The Exeter Bulletin, spring 2023

The Exeter Bulletin

E xeter’s First Sustainability and Climate Action Plan

Reunions 2023 Register today for

Attending reunion is the opportunity to connect — and reconnect — with each other and to see the school that you all shared. Whether it's been 70 years, 20 years or just last week since you've been back to Exeter, join your classmates this spring on campus to celebrate.

MAY 5-7 Class of 2008, 2003, 1998, 1993, 1988 and 1983

MAY 18-21 Class of 1973

MAY 19-21 Class of 2018, 2013, 1978 and 1968

MAY 23-25 Class of 1963, 1958 and 1953

Yesterday. Today. Together.

The Exeter Bulletin

Principal William K. Rawson ’71; P’08

Director of Communications

Robin Giampa

Editor Jennifer Wagner

Contributing Editor

Patrick Garrity

Class Notes Editor Cathy Webber

Staff Writer

Sarah Pruitt ’95

Production Coordinator

Ben Harriton

Designers

Rachel Dlugos

David Nelson

Jacqueline Trimmer

Photography Editor

Christian Harrison

Communications

Advisory Committee

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

Trustees

President Morgan C.W. Sze ’83

Vice President

Deidre G. O’Byrne ’84

Una Jain Basak ’90, Wole C. Coaxum ’88, Suzi Kwon Cohen ’88, Elizabeth A. “Betsy” Fleming ’86, Claudine Gay ’88, Scott S.W. Hahn ’90, Ira D. Helfand, M.D. ’67, Paulina L. Jerez ’91, Giles “Gil”

Kemp ’68, Eric A. Logan ’92, Cornelia “Cia” Buckley Marakovits ’83, Sally J. Michaels ’82, Samuel M. Maruca ’73, William K. Rawson ’71, Michael J. Schmidtberger ’78, Peter M. Scocimara ’82, Sanjay K. Shetty, M.D. ’92, Kristyn A. (McLeod) Van Ostern ’96, Janney Wilson ’83

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

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Copyright 2023 by the Trustees of Phillips Exeter Academy.

ISSN-0195-0207

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SPRING

PATRICK GARRITY

CERTIFIABLY SUSTAINABLE

Inspired by the release of the Academy’s first sustainability and climate action plan (see our feature story, “For the Sustainable Future,” page 32), we asked, “What can we do to make this issue of The Exeter Bulletin better align with the school’s environmental mission?”

PAPER

First, we looked at our paper. Sourcing sustainable paper proved challenging. You’ll notice this edition uses three different paper stocks. While they are all certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), their environmental impact differs. Our cover paper was produced in mills powered by 66% renewable energy and holds additional certification from the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. It’s also lighter than our usual stock, reducing the magazine’s overall weight and the carbon produced during shipping. The first 48 interior pages are printed on Groundwood paper, a low-chemical option made from whole coniferous trees. Class notes are printed on our standard paper, which has always been FSC-certified.

With paper selected, we turned our attention to other factors of Bulletin production and made more sustainable choices when we could.

INK

While ink is predominantly petroleum based, our ink is certified by the American Soybean Association and contains 25% to 30% renewable materials with soybean oil, linseed oil and gum resin (harvested from pine trees) being key components.

BINDING

Our binding uses a small amount of plastic-based glue. It is strong, lightweight, affordable and recyclable.

FINISH

We chose an uncoated paper for our cover. Uncoated paper contains fewer chemical layers than coated paper and is generally preferred by recycling mills.

SHIPPING

Sustainability considerations extended to distribution as well. We regularly update our circulation list to limit duplicates and reduce wasteful shipping. Our couriers are taking steps to reduce emissions and offset those they cannot abate. Additionally, all shipments with UPS are carbon neutral and the bags that our international edition is sent in are biodegradable.

WASTE

Our printer, Cummings Printing, recycles all paper waste and aluminum plates used in production. Every piece of this magazine can be recycled, and we encourage you to recycle your Bulletin after thoroughly enjoying it!

This update was written by Ben Harriton, a junior designer and The Exeter Bulletin’s production coordinator. He spent months researching available sustainable options for the print production and mailing of this edition. At every stage of the process, he helped us discover just how much each decision impacted both the price and sustainability of the project.

Looking to the future, we’re thinking about developing an all-digital version of The Exeter Bulletin. Is that an option you would be interested in? Scan here to let us know. >

IN THIS ISSUE

Volume CXXVII, Issue no. 3

Features

32 For the Sustainable Future

Exeter releases its first sustainability and climate action plan.

By Patrick Garrity

38 The Music of Resistance

How Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis ’69 is changing the narrative.

By Sarah Pruitt ’95

42 ¿Cómo se Dice?

Students reclaim the language of home in new courses designed for heritage speakers of Spanish.

By Sarah Pruitt ’95

Departments

6 Around the Table: The etiquette of Harkness, student achievements, farewell to Wetherell

25 Inside the Writing Life: Stephanie Clifford ’96

28 Sports: On track with student-athlete Byron Grevious ’24, winter E/A

46 Connections: Chiara Perotti Correa ’18, Robert Keefe ’64

56 Class Notes

102 Memorial Minute: David Douglas Coffin ’64 (Hon.); P’71

104 Finis Origine Pendet: Nora Sharma ’24

BUILT TO SCALE

Exonians are reaching new heights thanks to an indoor climbing wall installed this winter in Love Gym. The brainchild of avid mountaineers Reece Chapman ’22 and Nick Rose ’23, the project came to fruition after two years of planning and with the support of Director of Athletics and Physical Education Jason Baseden and generous donors. “Not everybody’s into team sports,” Baseden says. “The climbing wall provides another physical outlet for not only the students, but the rest of the community.”

Rose and Climbing Club co-head

Deborah Ang ’24 (both pictured left) spent hours fitting the nearly 14-foottall synthetic rock face with movable handholds to create routes for beginners and proficient climbers alike. “Setting each route is like creating a puzzle,” Rose says. “Climbing is 60% mental and 40% physical. Figuring out your route is super fun.”

Although Exeter’s “mountain” is no K2, Baseden hopes the wall might inspire students to follow in the footsteps of famed mountaineer Robert Hicks Bates ’29 and aim high.

— Jennifer Wagner

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTIAN HARRISON

AROUND THE TABLE

What’s new and notable at the Academy

Letters to the Editor

BYTES FROM THE PAST

Reading the winter 2023 Bulletin surfaced memories of my computing experiences at Exeter during 1965-68. My math professor, John Warren, was instrumental in acquiring a time-share connection to a PDP (Digital Equipment Corp.) computer at Dartmouth, consisting of a teletype and a modem with a cradle for a phone to transmit data.

In 1965 Edmund C. Berkeley, famous as a founding member of the Association for Computing Machinery and editor of the magazine Computers and Automation (C&A), paid a visit to our computer lab. He interviewed Bart Evans ’66 and me about our experiences, and he played my tic-tactoe program and Bart’s roulette program. He then published both programs in the September 1965 edition of C&A.

Other great experiences followed. As Computer Club president, I worked with Birney Titus ’67, president of the Math Discussion Group, to organize a daylong symposium on computing for 16 high schools. We engaged Dr. Anthony Oettinger of Harvard and president of the ACM as the keynote speaker. Bart and I also ran a computerized matchmaking service for school dances with local girls schools. (Exeter was all male.)

On the wild side, one day I set out to solve a math problem that involved permutations, and I left the program running all night. Dr. Warren informed me the next day that the process had been stopped and that a $100,000 charge for CPU time had accrued. He kindly arranged to have my trespass forgiven.

Jim Bowring ’68

A TEACHER REMEMBERED

Inspired by the Bulletin article “Borges and I,” here is my tribute to Francesca Piana. My first impression of Ms. Piana when I arrived at Exeter as a very unworldly lower

was that she was strict. Unlike many of the other female faculty, she did not go out of her way to exude an easy warmth or make herself seem approachable. I thought it sensible to keep a respectful distance and, sadly, I did for my first two years in Bancroft.

It was not until my senior year, when I became a dorm proctor and had a room right outside Ms. Piana’s thirdfloor apartment, that I learned what I had read as strictness was a product of her more formal Ecuadorian register and sense of dignity. Jodi Harrison Tobin, a fellow proctor, who studied Spanish and had enough Southern charm to work on anyone, regularly got us invited inside Ms. Piana’s apartment to make brownies and eat leftovers, all in exchange for washing dishes.

My most powerful memory of Ms. Piana was the day she drove to Exeter Hospital to bring me back to campus. That morning I had gone out early to skate on the river and had fallen through the ice. I’ll never forget Ms. Piana’s look of tenderness and concern as she came into my bay in the emergency room. As soon as she realized I was out of danger, she launched into a maternal stream of fussing, chiding and nagging that she kept up all winter and spring. That look was transformative for my relationship with Ms. Piana: I understood her deeply familiar language of caring and was grateful, even if I couldn’t fully show it, for all the ways she grounded me and looked out for me as I slipped into a depression that I was incapable of recognizing.

As they say, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. I’ve adopted that slightly distant and demanding, but always wryly amused, persona in my own teaching and am pleased to report that it continues to work as a pedagogical model that spurs personal and intellectual growth in my students. Ms. Piana, thank you for all those brownies and love.

Maram Epstein ’79

Non Sibi and the Environment

By Principal Bill Rawson ’71; P’08

Non sibi is at the core of everything we do at Exeter, including our long-standing commitment to sound environmental stewardship. With the publication of Exeter’s first comprehensive sustainability and climate action plan, which you will read about in this issue, we take an important step forward in realizing our vision for environmental stewardship, and in meeting our responsibilities to future generations of students and our planet.

Our plan recognizes that our greatest contributions to sustainability and addressing the climate crisis will be through educating our students and empowering them to

ecology course taught, when I was a student more than 50 years ago. Student engagement has been strong ever since, and is strong today, as students take an active role in shaping their environmental education and activism.

We also commit to managing our campus facilities responsibly, reducing our environmental impact, and minimizing our contributions to climate change. Our plan contains ambitious goals to reduce carbon emissions by 75 % by 2031 (we are close to 60% now) and achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050. And we commit to integrating principles of sustainability into all of Exeter’s programs and operations. This means fostering a culture of sustainability and environmental awareness in all facets of our

“Non Sibi, or Not For Oneself, inscribed on Exeter’s seal, attests to the philosophy that wisdom gained here should be used for others as well as for oneself. Exonians are motivated by this philosophy to face the challenges of their day. Teaching and living the principles of a just and sustainable society — environmentally, economically and socially — are fundamental to this philosophy today. Exeter seeks to graduate young people whose ambitions and actions are inspired by their interest in others and the world around them.”

— the Academy’s Non Sibi Value Statement

be future environmental leaders. We want every student to graduate from Exeter with a strong understanding of the principles of sustainability and the issues posed by climate change. In recent years, we have steadily grown our curricular offerings in the areas of sustainability and climate science, but we see opportunities to do more, including adding more academic offerings inside and outside the sciences, bringing more speakers to campus who are leaders in relevant fields, creating sustainability-related internship opportunities, and growing the number of global studies programs with an environmental focus.

Our students seek these opportunities and stand ready to be full partners in this endeavor. Their enthusiasm builds on a long tradition of student-led environmental stewardship, going back to Gifford Pinchot, Exeter class of 1885, who spoke in assembly more than a century ago about the importance of conserving our natural resources. The first ecology club was formed, and first

daily lives — where we learn, where we work, where we live, and where we play. As a school, we are aiming high and acting ambitiously to meet the environmental challenges of our day.

It has been encouraging to hear from many of you who care deeply about the issues of climate change and sustainability. I know many of our alumni are leaders in the field in their own right, and are eager to help us in this work. I am grateful for all the ways our alumni have supported our efforts thus far; your continued support will be vital to the success of this plan.

In my first-ever column in this magazine in 2018, I said that Exeter has never stayed strong by staying the same. With the adoption of our first comprehensive sustainability and climate action plan, we move forward with the challenging and vitally important work of strengthening our environmental stewardship as a school and preparing our students to be environmental leaders. E

Early Investments

STUDENTS GAIN INSIGHT INTO MACROECONOMIC THEORY

By Adam Loyd

Even before the class period has officially begun, the conversation around the Harkness table in ECO510: Macroeconomic Issues in the United States is well underway. A handful of students talk through the finer points of the previous night’s reading as their classmates trickle through the arched doorway of Academy Building room 029. Sensing a potential starting point for the

Students dig into the factors that led to economic crises throughout history, including the 2008 recession and the financial repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how these events affect people across different racial, gender, generational and other segments of society.

As the period progresses, the history and theories the students are discussing get increasingly current. Topics seemingly ripped from the headlines — rising inflation, the national unemployment rate, and the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates — fire up the conversation.

“How do banks determine their interest rate?” Kilinc asks.

The material is dense and answers require a group effort. Students thumb through text pages and scroll Google search results.

“It’s based on consumer behavior, GDP and the Federal Reserve,” Holtz and Daisy Newbury ’23 respond together.

Kilinc plays a short video that begins with a still frame of a number so staggering Newbury reads it aloud, twice: “21 trillion, 784 billion, 284 million, 284 thousand, 284 dollars.”

day’s discussion, History Instructor Aykut Kilinc interjects with precision, opening the topic to the now full table without disrupting momentum of the exchange. “For those that have just arrived, we are trying to remember the notion that expansionary fiscal policy increases interest rates, right?” Kilinc summarizes, while simultaneously teeing up an entry point for any takers.

Charles Holtz ’23 picks up the cue. “If expansionary fiscal policy drives up interest rates, then ‘crowding out’ occurs,” he says of the idea that government spending, funded by an increase in taxes, causes a decrease in private sector spending.

This senior-level course, one of three economics offerings at the Academy, explores macroeconomic theory on a national scale, examining the intertwined entities of the U.S. economy and its government. It seeks to help students answer questions like, “How does a nation’s economy grow?” and “Who sees the benefits of that growth?”

“This is the national debt,” the video’s voiceover says, going on to explain that because the government’s interest rate is relatively low, it can afford to continue to spend despite the increasing deficit — a tenet of Modern Monetary Theory.

Ale Murat ’23 points out a conflicting view from the reading. “The book says countries should only run a deficit on their national debt when there’s a recession or when there’s war or when there’s troubled times. But when it’s peace times where the countries are near full employment, then it shouldn’t create a deficit in this national debt,” she says. “Isn’t that what’s happening here? They don’t care how large the national debt gets, and they’re just playing on the fact that interest rates are low?”

“It’s almost like walking on a tightrope,” Kilinc acknowledges.

And with that, the period comes to an end, but the conversation continues as students step out of the classroom and into the Academy Building halls. E

History Instructor Aykut Kilinc opens discussion at the Harkness table.

Mind Your Manners

THE ETIQUETTE OF SPEAKING AT THE HARKNESS TABLE

AHong Kong native and global traveler, Sara Jane Ho ’03 founded China’s first high-end finishing school, Institute Sarita, which opened in 2013. Since then, she has parlayed her global approach to etiquette into a book (due out next year) and a Netflix show, Mind Your Manners, coaching an international cast of students in skills as diverse as eating oysters, revamping résumés and appreciating fine wine. Here are her tips for the Harkness table:

Be the first to arrive and the last to leave. You can pick up golden nuggets of intelligence, whether from the teacher or your peers, before or after the formal discussion.

Smile whenever someone makes eye contact. You’d be surprised how much joy a smile can bring someone, especially in high school. Always try to sound nice, especially if you are in disagreement.

Don’t attack anyone across the table — it will make you feared or disliked. Even if you find someone’s comment ridiculous, say something like, “I see where you’re coming from, but if you look at page 7, I interpreted things differently. ...”

If you feel yourself getting emotional, focus on a tiny detail in front of you: the lines in the wooden table, the grain of a piece of paper. This intense focus is akin to meditation and will help calm your nerves. E

You’ve Got Braile By Alex Braile ’10

Alex Braile’s comic strip, “You’ve Got Braile,” explores the exciting everyday adventures of Alex, his wife, Science Instructor Summer Morrill ’11, and their cat. They live in Soule Hall. Find more of his comic on social media by searching “@youvegotbraile.”

Sara Jane Ho ’03

CAMPUS LIFE AT A GLANCE

WINTER CONCERT: The music of the Exeter Symphonia orchestra delights audiences during the winter term concert, performed in the Forrestal-Bowld Music Center.

GIRLS WHO CODE: Exeter Student Service Organization members Jaansi Patel ’25 and Lexi Meyer ’25 (standing) teach local middle schoolers some computer programming basics.

YOU GOT IN!:

This year, the Admissions Office received thousands of completed applications from candidates hailing from 86 countries and 49 states and territories.

CAPITOL EXPERIENCE:

Exonians embark on the seminal Washington Intern Program over spring term and get an inside look at our nation’s legislative process and life on Capitol Hill.

UNSILENCED:

Students take center stage for an evening of dance, music and art focused on social justice ahead of Exeter’s celebration of the life of Martin Luther King Jr.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOY CHI ’23, PANG-DIAN FAN AND CHRISTIAN HARRISON

In Close Proximity

EJ BARTHELEMY ’23 SHOWCASES PHOTOGRAPHY IN NEW STUDENT GALLERY SPACE

By Adam Loyd

In the rounded corner connecting the atriums of the Frederick R. Mayer Art Center hangs a collection of photographs captivating enough to stop passersby in their tracks. The first exhibit in the newly branded Hallspace Student Gallery, “Proximity” showcases photographs by EJ Barthelemy ’23. Shot in and around Manhattan’s Washington Square Park in the summer of 2022, the pieces alternate between the photojournalistic — frames captured at a protest following the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dobbs v. Jackson case — and portrait work documenting people in everyday scenes. The result is simultaneously hyper-current and timeless.

“EJ explores the duality between observation and engagement within community,” Director and Curator of the Lamont Gallery Pam Meadows says. “He has a really infectious, positive energy about him that immediately fosters a sense of connection which he brings wholeheartedly into his documentary photographs.”

Fulfilling one of her objectives after taking on the role last year, Meadows works with student artists to identify pieces that are a fit for the Hallspace. “EJ’s work has a sincere focus on community and learning from one another and we felt it would be an impactful first show in the space,” she says. “It’s been a real joy to watch students in transit, look up, pause, then stop and spend time with his work.”

We caught up with the Harvard-bound Barthelemy to learn more about his approach to art and the support he’s received from the Academy to pursue his passion.

When did your interest in photography start?

I first started taking pictures in seventh grade. I would just use the camera on my phone. There was something about how everything fit into a one frame that made sense to me.

How has that interest grown at Exeter?

When I got to Exeter as a prep, I remember seeing an older student with a serious camera, so I walked over to him and we started talking. His name is Thomas Wang ’20 and he got me involved in taking photos for The Exonian and The PEAN. The next year I took ART405: Adv Photography: Beyond the Camera with Ms. St. Onge who instilled in me the simple joy of taking an image; it was life-changing. From there, I worked with the Athletics Department, taking sports photos and shooting events for the Communications Department. There are so many avenues on campus where I could pursue photography and cultivate it into a genuine passion.

Tell us about the pieces that make up “Proximity.” Some feel chaotic and others feel serene. How do they all fit together?

Whether I’m shooting an event or an individual, I like to really capture someone’s essence, their humanity. In order to get these images, it wasn’t about me sitting back and taking a picture from afar. It was about me really engaging with them. It wouldn’t be a photo and then walk away. It would be a photo and a meaningful conversation. I chose the title “Proximity” because in order to get these images, I had to be in the action, present in the moment.

Is there a piece you’re most proud of?

The photo I’m most proud of from this exhibition is called “Untitled” for a reason: I wanted to let it speak for itself. It’s from a protest in Washington Square Park and there were thousands of people getting elbowed around, tossed around, shoved. Somehow I made it to the front, where people were speaking and there was this one guy with a bullhorn and he was chanting to the crowd. I stood up on a bench

CHRISTIAN HARRISON

and shouted, “Yo!” He looked up at me and looked right into the camera and I snapped the shot. I love how striking his passion is in the image and also the background, too. The frame really shows the full essence of the scene of where I was, what was taking place. I felt that this was a pretty historic moment and I wanted to be there to capture it.

How does it feel to have your work featured in the Mayer Art Center?

This building features professional artists, and to have my work up there alongside those works is honestly incredible. That is a testament to just how invested Exeter is in its students and providing students a platform to really pursue the things that they want to pursue. I feel very supported here and it’s given me a chance to really hone my craft and share my work with others. E

“Untitled” (top left) and other selected photographs from “Proximity” by EJ Barthelemy ’23.

ON STAGE

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARY SCHWALM AND CHRISTIAN HARRISON

Theater Instructor Rob Richards shares a sketch of the rhino puppet.

Clark Wu ’23, as Earthworm, sings “Plump and Juicy” atop the giant peach.

This winter’s musical, an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s whimsical book James and the Giant Peach, was as engaging to the eye as to the ear.

The fantastic production featured a custombuilt rotating peach, handmade costumes and puppets (including a frightening rhinoceros), as well as a 12-person orchestra accompanying a cast of Exonians who heartily sang some 20 tunes. Scores of community members — hailing from the Academy and local surrounding area — attended and offered rave reviews.

“To me, this story represents belonging,” says Theater and Dance Department Chair Lauren Josef, who also served as the show’s director. “At the core (or pit) it’s about James finding a group of friends that feel like family. Onstage and off, we’ve created our own family here at the Goel.” E — Jennifer Wagner

Daisy Newbury ’23 and Bai Xue ’23

Theater and Dance Department Chair Lauren Josef leads the pre-show warmup.

ON STAGE

CHRISTIAN HARRISON

CHRISTIAN HARRISON

Defne Koyluoglu ’24 and Isa Serna ’25 in a dance inspired by the seven deadly sins and choreographed by Ki Odums ’23.

Petra Orloff ’23 (center) and company in “All Hallow’s Eve,” a dance choreographed by Jennifer Finkelstein ’23.

Heard in Assembly Hall

SOUND BITES FROM THIS WINTER’S SPEAKER SERIES

Compiled

by Sarah Pruitt ’95

Margo Walsh ’82 Founder and CEO of MaineWorks

“[When I started MaineWorks,] I took a social problem — don’t hire felons — and I said, I’ll hire felons. In order to work at my company … you have to be a convicted felon. That’s all because of Exeter — to take something that’s profoundly not right with society and address it head on.”

Joel Christian Gill Cartoonist and historian

“I got some really valid criticism where this woman said, ‘You didn’t write any stories about women.’ She was right, I didn’t. That’s what male privilege looks like. I didn’t have to think about what it was like to be a woman, so I didn’t think about it actively. Instead of arguing and saying, ‘I’m not misogynist; I have a sister and a mother and a wife,’ I said, ‘I’m sorry, I’ll do better next time,’ and I started actively seeking out the stories of Black women so I could tell their stories.”

Adolphus Belk

Professor of political science and African American studies at Winthrop University

“They were received and described as gangster rappers, but [musicians] like NWA and Ice-T … said: We’re not talking about gangsterism, we’re talking about our reality. This is reality rap. And it’s not a transcript. In many ways, it’s creative writing. We’re offering a creative interpretation of some of the things that we see so that you might understand what we’re going through and maybe do something about it.”

Jane Holl Lute Security expert and former U.S. diplomat

“I was on a panel recently and they asked, ‘What keeps you up at night?’

I said, ‘That Americans will lose faith in each other.’ … We can’t take our democracy for granted. We can’t take our values for granted. We can’t take what we know to be the truth about how this country has evolved in this experiment we call American democracy for granted anymore.”

Ryan McElveen

Associate director of The Brookings Institution’s John L. Thornton China Center, founder and managing director of Global Leaders of Fairfax County in Virginia

“More than any other generation before you, you believe the United States should be a more sustainable country, a safer country, a more welcoming country, and a more just country. So as you find the causes you are passionate about, remember that you can take a range of actions to reach your goals — from engaging with those in power to educating others through social media, from creating petitions to writing editorials, from protesting to starting your own organizations [and] even running for office.” E

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

Par Excellence

EXONIANS EARN DISTINCTION IN SCIENCE, DEBATE, MUSIC AND BEYOND

By Sarah Pruitt ’95

ROBOTICS TEAM WINS SPOT IN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Energy ran high among members of Exeter’s Robotics Club on February 18, when they arrived at the New Hampshire Technical Institute to face off against 27 other teams in the FIRST Tech Challenge robotics competition. “There were kids all over the place testing robots, programming robots and helping each other, even across teams,” recalls Isabella Vesely ’23, captain of Exeter’s Team FTC VERTEX. “You could definitely feel the atmosphere of excitement.”

As competition day progressed from presentations to qualifying matches to the main event — the state finals — Team VERTEX emerged as one of the top-ranked teams. Vesely, a veteran of three previous seasons, believes her team came into the

TEAM VERTEX

TEAM VERTEX

event more prepared than ever before. “With the exception of minor mechanical repairs, our robot was ready all day,” she says, “and we didn’t even have to update code last minute, which was a definite first for us.”

Last year, VERTEX missed qualifying for the world championships by just one spot. This year there was no such disappointment. Outfitted with multidirectional wheels and a complex turntable design on top, VERTEX’s robot was able to score easily and efficiently by placing cones atop poles of different heights on the 12-by-12-foot game fields. In the final matchup, between alliances of three randomly matched teams, VERTEX led its alliance to victory over its top-ranked opponents, led by the Nashuabased team Blue VIII. As leader of the winning alliance, VERTEX was crowned as state champion, earning a chance to compete in the 2023 world championships in Houston in April.

VERTEX also took home the Innovate Award, which celebrated the team’s “ingenuity, creativity and inventiveness to make their designs come to life.” The weekend continued a stellar season for the team, which had ranked first in the state and scored seven of the 10 highest scores in competition overall.

Vesely says the team has increased its efforts to train less experienced members and give them more hands-on opportunities to work with the robots. These efforts paid off during this year’s competition, when two new Exeter teams, Surface and Edge, competed at the state level for the first time. Team Surface won the third-place Control Award, which recognizes a team that “demonstrates innovative thinking to solve game challenges such as autonomous operation, improving mechanical systems with intelligent control, or using sensors to achieve better results.”

On the individual level, Deborah Ang ’24 was named one of two Dean’s List finalists to represent New Hampshire at the world championships. Ang serves as VERTEX’s mechanical lead. Riya Tyagi ’24 was a semifinalist.

Inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST, or For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, and hosted the inaugural competition in a high school gymnasium in Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1992. Exeter is now among more than 3,700 high school teams and 46,000 students participating in STEM-related competitions sponsored by FIRST each year.

Mock trial scores historic triumph

Exeter’s Mock Trial Club has had a long track record of success in the New Hampshire State Mock Trial Championship, but this year’s teams outdid themselves. The Exeter teams swept the top three spots at the tournament, and all the individual awards went to Exonians. Michael Nardone ’24, Selim Kim ’24, Angela Zhang ’23 and Anderson Lynch ’23 won Outstanding Attorney, while Charles Potjer ’24, Matt Grossman ’25, David Goodall ’24 and Michael Hsieh ’23 took home honors for Outstanding Witness. In the finals of the tournament, Lynch, Hsieh, Nardone and Goodall joined forces with Tucker Gibbs ’23, Colin Jung ’24, Angelina Gong ’25 and Ethan Benenson ’26 to defeat another Exonian team by a total of just two points. They will represent New Hampshire at the National High School Mock Trial Championship in Little Rock, Arkansas, in May.

Prestigious international math contestant

Alan Bu ’24 traveled to southeastern Europe to compete in the 14th Romanian Master of Mathematics, which kicked off in Bucharest in late February. One of the most challenging high school mathematics competitions in the world, the invitationonly event included teams from 15 countries. Over two days, competitors worked through a set of six problems; the three highest individual scores from each country made up the country’s team score. Bu won a silver medal in the event, finishing 13th in a field of 90 contestants, and the U.S. team captured a first-place trophy in the overall competition.

Singer-songwriter honored

Polly Vaillant ’23 hit a high note this winter when she joined 137 other finalists in Miami for National YoungArts Week, an intensive program under the umbrella of the National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts. Selected in the voice/singer-songwriter category, Vaillant got the chance to learn from working artists and collaborate with talented students across 10 disciplines during a week packed with workshops and performances. She capped off the experience by performing her original song “Better Now” at the New World Center concert hall. Trained in classical vocal performance, Vaillant began writing songs while quarantined at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. She completed her first album, Songs in the Key of E(xeter), as a senior project last fall. “I learned so much and met so many supportive and talented people, including a cohort of other songwriters who’ve become my very good friends,” Vaillant says. “It was an absolutely amazing experience.”

Physics Club finishes second in international tournament

For the first time since 2020, a team from Exeter’s Physics Club competed in person at the U.S. Invitational Young Physicists Tournament, held in February in San Mateo, California. With the support of their fellow club members, Isabella Vesely ’23, Jack Kugler ’23, Anish Mudide ’23, Daniel Jeon ’23, Achyuta Rajaram ’24, Ishaan Vohra ’24, William Lu ’24 and Peter Morand ’25 prepared investigations of four problems, ranging from the speed of sound in air to the electrostatic pendulum. During the tournament, they tested their mettle in a series of “physics fights,” in which opposing teams fire questions at each other. The competition models the type of discussion and debate that goes on at professional science conferences. At competition’s end, the Exonians finished second out of 11 teams that attended the event.

Debater succeeds on world stage

Though parliamentary debating is typically a team effort, Colin Jung ’24, captain of Exeter’s Daniel Webster Debate Society, competed as an individual at the highest level of world competition. In January, Jung

captured the first-place individual title at a tournament at Choate Rosemary Hall, earning himself a spot at the World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championship in Durban, South Africa, where he joined some 200 competitors from countries around the world in four events: persuasive speaking, interpretive reading, impromptu speaking and debating. After tackling a final-round resolution focusing on the question of reparations for descendants of enslaved people, Jung finished fourth overall (and first among the U.S. delegation) in the debate category, reaching the level of “grand finalist.”

Writers and artists recognized

Out of more than 300,000 submissions, creative works by 10 Exonians were among some 2,000 chosen for national recognition in the 100th annual Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, the nation’s longest-running program honoring the work of teen writers and artists. Andrew Yuan ’24 racked up three medals in the writing category, including a gold medal for his poem “To Paraphrase Immigration.” Among the other winners were Lionel Hearon ’25, whose painting “Layla” (above) won a gold medal in the art category. Amber Zou ’24 also captured gold for her poem “self-portrait as an ampersand,” as did Lianna Yang ’24 for her piece “Dear Color Blind Country.” E

Polly Vaillant ’23

LIONEL HEARON ’25

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Light Reading

By Jennifer Wagner

Measuring just 5 millimeters by 7 millimeters and weighing less than a gram, The Rose Garden of Omar Khayyam (pictured above) is the smallest book in the Class of 1945 Library’s vast collection. The volume’s crimson leather covers hold quatrains of lyric poetry about love, death and the afterlife — legible only with a magnifying glass. The book’s introduction states that the entire Rose Garden “could be covered by an ordinary U.S. postage stamp twice over.”

The hand-bound treasure was printed by Commonwealth Press in Worcester, Massachusetts. It was given to Exeter in 1936 by Frederick Vroom, brother of Davis Library Librarian Mildred Vroom. The Center for Archives and Special Collections currently houses 17 tiny books, including The Declaration of Independence, Paul Revere’s Ride: A Deposition and Henry David Thoreau’s Wild Apples: History of the Apple Tree. E

MARY SCHWALM (2)

Dining Out

FAREWELL TO WETHERELL

Hundreds of students, faculty and staff gathered in March to bid adieu to Wetherell Dining Hall. Named in honor of Howard B. Wetherell, class of 1889, whose estate helped fund its construction, the dining hall served the community well for 55 years. Members of the Wetherell family attended the luau-themed sendoff, which featured karaoke, delectable desserts and heartfelt messages written on the walls.

A new dining center and outdoor terrace is being erected on the footprint of the old. The design features a modern kitchen and servery, updated back-of-house spaces for streamlined food prep, and comfortable seating for more than 400 people. The new dining center, along with renovated Langdell and Merrill halls, is scheduled to open during the 2024-25 school year. E

(From top) Wetherell Dining Hall; students celebrating in the “Fishbowl”; Principal Rawson; and members of the extended Wetherell family

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRISTIAN HARRISON

Alumni Reflections Shared on Social Media

“I have fond memories of being a waiter in a white coat in Wetherell, my ‘scholarship job.’ The waiters ate first and bonded.” — Bruce Bernstein ’72

“I have very fond Wetherell memories as a Langdell girl. … Does anyone in the very early ’80s remember Mary Grady, who worked in Wetherell in the White Room? … When I was sad, she would find a box of Cap’n Crunch.” — Anne-Louise Oliphant ’82

“I was really nervous when I first started at Exeter. Come dinnertime I planned to meet up with the two people I had met and the food looked fantastic, so I filled up my tray. Walking to the table I dropped the tray and everyone clapped! Actually made the experience far less traumatizing, I felt like I fit in!”

— Branden Michael Cote ’03

“I attended Exeter 1988-1992. My favorite memories are the soul food dinners that the ALES had every Spring! We spent all day preparing the meal, we served and feasted and fellowshipped! It was amazing!”

— Nikki Barfield-Davis ’92

“The Main Street Table. Nuff said.”

— Kalim Kassam ’05

“The occasional box of sugar cereal, those little greasy yummy donuts on Sunday morning, learning to drink tea ‘properly’ from friends that had grown up overseas, the countless post practice late dinners … good memories.”— Adrienne McConnell ’89

“The background of so many emotions and memories … a sanctuary in many ways. — Joy Zhang ’18

“As a faculty member with young children, the small room in Weth was a favorite eating spot for our family to gather in communion with other Exeter families.” — Kadeine Peterson

EXETER DECONSTRUCTED

THE SCHOOL WE LOVE IN DETAIL

By Patrick Garrity

The Davis Library

Everything old is new again, or so they say, which is particularly useful at a school celebrating 243 years. The expression fits in the case of the venerable Davis Library building, which is getting a renewed purpose in its second century.

Once a library, then a student center, then PEA Dance’s makeshift studio and finally office space for Admissions, the building is poised to become home to the Department of Classical Languages. Plans include four classrooms on the first floor and renovations to second-floor spaces to create a new Latin Study and a versatile hall for a variety of school functions.

Davis Library opened in 1912. It is named for Benjamin P. Davis, a member of the class of 1863 who bequeathed $50,000 to the school to fund a library. For 60 years, the building served as intended before yielding in 1971 to the much

larger Class of 1945 Library erected beside it. The space soon found a second life as the Davis Student Center, home to The Exonian, WPEA and clubs of every order. When the old Thompson Science Building was renovated in 2005 to become what today is the Elizabeth Phillips Academy Center, Davis was again without a tenant.

Admissions’ financial aid operations moved into the first floor, and in 2009, the former reading room on the second floor was converted into a dance studio. The dancers moved out in 2018 with the arrival of The David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Theater and Dance. Admissions found other accommodations. That left 7,000 square feet of brick and marble awaiting their next chapter.

That chapter is scheduled to begin in August 2024. E

MARY SCHWALM

PATRICK GARRITY

The New Northwestern

A CONVERSATION WITH NOVELIST AND JOURNALIST STEPHANIE CLIFFORD ’96

By Daneet Steffens ’82

Stephanie Clifford ’96 upends the American Western, shifting focus from cowboys and outlaws to country music and the pioneering women of the Pacific Northwest, in her latest novel, The Farewell Tour. The book traces protagonist Lillian Waters’ life as a musician over a five-decade span — from Depression-era Washington state through the early days of the Nashville music scene and into the 1980s. Clifford intertwines emotive scenes from Waters’ younger days with her professional career, offering readers evocative details of growing up on a dusty farm, World War II Tacoma, and climbs up (and slides down) the country music ladder.

This story is worlds away from Clifford’s terrific 2015 debut novel, Everybody Rise, a contemporary take on Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, but the two books share elements of Clifford’s voice, tone and approach as a writer. What comes across clearly in Clifford’s work, as well as in conversation, is a palpable presence of compassion, empathy and a willingness to listen — all traits she has honed during her decades-long career as an award-winning investigative journalist. Clifford first developed a love of reporting as a student reporter for The Exonian. After being on staff at The New York Times, she now writes long-form investigations about criminal justice and business for publications such as The Times, The Economist and Elle We caught up with her in between deadlines.

Did Farewell Tour have a particular starting point?

Two, actually. I was reading a lot of classics about the American West — The Grapes of Wrath and Wallace Stegner and Willa Cather — and I was getting increasingly mad about not seeing the Northwest represented. I’m from Seattle, and when these writers talked about the West, they left out a huge chunk of it which has a very different geography, feel and ethos. I wanted to write a Northwest novel, a Northwestern, not in terms of saloons and shootouts, but in terms of examining the land, grappling with how the place forms people. I also noticed that the women characters were always stuck inside — cooking, cleaning, baking — and it didn’t reflect the Northwest women I knew, the fierce women of my grandmother’s generation. I wanted to get some of that particular grit of a Northwest woman into my book, place it at the center.

SARAH BODE-CLARK

Is your main character partly based on your grandmother’s story?

Like Lillian, my grandmother grew up on a Depression-era farm and left home at age 10 to become a hired girl. With my grandmother, we never knew why. Something bad had happened and she didn’t discuss it. But I was always struck by this idea of leaving home at 10, supporting

who faced a lot of hostility. I was thinking very much about the current animosity toward immigrants as I wrote that.

You cover an interesting range of topics as a journalist: e-bike batteries, the Martin Shkreli pharmaceutical case, how autism is treated in courts. What satisfaction do you get from your journalism?

Journalism is great! It’s getting out into the world and talking to people and trying to figure out why things are the way they are. With court cases there is usually a huge number of documents to read through and distill the information and be able to say, “Here’s what happened.” That’s super-satisfying. In fiction, it’s much more fungible and it’s not necessarily fact-based when you start — that comes with research. It’s really nice to have both: You’re still at the computer most of the time, but the forms work very different creative muscles.

oneself from that point on. I wondered, a) What could have made somebody leave home that young? And b) How does that shape a person? Those elements became the genesis of this novel.

In Farewell Tour you seem to be addressing some of today’s most pressing topics, including immigration and racism, through Lillian’s eyes — though it takes her a while to understand the systemic racism around her. Yes, Lillian only sees what is happening to her until the end of the book. Early on, she’s friends with a Black woman, Althea, and later she’s friends with Kaori, a Japanese American fiddler, but it’s only when she faces her own past that she opens her eyes to Washington’s history of racism and the Japanese American internment camps. I wanted to get her thinking about how different people look at the world. I wanted to get that perspective shift into the book. And yes, Lil is part of the community of Swedish immigrants

This novel features a protagonist with a thing for music, as did Everybody Rise: Evelyn loves musical theater; Lillian is all about country music. Do you have a musical background? I play piano — just sort of honky-tonk, play-byear stuff — and I learned guitar at Exeter. There are ways where music can express things that words can’t — like some of these country songs in the book — and they get across emotions and stories in a way that words just don’t. It’s one way that I’m really envious of musicians because they can do these things with their music that I can’t do in writing. Writing about music helps me think about how to be creative, how to write better, and how to put something out into the world and try to be brave about its reception, something you can’t control.

Nearly two decades have passed since you graduated from the Academy. What does being an Exonian mean to you?

I came from Seattle not knowing what to expect. I was not used to being in a place where being smart was celebrated. At Exeter it seemed like everybody could be who they wanted to be; my classmates seemed to be able to define who they wanted to be and they were accepted on that level. Whenever I meet people from Exeter these days, there’s a certain moral core to most of them. They want to be kind, thoughtful people. They want to listen — and they want to learn. E

“Writing about music helps me think about how to be creative ... how to put something out into the world and try to be brave about its reception, something you can’t control.“

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

ALUMNI

1955—Charley Ellis. Figuring It Out: Sixty Years of Answering Investors’ Most Important Questions. (Wiley, 2022)

— Inside Vanguard: Leadership Secrets From the Company That Continues to Rewrite the Rules of the Investing Business. (McGraw Hill, 2022)

1958—John Newton An American in Revolutionary Iran. (Tasora Books, 2022)

1963—Dave Rice Sequelae: Tanka Prose. (Just Keep Walking Press, 2023)

1964—Russell McGuirk, editor. The Moulids of Egypt: Egyptian Saint’s Day Festivals, by J.W. McPherson. (The University of Chicago Press, 2023)

1966—Peter Thompson Bughouse Blues. (Running Wild Press, 2023)

1974—David Keppel Creative Uncertainty: A New Philosophy for a World Out of Balance. (Bowker, 2021)

1975—John Montgomery, with Mark Van Clief. Net Zero Business Models: Winning in the Global Net Zero Economy. (Wiley, 2023)

1975—David Potter. Disruption: Why Things Change. (Oxford University Press, 2021)

1980—Elise Thoron, with Ibe Kyoko. The Way of Washi Tales. (The Legacy Press, 2023)

—Felon: An American Washi Tale, director. A solo show written by Reginald Dwayne Betts and performed March 2-4, 2023, at McCarter Theatre Center’s Berlind Theatre in Princeton, N.J.

1985—Lewis Flinn, composer and lyricist. Hood: The Robin Hood Musical Adventure, musical. (Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida, 2022)

1992—Gigi Foster, with Sanjeev Sabhlok. Do lockdowns and border closures serve the “greater good”? A cost-benefit analysis of Australia’s reaction to COVID-19. (Connor Court Publishing Pty Ltd, 2022)

1995—Wil Seabrook, singer-songwriter. Believe, five-song EP. (streaming platforms, 2023)

1997—Susie Suh, singer-songwriter. Invisible Love, album. (Collective Records, 2021)

2001—David Cooper, with Lawrence Mishel. “America’s Vast Pay Inequality Is a Story of Unequal Power,” article. (American Bar Association Human Rights Magazine, Vol. 48, No. 2, January 2023)

2001—Emma Wynn. The World Is Our Anchor. (FutureCycle Press, 2023)

2017—Meghan Chou, writer. Autopsy of a Night at a Bar, play. Premiered at The Tank in New York in March 2023.

FACULTY

Todd Hearon, with Greg Brown ’93. “‘Caliban in After-Life’: Reimagining Shakespeare’s Monster in Music and Words,” article. (Literary Matters, Winter 2023)

On Track to Greatness

BYRON GREVIOUS ’24 SETS RECORDS AND HIGH STANDARDS FOR RUNNING PROGRAM

By Brian Muldoon

Byron Grevious ’24 stood calmly as the lights dimmed, pyrotechnics erupted and the announcer introduced the top 15 runners from around the country before the two-mile race at the New Balance Nationals Indoor Championship (NBNI) in March in Boston. Grevious took a quick relaxed jog toward the starting line when his name was called and then, boom, he was off.

He finished sixth in the event, setting a school record of 8 minutes, 51 seconds, and walked away from the overall competition as a three-time NBNI All-American. He was also a key part of Big Red’s distance medley relay team (with Jaylen Bennett ’25, Oliver Brandes ’23 and Owen Dudley ’23) and 4x800 relay team (with Brandes, Dudley and Max Lacombe ’24). The relay teams finished fourth at the meet and earned NBNI All-American status.

Although his athletic career at Exeter started quietly during the pandemic, Grevious has established himself as one of the premier runners in the country. He consistently faces the best of the best with composure and confidence.

“Byron is a champion in every aspect of his life,” head track and field coach Hilary Hall says. “He’s a champion performer; the bigger the stage, the more he leans in and embraces it. His humility exhibits his championship character. He’s a champion teammate and leader by the way younger students look at how he operates in all those arenas. He’s handing all of that down, and not in any deliberate way. It’s just who he is.”

Grevious arrived at Exeter as a prep from Southport, Connecticut, unsure of which fall sports team he would join. While running was a big part of his life — his parents, both accomplished runners, entered him in local road races where he excelled — soccer was a lifelong passion. Cross-country won in the end, and Grevious immediately began training with some of Exeter’s top athletes.

“I came into prep year with the legend of Will Coogan ’20,” Grevious says of one of Exeter’s most decorated runners. “Varun Oberai ’21 and Connor Chen ’21 were the ones to step into his shoes, and those were the guys I was chasing when I got here. Being with them helped with my maturity as a runner. I just wanted to see if I could hang with them, and I tried not to think about it too competitively.”

As a lower, Grevious led Big Red to a New England cross-country championship with a first-place finish and set a school record in the two-mile (9:04.27) at the indoor track nationals. He closed out the year with a strong outdoor track season, claiming New England titles in the 1,500 and 3,000 meters before heading to Eugene, Oregon, where he finished fifth in the country in the 5,000 and 12th overall in the two-mile at Nike Outdoor Nationals.

All that seems like a warmup for the current school year. In the fall, an undefeated Grevious earned a second straight individual championship and helped propel Exeter to another New England cross-country title. Then he placed second overall at the Nike Northeast Regionals and qualified for the Nike Cross Nationals, where he finished 12th in the most talented field in the country.

These impressive individual and team results are testimony to the

BRIAN MULDOON

environment provided by the William Boyce Thompson Field House — which opened five years ago — and the school’s proximity to premier indoor facilities at Boston University, Harvard and New Balance that provide opportunities to train and compete all winter.

“If I ran at my old school, indoor track would feel like a training block for outdoor,” Grevious says. “Having the facility we have here — having an actual indoor track with a track surface — it makes it feel like an indoor season. And to have access to places like BU, where kids are flying from around the country to come compete in meets throughout the winter, and us be an hour away is a huge opportunity for us.”

Grevious’ winter was a busy one. He was invited to compete at The Armory in New York City in the Millrose Games, which is billed as the world’s most prestigious indoor track and field competition. He is just the second Big Red runner in recent memory to earn this honor. He finished sixth in the boys high school mile with a time of 4:12.95. “Competing at Millrose was like a performance,” Grevious says. “The atmosphere was really cool; the way it is set up, the crowd is right above us and feels like they are on top of you.”

These results have brought him some newfound fame. “I had a kid come up and ask if I was Byron Grevious at a meet at Harvard this winter,” Grevious says. “I was not even competing; I was just there to support my teammates. It caught me off guard, but it was kind of cool. I just hope it doesn’t take a toll of me or forces added pressure on myself. We’re still in high school. I just want to have fun in my sport.”

“Byron has achieved great heights in his results to date,” says Brandon Newbould, boys cross-country and distance coach, “and joins the rest of his team in making the Academy proud for so much more than fast times. The character and integrity shown by this team, along with their rigorous standard of academics as student athletes, is a noble representation of our Academy.” E

Highlights From Winter Athletics

By Brian Muldoon

SWIMMERS SEIZE CROWN

The Exeter girls varsity swim team pulled away from a talented 12-team field to win the New England Division I Championship in March. An impressive 92.5 points separated Big Red from Andover, the tournament runner-up. Mena Boardman ’26 earned individual titles in the 50 freestyle (22.67) and 100 freestyle (50.37), and Brianna Cong ’25 claimed a crown in the 100 backstroke (54.97).

“I’m so proud of our team,” girls varsity swim coach Nicole Benson says. “What a remarkable team experience in what was a remarkable year. Many kudos to our seniors — Claire Fu ’23, Amy Benson ’23 and Nat Kpodonu ’23 — for building a team and building a legacy, and for leaving our program better than when they arrived: a true mark of non sibi.”

First place has been a familiar spot for girls swimming. In the 50 years of girls competing in the New England Prep School Swimming Association, Exeter girls have won the division title 17 times. This was Big Red’s first title since a three-year run of championships from 2010 to 2012.

WINTER E/A

While Andover bested Big Red in five contests on the day, the boys varsity basketball team brought home quite a thrilling victory. Knotted at 48-48 at the end of regulation, Mike Loughnane ’23 nailed two free throws in front of a boisterous Love Gym crowd with under five seconds to play in overtime to give Big Red a 56-55 win. Loughnane hit five 3-pointers and was 6-for-6 at the free-throw line, finishing with a game-high 27 points.

Performances from Exeter dance groups POMS and ABS, along with energetic tunes by the newly formed Pep Band, helped deliver, win or lose, an extraordinary atmosphere for hundreds of Exeter’s and Andover’s most supportive students, families and alumni fans.

ON THE MAT

Nathan Puchalski ’23 led the charge for Big Red wrestling as he claimed a Class A title at 144 pounds before qualifying for Prep Nationals. Puchalski has committed to wrestle for Johns Hopkins University.

BRIAN MULDOON (2)

WINTER SPORTS

HIGHLIGHTS

BOYS VARSITY INDOOR

TRACK & FIELD

RECORD: 1-0

Head Coach: Hilary Hall

Assistant Coaches: Marvin Bennett, Ron Edmiston, Steve Holmes, Patrick Kelly, Stephan Lewis, Brandon Newbould, Panos Voulgaris

Captains: Oliver Brandes ’23, Owen Dudley ’23, Jackson Giampa ’23

MVPs: Jaylen Bennett ’25, Byron Grevious ’24

GIRLS VARSITY BASKETBALL

RECORD: 10-11

Head Coach: Katie Brule

Assistant Coach: Kerry McBrearty

Captains: Jac Doucette ’23, Bridgette Martin ’23

MVP: Jac Doucette ’23

GIRLS VARSITY

SWIMMING & DIVING

RECORD: 7-0-1

NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONS

Head Coach: Nicole Benson

Assistant Coach: Kate D’Ambrosio

Head Diving Coach: Julie Van Wright

Captains: Amy Benson ’23, Claire Fu ’23, Nat Kpodonu ’23

MVP: Mena Boardman ’26

GIRLS VARSITY HOCKEY

RECORD: 11-10-0

Head Coach: Sally Komarek

Assistant Coaches: Adam Loyd, Jim Tufts

Captains: Lucy Meyer-Braun ’23, Caroline Shu ’24, Shauna Vadeboncoeur ’23, Eden Welch ’23

MVP: Samantha Smith ’23

GIRLS VARSITY SQUASH

RECORD: 4-12

Head Coach: Lovey Oliff

Assistant Coach: Mercy Carbonell

Captains: Lassiter Foregger ’23, Lally Lavin ’23, Grace Puchalski ’23, Isabella Vesely ’23

MVP: Isabella Vesely ’23

BOYS VARSITY SQUASH

RECORD: 6-13

Head Coach: Bruce Shang

Assistant Coach: Paul Langford

Captains: Sean Wu ’23, Eric Zhang ’23

MVP: Eric Zhang ’23

BOYS VARSITY HOCKEY

RECORD: 12-15-1

Head Coach: Tim Mitropoulos

Assistant Coaches: Dana Barbin, Brandon Hew

Captains: Michael Durkin ’23 Michael Salvatore ’23, Dylan Shapiro ’23

MVP: Michael Salvatore ’23

GIRLS VARSITY INDOOR

TRACK & FIELD

RECORD: 0-1

Head Coach: Hilary Hall

Assistant Coaches: Marvin Bennett, Ron Edmiston, Steve Holmes, Patrick Kelly, Stephan Lewis, Brandon Newbould, Panos Voulgaris

Captains: Kaylee Bennett ’23, Tristen Crotty ’23

MVP: Willa Hock ’23

BOYS VARSITY

SWIMMING & DIVING

RECORD: 8-1

FOURTH PLACE IN NEW ENGLAND

Head Coach: Don Mills

Assistant Coach: Meg Blitzshaw

Head Diving Coach: Julie

Van Wright

Captains: David Kim ’23, Henry Liu ’23, Zach Quitkin ’23, Drew Smith ’23, Andrew Van De Water ’23 MVP: Ethan Guo ’25

BOYS VARSITY WRESTLING

RECORD: 7-4

Head Coach: David Hudson

Assistant Coaches: Bob Brown, Tom Darrin

Captains: Chris MacArthur ’23, Nathan Puchalski ’23

MVP: Nathan Puchalski ’23

BOYS VARSITY BASKETBALL

RECORD: 9-9

Head Coach: Jay Tilton

Assistant Coaches: Rick Brault, Phil Rowe

Captains: Rollie Castineyra ’23, Mike Loughnane ’23

MVP: Mike Loughnane ’23

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRIAN MULDOON

EXETER RELEASES ITS FIRST SUSTAINABILITY AND CLIMATE ACTION PLAN

By Patrick Garrity

Illustrations by Kathleen Fu

Exeter’s founding document predates the advent of the principles of sustainability by about 200 years, but today the ideals of each seem inextricable.

Just as the philosophy of non sibi calls on Exonians to use the wisdom gained at the Academy for others as well as for oneself, the concept of sustainability recognizes that our actions have consequences beyond ourselves. Exonians are motivated by non sibi to face the challenges of their day, and there are perhaps no greater challenges facing society today than the matter of sustainability and the crisis of climate change.

It is amid these challenges that Exeter publishes its first comprehensive sustainability and climate action plan, “a road map for a community-wide commitment to action.”

Titled Building From Strength Toward a Zero Carbon Future, the document quotes the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in calling the climate crisis “a grave and mounting threat to our well-being and a healthy planet.”

The document begins with a refreshed environmental mission statement and three overarching goals, then lays out a strategy to achieve them. “If Exeter is to create a truly sustainable campus and meet our responsibilities to future generations, we must set goals that match the urgency and scope of the climate crisis,” the document declares. The plan — endorsed in concept by the Trustees in January and made final this spring — leans on the

good work done by the Exeter community over the last two decades and a campus culture of conservationism prevalent since Exonians commemorated the first Earth Day 53 years ago. It also recognizes that the immediacy and complexity of climate change has grown since the school’s adoption of an environmental mission statement in 2004. “Consequently,” the plan reads, “our commitment to reducing our environmental impact and educating our students [on the issue] has increased, and must continue to increase.”

The document quotes Principal Bill Rawson ’71; P’08: “Just as we continually re-examine every aspect of Exeter life to ensure we are the best version of ourselves and living up to our founding principles, we must reassess our commitment to sustainability and our impact on the environment.”

The new environmental mission statement, revising an original from 2004, says:

Phillips Exeter Academy is committed to fostering a culture of sustainability in our community. Through our academic programs, we educate our students about the principles of sustainability and the threat of climate change and cultivate their capacity to take action. Through our operations, we will continue to manage our natural resources and campus facilities responsibly, reduce our environmental impact, and minimize our contributions to climate change.

ENVIRONMENTAL MISSION STATEMENT

Phillips Exeter Academy is committed to fostering a culture of sustainability in our community. Through our academic programs, we educate our students about the principles of sustainability and the threat of climate change and cultivate their capacity to take action. Through our operations, we will continue to manage our natural resources and campus facilities responsibly, reduce our environmental impact, and minimize our contributions to climate change.

The three overarching goals call on the school to:

1. Ensure that every student graduates from Exeter with a fundamental understanding of the principles of sustainability and the issues posed by climate change.

2. Reduce scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions (from a 2005 baseline) 75 % by 2031 and achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050.

3. Integrate principles of sustainability into all Exeter programs and operations.

The plan dedicates a chapter to each goal: Education; Emissions and Energy; and Sustainability Integration. The chapters lay out where the school stands in each area and how it intends to achieve the stated goal. The text is the product of more than a year of work by Principal Rawson and the Environmental Stewardship Committee, led by Warren Biggins, manager of sustainability and natural resources, and Andrew McTammany ’04, an instructor in science and the school’s sustainability education coordinator. The 23-page document was completed in March, but the desire for bold vision on the subject is long-standing.

“The Academy has been thinking about sustainability for a long time,” says Biggins, who came to Exeter in 2019 after working in the sustainability department at Pitzer College in California. “My position has existed for over 10 years. There have been various attempts at some sort of a sustainability master plan.” The newly published plan establishes Exeter as a leader among secondary institutions, Biggins says, adding: “On the college and university level, it’s pretty much par for the course at this time. At the high school level, it’s going to be early, and it’s going to be really, really ambitious.”

“All Exonians understand that the climate crisis is one of the most pressing issues of our time, but few know exactly what they can do about it,” says Safira Schiowitz ’23, co-head of Exeter’s Environmental Action Committee. “I hope that the climate action plan will encourage students to find unique ways to contribute to climate change mitigation.”

BUILDING FROM STRENGTH

More than just a vision for the future, the plan confirms the strength of the Academy’s foundation on the subject of sustainability. The Courses of Instruction boast 12 sustainability-oriented classes across disciplines, including Regenerative Agriculture, Earth and the Climate Crisis and Literature and the Land. Student clubs like the Environmental Action Committee and Exeter Climate Lobby have long championed the cause of a sustainable Exeter, and the school’s Global Initiatives program offers students a variety of experiential and immersive opportunities related to the environment.

The school has made significant progress in curbing greenhouse gas emissions, slashing output by nearly 60% since 2005. Eight buildings use geothermal wells for

heating and cooling, and a solar array installed in 2018 atop William Boyce Thompson Field House has generated an annual average of 575,000 kilowatts of electricity, enough to power 54 homes.

Since 2008, Exeter has constructed six LEED-certified buildings, including the gold-standard field house and The David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Theater and Dance. The 12-unit faculty housing development being built on High Street uses all-electric construction, avoiding HVAC and appliances reliant on fossil fuels.

Impressive headway, certainly, but the climate action plan pushes the community to “aim higher and act more ambitiously,” and puts the institution’s intentions on the record. “It gives us something to point to when we’re doing something new,” Biggins says. “When we’re building a new building, when we’re replacing a vehicle, when we’re replacing some piece of grounds equipment. Having the formalized approved plan is really a nice tool to have to achieve the goals that we want to achieve on campus.”

Dr. Ira Helfand ’67, a trustee who advised Principal Rawson and the committee throughout the plan’s creation, adds, “It represents a clear commitment to prepare our students to be leaders in the difficult transition that humanity will have to make if we are going to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of climate change.”

DIGGING INTO THE PLAN

The document’s first chapter purposefully focuses on education. The committee acknowledges that Exeter’s “primary contribution to climate action is through climate education.” The Academy’s environmental footprint is infinitesimal in global terms, but Exonians who are

THE NEWLY PUBLISHED PLAN ESTABLISHES EXETER AS A LEADER AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOLS

THREE GOALS OF THE PLAN

1 2 3

Ensure that every student graduates from Exeter with a fundamental understanding of the principles of sustainability and the issues posed by climate change. Reduce scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions (from a 2005 baseline) 75% by 2031 and achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Integrate principles of sustainability into all Exeter programs and operations.

well-informed about the science and potential solutions of climate change can have a great effect on society.

The plan does not create new courses or academic or extracurricular programs. That process will be led by the faculty with input from students. “It will embolden our faculty to design new curricular experiences around sustainability,” McTammany says. “It will empower our students to propose field courses and projects that center environmental issues. Our teachers won’t just be teaching content, they’ll inspire purpose and prepare our students to be difference makers. And that’s something our faculty are already really good at.”

The educational goals include working with student groups to design and implement projects such as dorm composting and wetland restoration, and developing sustainability-related internships through the alumni network. Bea Burack ’21, a sophomore at Dartmouth College who spent four years at Exeter working to raise awareness about the threat of climate change and who is currently helping revise Dartmouth’s climate action plan, calls the stated goal to educate students in an interdisciplinary fashion “promising but vague,” adding, “I’m wondering how it will be executed.” She says she hopes the school will offer more specifics as the plan evolves, but she fully supports the proposal to expand internship opportunities. “I interned at the Conservation Law Foundation after my upper year, through a program supported by Exeter,” she recalls. “That was a transformative and fascinating

experience for me and has driven my continued interest in pursuing a career as an environmental lawyer.”

The second chapter of the plan is multilayered and dedicated to emissions and energy. The first layer calls for reducing emissions — direct (scope 1) or indirect through purchased electricity (scope 2) — by 75% from a 2005 baseline by 2031. As noted, the Academy has made great strides toward this goal already, and Biggins calls the aim “very achievable and realistic.”

The second element of the emissions goal targets achieving zero carbon emissions by 2050. To quantify just how ambitious this aim is, consider that even though the institution has cut its emissions from fossil fuels, it still emitted more than 10 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere last year. Eliminating that will require fresh ideas.

“It’s important to aim so high because it’s what the best available science tells us we have to do,” Biggins says. “Not as just the Academy, it’s what civilization has to do to avoid the worst effects of global climate change.”

Biggins says that if one were to build PEA from scratch today, achieving zero carbon would be in the blueprints. “You’d have your buildings heated and cooled via heat pump, and your water heated via heat pump,” he says. “Whether that’s air source heat pump or geothermal heat pump, those technologies exist and are available. You would also have an electric vehicle fleet. The charging station infrastructure is all available. … For the most part,

IMAGINE EXETER IN 2050

Here’s what our zero carbon campus might look like.

Everything will run on electricity! From our fleet of campus vehicles (buses, gators, pickups) and equipment (snowblowers, lawn mowers) to appliances (stoves and clothes driers in faculty housing). Charging stations will be omnipresent.

The all-electric heating and cooling systems will be powered by geothermal wells rather than fossil fuels.

Expanded climate education curriculum inspires new student-led projects on campus, like dorm composting and wetland restoration.

Solar panels on academic buildings and residences will generate clean, renewable behind-the-meter electricity, supplemented by off-campus power purchase aggreements and renewable energy certificates.

the grounds equipment technology is there. And then what are you left with? Well, you’re left with supplying the electricity needed to power everything via renewable electricity. That technology exists too.”

It is a more daunting task to convert an Exeter nearing its 250th anniversary. Some of its 2 million square feet of buildings date to Grover Cleveland’s second presidential term. “It’s a radical re-imagining of our building systems at a real large scale,” Biggins says. “And that’s why we’ve got to start thinking about this stuff because it’s not something that can be done in a summer.”

The third goal, sustainability integration, focuses on the day-to-day operations of the school and its community. From quantifying the amount of water used and developing strategies to reduce consumption, to adding electric-vehicle chargers at parking locations across campus, to increasing campus’ waste diversion rate, every facet of campus life is considered.

A LIVING DOCUMENT

The plan is meant to be updated at least every five years with progress reported against the stated goals. Biggins calls the plan “a living document” and says its next iteration will have more specifics informed by the work that is done. “We’re going to be updating it in a formal way to guide our steps through the next five, 10, 15, 20 years on the way to 2050,” he says. As the plan states in the concluding paragraph, “our actions will determine whether or not we achieve our goals.”

Helfand, the Academy trustee, calls the plan an essential and praiseworthy first step. “Along with the danger of nuclear war, the climate crisis is one of the two great existential threats facing humanity today,” he says. “How we deal with these threats will be the defining narrative of the 21st century.

“Some of the steps that we have to take will be expensive and they will involve sacrifice. But the science is clear. Exeter and society as a whole are going to have to make major changes in the way we live. I am very proud that the Academy is addressing this challenge head-on.” E

SCAN TO READ THE SUSTAINABILITY AND CLIMATE ACTION PLAN.

OUR TEACHERS WILL INSPIRE PURPOSE AND PREPARE OUR STUDENTS TO BE DIFFERENCE MAKERS

THE MUSIC OF

RESISTANCE

HOW CELEBRATED JAZZ PIANIST AND PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING COMPOSER ANTHONY DAVIS ’69 IS CHANGING THE NARRATIVE

By Sarah Pruitt ’95

On a late afternoon in mid-January, The David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Theater and Dance is quiet as Anthony Davis ’69 gets his first look around the building, which opened in 2018.

Soft-spoken, with curly gray hair and wireframed glasses, he smiles easily as he admires the lighting and flexible seating options in the intimate performance space known as the Actors Lab. Times have changed, Davis acknowledges, since he took to Exeter’s stage as a senior in a production of The Threepenny Opera. “I don’t even remember where we performed that,” he says.

A search of Exonian archives reveals the 1969 production was performed in the old Dramat House, a renovated parish building behind Dunbar Hall. When Fisher Theater, the Goel Center’s predecessor, opened in 1972, Dramat House was renamed 3-D Hall; it was

used to house drama and art classes until it was torn down in the early 1980s. Davis can be forgiven for not keeping track of Academy renovations over the years. He made this trip — his first back to Exeter’s campus since he graduated nearly 54 years ago — to deliver the keynote address for the school’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day commemoration.

A celebrated jazz pianist and composer, Davis has taught music at the University of California San Diego since 1996. His distinctive fusion of traditional operatic forms with more modern genres — particularly jazz — and his willingness to confront political and societal issues in his work propelled him to new heights in 2020, when he won the Pulitzer Prize for music for The Central Park Five. This fall, a revamped version of his first major opera, X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, will premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTIAN HARRISON

“WE COULD HAVE THIS POTENTIAL TO TRANSFORM THE WORLD THROUGH OUR ART.”

ANTHONY DAVIS’ REVOLUTIONARY PLAYLIST

“Alabama”

John Coltrane

Black, Brown & Beige (The 1944-1946 Band Recordings)

Duke

“A Tone Parallel to Harlem (Harlem Suite)” from Ellington Uptown (1951)

Duke Ellington

“Praying With Eric (Meditations on Integration)” from Town Hall Concert, 1964

Charles Mingus

A Love Supreme

John Coltrane

Ten Freedom Summers

Wadada Leo Smith

X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X

Anthony Davis (libretto by Thulani Davis)

For the keynote, Davis addressed an all-school assembly in the Love Gym alongside his brother, Christopher “Kip” Davis ’71, a social researcher and educational reformer. The brothers talked about their formative experiences at Exeter and beyond, how they worked together on X and how the world, in the post-George Floyd era, is finally catching up to the composer’s trailblazing work.

“As artists, we can revisit and transform these stories and make these stories tell the stories we want to tell,” Davis told the students. “I think that’s what Martin Luther King envisioned for us, that we could have this potential to transform the world through our art, through our actions, through our activism.”

In eighth grade, Davis was one of a handful of Black students in his school in State College, Pennsylvania, where his father, Charles Davis, was an English professor at Penn State. He was passionately interested in history and politics at the time, and he was kicked out of his social studies class for questioning the definition of “communism” in the textbook.

Seeking a different learning experience, Davis applied to Exeter. He initially planned to matriculate as a lower but deferred his admission after his father won a Fulbright award to teach for a year in Italy. By the time he arrived at Exeter in the fall of 1967, Davis had fallen in love with jazz — particularly the work of Thelonius Monk — and had begun exploring his identity as a young Black man at a tumultuous time in the nation’s history. He remembers the school as a tight-knit community, where he made close friends in his dorm and had some great teachers, particularly in math and English.

“[Anthony] has always excelled academically, and he was really able to thrive at Exeter,” Christopher Davis remembers. Yet he also encountered prejudice. In one memorable example, Davis turned in a poem about the Acropolis, inspired by a visit to Greece during his father’s Fulbright year. His English teacher told him dismissively that he should write poems from his experience.

Davis continued to hone his musical identity at Exeter, expressing a passionate dislike for Brahms and challenging himself to improvise on the clarinet, saxophone and piano. By the time he graduated, he had begun pondering the possibilities of combining jazz and improvisation with the more formal structure of traditional opera — and the potential for music as an act of political resistance. “Music was so much a part of what I thought was the revolution,” he told the MLK Day audience. “The revolution that was coming.”

After his graduation from Yale University in 1975, Davis moved to New York City, where he spent time writing music for plays and choral poems by playwrights including

We Insist!: Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite

Max Roach featuring Abbey Lincoln

Ellington and his Orchestra featuring Joya Sherrill

Scan this QR code to listen to a selection of songs.

“HE BEGAN PONDERING ... THE POTENTIAL FOR MUSIC AS AN ACT OF POLITICAL RESISTANCE.”

Ntozake Shange, author of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf, and his cousin Thulani Davis. “That was developing the idea of how words flow to music,” Davis says. “From there, it wasn’t that big a step to start setting words to music.”

In 1986, the New York City Opera premiered his first opera X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X, with a libretto written by Thulani Davis. “Anthony and I were both fans of John Coltrane, who underwent a whole spiritual journey that’s reflected in his music,” says Christopher Davis, a story writer for X. “That paralleled for us the spiritual journey of Malcolm X, including his conversion to Orthodox Islam and changing his name to Malik el-Shabazz.”

Davis’ subsequent operas drew on history as well, covering topics as diverse as the kidnapping of heiress Patricia Hearst (1992’s Tania), the historical mutiny of enslaved Africans aboard a slave ship (1997’s Amistad) and a Native American family in Nebraska (2007’s Wakonda’s Dream). In 2016, he began writing what would become The Central Park Five. With a libretto by Richard Wesley, the opera dramatizes the arrest, trial and imprisonment of five Black and Latino teenagers for the brutal rape and beating of a female jogger in New York City in 1989 — and their ultimate exoneration in 2002 based on DNA evidence and a confession by the culprit.

After extensive revisions, The Central Park Five was performed in its entirety at the Long Beach Opera in 2019, receiving a glowing critical reception. Mark Swed, classical music critic for the Los Angeles Times, praised Davis’ “special blend of eloquence and unblinking righteousness.” Of the opera itself, Swed wrote: “He puts a good deal of what makes American music American in his score, particularly roiling jazz. The growling trombone and heckling trumpet could be characters themselves.”

The opera’s success — and particularly the announcement of Davis’ Pulitzer win in May 2020 — undoubtedly helped fuel interest in a revival of X, featuring a tightened structure with only one intermission. In the fall of 2021, the Metropolitan Opera announced that a new production of Davis’ first major work would debut on its stage on November 3, 2023. It will be only the second opera by a Black composer to be performed at the Met, after Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, which opened in 2021.

Helmed by Tony-nominated director Robert O’Hara, the new production premiered in Detroit last May. A recording made a month later at a performance of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Though Davis has been exploring themes of social injustice and resistance since the beginning of his music career — not to mention creating roles in operatic works for talented Black performers — he recognizes a shift in the past few years in the way his work has been received. He attributes this in part to George Floyd, a Black man who was killed publicly in police custody early in the COVID-19 pandemic, and the widespread movement for racial justice and equity his death sparked.

“There was a time when there was a real dichotomy between jazz and classical music,” Davis says. “That’s been changing for a number of years, but I think what’s happened in the last few years has challenged classical music to reposition itself. ... I think it’s a sense of reevaluating what’s important, who it’s representing and what the future of classical music is going to be.”

“The audience is really responding to the music,” Davis says of the new production of X. “When we did it in 1986, I remember Thomas Young [the lyric tenor who starred in the original X] saying, ‘This is so far ahead of its time.’ But now, I think people have kind of caught up with us.” E

DAVÓNE TINES AS MALCOLM X IN A PERFORMANCE OF DAVIS’ OPERA AT THE DETROIT OPERA HOUSE.

PHOTOGRAPH BY MICAH SHUMAKE / DETROIT OPERA

? C Ó MO SE DICE?

Students reclaim the language of home through new courses designed for heritage speakers of Spanish

By Sarah Pruitt ’95

Cristina Ortiz ’26

Agroup of students sits around the Harkness table in a cozy classroom on the fifth floor of Phillips Hall, going over the previous night’s Spanish homework. They bend over their papers, reading aloud sentences using the pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo, the verb form used to express subjectivity or uncertainty in the past.

One student lets out a small cry after learning she chooses the wrong answer. “No desesperes,” Humberto Delgado Velazquez, instructor in modern languages, says in a light tone that suggests he has spoken these words more than a few times before.

The students in Delgado’s class on this day are far from the only Exeter students to despair over the Spanish subjunctive. Yet they are different from many of those language learners in a couple of important ways: They are all heritage speakers of Spanish, having a familial or community connection to the language to one degree or another for their entire lives, and they are taking Exeter’s first courses designed for students just like them.

This year, the Modern Languages Department offered two courses in Transition Spanish for Heritage Speakers. Held in the fall and winter terms, the courses aim to provide an environment where heritage speakers of Spanish can build on the base they have in the language and get the specific academic instruction they need. “Over the years, we’ve noticed that we have a certain population of students in our classes” in Spanish, says Fermín Pérez-Andreu, chair of the Modern Languages Department. “They may have problems with certain grammar points, or they don’t use certain structures in the way they should, but they understand a lot and can to some extent communicate and engage in conversation. It’s very difficult to make those adjustments in an environment with other students who are at a different rhythm. … We thought it would be good to create an environment in which they feel more comfortable, valued and taken care of.”

These aren’t the first classes at Exeter designed for heritage speakers of a language other than English. For about a decade, the Academy has offered accelerated Chinese courses for students who have some background

in Mandarin Chinese. Some students who enroll in these classes were born in the United States but speak Mandarin at home; some have lived in Chinese-speaking countries; others may simply have exceptional language skills and high oral profiency. “Students’ speaking skills are normally very high, but their reading and writing level may not be as strong,” says Instructor in Modern Languages

Ning Zhou, who teaches CHI321: Advanced Chinese (Accelerated) in the winter term. Zhou says the department typically fills one or two sections of the accelerated Chinese course; it is offered in three yearlong sequences, depending on demand. “The course provides a space for students with similar academic needs,” Zhou says. “Students form good relationships with each other and build a strong community along the way.”

By contrast, Delgado had only six students in Transition Spanish for Heritage Speakers when it launched in the fall term, but he predicts that number will grow. “The Hispanic population is rising in the United States, and we are going to be dealing with a very big number of students in similar cases,” he says.

The growing number of heritage language classes at secondary schools and universities across the country reflects the reality that the United States is increasingly becoming a bilingual country. According to a 2021 report by the global nonprofit organization Instituto Cervantes, the United States has the world’s fourth-largest Spanish-speaking population (counting only native Spanish speakers).

By 2060, Instituto Cervantes estimated, 27.5% of the U.S. population will be of Hispanic origin, making it the country with the world’s second-largest Spanish-speaking population.

At Exeter, Hispanic/Latino students currently make up around 8.2% of the student body, according to self-reported surveys conducted by the Admissions Office. But the number of students who fit the heritage speaker of Spanish profile is growing, Pérez-Andreu says, leading to the introduction of the course this year.

Jackie Flores, who has taught Spanish at Exeter since 1997 and oversees the Spanish language placement tests for incoming students, argued strongly for the addition of a heritage Spanish course. “I taught the 100-level

We thought it would be good to create an environment in which they feel more comfortable, valued.

Fermín Pérez-Andreu, chair of the Modern Languages Department

course for many years, and I always found it so uncomfortable having that one Latino or Latina student who stood out, and everybody around the table either feeling intimidated or thinking, ‘Why is this student in my class? Don’t they already speak Spanish?’” She has also seen many Hispanic students skip learning Spanish altogether because they think they already know the language.

Patrick Snyder ’25 nearly became one of those students. Throughout his childhood in San Antonio, Texas, Snyder says, his mother, who is Mexican, spoke Spanish to him, but he would never speak back. When he enrolled at Exeter as a prep, he decided to take Chinese. “I wanted to challenge myself, I guess,” he recalls. Last fall, he made the switch to the new Spanish for Heritage Speakers course. “I’ve loved it,” he says. “Having that half-Latino in me, I love learning the language and getting into the culture more.”

Like Snyder, other students in the class report that their relatives spoke to them in Spanish from an early age and that they answered only in English. “I’ve always been able to understand what people are saying, but being able to speak and write is a whole different thing,” says Celia Valdez ’26, whose father is Chicano and whose mother is of mixed Cuban and white heritage.

One problem, Delgado says, “is that Spanish in the United States has been stigmatized in general.”

A native of Mexico, he came to Exeter in 2020, after teaching Spanish and Latino Studies to undergraduates at Harvard University and Boston College. He adds: “These kids are often reluctant to learn Spanish because they have learned that Spanish is second in language, second in culture. This is the other thing you have to create: a pride for the language and their cultures, their heritages.”

In the new class, students are challenged by reading literature in Spanish, including difficult works by authors like Pablo Neruda. Delgado stresses that the language is in their brains, and that the class is about drawing it out. As a result, the students usually move quickly through a lesson, and he often finds himself adjusting his plans accordingly.

At the end of the two-class sequence, Delgado will assess each student’s level to decide placement for the next term. He believes they will all be placed at an advanced level, either 320: Advanced Spanish or 400: Panorama of Latin American and Spanish Readings, which will be close to satisfying their language requirement after only one year at Exeter.

Two students who took the course during the fall term advanced to the 500 level. One was Siena Saavedra Bagdonas ’26, who moved to the United States from Mexico when she was around 7 years old. “I kind of put so much focus into learning English that I shut off from Spanish for a while,” she says. “We’re all bilingual in my house, but we fall [back] on English.”

As she got older, Saavedra Bagdonas began making more of an effort to regain some of the comfort with Spanish she had lost. By the time she applied to Exeter, she spoke fluently again but had received little formal instruction beyond an elementary-level class in middle school, where she ended up serving essentially as the teacher’s assistant. Her teacher would give her reading materials on the side so she could begin to improve her Spanish literacy, which served her well in the fall Spanish for Heritage Speakers course.“The way you learn a language naturally versus the way you learn it in a classroom is just so not the same,” Saavedra Bagdonas says. “Overall, Dr. Delgado would teach the group, but if there was something he felt some of us knew more than others, he would separate us.”

This winter, she took SPA552: Fantasy and Reality in the Latin American Narrative, devouring works by Gabriel García Márquez, Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar and others. Her language requirement fulfilled, Saavedra Bagdonas is pondering taking a course in French or Japanese but also plans to enroll in other 500-level Spanish courses. “The thing for native speakers is we need practice more than anything else,” she says. “I don’t think I would have gotten [that practice] if it weren’t for the heritage Spanish class.”

I had no idea what a subjunctive verb was before I came to this course. Now ... I’ve finally been able to speak to my greatgrandma, who only speaks Spanish, without needing my grandma to translate.

Celia Valdez ’26

Though Max Albinson ’25 doesn’t have Hispanic heritage, he attained a high level in Spanish by attending school and playing with a local basketball team in Barcelona, where his family moved when he was around 10. When he enrolled at Exeter, he was given the choice between an intermediate class or Spanish for Heritage Speakers and chose the latter. “The classroom environment is what really did the most for me,” Albinson says. “You’re in an environment with all these kids with this diverse set of backgrounds, but you’re also bonded through a language that you all know so much about but aren’t quite there on fully understanding how to do it in an institutional manner.”

Albinson is now taking SPA503: Family, Community and Contemporary Life. “My language requirement will be fulfilled by the end of this term, and that’s all thanks to being in the heritage class.” He plans to use the increased flexibility to polish his Spanish through more classes, and to take electives like epistemology, anthropology and economics.

The students in the Spanish for Heritage Speakers courses may have different levels of fluency and comfort, but they share a personal connection to the language and culture that sets them apart from other language learners. They also come from different backgrounds, and the classes include sharing different experiences and perspectives from the Hispanic/Latino world in the United States and beyond. “They need to understand how to deal with their own hybrid identity in this country,” Delgado says. “That is very important to me, as important as the language.”

Back on the fifth floor of Phillips Hall, the students in SPA13H muse on the practical impacts the class has had. Cristina Ortiz ’26, who is of Puerto Rican heritage, says she spoke Spanish in the house until she was 7 because her grandmother, who took care of her, didn’t speak English. “I don’t really know why, but after that age, we just stopped speaking Spanish at home, until now where I feel like we primarily speak English,” she says. Recently, however, she was on the phone with her grandmother, and something had changed. “She’s like: ‘Wow, you’re using words you’ve never used before. I’ve never heard you speak like this.’”

Valdez agrees. “I had no idea what a subjunctive verb was before I came to this course,” she says.

“Now I’ve been speaking to my family in Spanish a lot more, and I’ve finally been able to speak to my greatgrandma, who only speaks Spanish, without needing my grandma to translate. That’s been nice.” E

Modern Languages

Students in a class for heritage speakers of Mandarin Chinese

Sebastian Hiller ’25 and Patrick Snyder ’26

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRISTIAN HARRISON

CONNECTIONS

News and notes from the alumni community

A Picture of Reunion

By Chiara Perotti Correa ’18

Ihave a spot. It’s on the third floor of our library, overlooking the Academy Building. Second window to the right, sitting in the wooden rectangle window, knees to my chest, trying to mentally erase the cables to watch the mesmerizing purple sky on a spring day. That is the first place you will find me in May at my fifth reunion.

My father still has the official picture of my first day at International Student Orientation on his nightstand. Light blue button-down and shorts, holding back my tears because I was both excited and scared. Who would’ve thought a young girl from coastal Ecuador would be living in a town, a state, she’s never heard of?

I cherish that photo because I don’t have many of myself during my time at Exeter. Instead, I had the privilege of experiencing every single part of it through my camera lens. Pep rallies, games, performances, teas, playing Spikeball on a sunny day — I captured it all. Then the late nights in The Exonian office deciding which pictures would go best with a story. For me, it always came down to emotion, and in a campus with hundreds of teenagers, my protagonists never disappointed.

I chose to pick up a camera during my first term at Exeter because I wanted to meet people. I wanted a reason to introduce myself and hear people’s stories. And this didn’t mean only students, but also faculty and staff who made my experience one I will never forget. The staff at Grill always asked how my day was as I asked them to warm up a chocolate chip cookie. My piano teacher, Ms. Lee, to whom I will forever be indebted for listening to me while I had a rough day at school. Mr. Reichlin, who encouraged me to pursue my passion for languages and allowed me to do a 999 with him! These are the people I’m most excited to see when I get back to campus in the spring for reunion.

My senior year, I often heard alumni who came to campus say that Exeter connections are connections for life. At first, I wasn’t exactly sure how that would happen for me because I was a foreigner who was going to a school where not a lot of Exonians had gone. Five years later, I’ve met up with more than a third of my class and many alumni from other classes in three continents. Social media has given us an opportunity to stay up to date with one another, especially during the pandemic. I’m grateful that I met Lawrence Young ’96 during my first year living in D.C. as he, alongside other alumni, hosted a “talking circle” via Zoom while we were on full lockdown. It is opportunities like these that remind me how special Exeter is.

This May, I hope to see many of my classmates and teachers, take a bunch of pictures, and sit in the library once again. For those who have reunions, I hope you can all join me in going back to each of your own special places on our beloved campus.

Exeter, see you soon! E

Education for All

ROBERT KEEFE ’64

By Sarah Zobel

Though Robert Keefe ’64 spent only one year at the Academy, that was plenty of time to awaken him to the universal importance of education — his own and others’. “I truly believe that the more education we have, the better society is, the more tolerant people are,” Keefe says. “With education, there’s no problem that can’t be solved.”

Today, he reinforces that conviction through education philanthropy. He has established a named scholarship not only at Exeter, but also at his alma maters Harvard College and Boston College Law School.

“I want young men and women who cannot afford to attend those places to have the opportunity,” he says, “so they can obtain a better education and ultimately make society better.”

Keefe’s philanthropy is fueled partly by his Exeter experience. He came to the Academy as a comparatively young postgraduate student at the urging of his parents, who thought the extra year would be positive for him. From the outset, he appreciated Exeter’s small class sizes, the academic rigor and his classmates.

“I thought I was smart,” he says, “but when I arrived at Exeter, I realized that there were many, many young men who were much smarter than I was, and I could learn by being involved with them in classes and discussions. It was really an intellectual atmosphere that could open your mind.”

He embraced the opportunity to learn from and alongside students from around the world, and, as a three-sport athlete (football, basketball and baseball), was equally impressed by the skills and sportsmanship of his Big Red teammates. Though he had enjoyed his time at Arlington High School in Massachusetts, Keefe recognized how much he had grown intellectually and emotionally at Exeter. “The difference was night and day,” he says.

Keefe furthered his education at Harvard, then law school. His career began with a two-year position at the Department of Justice in Washington, and truly bloomed at the Boston law firm Hale and Dorr, now WilmerHale.

Keefe is a member of the firm’s white-collar defense and investigations practice; has co-chaired the government investigations and litigation group; was a member of the antitrust and trade regulation, environmental, foreign corrupt practices act and securities litigation groups; and served on the banking and financial law and health law committees. He also taught a Harvard Law School advocacy course. He is currently senior counsel in WilmerHale’s litigation/controversy department.

His education and successful career, he acknowledges, gave him a level of financial comfort he had not anticipated. “I always thought that if you wanted to make money,

you went to business school,” he says with a laugh. “But I’ve been blessed, and I said, ‘What can I do to help the next generation?’” The answer was helping to make education accessible.

Keefe is eager to assist students locally; the financial aid awards he established at Exeter, Harvard and B.C. Law, for example, are intended for Massachusetts residents. But he’s most interested in helping any deserving scholars gain access to a good education, so he set up the awards in an ever-widening circle. If there isn’t a deserving applicant in Massachusetts, the funds are made available to New Englanders, then to students across the country.

Keefe has also widened his philanthropic circle. Since 2015, he has given a considerable amount of time and energy as a volunteer to the Cummings Foundation, based in Woburn, Massachusetts. The organization, valued at $1.5 billion, is, Keefe jokes, “the biggest foundation in Massachusetts that nobody ever heard of.” Cummings provides grants to organizations in Suffolk, Middlesex and Essex counties that focus on education, health care, social justice and human services. Keefe started by reviewing hundreds of grant applications; as staff and volunteer numbers grew, he convinced the foundation that site visits would help with funding decisions. That first year, he conducted 20 site visits alone; now 75-plus volunteers take an in-person look at some 375 or more prospective grantees from January to August. They draft reports, which are reviewed by still more volunteers, creating what Keefe proudly says is a democratic grant process.

“I thought I knew everything about this area, and then I started doing this foundation work,” Keefe says. “I learned about all these fantastic nonprofit organizations doing great work in the communities I knew nothing about — organizations that are feeding the hungry, educating the young, housing the homeless, helping people with physical and developmental disabilities. It’s wonderful. I meet people who are doing this day in and day out, helping make these cities better places to live. I leave every site visit uplifted.”

Although the Cummings Foundation originated with a local focus, it also works with programs as far afield as Rwanda, a mindset not unlike Keefe’s approach to supporting local students first. Keefe enjoys connecting with students who have been the recipients of his scholarships, but he’s not looking for special recognition. He just wants to help today’s scholars improve tomorrow.

“What I like about Exeter is they want all the boys and girls to try to do the best they can academically,” he says, “and they expose them to all these ideas and classes and thoughts. By educating young men and women, they’re making not just this area, but the country and the world, a better place to live. They’re sending out well-educated men and women to solve problems.” E

“I truly believe that the more education we have, the better society is, the more tolerant people are.

... With education, there’s no problem that can’t be solved.”

Memorial Minute

David Douglas Coffin ’64 (Hon.); P’71

Bradbury Longfellow Cilley Professor of Greek and Chair of the Department of Classical Languages, Emeritus (1922-2019)

David Douglas Coffin was born in New York City in 1922 and attended Hotchkiss before going on to Yale, where he earned a B.A. in classics in 1942, followed by an M.A. in 1947. Between these degrees, he served as a naval intelligence officer during the Second World War. In 1948, David won a fellowship to study at King’s College, Cambridge, where he met his wife, Rosemary Baldwin. Upon their return

— awards that meant more to him than any others, he said, because they had been proposed by former students. In 1986, he received one of the first Brown Family Faculty Awards to be given at Exeter. He retired in 1987.

Outside of the classroom, David served as dorm head in Hoyt and McConnell Halls; coached JV football, club baseball and tennis; and advised The Exonian, the Kirtland Society and the Outing Club. Among myriad other committees, he chaired the NAIS Committee on Latin and the College Board Classics Committee. He created the syllabus for the first Advanced Placement Latin course and co-wrote a guide for aspiring AP instructors.

to the United States, David and Rosemary settled near Smith College, where David taught classics for three years and where their children, Sarah and Peter, were born.

David’s arrival at Exeter in the fall of 1953 marked the beginning of a truly singular career in secondary education. Chair of the Classics Department from 1966 to 1971, he was named Bradbury Longfellow Cilley Professor of Greek in 1969. Adept in Latin as well as Greek, he embraced the department’s traditional emphasis on grammar and precision but combined that with a humanistic sensibility and an appreciation of newly emerging critical approaches to literature. During his tenure, David received distinguished secondary teaching awards from Harvard (1967) and the University of Chicago (1984)

To this distinguished record of service may be added a further scholarly achievement, one that seems to hail from a mythical age of heroes. In addition to writing a variety of instructional materials that still form part of the department’s curriculum today, David made an enduring impact on Latin instruction across the country with his revision of the landmark Jenney’s Latin textbook series. For over 30 years, legions of young people made their first acquaintance with the language and literature of ancient Rome through these books — an introduction that few of them realized had been carefully curated and expertly guided by the hand of David Coffin.

In what would have been his seventh year at Exeter, David taught at Eton College in England as part of a Fulbright-funded teacher exchange. He was the first American to teach at Eton in its 519-year history. In a nod to his wide learning, Newsweek observed that “by 5:45 p.m. on his first day, Coffin had lectured on geography, history, English and divinity, as well as classics.” But he displayed more than just knowledge while he was there: After sustaining several cracked ribs playing goalkeeper

on the Eton fields, David was heard to say, with no small degree of satisfaction, “They didn’t score a point.” That same indomitable spirit later propelled him to climb all 48 of New Hampshire’s 4,000-foot peaks, along with all the 4,000-footers in the Adirondacks. Eventually coaxed to give up mountain climbing at the age of 80, David continued to play tennis into his 90s.

The reminiscences of his former students are testament to David’s abiding legacy. One alumnus from the ’60s said: “In the 50 years since he was my teacher at PEA, I’ll bet a month hasn’t passed that I haven’t thought of him. I hope he somehow knew how much he did for me.” Few of these recollections proceed very far without mentioning the profound influence of Rosemary Coffin. One measure of the deep impression that David and Rosemary made on the students in their charge is the three funds and fellowships that were established in their names. Active members of the Episcopal Church and engaged citizens in their town, the Coffins were also prime movers in the establishment of the first RiverWoods retirement community, which became a mainstay of the Seacoast region.

But David Coffin’s legacy as a teacher of classics cannot be overstated. One alumna from the ’80s, who had him in just one class, said, “It was, hands down, the most rewarding, engaging, delightful class of my entire high school, college and grad school career.” An astonishing number of his students went on to become professors of classics at such places as Berkeley, Brown, Chicago, Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, Michigan, North Carolina, Princeton and Virginia. In the opinion of one, “I very much doubt whether there is another secondary school — or another individual teacher — that has had so great an effect on a single academic subject.”

Was David a demanding teacher? Absolutely. One former pupil, for many years the Anthon Professor of the Latin Language and Literature at Columbia, recalled flunking a test in Coffin’s second-year Latin class; he later remarked that he had been trying to learn Latin properly ever since. David was demanding in the very best way — convincing students that he believed they could succeed and responding with pride and joy when they did. As one

student put it, “You cared because you knew he cared.”

In the end, what stands out most is David’s humanity — the momentary retail acts of kindness that make up a day, fill out a week and, eventually, constitute a life. The time he quietly handed a scholarship student new gloves to replace a lost pair. His steadfast, nonjudgmental support of a student in disciplinary trouble. David and Rosemary inviting a student from Thailand into their home every semester to enjoy a Thai meal. His regular attendance at girls field hockey and lacrosse games — no small gesture in the early years of coeducation at Exeter.

To those who knew him, David was a man who liked to laugh. Said one alumnus: “I was not a good student at Exeter. As a new lower in 1976, I hadn’t found ‘Easy’ Ed Echols’ Latin 21 all that easy. My prospects were glum for Mr. Coffin’s Latin 22, based on name alone.” But this student persevered, his admiration for his new instructor grew, and through some combination of “terror and rapture,” he said, he made it to senior fall, when he found himself in Mr. Coffin’s class again, this time reading Vergil’s Aeneid

As he remembers it, one day a classmate was practicing his Latin scansion before class with melodramatic passion, falling to his knees like James T. Kirk pleading for the lives of his crew. Little did they know that Mr. Coffin was watching. When they suddenly saw him, they were uncertain how he would respond. They were relieved when he finally reacted with sheer delight. The moment produced an indelible memory for this student, and a wonderful image with which to close this tribute to an educator who made a lifelong impact on so many: “To me, [Mr. Coffin] will always be there, grinning, immortal, at the top of his game.” May we all be so remembered: grinning, immortal and at the top of our game. E

“In the 50 years since he was my teacher at PEA, I’ll bet a month hasn’t passed that I haven’t thought of him.”

PEA ARCHIVES

The Memorial Minute excerpted here was written by Matthew Hartnett (Bradbury Longfellow Cilley Professor of Greek and chair of the Department of Classical Languages), Beth Nelson Cliff ’77, William T. Loomis ’63, Sarah Pelmas ’81, David Potter ’75 and James Zetzel ’64. The full remarks were presented at a faculty meeting on October 17, 2022, and are available at exeter. edu/memorialminute.

Quiet Crossings

By Nora Sharma ’24

There’s a silence when we walk past each other now. It’s not a bad silence, I’d say. We see each other, we smile, we wave. He looks down at his phone and keeps walking, always on the way to something. Usually, I am too. When we cross paths, I ponder what his smile means.

Sometimes he’s easy to read, like when we made eye contact while I was walking with my friends from the dining hall, and he was walking towards us on the other side of the path. He was wearing a big fluffy brown Patagonia sweater, and he saw me, and he smiled really big, and he waved his arms back and forth so fast like pages of a book animation. It was so cute. He looked so cute. We didn’t say anything, but that day I felt he was so happy to see me and that made me feel so warm. I didn’t say anything back because I didn’t feel the need to. Does he know I was happy to see him? I hope he knows I’m always so happy to see him.

Sometimes I get nervous to say hi to him. Sometimes I want to tell him that his sweater is nice. Is that weird? Will he think I’m hitting on him? A lot of the time, he’s too far away for me to say something, but at what distance is he close enough? My mind is littered with thoughts that pile like crushed cans and plastic wrap thrown into a sea of doubt. Am I bothering him? Making him late? Does he still care anymore? Why is his smile less big? Often, I ponder what his smile means, and I remind myself that he is busy with things I know little to too much about and things I don’t know about and that I shouldn’t take his smile personally. I remember that I am so happy to see him, and I continue down the path. I wear a blushed smile. E

Editor’s Note: This poem first appeared in the winter 2023 edition of Pendulum, Exeter’s literary arts journal.

In the middle of the American Revolution, John and Elizabeth Phillips started a revolution of their own.

They believed in the future of our new country, and in the potential of those who would someday lead it. Their bequest helped a fledgling Academy prosper.

What will be the legacy of your estate plan?

Many Exonians choose to put Exeter in their wills. Our Planned Giving Office will help you and your advisers as you consider a lasting gift to PEA.

Please contact Phil Perham at 603-777-3594 or pperham@exeter.edu.