human train wreck leading up to that, as Evelyn gets more and more out of her depth and then tries to cover that by bigger and bolder lies. How did you keep yourself sympathetic to her? Clifford: For me, Evelyn was always somebody who just wanted to fit in; it just happened to be that she focused, in part because of her mother’s pressure, on this [upper-class East Coast] world. But she might have been thinking about fitting in with brilliant young scientists or California surfers. She’d never been accepted, never really been seen, so it was alluring to her that she’d started to be part of something, part of a group. I think we’ve all, at some point, whether that’s in high school or
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college or at a new firm, tried to become somebody we’re not. She does that to an extreme degree, but we’ve all had that feeling of, “Hmm, I’m kind of fudging over who I actually am, trying to fit into this mold that’s not quite me.” I wanted to take it to an extreme with her and see what would happen. Q: What do you cherish from your time at Exeter? Clifford: Exeter, for me, was the first time I felt like I fit in. Growing up in Seattle, I
felt like it was not cool to be smart or to ask questions; I felt stifled and wanted to try something new. I think I read about boarding school in a novel and thought it sounded cool, and I wrote away for brochures. I remember getting the Exeter Admissions VHS and thinking, “This looks amazing.” My parents didn’t want me to go — no one in our family had gone. So I wrote this 10-page paper on why I should be allowed to go, with little Excel spreadsheets showing admissions rates to college. And after that they were exhausted; I got to go. When I saw these other kids at the Harkness table, that everyone was respected for their contributions, I thought that was so neat. I felt at ease in that setting, speaking up and questioning things. When we started working, my Exeter friends and I would laugh because we’d go to a meeting about corporate benefits and we’d all have 30 questions, [like] “I’d just like to understand this benefit strategy a little bit more.” That habit — that confidence of feeling free to ask questions — never leaves you.
“WHEN I SAW THESE OTHER KIDS AT THE HARKNESS TABLE, THAT EVERYONE WAS RESPECTED FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS, I THOUGHT THAT WAS SO NEAT.”
Q: You recently left the Times to focus on your second novel? Clifford: Yes, though I’m going to freelance for them. This novel is set in
the criminal justice world — my most recent beat at the paper. My first day covering the justice system was a shock. I went to arraignments for criminal courts, and I couldn’t believe what it looked like. Virtually everybody was a minority, and people had two minutes: Here’s the crime; bail, yes or no; back in jail; next person. It was an assembly line. And it was so confusing. I’m a reporter, I’m used to asking questions, and I couldn’t figure out where to go or what was happening. If you’re a family member or a defendant, I think it’s overwhelming and sometimes demeaning. So that’s partly what I want to get at in the second book: what it’s like to be somebody who is going through this, who is not on the side of the powerful and the important.
Q: Finally, you clearly had a lot of fun with musical theater references in Everybody Rise. What was it like to give yourself that freedom? Clifford: It was great! That book was such a perfect outlet for all the random lyrics I have never had a place for before. Actually, those references came in the second draft. In the first draft Evelyn didn’t have a soft place to fall. When she was struggling, there was nothing to offer her comfort: Her parents are elsewhere, she’s driven her friends away and she doesn’t have self-confidence. It felt too bleak. So I added musical references as part of Evelyn’s bonding history with her mom, so that she would have someplace to turn when everything was falling apart — she could listen to these songs promising that there’s something better and a little more substantial than the world she got so caught up in. One of my favorite scenes takes place in a bar based on Marie’s Crisis in the West Village. That’s where Evelyn realizes how far she’s drifted from who she wanted to be, and begins to take the first steps to return to herself. Q: I love the thought of you trying to help her out a little bit. Clifford: Yeah, it was just too hard. I wanted to send her a little life raft. E
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E XO N I A N S
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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. Compiled by Alice Ann Gray ALUMNI 1952—Burton Chandler. Small Town Lawyer [memoir]. (self-published, 2013)
1963—Jim Peterson. Count Down: The Past, Present and Uncertain Future of the Big Four Accounting Firms. (Emerald Group Publishing, 2015) 1966—Peter Thompson, translator. Father/Son [two novellas by Abdelkader Djemai]. (Dialogos, 2015) 1971—Joyce Maynard. Under the Influence: A Novel. (William Morrow, 2016)
1954—Edward Sibley Barnard and Neil Calvanese. Central Park Trees and Landscapes: A Guide to New York City’s Masterpiece. (Columbia University Press, 2016) 1956—Phil Harvey and Lisa Conyers. The Human Cost of Welfare. (Praeger, 2016)
1981—Pamela Erens. Eleven Hours. (Tin House Books, 2016) 1989—Edward E. Curtis IV, editor. The Bloomsbury Reader on Islam in the West. (Bloomsbury, 2015) 1994—Emily Perez. House of Sugar, House of Stone. (University Press of Colorado, 2016)
1975—E. Melanie DuPuis. Dangerous Digestion: The Politics of American Dietary Advice. (University of California Press, 2015)
1997—Neely Laurenzo Myers. Recovery’s Edge: An Ethnography of Mental Health Care and Moral Agency. (Vanderbilt University Press, 2015) B R I E F LY N OT E D 1946—David Purdy. “William Clark’s Flatboat: A Reconstruction.” IN Nautical Research Journal. (vol. 61, no. 1) 1976—Frank Daykin. I Have My Doubts: (new poems 2014/2015). (CreateSpace, 2016)
1962—Will Brownell, Denise Drace-Brownell and Alex Rovt. The First Nazi: Erich Ludendorff, the Man Who Made Hitler Possible. (Counterpoint, 2016)
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1979—Kevin Boileau and Nazarita Goldhammer. Prolegomenon Towards A Primate Rights Bill. (EPIS Press, 2015)
Matt W. Miller. “Bounce” [poem]. IN Breakwater Review. (UMass Boston, issue XIV, Dec. 2015) — “Behold, Here is My Mark” [poem]. IN The Missouri Review. (University of Missouri, Feb. 2016) Mark P. Ott. “Tanks, Butterflies, Realists, Idealists: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Imperfect Ending in Spain of 1937-1938” [essay]. IN Hemingway’s Spain: Imagining the Spanish World. (The Kent State University Press, 2016)
1972 —Rob Dinerman. A History of Harvard Squash, 19222010. (Friends of Harvard Squash, 2015)
1961—Geoffrey Craig. Scudder’s Gorge. (Prolific Press, 2016)
Fiona McFarlane [former Bennett Fellow]. “Buttony” [fiction]. IN The New Yorker. (Feb. 29, 2016)
1998—Tim Gallagher. “Learning to Orchestrate Goodbye.” IN Arts & Letters. (issue 32, spring 2016)
— The Letters of Ernest Hemingway: Vol. 2 [review]. IN ALH Online Review, Series II. (Oxford Journals: American Literary History/Oxford University Press, April 2015) — “Fishing” [essay]. IN Ernest Hemingway in Context. (Cambridge University Press, December 2015) — “A Shared Language of American Modernism: Hemingway and the Black Renaissance” [essay]. IN Hemingway and the Black Renaissance. (The Ohio State University Press, fall 2015)
FAC U LT Y/ F O R M E R FAC U LT Y Molly Bashaw [former Bennett Fellow]. “Leaving the Continent” [poem]. IN The New Yorker. (April 11, 2016)
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Big Wins, Hard Goodbyes A SUCCE SSFUL WRE STLING TEAM ENDS ITS TIME IN THE CAGE By Craig Morgan ’84
T
he final practice before national champion-
ships had ended. Just a handful of wrestlers and coaches remained as Quinn Abrams ’17 sat down on a wrestling mat inside the Thompson Cage to meditate on the goals ahead and drink in what had become, for him, a spiritual place. “I started wrestling when I was in fourth grade and I’ve been in so many rooms without enough ventilation, rooms that were too cold so you can’t sweat, or rooms where the ceiling is too high so the moisture rises,” Abrams says. “I can’t find anything to complain about in that room. I love the graffiti that tells the history of the program, I love the
Henry Lagasse ’19 takes on an opponent at nationals.
mats, the ceiling structures — I really do. “I’ve bled in that room, I’ve sweat in that room and I’ve cried in it. To me, that wrestling room is perfect and I’m going to miss it.” The 87-year-old Thompson Cage and its historic wrestling room will give way to a new 84,500-squarefoot field house with a 200-meter track and four indoor tennis courts on the site of the old Cage. The old cage will be torn down this summer and the new facility, which is scheduled to open in 2017, will house a new wrestling room located on a mezzanine that overlooks the track and tennis courts.
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Abrams and the Exeter wrestling team hope to smooth the transition from old to new next season. “We’ve got a great group of seniors coming back next year,” coach David Hudson says. “We didn’t feel like we put everything together like we could have this season, but I feel like we did everything we could given the challenges we faced.” By most standards, the wrestling team concluded another successful season in February. The team won its second consecutive Class A title and the 19th in its history, giving it more titles than any school. Exeter also took second place at the New England Championships with four individuals winning titles, and it finished 17th at nationals out of 137 teams. The bar for this program is set a bit higher, however. “Ted Seabrook was the head coach here for decades and he’s the one who deserves the credit for establishing it and building the most successful program in New England,” says Hudson, who took over in 1982. “I feel very fortunate to have inherited a program with such a long tradition.” Hudson left the program in the 1990-91 season to coach at St. Lawrence University, handing the reins to now Dean of Faculty Ethan Shapiro, but he returned in 1999 and has been at the helm with Shapiro ever since. “Exeter is a unique place in the demands it puts on the kids and it’s important for us to understand what they’re going through,” Hudson says, “but it’s also important for them to understand what they need to do in season to balance their time between homework, practice, travel on weekends and taking care of their bodies. “They learn a lot of valuable lessons and we’ve been in the business long enough now that we get to see these great kids coming back and telling us how their wrestling experience helped them. That’s very rewarding.” Steve Cerrone ’16 says when he arrived at Exeter in 2014, he noticed a dramatic difference between the academy’s culture and what he had experienced for three years at his high school in Vermont. “It’s just obvious that hard work has been ingrained into every person here,” he says. “At this school, you know you can’t loaf around, whether you’re doing your school
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work or training, but it’s definitely expected in this program. You see it when you arrive and that’s what separates us from the other programs. “It’s not always enjoyable to be busting your butts, day in and day out, but that’s how everybody got to this school in the first place.” Exeter won its 13th New England title (also the most of any school) and placed 10th at nationals in 2015. With many key wrestlers returning this season, Hudson thought the team could improve on that showing, but the loss of a couple wrestlers to other schools and an injury to A.J. Pedro ’17 last winter left the team shorthanded and facing long odds. Pedro took third at nationals the previous season and won the New England Championships as a prep and lower. “A.J. is a big points scorer for us so it was definitely tough from the start,” Cerrone says. “I think everybody did a great job of stepping up from a big loss, but perseverance would be the best way to describe our team this year.” That perseverance was tested from the get-go after a rough showing at the St. Benedict’s Prep Tournament in Newark, New Jersey. “We felt well prepared going into this tournament,” Abrams says. “We were working hard every day at practice, hitting the weight room, and our technique was very sound. We were expecting to do well and it didn’t happen. “The good thing was that it definitely did refocus us and I think it also pulled the team together. We realized we had a lot more work to do and we were going to need everyone.” Exeter rolled through its dual meets; it won the Northern New England Tournament in Hyde, Maine, and it won the Class A meet to set up a rematch with Belmont Hill, which had defeated PEA at the Tabor Academy Duals. At the New England meet, Hayden Brown ’19 won the individual title at 106 pounds; Joe Rossetti ’17 won at 132; Abrams won at 152; and Cerrone captured the 170-pound title, but without Pedro there to tip the scales, Belmont Hill scored a 201-196.5 victory. “When they called our name for trophy as runner-up, I remember looking at our wrestlers and I was surprised at first to see everyone smiling and happy about what we had done,” Abrams says. “We had this miraculous season
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Above: Principal Lisa MacFarlane with the wrestling team during a home event. Left: Quinn Abrams wins the 2016 Ted Seabrooke Award at the Class A Tournament.
the year before where we won the Class A tournament, we won New Englands by a huge margin and then finished top 10 at nationals, but a lot of people left unsatisfied. “This year, we didn’t win New Englands or place top 10 at nationals but we were like such a family and it goes all the way back to that first tournament where we didn’t do well and had to pull together with everyone supporting each other.” The family atmosphere and a wealth of talent have Phillips Exeter Academy Hudson eager for next WRESTLING season, but he also admits to Class A Team Titles feeling wistful as he loses an 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1985, old friend, the Cage. 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, “That last practice 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 2000, before nationals was a very 2003, 2007, 2015, 2016 emotional practice for me,” he says. “When it ended, I New England Team Titles turned off the lights and just 1954, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1960, sat there for about an hour 1961-1980 (unknown), 1987, thinking about all the kids 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994, that came through that door 2001, 2015 and worked their butts off every day in that room. “When guys come back to visit, they walk in that room and a big smile comes on their face. It’s exactly how it always was, so it’s sad in a way to lose that part of our history. I could stay there for 20 or more years and be happy, but a lot of thought has gone into the design of the new place and we’re making sure we do it right. I’m sure it will be a special place, too.” E
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WINTER SPORTS
BOYS BASKETBALL RECORD: 18-6 QUALIFIED FOR NEPSAC CLASS A FINALS
Head Coach: Jay Tilton Assistant Coach: Rick Brault Captains: Perry DeLorenzo ’16, James Foye ’16, Max Kirsch ’16 MVPs: Perry DeLorenzo, James Foye, Max Kirsch
GIRLS SQUASH RECORD: 12-4
Head Coach: Fred Brussel Assistant Coaches: Mercy Carbonell, Bruce Shang Captains: Alix Hunter ’16, Josie Russ ’16 MVP: Eujung Park ’19
GIRLS ICE HOCKEY RECORD: 10-12-3
Head Coach: Melissa Pacific Assistant Coaches: Lee Young ’82, Tim Quint Captains: Allegra Grant ’16, Kirsten Nergaard ’16 MVPs: Dez DeSousa ’16, Allegra Grant
BOYS ICE HOCKEY RECORD: 26-4-1 QUALIFIED FOR NEW ENGLAND QUARTERFINALS
Head Coach: Dana Barbin Assistant Coaches: Bill Dennehy, Tim Mitropoulos ’10 Captains: Peter Christie ’16, Trevor Cosgrove ’16 MVPs: Trevor Cosgrove, Joey Lazzaro ’16
WRESTLING RECORD: 8-3 NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONS, CLASS A 2ND PLACE AT NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS
Head Coach: David Hudson Assistant Coaches: Bob Brown, Ted Davis Captains: Quinn Abrams ’17, Joey Rossetti ’17 MVP: Joey Rossetti
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TRACK AND WRESTLING PHOTOS BY RACHEL LUO ’17; A L L OT H E RS BY M I K E CATA N O.
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GIRLS BASKETBALL RECORD: 12-10 QUALIFIED FOR EIGHT SCHOOLS POSTSEASON TOURNAMENT
Head Coach: Ron Kim Assistant Coaches: Ellen Gunst, Jill Lyon ’09 Captain: Peace Kabari ’16 MVP: Peace Kabari
GIRLS A TENNIS RECORD: 4-5
Head Coach: Jean Chase Farnum Captains: Caroline Lu ’15, Dana Tung ’15 MVP: Dana Tung
GIRLS CREW RECORD: 3-7
Head Coach: Sally Morris Assistant Coach: Becky Moore Captains: Jeanne Olivier ’15, Zoë Sudduth ’15 MVP: Abby Scheetz ’15
WINTER TRACK RECORD: 3-2
Head Coach: Hilary Coder Assistant Coaches: Toyin AugustusIkwuakor, Hobart Hardej, Brandon Newbould, Kurt Prescott, Francis Ronan, Anisha Vinod Captains: Matthew Asante ’16, Bridget Higgins ’16, Chudi Ikpeazu ’16, Vincent Vaughns ’16 MVPs: Bridget Higgins, Vincent Vaughns
BOYS SQUASH RECORD: 10-7
Head Coach: Fred Brussel Assistant Coach: Paul Langford Captains: Will Ettinger ’16, Rex Tercek ’16 MVP: Michael Kacergis ’16
BOYS SWIMMING AND DIVING RECORD: 4-6 IN REGULAR SEASON DUAL MEETS
Head Coach: Don Mills Captains: Will Belmont ’16, Graham Hazlett ’16 MVP: Will Belmont
GIRLS SWIMMING AND DIVING RECORD: 5-4 IN REGULAR SEASON DUAL MEETS
Head Coach: Jean Chase Farnum Captains: Olivia Reed ’16, Stajz Saar ’16 MVP: Joyce Tseng ’16
NEXT-GEN MEDICINE MEET FIVE ALUMNI WHOSE SCIENCE IS SAVING LIVES BY DANEET STEFFENS ’82
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rom honing new therapies for cancer and developing vaccines against killer viruses to conducting lifesaving liver transplants and providing people with new limbs, Exeter alumni are among the current pioneers of medicine’s frontier. Across the board, their commitment to their science is palpable — and so is their commitment to people. What is most striking about each of these medical professionals is the passion they have for their day-to-day work, and the fact that it is their engagement with their patients that drives them to strive to do more — and to do it better — every day. ILLUSTRATION STUART BRADFORD
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“YOU ACHIEVE A MUCH GREATER DEPTH OF CARE ... WHEN YOU HAVE MULTIPLE MINDS WORKING TOGETHER ON SOMETHING.” —MATTHEW CARTY ’90
For Dr. Matthew Carty ’90, the director of the Lower Extremity Transplant Program in Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Division of Plastic Surgery and a plastic surgeon who happened to be on call during the Boston Marathon bombings, the innovative work he does centers on engaged collaboration. “Our team is focused on exploring ways that we can provide people with injured limbs the most functional outcome,” he explains. “That includes people whose limbs could be salvaged, as well as those that require amputation. Of those that require amputation, the question is, how do we rebuild those limbs? Do we do that through prosthesis, or some form of transplantation? “We are perpetually chasing the continuum of how we can provide patients with a more meaningful, functional limb solution, and we can customize that solution to each patient’s anatomy, their health profile, their level of motivation. What will they be willing to go through in order to get function back? We’re pushing multiple streams all at the same time, but part of the art of medicine is when you have several solutions available, being able to talk to your patient and get a sense of what’s the right solution for them.” And that, Carty says, is where a collaborative effort is so effective: “It is very rare these days for one person to be the sole architect of a care plan — especially when you’re talking about novel strategies. We benefit from pulling in people from various areas of expertise and coming up with coordinated solutions. You achieve a much greater depth of care and accomplishment when you have multiple minds working together on something. We aren’t pushing the boundary in that regard: I think we are
“WE NEED SOME KIND OF OVERSIGHT OR SYSTEM THAT SERVES THE PATIENTS’ INTERESTS BETTER ... .” —CHARLES ROSEN ‘77
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in the same tidal surge as the rest of the profession — everything is moving more and more to a team-based approach — but it’s exciting to be going with that current.” Where they are pushing boundaries is by investigating the possibilities of merging two surgical approaches: rebuilding limbs biologically, using transplant tissues, and rebuilding limbs using electronics and advanced prosthesis, aka “the bionic model.” “Until now, those two approaches have been seen as dichotomous, but increasingly there’ll be an integration of synthetic and biologic,” Carty says. “The solution 10 years from now, in terms of giving somebody back a fully meaningful hand or fully meaningful leg, will be something that involves a combination of transplanted muscle while also maybe having some kind of a technological core inside that.” There are limitations to each of the dichotomous technologies so far: Over time, a person with a transplanted limb will usually recover sensation, but a hand, for example, will never move completely normally — or, as Carty puts it, “they’re not going to be able to play guitar in a really dexterous way.” Prosthetics provide fine motor activity, but aren’t currently capable of restoring sensation. A successful combination of the two, Carty says, would be a hybrid solution, a combination of “the biologic and the technologic that would really capitalize on the strengths of each.”
TARGETING CARE
“THE TRIALS THAT WE’RE DOING NOW ARE CURING AT LEAST 50 PERCENT OF THE PATIENTS. THAT’S JUST ... WILD.”
A similar patient-based approach led Dr. York Miller ’68 into his specialty. He started practicing as a pulmonary doctor at the University of Colorado, but kept coming across cases of lung cancer. “I thought, ‘I should probably be working on —CONNIE TRIMBLE ’80 something that I see a lot of,’ ” he recalls. “So I just kind of followed my nose.” Today, among other lung cancer-focused projects, Miller is pursuing a second trial of a promising treatment that may prevent such cancers. “It’s a drug that’s an analog of a natural compound called prostacyclin,” he says. “We found that in mice, an overexpression of prostacyclin protects them from lung cancer. And then we did a trial in humans with an oral compound that’s similar, and found that it decreased some of the damage in the airways from smoking that is thought to link to lung cancer. So we’re now doing a second trial with a new form of that drug, an inhaled form that would get a higher concentration of the drug delivered to the lung. We’re actually at the stage now of comparing the drug to placebo and looking to see if it’s tolerable and if people will use it — some people might find using an inhaler more clunky than taking a pill. And we’re also looking at some early outcomes, whether it reverses some of the early damage that you see in the airways from smoking, like the pill form did.” The truly jaw-dropping part of this story is that the original discovery of prostacyclin as a possible chemoprevention of lung cancer was entirely accidental: “We made a mouse with an overexpression of this molecule in its lung for one purpose,” Miller says, “but then it turned out through another experiment that the mouse was very resistant to cancer, so we’ve taken it from there.” That sort of serendipitous discovery happens quite often, Miller notes — pointing to Alexander Fleming’s discovery of
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penicillin as one example — but, he adds, researchers, doctors and scientists have to be open to it. Miller is also working on identifying various biomarkers, including tests of blood, exhaled breath and sputum, that will allow doctors to assess the outcomes of CT scans of lungs more effectively: “If you have a CT scan that shows a nodule, then the biomarker could help you figure out what to do about it, whether to just keep an eye on it, or take the patient into surgery.” That careful attention to divining the best and safest care possible for his patients rings loud and clear in what has been — and remains — a lifelong commitment to medicine on Miller’s part. But when asked about what Exeter has given him in terms of life lessons, he pivots to his English classes and the “THESE ARE THE writing skills he honed while at the GROUNDBREAKING school. “As someone who funds their research by writing grants,” he says, VIRUSES. WE’RE STILL “I have to be able to explain things TRYING TO FIGURE clearly to people and in a way that gets them excited. It’s a critical part OUT HOW TO PROTECT of my job.” OURSELVES FROM THEM.” As for his crystal ball, Miller sees a trend toward more individually —MARY CLAIRE WALSH ’03 targeted treatments for lung cancer patients. “That’s where oncology and medicine are going,” he says, “despite the drug companies’ desire to market and sell to a wide audience. You have to be able to pick the right drug for the right person.”
ADVANCING TRANSPLANTS
Dr. Charles Rosen ’77, a liver, kidney, and pancreas transplant surgeon at the Mayo Clinic, echoes that level of dedication when he addresses the health care reimbursement model, currently largely based on fee-for-service: Physicians and hospitals get paid for what they do, not for how well they do it. “What is completely missing and really needs to come into major focus is not just accurately diagnosing problems affecting our patients, but whether or not we provide the most appropriate therapy,” he says. “If somebody comes to me with a bile duct cancer and I were to recommend a transplant but they could have been treated by a resection with equal results, the transplant is associated with much greater reimbursement than the resection, but the resection would have been the more appropriate therapy for the patient. We need some kind of oversight or system that serves the patients’ interests better, that ensures they are actually getting the most appropriate therapy.” Among the many challenges for Rosen as a surgeon is that obesity-related liver disease is on the rise, limiting the number of viable, transplantable livers. Also, he says, “We see patients with fatty-liver disease whose obesity is a challenge to them receiving a transplant. We are now combining liver transplantation with a bariatric procedure — an operation on the stomach during the same time as the liver transplant — to help patients lose weight after transplantation. That’s one of the new things we are doing at the Mayo Clinic with excellent results.” Still, a lack of livers remains a difficult problem to overcome. “We just don’t have
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“THAT’S WHERE ONCOLOGY AND MEDICINE ARE GOING. ... YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO PICK THE RIGHT DRUG FOR THE RIGHT PERSON.” —YORK MILLER ’68
enough livers for everybody who needs them,” Rosen says. “One of the greatest advances is living-donor liver transplantation: We take up to 70 percent of a healthy person’s liver and use that as a graft for a transplant liver.” Rosen always wanted to be a surgeon — “I liked working with my hands when I was a child; I used to put together a lot of models” — and liver transplantation was growing in popularity as he was finishing his surgery residency. “I found, and still find, the challenge of liver transplantation exciting: from controlling bleeding during the operation to the size range of vessels that we have to sew back together. It’s about the most technically challenging operation that we do.” Rosen developed a strong interest in physiology as a student in Andrew Polychronis’ Introductory Biology class at Exeter, but Rosen credits water polo coach Roger Nekton for his precision-prepared approach to surgery: “Coach Nekton drilled us to death. We knew exactly what to do every time the ball was put in play; if someone took a shot at our goal, we knew to break for the other goal. We were just drilled and drilled and drilled, and as a result we would win games by very lopsided scores. We were prepared to do whatever we needed to do in any given situation. That was probably the biggest lesson in my life to prepare me for a career in surgery. That’s how I operate: I prepare myself by drilling through every portion of the operation so that it becomes second nature.” Other options for alleviating the organ donor shortage border on the stuff of science fiction to the novice’s ear, like the development of artificial livers or bioartificial livers that might keep people with acute liver failure alive long enough to receive a transplant. “That’s happening now,” Rosen assures. “There are several devices under development and we’ve completed a trial of one already. Liver cell transplantation, where we could correct metabolic defects, is also on the horizon.”
HARNESSING THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
Also on the cell-related level, Dr. Connie Liu Trimble ’80 has been winning plaudits for her work creating immune responses in humans that kill precancers caused by human papillomavirus (HPV). Trimble, who will be receiving Exeter’s John Phillips Award this October in recognition of her medical achievements, double majored in civil engineering and Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She also earned a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, but was in search of “something concrete — I wanted to know at the end of the day whether I’d done something useful.” She was inspired by Dr. J. Donald Woodruff, a professor of gynecologic pathology and gynecology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. “He did two things,” she says. “He looked at slides — he was a pathologist — and he was also a clinician; he took care of patients. So when he looked at slides he looked at them differently than other pathologists, because he understood what was going on with the patients. Conversely when he took care of the patients, he really understood what was going on in their tissue. —continued on page 102
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hether or not Exeter, New Hampshire, is the bona fide “birthplace of the Republican Party” — Ripon, Wisconsin, and Jackson, Michigan also claim this birthright — this much is indisputable: Every four years presidential candidates descend on the town as they rush to get that all-important party win in the nation’s first presidential primary. And that means that Exonians — Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians and everything in between — can get an up-close-and-personal look at the democratic process in action. It’s a unique learning opportunity and, for at least some students, can help shape the way they think about citizen participation in general and politics in particular. “Exeter itself fosters a great deal of intellectual discussion,” says senior Lucy Weiler, who made some headlines herself at the Donald Trump rally in Exeter Town Hall right before the primary (more on this later). “Having an ability to assemble and the administration [willing] to let that happen makes a difference.”
Y FEVER LIVING CIVICS THE EXETER WAY BY JANET REYNOLDS
JACKIE WEATHERSPOON
(Above left) Exeter Political Union adviser and History Department Chair Bill Jordan. (Left) Democratic Club members with Hillary Clinton at Water Street Bookstore last summer. (Above right) Exonians getting a taste of the primary season at a Marco Rubio rally this winter.
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Alexis Simpson, a dorm parent, a former Religion Department teacher, and herself one of four state representatives for the Town of Exeter, also sees Exeter’s temporary place in the epicenter of the presidential primary universe as a wonderful learning opportunity. “It can be an all-consuming life for all who live here,” she says, “so the challenge is for the students to engage beyond the Exeter community. Their work in the political process gives them a chance to do that. “The boundaries are fluid. They can be citizens of the Exeter community and citizens of the state,” adds Simpson, whose husband, Tom, teaches in the Academy’s Religion Department. “They can begin to grow into their power as part of the democratic process. They are living civics.” Eager to proclaim their views from a place whose history is steeped in politics, most candidates include the town on their whistle-stop tours. This year alone, Exeter Town Hall hosted Republican candidates Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, George Pataki (who announced his doomed candidacy in the town hall), Carly Fiorina, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders and former President Bill Clinton, campaigning on behalf of his wife, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, have also graced the stage.
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“IT CHANGES THE GAME FOR STUDENTS TO ENGAGE IN THE POLITICAL PROCESS. IT MADE A DIFFERENCE IN MY CONFIDENCE.” —Lucy Weiler
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Clinton’s appearance likely had a bit of a nostalgic feel for the former president. It was after the New Hampshire primary in 1992, when he came in second to former Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas but did better than expected, that he declared himself the “Comeback Kid.” The 2008 New Hampshire primary is also where Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign got a boost after she lost in the Iowa caucuses to Barack Obama and John Edwards. The Academy has benefited as well from candidates’ eagerness to orate in the town. Many major presidential candidates have spoken at the school over the years, starting in 1860 when soon-to-be president Abraham Lincoln visited his son, Robert Todd, while he was a student. Lincoln, who was sworn in days later, gave a speech in Exeter Town Hall during the visit. The school’s location just a short walk from the town hall makes it easy for Exonians to join the many rallies held at the hall. And with a presidential race that at one point included 17 Republican hopefuls alone, the rallies and opportunities to participate in the 2016 political process have been higher than perhaps ever before. Say what you will about the 2016 presidential race, it has not been dull.
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eiler, who will vote in her first general election in November, organized a protest against Trump, gathering 25-30 students and providing resources to make signs. The idea was to stand outside with the signs, which, Weiler says, denounced “Trump’s hateful rhetoric more than Trump himself.” At a certain point, however, Weiler decided to go inside. And that’s when things got interesting for Weiler and a couple of other Exeter students, one of whom was prep Gillian Quinto. After Trump spoke for a while, he opened the floor to questions. Trump called on Quinto, who is from California. “It was the first question,” she recalls. “I started by saying I was from Southern California. He cut me off. ‘Are you one of those liberal Democrats?’ he says. The whole crowd laughed. “I tried to continue. I am friends with illegal immigrants. I know what impact they have on our economy,” Quinto says, noting she wanted to ask him about how he would handle this economic reality if he actually followed through on his promise to deport people living in the country illegally. “He cut me off,” Quinto continues. “‘I think I know what you want to ask,’ he says.” Trump accused Quinto of being a Sanders plant. “Who told you to be here? Bernie?” he can be heard asking her in one of many YouTube videos that recorded the event. “Then a girl behind me yells, ‘Immigrants are the backbone of our economy!’” Quinto says. What she didn’t realize was that the girl was Weiler. At that point point, Trump turned his attention to Weiler, asking her what she yelled. “Immigrants are the backbone of our economy,” she repeated. Trump quickly denounced her comment, adamantly distinguishing between legal and illegal immigration while referring to
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“I’VE BEEN EXPOSED TO SUCH BRILLIANT MINDS WITH RESPECT TO POLITICS IN MY FOUR YEARS [HERE] — IN THE CLASSROOM AND THE [REPUBLICAN] CLUB...”
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—Lily Friedberg
Weiler a few times as “darling.” Trump moved on to other questions. But the civics lesson is very much alive for Weiler as she recounts what she learned from attending this event. Trump’s attitude toward her aside, Weiler recognizes how fortunate she was to participate so fully. “It changes the game for students to engage in the political process,” Weiler says. “It made a difference in my confidence.” Quinto agrees. In addition to the Trump rally, she also attended Cruz and Rubio rallies at Exeter Town Hall. She had wanted to get into the Sanders and Clinton events as well but had scheduling conflicts. “I thought it would be interesting to see the differences between each of the candidates in person and in their rallies,” she says. Quinto, who is a member of the Democratic Club at Exeter, contrasted the Trump rally to those of the other two then-leading Republican candidates, Cruz and Rubio. “Rubio really played off the audience,” she says. “He was very in tune with his audience which I thought was amazing. He’s a great public speaker.” While Quinto says her family discusses politics at home, this is the first time she’s attended rallies. Living in California limits her access to Republican candidates, she says, because so much of the state traditionally votes Democratic. “Being in New Hampshire at the beginning of the presidential race, it’s a very political atmosphere,” she says “And then having an opportunity to hear all these people speak, that’s a cool thing.”
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an Nazer ’16, whose experience living in America began at Exeter, has found experiencing American politics firsthand fascinating. Nazer, who started a new contemporary Middle East/Islamic club on campus this year called Baraka — it means blessing in Arabic — says the Trump rally, at which she also protested, was the first time she had participated in any political event. “I learned that democracy is very very messy,” she says. “I’m seeing how the process works, how it’s televised. Then to be part of a protest — it has opened my eyes to how this all works.” This opportunity, she says, is an extension of what she’s experiencing on campus. “There is a lot of discussion about politics at Exeter,” she says. “Lately people have been complaining about how it’s very liberal and those with other opinions don’t have a platform to express their views. But that’s changed [recently].” Nazer cites panels on diversity of free speech and more assemblies featuring conservative speakers as examples. “I think that’s important,” says Nazer, who will vote in her first general election in the U.S. this year. “I may not agree with what they have to say, but I think it’s nice to see a perspective different from my own.” Quinto agrees that politics is a hot topic at Exeter in general. “The school itself is very politically charged,” she says. “We have an anonymous Facebook forum called Exeter Confesses where
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“YOU CAN TELL A LOT MORE ABOUT [SOMEONE] IN PERSON RATHER THAN IN AN ARTICLE. ... I’M GETTING TO HEAR SOME OF THE CANDIDATES FOR THE FUTURE NOW.” —Taylor Robertson
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people can post things. There are very heated political arguments on there. If you’re just walking around, you could hear people discussing politics at the table next to you. It’s omnipresent.” While other Exonians may have had more traditional experiences at the rallies they attended, they echo Quinto’s thoughts about the school’s overall opportunities to explore politics both on campus and in town. Taylor Robertson ’19, a member of the Republican Club, went to both the Trump and Sanders rallies. He also went with the club to a meeting with Jeb Bush at a senator’s house. Robertson, who calls himself more conservative than liberal, waited in line for two hours to get into the Trump rally. Two days later, he listened to Sanders. Both experiences were eye-opening. “Hearing Trump say something in person is different. You can tell a lot more about [someone] in person rather than through an article,” he says. “There were things I didn’t realize Bernie had views about. It was great to hear him.” And while many 15-year-olds are giving this year’s election only a passing glance, Robertson figures he’s getting a head start for when he will be eligible to vote. “I’m getting to hear some of the candidates for the future now.” As co-head of the Political Union, the Political Review and the Democratic Socialists Club, senior Michael Shao is a bit of a political junkie. He’s attended a number of political events in his years at Exeter, including rallies for Trump, Bush, Paul, John McCain and Sanders. “By living in NewHampshire and in Exeter, the town where the Republican Party was founded, all the politicans come here,” he says. “So if you live in New Hampshire, that is kind of a privilege. It’s a shame if you don’t take advantage of the fact to see these people.” Shao loves the diversity of options Exeter has presented him while a student. “Exeter is openly political,” he says. “It allows kids to explore where they are in the spectrum. I’m a pragmatic libertarian, which is further to the right, yet I’m one of the co-heads of the Democratic Socialists Club, which has endorsed Sanders. That’s as far left as it can go. I can lead a club I don’t necessarily agree with.” It’s a mindset that faculty like History Instructor Bill Jordan P’12, P’17, P’17 can appreciate. “One of the sad things is how people are increasingly disengaged in the political process,” he says. “Back in the day, in the 19th century, 80 percent of [eligible voters] voted. Parties organized fun things.” Some of those events, Jordan notes, probably shouldn’t be re-created; alcohol, for instance, figured heavily in many 19th-century political events. “But if you can make politics social and create fun things, that’s what people get engaged in. People come together around their candidate.” At 19 years and counting as an Exeter faculty member, Jordan sees firsthand the value Exonians gain participating in presidential primaries. “Nationally, not many schools get this kind of a chance. We’re lucky Exeter has this town so concentrated around the middle. Kids can walk to houses [to drop leaflets] from campus.”
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“IT’S A VERY POLITICAL ATMOSPHERE ... AND HAVING AN OPPORTUNITY TO HEAR ALL THESE PEOPLE SPEAK, THAT’S A COOL THING.”
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—Gillian Quinto
Jordan has helped with the leaflet drop for years and loves the tradition. Students get up around 5 a.m. and gather at the alumni office. “We provide coffee and doughnuts and drive the kids to put leaflets on people’s doors reminding them to vote,” he says, recalling certain years when it was snowy and the roads were slippery. “It’s an Exeter tradition. I’m not sure how far back it goes. “All this stuff is so great,” he continues, “because it’s exposing kids to [it] and getting them involved in the political process.”
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uggling the onslaught of student requests to miss class to attend the multitude of presidential candidate visits in the weeks before the New Hampshire primary can be challenging in a typical election year, says Dean of Residential Life AJ Cosgrove. This year’s election, which has been high on spectacle, only multiplied that challenge. “Every time we have an election cycle, it does present some challenges,” Cosgrove says. “Trump raised the interest in politics more than you’re accustomed to. It’s been consistent with what’s going around the country. “Our decision to allow some of the students to attend rallies is not a variation from our normal policies,” he says, noting students can petition to miss a required appointment for something that’s a long-standing commitment or a unique educational opportunity. The petitioning process typically takes about 10 days. The challenge with a presidential campaign is that candidates may announce a visit only days before the actual rally. “[The Trump visit] came up quickly so students were not as prepared,” he says, noting everyone learned of it late in the week before the planned event. The deans met and decided to allow a shorter time frame for the petitioning process; they would expedite any requests handed in by end of day Monday. They did this, Cosgrove says, assuming they would receive perhaps half a dozen. “By end of day there were 40-50 petitions,” he says. “That was unexpected on our end. And maybe another couple hundred students who chose not to go to class or who didn’t have class anyways. It was an event people were compelled to go to.” Cosgrove cites his son, who is 18, as just one example of why the school worked hard to enable students to experience the Trump rally in particular firsthand. “He was eight rows in at the Trump campaign,” he says. “He was motivated because of what he heard. I think a lot of kids felt that way. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” Cosgrove admits it was not a decision that was universally popular with the faculty, however. “It is challenging. Our decision was not without some criticism, which is totally fine,” he says. “Your presence at the table is crucial. If some students are missing, it can have a disabling effect. It’s a challenge to make the decision we feel is the right one for our students and faculty trying to do the job in the classroom.” —continued on page 103
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STUDENT-DRIVEN EXHIBITION EXPLORES ISSUES OF IDENTITY AND AWARENESS COMPILED BY GENNY BECKMAN MORIARTY
“What is it like to be _________ at Exeter?” That was the driving question behind “We All Bleed Red,” a unique student-led project during winter term that combined the arts with social activism. Presenting visual and textual works of art by Exeter students, the exhibit was displayed in the Academy Building basement adjacent to the Lamont Gallery. The project was born out of senior Kevin Zhen’s desire to make an impact on the community that he refers to as a “second home.” He lit upon the notion of using shared stories as a way to overcome cultural barriers and create a sense of belonging for students within Exeter’s diverse community. The idea resonated with his friends, Carissa Chen ’17 and Pranay Vemulamada ’16, who helped him to flesh out a plan and bring the project to life. In her introductory remarks at the opening reception for “We All Bleed Red,” Chen — an award-winning artist whose own work often explores issues of social justice — spoke about the power of art, language and stories to “foster empathy and promote acceptance.” The trio felt the project was a chance to harness that power in a singular way. “Art exhibitions offer a unique sense of community, celebration and intimacy. When Kevin approached me with the original concept, I thought it sounded like an amazing way to celebrate both our diversity and collective identity as Exonians,” Chen explains. Organized around programming for Exeter’s MLK Day, the exhibit was part of an ongoing initiative by the Lamont Gallery to combine the arts with social awareness. Recent projects include “Graphic Advocacy: International Posters for the Digital Age 2001-2012,” a traveling collection of posters designed to inspire social change. On view in the Lamont Gallery this spring is the student-curated “Change Agents: Personal Art as Political Tactic,” featuring socially and politically engaged works from 40 contemporary artists. Read more about these exhibits at www.exeter.edu/lamontgallery.
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“Speechless” Megan Smith ’16 I took this photo the day after a close family friend died. I was shocked into silence. Not knowing how to express in words what I was feeling, I turned to photography. I’ve grown with the image, and now it represents to me each word that goes unspoken due to my own fears and griefs.
“Carissa Wading in Waters” Carissa Chen ’17 This painting [is] in response to the fear I often carry while I’m at Exeter and loved ones back home are sick. The self-portrait was created after a close friend back home was diagnosed with cancer. Although I originally wanted to paint her, she asked not to be photographed and so I decided instead to paint a selfportrait of my experience watching her in pain. In this self-portrait, I use cool colors and dark tones to create the sense of weight. The jar I’m holding looks reminiscent of a funeral urn, and when she looks at her reflection in the rising water, her face is obscured or missing.
“Toni” Excerpted from “Political Perspectives,” a series of interviews conducted by Pranay Vemulamada ’16 and Kevin Zhen ’16 “I don’t believe in certainty. I don’t believe in having inflexible political views — I tend to keep an open mind. And you know what most motivates me in any type of political/ideological discussion is trying to question things — like look, there might be a different way to look at [this]. And sometimes that puts me in a position in which I end up opposing people of liberal points of view, and sometimes I end up opposing people with conservative points of view, and I’m not really sure where I stand on these issues — I just want [people] to have an open mind to the other side of the discussion.” – Antonio Silveira Guanaes Gomes ’16. Photo by Zhen.
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“Days of Dew” Nada Zohayr ’17 In this piece, two hands are being displayed in front of a blue background. The left hand is adorned with bracelets and nail polish while the right is decorated in henna and is holding prayer beads. The blue background holds the text of Arabic poems written in both their traditional Arabic and in translated English. As a Middle Eastern woman growing up in America, my options are limited. I can either be the loud American or the devoted Muslim. If I choose one, I am shunned away by my family and the rich culture that has raised me. If I choose the other, I am labeled as “oppressed” and “backward” by the society of the country that I love. … I have not found the perfect medium. … But I am still looking.
“Untitled” Cam Rider ’16 Finding true success in today’s society has become about as difficult as mastering modern archery. The pursuit of prosperity now requires a nearly unparalleled level of skill and experience. … Except there’s always something you can’t account for. Just when you think that the world is in your hands, some force of probability, a gust of wind or an involuntary twitch of muscle, sends your arrow clattering against the rocks or buries it inches-deep into a tree trunk. … Either way, you haven’t just lost that aluminum, plastic-feathered projectile — you’ve lost your life. … Perhaps there’s another alternative, to stop now. You can’t control the forces of nature or predict every aspect of the future, so why would you? You have yourself — the most powerful machine in the universe, as far as you know or care — and a mind that can control time.
“Grassroots” CooXooEii Black ’16 I love the serendipity of photography. [The series of photos that I submitted to this exhibit] were taken in the Denver area. I just walked the streets and found inspiration in what I saw. ... The photo of the lady smoking is my grandma at a family barbecue. I carried my camera and took pictures, trying to capture the essence and beauty of these moments. E
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WHAT GREW … ARE THE GERMS OF WHAT EXETER COULD LOOK LIKE IN FIVE, 10 OR 20 YEARS.
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CONNECTIONS
News and notes from the alumni community
Strategic Planning Update By Principal Lisa MacFarlane, on behalf of the Steering Committee
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hat defines a “big idea”? And how big is “big” when we consider Exeter’s future — when we think about the power of the Deed of Gift in an era marked not only by shifting demographics but also the speed of digital evolution, increasing global interconnectedness, and the consequent impact on human interaction? These questions, among others, shaped the discussions of four strategic planning working groups that met during winter and spring terms to imagine the Exeter of tomorrow. The cross-campus cohort of 41 faculty, staff and trustee members were organized based on key phrases from the Deed of Gift: “the great end and real business of living”; “youth from every quarter”; “usefulness to mankind”; and “goodness without knowledge is weak and feeble….” Each group framed its work around a list of critical issues defined by the Trustees, faculty, staff and students. These issues, which are considered essential components in moving Exeter forward, include broad-ranging themes such as community well-being, educational excellence, diversity, environmental sustainability, engagement, the creation of a more developmentally-intentional residential experience, and the school’s identity. What grew from the weekly working group meetings, and in concert with larger faculty-wide discussions and all-staff sessions, are the germs of what Exeter could look like in five, 10 or 20 years. These emergent big ideas — from a Harkness Institute for Learning to a reorganization of the curriculum around “learning lenses” and portfolio work — move beyond the constrictions of class schedules and traditional departmental structures and consider an Exeter education in a more expansive, holistic manner. Our work is ongoing and there will no doubt be more ideas that form in the coming months. Part of that work belongs to you, if you choose. We cannot imagine the Exeter of tomorrow without hearing from those who know the school best, our alumni. This summer, Exeter will send a survey to alumni to ask you to weigh in about what makes Exeter great now, and what could make it greater in the future, as well as potential challenges to achieving that vision. In the meantime, if you have ideas to share, please email strategicplanning@ exeter.edu. We will share the survey with you in the next few months. E
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C O N N ECT I O N S
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B O B D O D S O N ’4 3
Trailblazing the Antarctic
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By Genny Beckman Moriarty
eated in an Exeter restaurant, Bob Dodson ’43 sips his hot chocolate on a cold day in January and smiles. “As an explorer, this is what I would have offered to visitors — tea and hot chocolate,” he says. “We had tight rations, but hot chocolate was one of our staples.” Nearly 70 years ago, Dodson spent 11 months exploring Antarctica as one of the youngest members of an expedition led by Norwegian-American Finn Ronne. He served as supply officer, lead dog team driver and assistant geologist for Ronne, whose team discovered a previously unseen area the size of Texas using aerial photography. Dodson’s first taste of adventure came during his lower year at Exeter. Suffering from melancholy in the cold northeast following a summer spent with his family in sunny California, he begged to go home. His mother persuaded him to stay until Christmas — a decision that proved momentous. “In October, I heard about an English teacher who took boys [to] climb [on] cliffs,” he says, “and I learned that adventure can be an antidote for depression.” Bob Bates ’29, world-renowned climber and Mountaineering Club adviser, became one of Dodson’s best friends, and the skills and experience Dodson learned on their outings led to bigger adventures. In the summer of 1942, he worked as a messenger in the Navy Department in Washington, D.C. There he bumped into a naval officer who had teamed up with famed explorer Admiral Richard E. Byrd. “He told me he wanted to do an expedition of his own one day — and he needed young people to do the grunt work!” Dodson says with a laugh. That man, Finn Ronne, put together the final private expedition to Antarctica. When both his aerial photographer and the senior geologist backed out at the last minute, Dodson, who had stayed in touch with Ronne, helped find their replacements — and secured a place for himself on the team. They set sail in January of 1947. The academic dean at Harvard University, where Dodson was a senior, allowed him to take his final exams en route. Six weeks after returning them by registered mail from the Panama
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Canal Zone, he received a wireless message telling him he had graduated cum laude. The Antarctic expedition was at times grueling. Dodson and his mates faced extreme cold, high winds and the never-ending darkness of polar winter. “Antarctica at that time was largely undiscovered,” he says. “No aircraft had ever flown to the continent; only ships could pass through.” A lifetime later, he can still recall what it felt like on surveying flights [in a small plane carried over in pieces on a seagoing tug boat] to “look out ... on something no one had never seen.” The team alleviated feelings of isolation by cooperating closely with a team of British researchers who had a station nearby. During the winter months, the two groups were the most southerly people in the world, and Dodson spent a lot of time with the sled dogs. In midwinter (July in Antarctica), Dodson and a friend were tasked with installing a weather station on the nearby continental plateau. His mountaineering experience meant Dodson was the de facto leader. The sudden arrival of blizzard conditions demanded a speedy retreat back to camp through a dangerous crevasse area, where they paused to get compass bearings. As Dodson knelt to tie his boot, his companion walked past and fell into a deep crevasse. He miraculously survived the fall despite a long wait for rescue, but Dodson says, “I labored for years with regret. … I never would have stopped there without ropes if it weren’t an emergency.” Setting his cocoa down on the table, and reflecting on the thrill of discovery, the explorer recalls John Keats’ “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer,” a poem he first read around the Harkness table: “Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He star’d at the Pacific …” E Read Bob Dodson’s account of the crevasse fall incident in the The Polar Times November 2014 issue, available at www.exeter.edu/bulletinextras.
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W E R T E N B E L L A M Y ’8 2
The Key to Success
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hat makes a successful lawyer? As a young attorney, first as an associate at Kutak Rock LLP in Washington, D.C., and then as an in-house lawyer at Merck & Co. in New Jersey, Werten Bellamy ’82 pondered that question. He observed some common traits in the higher-ups at these organizations. Certainly talent mattered. Ambition helped. But some people with both of those qualities succeeded, while others did not. Curious — and motivated to figure out how to further his career — Werten developed Charting Your Own Course, a career conference directed to identifying the secrets of workplace performance. “I had joined the law department as a low-ranking lawyer,” Bellamy explains. “Frankly, I knew very little about how to progress, so I thought I would create a conference populated by senior attorneys who had figured that out.” During the first conference in 1998, Bellamy identified a key to success, the secret sauce to climbing the law firm or corporate ladder. It was simple, really. “In a large, intense organization,” he says, “everything one needs to succeed is forged in the crucible of relationships.” He realized that having deep and meaningful connections was the one thing that separated those who rose fastest from those who did not. With his newfound insight, Bellamy moved into positions of increasing responsibility at Merck, Genetics Institute, Inc., and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. He then spent several years as general counsel at Celera Genomics, the biotech company credited with sequencing the human genome. In 2007 Bellamy became so committed to his realization that he left the corporate law track to start Stakeholders, Inc., a company that provides training and conference resources “to help people take deliverable steps to build productive relationships inside and outside the workplace.” He didn’t have a business plan. He had no entrepreneurial experience — but he did have a wife and growing family! Also, a passion. Today, Stakeholders, Inc., based in Williamsburg, Virginia, trains 12,000 lawyers each year. Bellamy is on the road almost half the time conducting live training sessions. The business has grown entirely by word of mouth, as Bellamy believes that “the most credible source of referral is someone whose judgment you trust.”
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COURTESY I.U. ROBERT H. MCKINNEY SCHOOL OF LAW
By Lynn Horowitch ’81
In building the business, Bellamy relied on his experiences at Exeter and in the military. “PEA taught us to look for what can be learned from our environment,” he says. “It taught me that one can learn from everybody.” He attended Princeton on a ROTC scholarship and served as an Army officer on reserve duty for eight years. In that capacity, he conducted training on how to detonate mines for those about to be deployed in Operation Desert Storm. He reflects, “I do think knowing how to learn in difficult learning environments is an important asset and a value not to be assumed.” And has he taken his own advice? Bellamy shares, “My North Star is an Exeter guy!” He met Robert Gerrard ’70 at a meeting of the General Alumni Association at Exeter about 18 years ago. Their relationship has deepened over the years, and Bellamy doesn’t make important decisions without first conferring with Gerrard: “Aside from my parents and my wife, he’s my number one go-to person.” Bellamy has written a book, The Path to Indispensable: The Junior Associate. He has won several professional and civic honors, including the National Bar Association’s Chairman’s Award. All because, as he says, he’s discovered “an incredibly powerful asset that’s easy to overlook.” He continues, “We spend so much time on self-development, but not on relationship development. At some point, the inability to build relationships worthy of loyalty becomes consequential.” Bellamy concludes, “We’re wired for self-development and don’t recognize that we need relationships, for strength of advocacy, for resilience, for mapping a path forward, and for fun!” E
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S A R A J A N E H O ’0 3
Modern-day Etiquette
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By Lori Ferguson
hinese women are experiencing a great deal of inner conflict these days. Two thousand years of Confucian philosophy has guided them in their role as noble protectors of the home, but with China’s headlong plunge into a globalized economy, they’re now being called upon to contribute outside the home as well. Mao Tse-tung famously remarked that, “Women hold up half the sky,” observes Sara Jane Ho ’03. This visionary young entrepreneur is determined to teach them to do so with grace and style. Ho is the founder of Institute Sarita, China’s first highend boutique finishing school, which opened in Beijing in March 2013 and added a second location in Shanghai in May 2015. A native of Hong Kong fluent in five languages, Ho earned degrees in English and government from Georgetown University. She began her career in investment banking in New York City, then moved to Beijing to work in business development and fundraising for Wokai, a nonprofit dedicated to helping the poor in rural China. In 2012 Ho returned to the States to pursue a master’s at Harvard Business School. After completing her MBA in 2012, she spent the summer in Switzerland, earning a diploma in International Etiquette and Protocol. “Although I’ve always loved etiquette and the act of bringing people together, I was planning to return to my nonprofit work in microfinance after completing my diploma,” Ho says. “But as I made my way through the course, I felt like I was learning something meaningful and began to think I could share the lessons with others.” The Chinese elite are becoming more global, she notes. Many are working abroad or sending their children to boarding schools in other countries and they want to be prepared for what they’ll encounter. So when Ho returned to Hong Kong, she shared with her father her idea for opening a finishing school in China. “He told me that the time was right and that if anyone could do it, I could,” she recalls. “His support has been invaluable.” Ho and her team educate their clientele — exclusively women, 80 percent of whom are in their 30s and 40s — through two main courses: the Hostess Course (for married women) and the Debutante Course (for single
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women). Course content covers the gamut of high-end etiquette, from international social and business customs to table manners, conversational do’s and don’ts, and floral art and table decoration. Each course lasts 10 days, though students do not complete it all at once. Instead, Ho explains, they typically attend the Institute two days per month, returning home to absorb what they’ve learned and practice their skills in the interim. Admission is expensive; each course costs $16,000. “We’re serving the elite of the elite, the most affluent women in China,” Ho explains. “Our students travel to Beijing and Shanghai from all over China and Taiwan to attend the courses, and our goal is to provide them with the knowledge and experience to feel at ease, whether hosting a black-tie affair or sitting in the front row at an haute couture show.” In addition to the core curriculum of most finishing schools, Ho also innovated completely new courses based on her clients’ needs, such as Pronunciation of Foreign Luxury Brands. “Our clients are buying designer products, and we want them to know, for example, that Hermès is pronounced ‘Er-mez’ not ‘Her-mees,’” Ho says. Another course, Introduction to Expensive Sports, educates clientele on such sports as tennis, skiing and equestrian events, which are relatively new to the Chinese. Feedback from graduates has been overwhelmingly positive. One student, whose company serves many German clients, has realized a positive impact on her bottom line since enrolling at the Institute. “It’s incredibly rewarding to empower contemporary Chinese women,” Ho concludes. “I’m delighted to play a role in helping them become modern-day citizens of the world.” E
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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? THE ANJA S. GREER CONFERENCE ON MATHEMATICS AND TECHNOLOGY
THE BIOLOGY INSTITUTE AT EXETER
THE EXETER HUMANITIES INSTITUTE
THE WRITERS’ WORKSHOP AT EXETER THE REX A. MCGUINN CONFERENCE ON SHAKESPEARE THE EXETER DIVERSITY INSTITUTE THE ENVIRONMENTAL LITERATURE INSTITUTE AT EXETER (NEW IN 2016)
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.
Next-Gen Medicine
—continued from page 35
I just thought, ‘Oh! I want to do that! That’s really cool!’ ” The therapeutic clinical trials Trimble is conducting, testing ways to cure preinvasive HPV disease, work with a tidy one-two punch: “We not only have to make an immune response, we also have to tell it where to go. Right now, when we diagnose pre-invasive HPV disease, we do a surgery to remove it; it would be really nice to have a treatment option that didn’t have to do with cutting something off of you — that’s the immediate benefit. And we’re doing that! The trials that we’re doing now are curing at least 50 percent of the patients. That’s just ... wild.” The bigger implications are even more impressive. “At least twenty percent of human cancers are caused by a specific infection,” Trimble says, “so if we can figure out how to make an immune response that will get rid of disease that’s caused by this virus, that has implications for making immune responses that could cure other kinds of virally caused cancers. That’s huge!” As is, of course, being the recipient of the John Phillips Award. “That means everything to me, what it stands for and where it’s coming from: Exeter — having a seat at the Harkness tables — made so many things possible for me,” she says. “If that experience had not been part of my fiber, I wouldn’t have gotten to where I am now.”
AT THE FRONTLINE
Mary Claire Walsh ’03 also took a semicircuitous route to her profession. After college she was taking classes in the University of Vermont’s
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postbaccalaureate program when a position opened at the university’s Vaccine Testing Center. She worked there for three years and loved it, but decided she wanted to incorporate clinical aspects into her work. She left to train as a physician assistant, returning to work at the testing center last summer as a researcher and analyst. Today, she and her colleagues are at the front lines of virus research, with a particular focus on flaviviruses, insect-transmitted viruses that include yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, West Nile dengue and — the latest newsmaking iteration — Zika. “These are the groundbreaking viruses,” Walsh says. “We’re still trying to figure out how to protect ourselves from them. Our group has been doing dengue vaccine studies since 2008, so doing the same work with the Zika virus is a natural extension of that.” Walsh works with the volunteers who are part of the testing center’s dengue vaccine trials. She screens the volunteers for eligibility criteria, oversees their participation and monitors them for adverse reactions. Since 2008, the primary testing has been domestic; more recently, however, Walsh and her colleagues have started branching out into trials involving those who are most at risk — beginning in Dhaka, Bangladesh. “The opportunity to now scale up and test it in an endemic population marks a really exciting point in the vaccine development,” she says. “We are also starting age de-escalation trials, so we start with healthy adults and then we move to adolescents, then to children, then to young children. It’s
tremendous that we’ve moved this far into the vaccine-development phase.” Walsh credits the listening skills she honed at the Harkness table with enabling her daily work as a clinician and researcher who collaborates with a wide range of colleagues and volunteers. “One of the interesting parts in a clinical trial is that you develop and implement protocols,” she explains. “You have regulations that exist for good reason, that everyone involved adheres to. I love discussing with my colleagues here and in Dhaka what is realistic for each setting, how the protocols will be different, so that we are not just transferring one set of expectations from setting to setting.” One of the biggest future challenges is not just coming up with viable vaccines for viruses like dengue — “Right now 40 percent of the world’s population is at risk for developing dengue,” Walsh says — but figuring how that vaccine will ultimately be accepted. It’s one thing to develop a viable vaccine or medicine, she says, and quite another thing to sell it and ensure that people are comfortable with it. “In Dhaka, we’re in a little bit of delay in our screening process for enrolling volunteers,” Walsh says. “Our partners there are having meetings with community leaders, sharing information and giving them the opportunity to voice any concerns that they might have. Even if you’ve already built a rapport with your potential volunteers, you still have to have a meaningful consent process.” The other challenge, of course, is management of the emerging diseases: “You see it with the Zika story — there’s S P R I N G
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so much information coming out so fast. Do we look at the vector — dengue and Zika share the same vector, the Aedes mosquito — or do we look at treatment or do we look at vaccine development? I don’t believe there’s a singular answer. The best response is an integrated response.” It’s a similarly integrated approach that keeps Walsh coming back to work every day. “I think I landed in this field by accident,” she says. “I stay in it because it’s a tremendously dynamic field, one that continues to evolve. I feel incredibly fulfilled by the clinical aspect, the opportunity to work with international collaborators and the research; the challenge of incorporating all those aspects is what I find most gratifying.”
LIGHTING FIRES
Gratification across the board is another commonality among the five medical professionals, and it’s clear that for all of them some spark of wanting to achieve that caught light at Exeter. “In medicine we help train people,” Dr. Matthew Carty says, “and there are times when you watch somebody come into their own; it’s like a light goes on and they get it, they’ve figured out who they are and what they are going to do. For me, that didn’t happen until college, but the foundation for it was laid at Exeter: realizing that it’s OK to be smart, it’s OK to be interested in intellectual pursuit, it’s OK to chase your passion, that you don’t have to worry about what’s cool and what’s not cool — just do the thing that really lights you on fire. That’s defined the entirety of my life ever since.” E
Primary Fever —continued from page 41
Cosgrove is referring, of course, to the Harkness table. “Everybody shares his or her opinions and thoughts,” he says. “That kind of vehicle in the election cycle is a vehicle for democracy. It’s where some of the parallels are. It encourages free speech and thought.” Students also cite Harkness when talking about their participation in politics, both at rallies and in clubs across campus. “The majority of Exonians are politically involved and aware,” says Bonnie LaBonte ’17, who is the campus representative for New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan’s run for the U.S. Senate. “Everybody has an opinion. It’s from Harkness, which encourages critical thinking.” LaBonte has been involved in the Democratic Club since her sophomore year, and she’s participated in other Hassan campaigns as well as those of other female candidates, including Hillary Clinton. “I’m from Massachusetts. I like politics and I like women in politics even more,” she says. In addition to helping coordinate a variety of nonpartisan political events as co-head of Exeter’s Political Union, LaBonte has seen Clinton, Trump and Sanders speak, attended the annual Democratic fundraising Jefferson Jackson dinner, and gone to the New Hampshire state Democratic clambake. “I didn’t see Rubio or Cruz but they were on my radar,” she says. Exeter’s many clubs also afford students a chance to explore and test their burgeoning political beliefs. The Republican Club is just one example. While the club’s name might suggest it is for T H E
Republicans only, senior club co-head Lily Friedberg says the club is completely nonpartisan. “It stood out to me from the beginning as a politically diverse club that was committed to having policy discussions,” she says, noting that she has been going to the weekly conversations since she was a freshman. “The Republican Club doesn’t campaign. We specifically say we are open to all political views. It’s one of few places where the kind of liberal prejudice that is common at Exeter is not pervasive. It’s one place where you can have intellectually rigorous discussion in politics.” Meetings focus on one topic — say, illegal immigration or foreign policy in Syria — and participants are given a briefing fact sheet prepared by one of the co-heads when they arrive. After talking casually and reading the sheets for about 15 minutes, the more formal discussion begins. “The discussion is generally Harkness style — everything has equal value,” Friedberg says. While Friedberg is regularly exposed to political conversation in her home life — “my mother likes to say politics is the family sport” — she credits her time at Exeter with really opening her eyes to new ideas. She has attended a number of rallies, but it’s the conversations that have made a longer-lasting impression. “I’ve been exposed to such brilliant minds with respect to politics in my four years — in the classroom and with faculty and the club. Before I came here, I went to a fairly liberal institution in New York City. I had never met a conservative who could hold an argument. Coming here has opened an entirely new world of politics to me.” E
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Letter from Siberia By Sarah Lindemann-Komarova ’72
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paid less. On the plus side, despite the remarkable vision of high heels maneuvering through three feet of snow, there was never any talk of diets or saying “no” to a piece of cake. The second aspect of lessons learned as an American living abroad was unexpected. I discovered, as I have come to realize must have been true for my countrymen hanging out in Parisian cafés in the 1920s, the clarity you get about America when you don’t live there. Like you get about your family once you are on your own. They start to emerge as people with gifts and flaws, no greater or lesser than others. Understanding them more does not mean you love them less, it just means you become smarter about picking your battles. In fact, I think I have learned more about America than Russia during my 24 years living in Siberia. The remaining lessons are what I learned about myself. A lifetime trajectory that has taken me from Cold War “duck and cover” drills in Greenwich, Connecticut, to promoting citizen participation throughout a democratic Siberia taught me it is not foolish to be an optimist. I learned that the bonds of family and friendship can endure a 23-year absence and that the occasional temperature of minus 40 degrees is worth it to spend four months a year skiing through snow-covered birch tree forests. I discovered that the very real differences between me and the Russians, Kazakhs, Kyrgyzs, Armenians, Tadjiks, Uzbeks and Turkmen I have worked with were less important than a shared desire that our children live in dignity and peace. Finally, my success as an activist in Russia confirmed the universal nature of the values I was raised on. Foremost among them, to quote Aretha Franklin, is R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Only it is the words that follow that provide the key: “find out what it means to me.” Which brings me back to Exeter and the Harkness table, where I first learned how to show respect for people by not just listening, but hearing them. That is why, every week, I get a thrill and hope for the future as my students and I re-create that circle at Novosibirsk State University. E
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SAM KERR
never considered myself an “expat.” Initially, the term conjured up images of Hemingway, dissent, vigorous debate fueled by coffee in the afternoon and alcohol well into the night. There certainly were vodka-fueled all-night sessions, but there was no coffee to kick-start the day in 1992 Siberia and it was a time of supreme optimism. A few years later, the meaning morphed into that of a person conducting a project with a U.S. government-supported “expat package” of benefits. This, too, did not apply to me, because while I began receiving funding from U.S. government-supported institutions, there was no “package.” I was that rare creature in international development, someone who started to make a living by expanding what she was already doing as a volunteer. That said, as an American living abroad there are three major aspects to lessons learned. The first is expected: I learned a lot about Russia. On the cultural front, some differences were obvious, like taking off your shoes when you enter a home. Others, you luck out and stumble onto, such as with my coupe mate on the Trans-Siberian in January 1992, when democratic Russia was one month old. Baba Masha was 60 but looked 80 and explained there are only two words you need to know to understand Russians: terpelivwi (patient) and peredjit (to live through it). These continue to serve as both brake and ballast for Russia in its ongoing transition. Some cultural highlights you learn the hard way, like there is a reason I should not have skipped over the names of berries and mushrooms in Russian language class, and that calling someone a “friend” implies an almost sacred bond. While decidedly different from that of the pre-Clinton America I’d left, as a child of the ’50s the social scene in perestroika Russia was very familiar with its rigidly defined and accepted gender roles, covert homosexuality, alcohol during the day (although straight shots of vodka instead of double martinis), smoking, and a transcendent appreciation for the victory over fascism (except in Russia it required the loss of 27 million people and left no one I ever met untouched). Within that construct there were differences, such as all women worked, though jobs that were primarily female (like doctors and teachers)
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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.
EXETER REUNIONS 2016 REUNION DATE
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YEAR
May 6-8
1986
30th
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25th
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20th
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15th
1961
55th
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45th
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35th
2006
10th
May 19-22
1966
50th
May 20-22
1956
60th
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40th
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5th
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70th
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65th
May 13-15
May 24-26
Reunite with Exeter — the people, the place, the past and the present.
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT WWW.EXETER.EDU/REUNIONS OR CALL THE ALUMNI AND PARENT RELATIONS OFFICE AT 603-777-3264.