The Exeter Bulletin SUMMER 2019
Commencement 2019
Share the Exeter Experience EXETER FAMILY WEEKEND OCTOBER 11-14, 2019
Come visit the Exeter student in your life and enjoy a full program with assembly, classes, performances, tours and more.
WWW.EXETER.EDU/FAMILYWEEKEND
The Exeter Bulletin
Principal William K. Rawson ’71; P’08 Executive Editor Karen Ingraham Managing Editor Patrick Garrity Senior Editor Jennifer Wagner Class Notes Editor Cathy Webber Editorial Coordinator Maxine Weed Creative Director/Design David Nelson, Nelson Design Communications Advisory Committee Daniel G. Brown ’82, Robert C. Burtman ’74, Dorinda Elliott ’76, Alison Freeland ’72, Keith Johnson ’52, Yvonne M. Lopez ’93 Trustees President John A. Downer ’75 Vice President Wole C. Coaxum ’88 Ciatta Z. Baysah ’97, Suzi Kwon Cohen ’88, Walter C. Donovan ’81, Mark A. Edwards ’78, Claudine Gay ’88, Peter A. Georgescu ’57, Jacqueline J. Hayes ‘85, Jennifer P. Holleran ’86, Cia Buckley Marakovits ‘83, Sally J. Michaels ’82, Daniel C. Oakley ’80, Deidre G. O’Byrne ’84, William K. Rawson ’71, Peter M. Scocimara ’82, Serena Wille Sides ’89, Morgan C. Sze ’83, Kristyn M. Van Ostern ’96 and E. 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 Telephone 603-772-4311 Periodicals postage paid at Exeter, NH, and at additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA by Cummings Printing. The Exeter Bulletin is printed on recycled paper and sent free of charge to alumni, parents, grandparents, friends and educational institutions by Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH. Communications may be addressed to the editor; email bulletin@exeter.edu. Copyright 2019 by the Trustees of Phillips Exeter Academy. ISSN-0195-0207 Postmasters: Send address changes to: Phillips Exeter Academy Records Office 20 Main Street Exeter, NH 03833-2460
SUMMER
“I WILL BE PROUD TO CALL EXETER MY ALMA MATER.” —page 24
IN THIS ISSUE
Volume CXXIII, Issue no. 4
Features 24 Commencement 2019 Family and friends gather on the Academy Lawn to celebrate the ‘great class of 2019.’
34 Joint Venture Students and alumni mentors explore where goodness fits in the future. By Jennifer Wagner
40 A Living Legacy Hammy Bissell’s efforts to diversify Exeter continues to impact Exonians today. By Daneet Steffens ‘82
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46 Green Day Exeter renews its commitment to sustainability on Climate Action Day 2019.
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Around the Table: Heard in Assembly Hall, My Happy Place, Meet the Faculty and more
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Inside the Writing Life: Willie Perdomo
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Connections: Catching up with our alumni
120 Finis Origine Pendet: Bryce Morales ’19 —Cover photo by Mary Schwalm
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Matthew Wabunoha ‘20 anchors Big Red to victory over Andover on E/A weekend. PHOTO BY DAMIAN STROHMEYER
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AROUND THE TABLE
What’s new and notable at the Academy
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Four Dedicated Instructors Bid Farewell Q UA RT E T C O M B I N E D FO R 78 Y E A RS OF SERVICE TO ACADEMY By Nicole Pellaton
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his summer we say goodbye to four retiring Exeter
Boadi
faculty: Kwasi Boadi, Ahmed Jebari, Tom Ramsey and Tom Seidenberg. Over their combined 78 years of teaching at Exeter, they enlarged the Academy’s global footprint through curricular expansion and the teaching of Harkness concepts to teachers around the world. And they have enriched the community by developing programs to enhance dorm life. They are beloved by the students they taught and mentored for a reason: their ability to understand how young individuals succeed as learners and as people. As Seidenberg puts it, “I have great empathy for kids who struggle in mathematics. I was once one of them.”
KWASI BOADI
A history teacher since 2006, and revered for his empathy, Boadi expanded Exeter’s curricular offerings to Africa, first in 2012 with a term-program launch in Ghana, and recently in planning for the debut of the Johannesburg program this fall. But it is Harkness that takes his heart. “It is every teacher’s paradise,” says the former Michael Ridder ’58 Distinguished Professor.
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“There is nothing more fulfilling than to sit down with 12 highly motivated students, who have done their homework, for an engaging and enlightening intellectual exchange.” This summer, Boadi continued his work with the secondary school teachers workshop, the Exeter Humanities Institute (EHI). He intends to return to his native Ghana, where he hopes to introduce Harkness to local schools.
Jebari
AHMED JEBARI
A quadri-linguist who introduced Arabic to the curriculum in 2005, Jebari also taught Spanish and French, all languages he spoke actively as a child growing up in Morocco. He has led term programs in both Ecuador and Spain. Ever popular among students, he was dorm head of Peabody Hall for many years and always provided a warm smile to his dorm flock. A highlight of his Exeter years came in 2006 when the chief justice of Iraq visited New Hampshire. Jebari served as the chief justice’s translator, including for an Exeter assembly. Jebari returns to Morocco, where he plans to write a history of artists in Larache, a harbor town on the northern coast.
Ramsey
TOM RAMSEY
Ramsey originally came to Exeter to fill a one-year sabbatical opening. Hooked by the joys of the place (“The tall windows in my classroom opening onto the enameled green of a spring campus, the mysteries of Harkness tables ...,” he wrote at the time), Ramsey returned full-time in 1998. He has chaired the Religion Department and taught in EHI. “It’s hard for me to decide which was more fulfilling, teaching or dorm work,” says Ramsey, who as head of Hoyt Hall was a leader in shaping new programs in Exeter’s residential community. “The predominantly intellectual dimension of the classroom and the broadly moral dimension of dorm life work together. … What has made my career at Exeter so rewarding has been the opportunity to bring these together in all of my interactions with students.” Ramsey continues his work with EHI.
TOM SEIDENBERG
As a math teacher, basketball and squash coach, dorm head at Lamont and Ewald, and member of many committees, Seidenberg observed almost three decades of change on Exeter’s campus. “I was always impressed by the kids who were willing to take risks by jumping up to the board [to] solve a problem on the fly or provide an alternative method of solution, something I would have been reluctant to do as a teenager,” says the former Bates-Russell Distinguished Professor. “The table makes it safe to speak up, make mistakes and take risks.” As director of Exeter’s Anja S. Greer Conference on Mathematics and Technology for secondary-school teachers, Seidenberg expanded participation to include educators from around the world; he also taught math workshops in foreign locales from Colombia to Australia. In retirement, Seidenberg plans to tutor students in math and focus on his digital photography. E
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Coach and Coeducation Advocate Honored K AT H Y N U T T N E K T O N P ’8 5, P ’9 8 R E C E I V E S F O U N D E R S ’ DAY AWA R D By Jennifer Wagner
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or helping generations of Exonians become
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fought for equitable space for her teams to practice, change and compete. Her knack for offering an alternative perspective without negating another helped make positive changes. She instituted the first coed team practices, for example, training female swimmers alongside their male counterparts. It was a practical solution to negotiate limited pool time, but it became a learning opportunity for both girls and boys about appreciating everyone as an athlete. Nekton’s collaborative approach and open-minded spirit allowed her to impact athletes and non-athletes alike. She served on numerous Academy-wide committees related to admissions, discipline, curricular review and hiring and won the Rupert Radford Faculty Fellowship Award three times. By being a voice in areas of the school that were historically reserved for academic faculty, Nekton advanced the understanding that physical activity serves children intellectually. Her leadership skills were recognized regionally as well: In 1990, she was elected president of the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council, the first woman to hold that position. Delivering the citation in Nekton’s honor, General Alumni Association Vice President Janney Wilson ’83 said: “Kathy let young girls and young women know that they could do anything they wanted; that they could rise into spaces historically reserved for men; and that they could do so by trusting their intellect, their idiosyncrasies, their integrity.” E CHRISTIAN HARRISON
their best selves athletically, intellectually and morally, physical education instructor and coach Kathy Nutt Nekton P’85, P’98 was presented with the 2019 Founders’ Day Award in May. Over her 35-year career, Nekton championed the connection between the mind and the body for adolescent health and was a courageous voice for equality during Exeter’s burgeoning years of coeducation. As the school’s first female athletic director and chair of the Department of Physical Education, colleagues say she practically wrote the story of women’s sports at the Academy. In her opening acceptance remarks, Nekton said, “I am especially happy to be here the year we all recognize Elizabeth Phillips as an integral founder of Phillips Exeter. … How fitting that the pluralization of the Founders’ Day Award happens as we approach the school’s 50th year of coeducation.” Nekton started at the school as girls club basketball coach in 1973. It was a time in the Academy’s history, and the nation’s, in which women and girls had little representation. The first 39 females were admitted to Exeter in the fall of 1970 and Title IX legislation, calling for equal opportunities for both sexes, was signed into law in 1972. By the late 1970s, there were two girls dorms, one on each side of campus, islands in a sea of boys. Nekton worked steadily, and from the start, to level the playing field. And while “diversity” and “inclusion” were not common terms when she was growing up in the 1950s, those ideals permeated a childhood spent on liberal college campuses where her father served as a Methodist chaplain and her mother taught English. As a field hockey, lacrosse and swim coach, Nekton
The Founders’ Day Award was conceived by Principal Stephen G. Kurtz and established by the Trustees in 1976. It is given annually by the General Alumni Association in recognition of devoted service to the Academy.
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Third Base Coach’s Box, Stagg Field
CHRISTIAN HARRISON
For Dana Barbin, an instructor in physical education at Exeter since 1987 and a baseball and hockey coach for just as long, his favorite spot on campus changes with the seasons. In winter, he’s most at home behind the bench of the ice rink. Come spring, he digs into the third base coach’s box to direct traffic. “At third base, you’re so involved in the game, giving signs when to steal a base, putting on the hit-and-run and, most importantly, when to send the runner home or put on the brakes. That’s living!” Barbin says. “I’ve been so fortunate to call these two places home for three-plus decades.”
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Serendipity and The Secret Garden FO RT U I TO U S V I S I T B R I N G S E X P E RT’S PERSPECTIVE TO ENGLISH CLASS By Adam Loyd
Instructor Becky Moore’s Children’s Literature class in the waning days of the spring term, they are greeted by alum Dick Lisle ’54 and his wife, Janet Taylor Lisle. On campus for Dick’s 65-year class reunion, the couple is eager to sit in on a Harkness discussion. The students are unfazed by their guests’ presence — a common occurrence during reunion season — until Taylor Lisle’s credentials come to light. A Newbery Medal Honor recipient for her 1989 novel Afternoon of the Elves, Taylor Lisle has published 20 works of children’s literature. Anna Shattuck ’19 says she feels In an instance of, as Moore puts it, “serendipJanet Taylor Lisle (cenyoung readers’ ability to make the ity,” Taylor Lisle finds herself in the senior elec- ter) and Dick Lisle ‘54 connection between the growth of the tive class where students analyze texts written drop in on Becky Moore’s characters and the garden is “unimfor young readers from the perspective of both senior English class. portant” to the ultimate takeaway the child and the adult author. of the novel. “You see the characters are maturing and The conversation on this day centers on Frances getting better and you also see the garden, with nurturing Hodgson Burnett’s classic, The Secret Garden. Class from others, is growing,” she says. “You don’t necessarily begins with students sharing passages they found espeneed to be able to draw the line from one to another to see cially evocative from the assigned chapters. Emeline the main idea of growth.” Scales ’19 reads a brief but layered line of text that caught Sharing with the class insight from her unique perspecher eye. “His whole face brightened and a little color tive, Taylor Lisle explains the complexities authors must came into it,” Scales recites. She explains her interpretajuggle when simultaneously writing for young readers tion of the selected quotation as referring to not only the and adult gatekeepers. improving mental and physical state of one of the novel’s “The adult world is reviewing our books, so there’s a protagonists, but also the resurgence of the once beautiful real dichotomy,” she says. “What I’ve always done is write garden that had fallen into ruin. on two levels.” Central to the Harkness discussion is whether literary Taylor Lisle talks about the joy adult readers can find devices, like the one highlighted by Scales, are lost on when rereading a favorite novel from childhood, someyounger readers. And if so, does it matter? thing she thinks about in her own work. Liz Williams ’19 says she first read The Secret Garden “That’s one of the cool things about writing for kids: in fourth grade but doesn’t recall how much of a parallel As an adult you come back and think, ‘Wow, there’s this between the garden’s growth and the main characters’ whole other structure here that I didn’t pick up on when transformations she retained. If young readers aren’t able I was a kid,’” she says. “It’s what makes these stories so to overtly grasp examples of allegory, Williams wonders eternal.” E aloud, is it possible that subconsciously they do?
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ADAM LOYD
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ON STAGE PERFORMING ARTS DA ZZLE IN SPRING
PHOTOGRAPHS CHERYL SENTER EXCEPT WHERE NOTED
Students perform a piece from the spring dance program, Home.
Sarah Liberatore ‘19 performs in Home.
Stephen McNulty ‘21 in the spring play, Let Me Down Easy.
WILLIAM VIETOR ’21
Kiesse Nanor ‘22 in Let Me Down Easy. Justin Burks ‘22 playing violin in the spring music showcase.
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Col. Robert Lim ’87, active duty combat surgeon “Being a military surgeon is very consistent with what I learned here at Exeter. You have to participate, you have to prepare, what you do is a reflection on yourself, all the gifts that you’ve been given are not just for you, and learning is required, continuously. … In the [battlefield] tent there was poor lighting, poor temperature control, low tables, but you did what you could to save a life. We kept a lot of people alive. But like anything that you go through, you can be better.”
To watch videos of these assemblies, go to exeter.edu/exeterlive.
Hallowell
Heard in Assembly Hall SOUND BITES FROM THIS S P R I N G’S S P E A K E R S E R I E S Compiled by Jennifer Wagner
Ned Hallowell ’68, psychiatrist
“Forget about the pressure of being the best. Forget about this ridiculous pyramid model of being number one. Just throw that out the window. The studies are so clear. The people who are the happiest, the healthiest and live the longest are the people who have passionate interests.”
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Ko Barrett, vice chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
“The Paris Agreement has a target to try to hold global warming to below 2 degrees from preindustrial times. Right now, we have already achieved 1 degree of warming and we are seeing the consequences around the world with regard to people, the Arctic, and coral reefs. This is a very real and present issue for all of us. At the current rate of warming, we’ll reach 1.5 degrees Celsius between 2030 and 2052. That’s 11 years from now. You’ll just be starting your careers.” Matthew McGill ’92, lawyer
Barrett
“The [Brett] Kavanaugh-[Christine Blasey] Ford hearing seemed to me the worst kind of blood sport. I say that because even a casual observer of those hearings could detect that the truth or falsity of Dr. Ford’s very serious allegations was almost completely irrelevant to most of the members of the Senate. How else can one explain that all but one Democrat in the Senate said they believed Dr. Ford, while all but one Republican said that they believed Judge Kavanaugh. When the truth or falsity of an allegation of sexual assault becomes a partisan issue, when we care more about protecting our political team than about the truth, it is as sure a sign as can be drawn that we have run amok.”
McGill
Emily Barr ’76, president and CEO, Graham Media Group
“There are now such things as news deserts, where no one remains to cover something as mundane as the city council meeting or the open hearing on water or air quality. You might ask, ‘Why does that matter?’ I want you to think about the children of Flint, Michigan, who were ingesting lead-tainted water for years before local journalists uncovered it and reported on it. It certainly matters to them. It matters to their families.” Barr
Alex Okosi ’94, executive vice president and managing director,
Viacom International Media Networks Africa
“As you are going on in your life and becoming more successful, remember to focus, in order to make your opportunities count. … I landed a job at MTV. I was 21 working at MTV. It was crazy. My Exeter training kicked in. I was working on brands like Country Music Television. I wasn’t a country music fan, I’m not going to lie to you, but I became one overnight. I’m focused.” Seung Kim ’81, scientist, Stanford University and
Stanford Diabetes Research Center
Kim
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“To find that thing you love to do, and that helps give your life meaning, it helps to ‘know thyself,’ or in Latin, ‘nosce te ipsum.’ To do that, you need to engage in honest introspection; you need time for that and you need the will. There is a lot of busy activity that doesn’t allow time for honest introspection. One root of that ‘busy-ness’ comes from an addiction to achievement. I mean achievement in the form of grades, accolades, college admissions, perhaps two higher degrees instead of one. This addiction can lead to the mortgaging of your youth on the altar of achievement.” E
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Rearing Horse “Il aimait beacoup le dessin,” reads the simple epitaph on Edward Degas’ Paris gravesite — “He loved drawing.” But some of the French Impressionist’s most famed work is his sculpture. One of those works, Cheval se cabrant (Rearing Horse), has taken up temporary residence in Lamont Gallery, thanks to the generous loan from Victoria Riskin Rintels and David W. Rintels ’55 in memory of Gisela and Charles E. Wyzanski ’23. Degas executed the piece in wax in the 1880s. It was the ninth in a series of 22 to be cast in bronze at the A.A. Hébrard foundry in Paris in the early 1920s, shortly after Degas’ death. Other casts in the series are on exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Musee d’Orsay in Paris and Gezira Museum in Cairo. Cheval se cabrant is available for public viewing during gallery hours through the summer.
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FIELD TRIP An Exeter student’s exploration and discovery doesn’t stop on summer break, but some of it requires a passport — and in the case of Alex Fraser ’21, crampons and a helmet. Alex, here spelunking a glacial ice cave, was among a dozen Exonians who joined English Instructor and Sustainability Education Coordinator Jason BreMiller for a week in June studying climate change in Iceland. More than 120 students will travel this summer through PEA’s Global Initiatives experiential programs, rolling up sleeves at an archaeological dig on ground Julius Caesar once trod in France; exploring the ecosystem of Yellowstone National Park; helping New Orleans continue to recover from a once-in-alifetime flood; and more.
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EXETER DECONSTRUCTED T H E S C H O O L W E L O V E I N D E TA I L
By Patrick Garrity
ASSEMBLY HALL LECTERN For more than a century, a mighty European beech tree stood outside one Academy library, then another, watching life at Exeter pass it by. Now, a product of that massive beech has a VIP spot for what’s to come. The tree, cut down in 2017 after severe rot was discovered within it, has found new life as the splendid lectern onstage in Assembly Hall. Since its debut last fall, the lectern has been graced by a Nobel laureate and a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and played host to Principal Bill Rawson’s first remarks as the school’s 16th principal. Oh, the stories it will hear. The Academy community hoped the beech’s timber might be used in a variety of projects, but Ron Johnson, senior manager for grounds and athletics, said the old tree’s condition was even worse than feared. Just harvesting enough lumber for the Assembly Hall lectern and another for Grainger Auditorium was a challenge. “We have about a dozen lengths of 4x4 pieces in storage, but most of this wood has split or checked, so we are limited with what can be fabricated,” Johnson says. The lecterns were crafted by D.R. Dimes & Co. of Northwood, New Hampshire, the furniture maker that constructed many of the school’s iconic Harkness tables. And just as the beech tree had a special place in Exeter history, the lecterns already can lay claim to a little slice of their own: D.R. Dimes & Co. closed last December. The lecterns were the last pieces the company crafted for the Academy.
Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and a best-selling author, speaks to an Academy audience while standing at the new lectern in Assembly Hall fabricated from the iconic beech’s lumber. 1 6 • T H E
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Shout-Outs and Big Ups A C O N V E R S AT I O N W I T H P O E T A N D E N G L I S H I N S T R U C T O R WILLIE PERDOMO By Jennifer Wagner
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illie Perdomo writes poetry like he’s laying down a song track. Verbs, adjectives, prepositions, nouns — these are the drumbeats, vocals, synths, guitars. In his fourth book, The Crazy Bunch, released this spring by
Penguin, Perdomo’s dexterous poetic style practically break-dances off the page. Which makes sense, especially when you think of this collection as a soundtrack to the sweet and tragic summer his titular crew came of age in East Harlem in the early 1990s, just as rap and hip-hop music took hold of their neighborhood. Perdomo is the author of the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon; the PEN/Open Book Award-winner Smoking Lovely; and Where a Nickel Costs a Dime, a finalist for the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award. His writing has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature, Poetry and African Voices. Now in his sixth year as an instructor of English at the Academy, Perdomo continues to perfect his craft. We grabbed coffee with the poet just before he headed off
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to the Montalvo Arts Center in California, where he will complete a summer residency as a Lucas Artists Fellow. Q: You introduce your collection with the quote “to be our own, to be electric, fresh… .” It’s a line Walt Whitman wrote in a letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson back in 1855. Why resurrect it here? Willie Perdomo: That word “fresh,” it stuck out for me. And then the idea of the expansiveness of the liberated new verse that Whitman was advocating. Laying claim to that part of what it means to live in a democracy where your language is not constrained by any kind of law. Q: You mention the “Poetry Cops” over and over in Crazy Bunch. Who are they? Do they lay down the law for your poetry? Perdomo: The cops are there to probe a little bit, trigger off the memory. Clearly the book, as much as it is about a weekend in the life of these young men and this crew at large, it’s also a book about writing poetry. There’s a body of folks who act as gatekeepers in these worlds, where they tell you what you can and can’t do in terms of writing. What’s shunned upon and what’s not. The cops represent that in many ways. Q: As an English instructor, are you a poetry cop? Perdomo: As a teacher, my approach is not a correctional approach that way, but I am thoroughly invested in providing you with the right skills so that you can get your line across, get the sentence building into the next paragraph, and that paragraph building into the next. The level of focus and concentration and intentionality that goes behind writing even 500 words, that’s what you look for. Q: I had to look up a lot of words while reading your poems. Perdomo: When you get your proofs from the copy editor at the publishing house, they usually have a list of terms that they highlight. These are the terms that come
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up throughout the manuscript that they either researched or couldn’t find. I was in awe. It was five or six pages long, if I remember, and that’s when I knew I was in a good place. The language was that specific. Q: It’s amazing that you could hold a vernacular note for that long and it doesn’t feel outdated. Perdomo: That’s gratifying to me as a writer because you want it to be fresh, as we used to say, “Funky, funky fresh with the funky style.” Q: Was it fun to write about this “funky” time? Perdomo: I was up at 11, 12 at night working on [this collection.] There’s music playing in the background from that era. Next thing I know it’s 4 or 5 in the morning. I’m dancing and revising. So, yeah, in that moment, the process was extremely fun because I could see it. I could see it blossoming. I feel like I was far enough removed from say, the night that Dre died, that I could write about it. I had the proper distance, physically in New Hampshire, and then temporally, because it was 20-something-odd years ago. Q: You dedicated the book to your son. Why? Perdomo: I think because it was at his age where I started wondering about what it means to belong. What are the masks we put on to be accepted at his age, 16? How does one define one’s masculinity? There are some things I might not be able to relay in the father-son dynamic that I’ll be able to relay as a poet to a reader, whereby if you’re looking for some sort of truth about my life, some of it is in there. Yeah, this is what your dad experienced. You should know that about me. So, when I’m giving you feedback, or I’m giving you advice, or suggesting something, it comes from an informed place, one who has been confronted with tragedy and love and joy and coming of age and confusion and conflict. Q: Can you tell me about that time, as you write, “This is before the world went 2.0.” Perdomo: There were no cellphones then. Maybe the computer was just about to become part of our public consciousness. There was no sense of binary as a code, really. When it comes to identity, I don’t think it was as fluid. We were firmly entrenched in our young manhood, in our maleness and being Puerto Rican and being black in our culture. But this is a time where you had to wait for a phone call. Your network, as it were, your feeds, your narrative life was happening in front of the candy store. The way you heard stories was happening on the stoop. Q: You started as an undergrad at Ithaca College, but didn’t stay long. Perdomo: I was bored and my dream to be a published writer was humongous. My dream was just running wild. I was thirsty. I wanted to know. I wrote a couple of short plays. I wrote some poems for a lit mag and then an alternative newspaper, shot a short film, stuff like that. Even though I wasn’t going to class, I was still involved in
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my artistic life. Then I tried again at City College, where I met Raymond R. Patterson, who’s no longer with us. He changed my life. Q: He was your teacher and mentor? Perdomo: He taught me how to keep a notebook and he gave me a book that became my bar. A book called Cane, by Jean Toomer. It was written in 1923 during the Harlem Renaissance. It’s a hybrid book, basically. It was postmodern before they had a term for it. But the idea of hybridity, that a book can be more than just one thing, that has been my bar since. Q: What was the most difficult poem to write? Perdomo: The poem about Dre. That moment where we laughed initially when we saw him run down the street naked and high on angel dust. Then we laughed when he ran back. Then we heard that he had thrown himself off the rooftop of his six-story building, which was across from mine. We all grew up in the same complex. The idea that one minute you’re laughing, and the next it’s not so funny. Q: What’s the genesis story of the entire collection? Perdomo: The book started [in faculty housing], at 16 Tan Lane, in the living room at the Doctor’s House. My wife and I were watching a documentary about [rapper] Nas’ iconic hip-hop album Illmatic. It really triggered a current of memory that was filled with sadness, because a lot of the people that I knew who were casualties of the drug war came to mind. I missed my childhood friends, and I missed them for all of their joy and pathology. There were memories that were surfacing that I used as focal points for the larger arc of the book. I cried before I started the book. Then I hugged my wife and I ran to my study and I opened my notebook and the first stanza of “In the Face of What You Remember,” which is the opening poem of the book, came out word for word as you read it. Q: Where else did you draw inspiration? Perdomo: One of my favorite movies is Cooley High. This book served as a love letter to Cooley High and hip-hop music, to the innovators like A Tribe Called Quest and Wu-Tang Clan. As hip-hop starts to innovate and offer testimony to what is actually going on in your neighborhood, on your block, in your country, and doing it with a jazz base in the background … that was interesting to me. Then there are poets that I read and reread. They all take different approaches to growing up young, male, black and Latinx in America. People like Reginald Dwayne Betts and David Tomas Martinez. There’s a whole category now of dysfunction that these poets are exploring. Q: Would you put yourself in that genre? Perdomo: Oh, yeah. At this point, I’m an OG in that world. E
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I N S I DEEX T OH N EI AWN RS I TI N I N RGE L V II FE EW
S E N I O R B O O K M A R K
Alumni, please advise the Bulletin editor (bulletin@exeter.edu) of
Life-changing Literature
Exonians in Review columns. Copies of your published work can
By Ava Harrington ’19
I
came to Exeter as a new lower in the fall of
2016 and wanted to focus on STEM, specifically biology. When I took my first English class, that all changed. English Instructor Lundy Smith introduced our class to Drown, by Junot Díaz. The semiautobiographical novel weaves stories of life across countries, of being an outsider, of being imperfect. It is compelling and it is vulgar. It takes no prisoners, tackling topics that
your publications, recordings, films, etc., for inclusion in future be sent to: Phillips Exeter Academy, The Exeter Bulletin, 20 Main Street, Exeter, NH 03833. 1955—Joe Nadeau. At Home Abroad: Friendship First — A Look at Rule of Law Projects and Other International Insights. (Austin Macauley Publishers, 2019) 1965—Granville Wyche Burgess. The Last At-Bat of Shoeless Joe. (Chickadee Prince Books, 2019) 1970—John Taliaferro. Grinnell: America’s Environmental Pioneer and His Restless Drive to Save the West. (Liveright, 2019) 1981—Nathan R. Selden, with coauthor Nigel Nicholson. The Rhetoric of Medicine: Lessons on Professionalism from Ancient Greece. (Oxford University Press, 2019) 1981—Michael R. Notaro. The Call of the Leader. (Dog Ear Publishing, 2019)
are all too often overlooked in classic literature. And instead of lecturing us on these themes and poetics, Mr. Smith gave us free range to discuss what we thought they were. Books capture the human spirit and are made for readers to claim for their own understandings of the world. Díaz’s novel allowed me to lay claim to my youth, my rebellious spirit and, most important, with the encouragement of Mr. Smith and the Harkness method, my ceaseless love for literature. Ava recommends these “life-changer” titles:
Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut The Lady Queen, by Nancy Goldstone Light in August, by William Faulkner The Gene, by Siddhartha Mukherjee Chronicles, by Bob Dylan
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1986—Cynthia Z. Cohen. Applying Dialogic Pedagogy: A Case Study of Discussion-Based Teaching. (Lexington Books, 2018) 2010—Madeleine Henry. Breathe In, Cash Out: A Novel. (Simon and Schuster, July 2019) BEYOND BOOKS 1970—Bob Bauer. “The Perils and Opportunities of Mueller’s Testimony,” article. (The Lawfare Institute, May 2019) 1992—Roxane Gay. The Banks, comic book series. (TKO Studios, 2019) —“Hear to Slay,’’ podcast. (luminarypodcasts.com) 2011—Virginia McMahon. “Public Figure,” song. (www. vblackburnmusic.com)
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CHRISTIAN HARRISON
Associate Athletic Trainer Katie McFadden gets to work in the new Bravo room.
Exeter Trainers Get in the Game B R AV O F A M I LY G I F T O F F E R S AT H L E T E S C A R E R I G H T AT T H E F I E L D By Patrick Garrity
A
trip to the training room for an Exeter athlete playing at Phelps Stadium or on the surrounding fields used to be an over-the-river-andthrough-the-woods journey back to Love Gym. Now, Big Red can stay put. Thanks to a generous gift, the Bravo Family Athletic Training Room offers students and trainers an on-site facility to prevent and treat injuries where they happen. “We have a space we can care for our students through all phases of their injury, from immediate evaluation to rehabilitation,” says Adam Hernandez, director of athletic training. “Adding another clinical space to care for students has allowed us to shift from a reactive model of health care to a preventative model in which we are able to meet students where they are out at the playing fields.” Just completing its first full school year of operation beneath the Phelps Stadium grandstand, the Bravo Room
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serves all Exeter athletes but specifically those in close proximity: football, field hockey, soccer, lacrosse and cross-country. Treatment options include ultrasound, electric stimulation, hot-and-cold therapy and earlyphase rehabilitation through a variety of weights, foam rollers and mobility tools. The new training room is a gift of Steven and Catherine Bravo P’18, whose son A.J. Bravo ’18 captained the boys varsity lacrosse team. The room is dedicated to Steven’s and Catherine’s fathers. “It is a passion of ours that athletes be kept safe while engaging in any sport,” Catherine Bravo says. “We are both health-care professionals who saw a need for the expeditious care of Exeter athletes on or near the fields where they compete. When the opportunity was presented to fill that need, we felt that all Exeter athletes could benefit from such a facility.” E
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CHERYL SENTER
Girls crew co-captains Amelia Lee ’19 and Maddy Potter ’19 christen the A. Morin 2000.
Stroke of Inspiration N E W A . M O R I N 2 0 0 0 S H E L L B E A R S A W I N N I N G D E S I G N AT I O N By Patrick Garrity
W
hen Exeter surged to victory in the girls
second-eight final at the New England championships this spring, it had an Olympic medalist in the boat. Or, more accurately, an Olympic medalist’s name on the boat. Andreanne Morin’s eponymous shell — the A. Morin 2000 — capped its first season in proper fashion, living up to the lofty standards set by its namesake. Morin, a class of 2000 Phillips Exeter Academy graduate, made three Olympic teams for her native Canada, punctuating her rowing career with a silver medal in the 2012 London Games. A week before Exeter rowers took it for a victory lap, the A. Morin 2000 was officially dedicated in a ceremony at Saltonstall Boathouse. The honoree, alas, could not attend. Now a corporate lawyer based in Paris and the mother of 2-year-old and 7-month-old boys, Morin decided a transatlantic flight with a toddler and an infant was a challenge even a three-time Olympian wasn’t
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ready to take on. Her prepared remarks, before the boat’s bow was doused with sparkling cider, were read by Sally Morris, Big Red girls varsity coach and instructor in classical languages. In them, Morin spoke about juggling her academics with her racing career and earning degrees at Princeton and the University of Montreal while continuing to train; about overcoming crushing failures and injuries; and about the inspiration she drew from her teammates, “my sisters and best friends.” She closed with this advice: “Set a high goal and then set the intermediate goals to achieve it. It has to be simple, realistic and it’s OK if it sounds crazy. You also have to be emotionally attached to it. You need to want it so bad that it hurts. I hope you remember to find your passion, keep academics in parallel to your athletic careers and not settle, as you never know how far you can go with your dream.” E
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SPRING SPORTS GIRLS TRACK & FIELD SECOND PLACE AT NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS
Head Coach: Hilary Hall Assistant Coaches: Toyin Ikwuakor, John Mosely, Mark Hiza, Brandon Newbould, Steve Holmes, Ron Edmiston, Levi Strickland, Josh Peterson Captain: Hannah Brown ’19 MVPs: Kaylee Bennett ’22, Hanna Pak ’19
BOYS CREW SECOND PLACE AT NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS
GIRLS TENNIS RECORD: 7-3
Head Coach: Jean Farnum Captains: Isobel Anderson ’19, Katie Yang ’19 MVP: Tia Stockwell ’20
Head Coach: Albert Leger Assistant Coaches: Greg Spainer, Townley Chisholm, Avery Reavill ’12 Captains: Will Kalikman ’19, Adar Tulloch ’19 MVP: Charles Brigham ’19
BOYS TENNIS RECORD: 3-7
Head Coach: Fred Brussel Captains: Vinny Kurup ’19, Alex Mangiapane ’19 MVP: Alex Mangiapane
BASEBALL RECORD: 17-6, CENTRAL NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONS
Head Coach: Dana Barbin Assistant Coaches: Nat Hawkins, Tim Mitropoulos ’10 Captains: Oliver Bergeron ’19, Sammy Willman ’19 MVPs: Oliver Bergeron, Joshua Fuller ’19
BOYS LACROSSE RECORD: 12-7
Head Coach: Bill Glennon Assistant Coaches: David Huoppi, Jim Breen, Travis Glennon ’05 Captains: Matt Hawke ’19, Nicholas Luzzo ’19, Devin McCabe ’19, Reese Popkin ’19 MVPs: Nicholas Luzzo, Reese Popkin
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BOYS VOLLEYBALL RECORD: 12-0, NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONS
Head Coach: Bruce Shang Assistant Coach: Suzan Rowe Captains: Don Assamongkol ’19, Sam Michaels ’19 MVP: Sam Michaels
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SOFTBALL RECORD: 11-6
Head Coach: Nancy Thompson Assistant Coaches: Liz Hurley, Devan Taylor Captains: Stacey Harris ’19, Juliana Merullo ’19 MVP: Stacey Harris
BOYS TRACK & FIELD THIRD PLACE AT NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS
Head Coach: Hilary Hall Assistant Coaches: Toyin Ikwuakor, John Mosely, Mark Hiza, Brandon Newbould, Steve Holmes, Ron Edmiston, Levi Strickland, Josh Peterson Captain: Raj Das ’19 MVP: Matthew Wabunoha ’20
GIRLS CREW SECOND PLACE AT NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS
Head Coach: Sally Morris Assistant Coaches: Becky Moore, Allison Hobbie, David Desaulniers Captains: Amelia Lee ’19, Maddy Potter ’19 MVP: Ashleigh Lackey ’19
GIRLS WATER POLO RECORD: 9-3, THIRD PLACE AT NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS
GOLF RECORD: 6-1 OVERALL, SECOND AT KINGSWOOD OXFORD TOURNAMENT
Head Coach: Andrew McTammany ’04 Assistant Coach: Jose Molina Captains: Samantha Gove ’19, Issy Wise ’19 MVPs: Samantha Gove, Issy Wise
GIRLS LACROSSE RECORD: 9-7
Head Coach: Christina Breen Assistant Coaches: Porter Hayes, Kristen Kjellman Marshall Captains: Bella Hillman ’19, Chandler Jean-Jacques ’19, Cammie Lavoie ’19 MVP: Chandler Jean-Jacques
Head Coach: Bob Bailey Assistant Coach: Ian Willikens Captains: Teddy Keller ’20, Kennedy Moore ’20, Michaela Phan ’19 MVPs: Eunice Kim ’21, William Huang ’21
CYCLING NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONS
Head Coach: Jeff Palleiko Assistant Coaches: Patty Burke-Hickey, Javier Londono, Tim Whittemore Captains: Ashley Lin ’19, Bryce Morales ’19 MVP: Owen Loustau ’22
PHOTO CREDITS: BASEBALL, SOFTBALL, LACROSSE, WATER POLO, TENNIS AND VOLLEYBALL: MARY SCHWALM TRACK & FIELD: DAMIAN STROHMEYER CREW: SPORTSGRAPHICS CYCLING AND GOLF: BRIAN MULDOON
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EMENT2019 T
hree hundred and eight Exonians completed the effortful journey from students to alumni last month, celebrating commencement as Phillips Exeter Academy’s 238th graduating class. Hundreds of family, friends and faculty gathered on the Academy Lawn on June 2 to watch “the great class of 2019” take the final step in that journey and hear Principal Bill Rawson ’71; P’08 declare to the graduates: “You will always belong here. And just as you will always belong here, so, too, will you always belong to each other.” Senior Class President Janeva Dimen ’19 told her classmates, “We are the class of future Olympians, Nobel Prize winners, influential activists, Oscar and Grammy nominees and more,” and echoed the principal’s sentiment of a life-lasting connection. “I know it is highly unlikely for every one of us to be together after today, but I hope that each of us comes back to Exeter, whether it’s for fall E/A, our fifth or 50th reunion, or it’s to visit a friend or to drop off our kids for their prep year. … So, this is not a goodbye, but a see you later.”
Watch Principal Bill Rawson’s remarks and find more photos at exeter.edu/graduation.
The class of 2019 celebrates at the conclusion of commencement ceremony June 2 on the Academy Lawn. PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHERYL SENTER AND MARY SCHWALM SU M M E R
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“It has been a great joy to share Exeter with you during my first year as principal and your last year as students. You might recall that at assembly in October I told you that I already knew that I was going to miss this class after you graduated. The feeling is even stronger today as I reflect upon our year together.” —Principal Bill Rawson
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Clockwise from top left, facing page: Principal Bill Rawson ‘71; P’08 delivers his farewell; Ursula Sze revels in the moment after collecting her diploma; Miles Mikofsky (left) and Evan Vogelbaum relax with the traditional graduation issue of The Exonian; Michael Indelicarto poses with his family; Rajrishi Das steps forward to receive The Yale Cup.
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“I wish to acknowledge in particular the way you have endeavored to make our school community more inclusive and more equitable, and the way you have spoken up when you perceived gaps between our actions and our values. You have advocated for responsible environmental stewardship, and you have worked hard in service to the broader community of which our school is a part. All in the spirit of non sibi. All to improve our school and our school community.” —Principal Bill Rawson
Clockwise from top left: Christina Quinn looks on as faculty members greet the class during the processional; Andrew Dawe strides to his seat with his new diploma; Gillian Quinto was among 18 graduates to earn classical diplomas. Bryce Morales is awarded The Williams Cup for bringing distinction to Phillips Exeter; Maxx Murray celebrates with the audience after being awarded his diploma.
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GRADUATION PRIZES The Yale Cup, awarded each year by the Aurelian Honor Society of Yale University to that member of the senior class who best combines the highest standards of character and leadership with excellence in his studies and in athletics. Rajrishi Das, Nashua, New Hampshire The Ruth and Paul Sadler ’23 Cup, awarded each year to that member of the senior class who best combines the highest standards of character and leadership with excellence in her studies and in athletics. Ogechi N. Nwankwoala, New Rochelle, New York The Perry Cup, established by the class of 1945 in honor of Dr. Lewis Perry, eighth principal of the Academy, and given annually to a senior who has shown outstanding qualities of leadership and school spirit. Juliana Eileen Merullo, Williamsburg, Massachusetts The Williams Cup, established in memory of George Lynde Richardson Jr., and given annually to a student who, having been in the Academy four years, has, by personal qualities, brought distinction to Phillips Exeter. Bryce Carlos Morales, Portsmouth, New Hampshire The Eskie Clark Award, given annually to that scholarship student in the graduating class who, through hard work and perseverance, has excelled in both athletics and scholarship in a manner exemplified by Eskie Clark of the class of 1919. Jonah Omari Johnson, Milton, Massachusetts The Thomas H. Cornell Award, based on a vote by the Senior Class, is awarded annually at graduation to that member of the graduating class who best exemplifies the Exeter spirit. Grace A. Gray, Glen Allen, Virginia The Multicultural Leadership Prize is awarded annually to the member of the graduating class who has most significantly contributed to educating the community about, and fostering greater understanding around, topics of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, ability, religion, spirituality, or other aspects of identity. Adrian Kyle Magsino Venzon, Las Vegas, Nevada The Cox Medals, given by Oscar S. Cox, Esq. in memory of his father, Jacob Cox, are awarded each year to the five members of the graduating class who, having been two or more years in the Academy, have attained the highest scholastic rank. Yasmina Abukhadra, Exeter, New Hampshire Mark Blekherman, Studio City, California Evan Vogelbaum, Tampa, Florida Elizabeth Yang, Boxborough, Massachusetts “Tony” Junze Ye, Shenzen, China The Faculty Prize for Academic Excellence, given to that member of the graduating class who, having been two or more years in the Academy, is recognized on the basis of scholarship as holding the first rank. Mark Blekherman, Studio City, California
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“Intellect alone — thinking with your brain alone — is not enough. Thinking with your heart — empathy — is equally important, indeed essential, to living a purposeful and meaningful life. Knowledge and goodness. As our Deed of Gift states, ‘Both united form the noblest character, and lay the surest foundation of usefulness to [hu] mankind.’ John and Elizabeth Phillips wrote that in 1781. More than 180 years later, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in a sermon: ‘Only through the bringing together of head and heart, intelligence and goodness, shall man rise to a fulfillment of his true nature.’” —Principal Bill Rawson
Facing page: Graduation day exercises drew thousands of family and friends to the Academy Lawn. Above: Jeremy Xu exalts after being awarded his diploma. Left: Janeva Dimen, senior class presiden, tells those assembled, “I will be proud to call Exeter my alma mater because I am proud of everything this group of people has done to improve Exeter and to change the world.” Below: Class marshals Grace Gray and Sumit Chandra lead their classmates during the processional as faculty members applaud.
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Clockwise from left, this page: Jonah Johnson can hardly contain his glee after collecting his diploma; a group hug is shared with XXX XXX and YYY YYYY. Chandler Jean-Jacques accepts congratulations; Charlie Brigham rejoices with classmates. Facing page: Abby Zhang (left) and Ruby Bagwyn pose on stage with their diplomas.
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“At Opening Assembly, I told you that we are not special merely because we are here, but because we are here, we have the opportunity to do special things. Going forward, you will not be special merely because you are graduates of Phillips Exeter Academy. You will be special because of what you do, and how you treat your fellow human beings. Value all work, and respect the dignity of every human life — every day, all the time — and you are sure to do well in what our Deed of Gift describes as the ‘the great end and real business of living.’” —Principal Bill Rawson
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CREDIT LINE
Table talk: Students decode the ethical dilemmas of the Digital Age.
Joint Venture S T U D E N T S A N D S I L I C O N VA L L E Y A L U M N I M E N T O R S
By Jennifer Wagner
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’95
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ave you ever stopped to consider the ethical implication of
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EXPLORE HOW GOODNESS FITS INTO THE FUTURE
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clicking “like” on an Instagram post? Or whether digital assistants like Alexa and Siri have First Amendment rights to free speech? What about corporate social responsibility? Is that a thing? These are some of the salient questions bubbling up in the world today that, more often than not, go left unexplored — especially by many adolescents. Religion Department Instructor Peter Vorkink P’95 is working to change all that and help keep Exeter’s curriculum in step with the times. Last winter term, the department offered Religion 597: Silicon Valley Ethics: Case Studies in the World of High Tech, an experimental new course Vorkink designed that required students to think deeply about the complex ways in
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FOR DISCUSSION • Should schools introduce computer tablets into the classroom, and if so, at what age? • What is the message when some of those most worried/concerned about exposing children to screens are those who work in the tech industry?
MENT O
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ATARINA S C •C AB ’92 HW
“From the moment I met my mentee, I was impressed. His deep curiosity about so many subjects; his involvement in a wide variety of activities; his kind and respectful manner; and, of course, his love of Exeter made me proud to be an Exonian.” — Catarina Schwab ’92, co-founder and co-CEO of NPX, a philanthropic and nonprofit financing outfit
CASE STUDY
Technology use in schools Discuss how best to educate today’s youth, considering both the benefits and liabilities of easy access to technology.
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E
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which technology has altered not only how they live their daily lives, but also their values. Vorkink knew he had to connect Exeter with the epicenter of innovation, California’s Silicon Valley, in order to make the class authentic and relevant. But how? The idea he landed on was crowdsourcing — ask Exonians currently working in the technology field to take part in the class as co-designers of its syllabus. Vorkink leveraged his Rolodex — populated during his 47 years of teaching — and enlisted alumni from such high-tech giants as Google, Apple, Oracle, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube to collaborate one-on-one with students over the course of the term as mentors and resources in developing case studies. It was a first-of-its-kind experience at the Academy. “I know of no other secondary school offering a course like this, and few colleges, either,” Vorkink says, “and what a wonderful way to connect alums to the life of current students.” Among the 40 experts Vorkink tapped was Christine Robson Weaver ’99, project lead for Google’s Machine Learning Division. “I’m thrilled that Exeter is diving into such a relevant and timely area of study,” Weaver says.
MEN TE
• Is online preschool a good alternative to traditional preschools in rural areas?
“This course pushed me to want to enter Silicon Valley and focus on ethics, on changing technology to help users. This course has also influenced my decision to set screen-time limits and turn off notifications for all of my social media apps. I found my mentor not only very kind and fun to talk to, but also incredibly helpful.” — Toby Abelmann ’19
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“It was great to reconnect with a younger generation of Exeter students, especially around realworld topics that affect my everyday life. It was interesting to hear how they thought about the issue from a student’s point of view versus how I felt about the same issue as a 40-yearold business owner working in tech.” — John Griffin ’98, co-founder and CEO of enterprise web development company Spiral Scout
CASE STUDY “Right now, in Silicon Valley, and in my role at Google, these issues are top of mind.” Anna Richardson White ’98, brand communications director at Instagram, readily participated as well. “It was an honor to be part of such an important and groundbreaking class,” White says. “I’m pleased that Exeter would create this critical course for the next generation of leaders, creators and problem solvers.” When Religion 597 hit the Courses of Instruction, Vorkink was overwhelmed with registrants, enough to fill three full sections. Students were attracted to the class’s contemporary practicality and how it could teach them to make a difference. “As a person with a computer science background and interest in entering Silicon Valley,” Pavan Garidipuri ’19 says, “I wanted to explore Silicon Valley’s ethical dilemmas so that, in a non sibi spirit, I’ll know how to create products that will help society, not harm it.”
O
ver 10 weeks, the students parsed some of the serious questions of the Digital Age. They took internet truth quizzes (Can you spot fake news?) and read the technology section of The New York Times, plus articles in Wired and on Slate. They listened to TED Talks and watched documentaries on extremists and conspiracy theorists and prank videos on YouTube. They scrolled through Twitter and Instagram (as well as Finsta, or fake Instagram) accounts. They did all of this with an eye on identifying ethical
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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) CSR is a business model where companies choose to make a positive impact on society.
FOR DISCUSSION • Does a private company have a duty to its community or only to its stockholders? • If an industry worsened a pre-existing social issue, is the industry responsible for helping to improve it? • Should the government mandate that the private sector employ CSR initiatives?
conundrums, and figuring out how they differed from political, legal, sociological, historical or technological issues. As questions arose, the alums, via email, Skype and cellphone, stepped up to provide context, to frame the issues as constructively as
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“Working with my mentor was one of the highlights of my Exeter academic experience. After I first emailed Mr. Griffin, he responded within hours, telling me that he would take a look at my ideas, but could only get back to me at the end of the week because he was on his honeymoon. The fact he took the time to respond to me on his honeymoon made me even more grateful to have the opportunity to work with someone so successful, who cared.” — Aarsh Kak ‘19
possible, to offer resources for further inquiry and to be solid sounding boards. “This is the first exercise as an alum where I felt clear and direct attachment to a student,” says Quincy Smith ’97. “My mentee shared accountability, we used teamwork and gang tackling on top of Google docs, Sunday calls and a flurry of text messages. It was like Fortnite.edu.” The term’s efforts culminated in the production of a student-written case study on a single issue. Students chose from a broad list of nearly 70 topics that Vorkink supplied, including body scanners, the surveillance economy, virtual currencies, the gig economy, public shaming and fake news. “Writing the case study was an eye-opening experience,” says Gordon Chi ’19. “I didn’t realize how complex the ethical considerations for self-driving cars could be. I started to question whether the design rationale of our algorithms should be determined by the government of the country where the product is used, or rather simply the programmers that create the self-driving cars.”
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n high school campuses where many students may not align with a single religion, broadly scoped classes like Religion 597 offer another avenue for understanding what it means, at the deepest level, to be a person. “When I think about teaching religion to adolescents, I think about ferreting out, identifying, naming,
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discussing and comparing the personal and practical pieties, the value systems by which our students live, that which they hold most dear in their hearts, what’s really real for them, what really matters, what constitutes the center of meaning for them — all of which is encapsulated for me in the term ‘religion,’” Vorkink says. An Episcopal priest and ardent world traveler, Vorkink has taught philosophy and religion at the Academy since 1972. He graduated from Yale and earned a divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York. When he was 20, he spent a summer in Florida volunteering for Martin Luther King Jr. “Working closely with King showed me a different side of religion, namely, religion as praxis, or the practice of faith,” he says. He went on to study philosophy and religion at Harvard, leaving the doctoral program ABD (without writing his dissertation) to come to Exeter. Then in 2015, Vorkink wrote his thesis, entitled “Know Thyself: Why and How to Teach Religion and Philosophy to Secondary School Students,” and fulfilled the final requirement for his doctorate. A key part of Vorkink’s unwritten lesson plan for the Silicon Valley course was to help students figure out how all of their individual choices in this technologically charged world pertain to their philosophical search to “know thyself.” “In a generation where our influences have expanded from our parents to millions of online
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MENTOR • C
Artificial intelligence, discrimination and corporate liability
• Should companies be responsible for the actions, crimes and offenses committed by the AI systems that they developed?
The power of artificial intelligence to make well-thought, instantaneous decisions can be harnessed to make our lives simpler and more efficient. However, in the process of seeking patterns and learning, machines may also learn to discriminate against people based on gender, race and socioeconomic class.
• If they are oblivious to the potential impact of their creation, should they be held accountable?
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• Where do we draw the line between ill intention and ignorance?
“Christine Robson Weaver is a walking representation of using knowledge for good, and I learned a lot from our exchanges. … When my mentor offered advice, it wasn’t imposing one’s opinion onto another — she was offering questions and directions, and it was up to me to find the answers. This approach enabled more individual thought and freedom in the assignment.” — Penny Brant ’20
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“I really enjoyed brainstorming with Penny about the various angles on these ethical issues. I feel inspired that Exeter is instilling a new generation of leaders with a nuanced perspective on these complex and important issues.” — Christine Robson Weaver ’99, project lead for Google’s Machine Learning Division
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users around the world, it has become harder for us to determine our own morals and make our own decisions,” Mia Kuromaru ’19 says. “This class helped me realize that every student should understand the importance of their own autonomy.” Classmate Tina Wang ’19 noticed her habits changing throughout the term. “I’m much more aware of my own technology use now,” she says. “I often find myself pausing to think about the ethical dilemmas behind news stories I see. … This course pushed me, it taught me to question and challenge what we too often blindly accept.” Vorkink was pleased to hear that what the students were learning in the classroom carried over into their everyday lives: “Probably the most encouraging comment any student made, and I heard it again and again in different contexts during this course was, ‘You know, I never
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TE WHI ’98
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“Gracie shared several examples of ways that AI could be harmful or just plain scary. Through our conversations, I told her about instances where AI can be helpful. I think she formed a more balanced picture of the good and bad that comes with any and every new technology. In turn, I got some very helpful insight into how a high school senior perceives the technology being created by companies I [have] worked for over the past 10 years.” — Anna Richardson White ’98, brand communications director, Instagram
CASE STUDY
Image recognition
FOR DISCUSSION • Is it acceptable to use image recognition to automatically tag and share photos with friends? • Is it OK for law enforcement to use facial recognition to “pick out” the faces of criminals on surveillance feeds?
Examine the morality of current uses of image recognition and their potential discriminatory side effects, especially as it relates to incarceration, as well as the positive ramifications, including helping visually impaired persons.
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thought about that.’ That was encouraging in terms of why the course was valuable to offer. … It made them think.” In a final act of reflection inspired by Jill Lepore’s New Yorker article “What 2018 Looked Like Fifty Years Ago,” Vorkink asked the students to imagine the technologies of 2069. Some prophesized a data-driven society completely devoid of privacy, while others saw the end of livestock farming in favor of cellular cloning of lab-grown meats. Many noted an increased reliance on robots to perform lowlevel jobs and the replacement of traditional “screens” with holograms. Each futuristic prediction was placed in the Academy Library vault as a time capsule, waiting to be opened during the classmates’ 50th reunion. E
MEN TE
• Would you want to use such technology to unlock your front door?
“I had a wonderful conversation with my mentor, not only about my case study, but also about the technology world in general.” — Gracie Goodwin ’19
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H. Hamilton Bissell ’29 crisscrossed America as director of scholarships.
A Living Legacy T H E E N G A G I N G LY C O M P A S S I O N AT E V I S I O N O F H . H A M I LT O N B I S S E L L ’ 2 9 E N D U R E S T O D AY By Daneet Steffens ’82
Illustrations by Studio Morales
“How does Exeter benefit? It has an instruction system which calls for 12 students to be seated around a table with the instructor to talk things over. If all came from the same social and economic strata, their thinking would be almost identical. “The scholarship plan gives an economic, geographic and social cross section of the nation and diversified thinking for full discussion of every phase of work in the school.” —H. Hamilton Bissell to the Miami Daily News, February 15, 1949
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yron Rose ’59 tells the story of his teenage self, “painfully shy” and living in
the can’t-get-there-from-here city of Evansville, Indiana, when H. Hamilton Bissell ’29 first came into his life. Rose had been accepted to Exeter on a generous scholarship but had declined the opportunity. That’s when Bissell turned up to talk some sense into him. “To get to Evansville by train was not easy, but Hammy came and took me and my
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father out for breakfast,” notes Rose, who was impressed. “I said to my dad, ‘The worst that can happen is I go there for junior year and come back to Indiana afterward.’” A version of that bacon-and-eggs sales pitch was delivered time and again across the Midwest from 1946 until 1960, with the man simply and affectionately known as “Hammy” making the case to more than 800 young men that Phillips Exeter Academy was the place for them. An English instructor for 13 years before being appointed by the school as its first director of scholarships, Bissell spearheaded an initiative to diversify the Academy’s student body through a comprehensive outreach project. The strategy would enable those boys whose families might not otherwise have the money — or, indeed, even an awareness of the school — to attend Exeter. That proactive effort has had everlasting effects, on the recipients
“I WAS WOEFULLY UNPREPARED FOR SOME OF THE CLASSES I WAS IN, AND HAVING HAMMY AROUND REALLY HELPED.” — BYRON ROSE ’59
who came to be known collectively as “Hammy’s boys” and on the Academy itself. More than 70 years on, Bissell’s legacy remains vibrant, still full of its original promise. “I have heard it said that education is America’s magic,” Bissell told Boston Post Magazine in 1949, under the eye-catching headline, “He Scouts for Scholars.” “America is supposed to be a democratic institution. I am sure, however, that economic, religious and racial differences produce attendant inequalities of opportunity among boys and girls.” In seeking out potential students who were impacted by those limitations, Bissell worked with educational guidance personnel; 4-H, Scout, and Future Farmers leaders; those working with refugees and their families; YMCA officials; and, most famously, newspapermen employing delivery boys. Rose was delivering newspapers in Evansville when Bissell found him. “It was purely serendipitous: Mr. Ellis, the man who owned the newspaper, had gone to Exeter,” Rose recalls. “I was a good athlete — I was playing basketball and was a runner — but I was also painfully shy, so I said, ‘No.’ Mr. Ellis said, ‘Well, let’s just send in your application. You might not be good enough.’ Which really spurred me on, actually.” Rose was accepted on an eye-wateringly good scholarship: “Room, board and tuition was $1,600 for the year; we got financial aid for $1,400, so for $200 my parents wouldn’t have me eating at home,” he laughs. At the time, he says, Exeter’s only publication was a book the size of a novel, with dry descriptions of the school’s courses. But Rose found a magazine article on Exeter that touted a calculus option for uppers. That intrigued the keen math student, but he still wasn’t convinced, and turned down the scholarship. That’s when Bissell showed up for breakfast. The real jewel in that scholarship crown, according to Rose, was that Bissell didn’t just recruit students, he nurtured them on campus as well: “For a kid like me, the school was not a very welcoming place; it was pretty much sink or swim. I was woefully unprepared for some of the classes I was in, and having Hammy around really helped. He was able to steer me to people I could talk to.” Bissell’s encouragement made the difference for Rose. In turn, Rose, who worked at Morgan
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Stanley for the bulk of his career, has made a difference to Exeter, serving on its Board of Trustees for 10 years, including three years as chair. “I jumped at the opportunity,” he says, noting that Bissell went out of his way to offer congratulations for Rose’s appointment: “I assume I was the first scholarship boy to be the head of the board, and I know that also pleased him.” Rose describes serving on Exeter’s Board of Trustees as one of the best professional experiences of his life. “That opportunity to participate wasn’t just a way to contribute, it also meant working with a group of people who sat around the table with a common interest in mind,” Rose explains, inevitably conjuring up Harkness classrooms. “It was a fantas-
“HAMMY WAS VISIONARY IN HIS VIEW OF DIVERSITY FOR EXETER, AND I THINK HE MADE IT A HEALTHIER CULTURE.” — JULIAN CONWAY WILSON ’62
tic experience working with all these really incredible people. Being on the board when we gave a eulogy for Hammy when he died was a high point for me. He was a wonderful human being.”
IN HAMMY’S FOOTSTEPS
It was another breakfast meeting that brought Julian Conway Wilson ’62 to Exeter. Wilson’s mother, the daughter of Robert Harold Ogle, one of the founders of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first African-American fraternity, was determined to get her son out of segregated Richmond, Virginia. “She got Hammy to come to me,” Wilson says. “She was determined to get me the hell out of Dodge. Hammy used to tease me with that story every time he saw me on campus, that my mother got me into Exeter because she fixed him one of the most wonderful brunches he’d ever had.” Wilson, like Rose, found Exeter extremely challenging; like Rose, he found sanctuary in Bissell’s humane approach. “Suddenly, I was around a lot of talented, well-prepared, motivated students from all walks of life. Hammy was visionary in his view of diversity for Exeter, and I think he made it a healthier culture. He tried to make sure that we, the scholarship boys, were as adjusted as we could be given Exeter’s culture at the time: He was a nurturing and protecting force at a time when Exeter was basically men against boys. I was pretty stubborn and hard-headed and independent, so I was called to the Dean’s Office at times. But Hammy moderated the trouble I got into, basically saying, ‘Look, he’s not a bad kid, he’s just his own kind of person.’ He gave me counseling, reminding me what a wonderful opportunity I had.” Wilson incorporated that model of outreach and inclusivity when he attended the University of Pennsylvania, founding the school’s first group for students of color and fostering a welcoming environment, just as Bissell had done at Exeter. “I was always interested in human rights and social justice,” Wilson says. “It’s part of my DNA in every way. When I got to Penn, I had been well prepared at Exeter so I knew how to stand up to things — I knew I could meet another calling and help other students who might not be as well prepared. People who were at Penn with me were extraordinary, but they hadn’t had an Exeter education, so they were taken aback by the rigor and
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Jack Bissell ’58, pictured at the dedication of a crew shell named after his dad, says Hammy had great empathy for those whose backgrounds mirrored his own as a boy.
the social exclusion. Our group was there as support and also to work against attrition of students who were less prepared and resourced.” Wilson, who currently works with the District of Columbia Housing Authority, has pursued that commitment to helping the disenfranchised and underserved throughout his career. “Everything I’ve done has focused on that,” he says. “I wasn’t a great student of Latin — in fact, I had to switch from Latin to German — but I know non sibi. I think we should help other people, love humanity and not feel that we are above others in any way.”
LEADING WITH COMPASSION
The empathy that Hammy demonstrated over the decades had very specific roots. “Dad was a scholarship boy,” says Hammy’s son, John “Jack” Bissell ’58; P’95, who pursued a career in law that included serving as a federal judge for more than 20 years. “He came to Exeter as a lower in 1926, and the school was very different then — there was no Harkness plan in the classroom yet — but he remembered the nurturing that the faculty gave him, the attention they paid to him. And, having come to Exeter from a poor background, he had a lot of empathy with kids who came from similar situations.” His father, notes the younger Bissell, had his own generous and loving support system during his tenure as director of scholarships. “When Dad hit the road searching for qualified scholarship candidates, he was away nearly five months of every year until about 1960,” Bissell says. “Therefore, it was Mom’s strength and support which mostly carried me and my sister, Nancy, through those formative years. That unqualified devotion from this beautiful, gracious but tough New England woman was an example of loyalty which I have never forgotten: From both Mom and Dad, I saw that courage, character and caring are three very important tenets in leading a life that sets a positive example for both your children and others, and I never lost sight of that.” That familial sense of inclusion was something that the elder Bissell disseminated with obvious pleasure. “Something in [Hammy’s] outreach rang a bell in my parents,” says Jim Peterson ’63, who lived in a remote spot of Iowa when Bissell came knocking. “I give them credit for having the insight and courage to encourage me to go to Exeter. In the tiny rural community where we lived, the notion of going away to a boarding school was just unthinkable.” Peterson, a legal expert and published author who now divides his time between Chicago
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and Paris, remains active with Exeter. As a volunteer, he served as a major gift chair for his class as well as taking on the role of co-president leading up to their 50th reunion. He has also recognized his parents’ foresight in a tangible way. By establishing The Philip C. and Elizabeth Peterson Scholarship Fund, he ensured that future generations would be able to attend Exeter. It was a forward-focused gesture, stemming directly from Bissell’s original invitation. “Hammy seduced us all,” Peterson says. “My mother used to chuckle and — you know his physical appearance, a short, round-faced, jolly man? — she’d say that he came cruising through the Midwest like Santa Claus with that cherubic face and a bag full of money slung over his back, distributing opportunities for financial aid.”
“HE WAS SUCH AN AVATAR FOR THE COMMUNITY NATURE OF THE SCHOOL — THE BEST PART OF THE SCHOOL, IN OTHER WORDS.” — JIM PETERSON ’63
Bissell had discretionary funds to spend on his scholarship boys once they were on campus, too, in case he determined that there was something a student might need that wasn’t within his budget. Peterson had worked his way up to be goaltender on the varsity hockey team, requiring specific skates: “It was not in my family budget to buy them, so [Hammy] went into his cookie jar and bought me a pair of skates. He enabled me to keep skating.” As a student employee, Peterson also appreciated Hammy’s work with Exeter’s Alumni Affairs Office, where Bissell held various roles starting in 1962, including alumni secretary and associate director of development, cultivating a sense of continuity with Exeter students long after they left campus. “What was really captivating about him in that role,” Peterson says, “was his recollection and memory and sensitivity to the students, especially with those for whom he’d provided the door-opening. You’d go back to campus and there he would be with a big grin, and he’d greet you and ask about your parents and remember them by name; he remembered your hometown and your class, and he knew who your friends were. He was such an avatar for the community nature of the school — the best part of the school, in other words.” With Carly Kirsch ’20, the current Peterson Scholarship recipient, that element of engagement brings Bissell’s overarching legacy nicely home to Exeter’s campus. An avid shot, discus and javelin thrower for the track and field team, Kirsch also has an abiding interest in the sciences and Russian, and a deep appreciation for the opportunities that the Academy offers. “Exeter has forced me to try new things,” she says. “Without going to Exeter, I would not have gotten into track, which is something I now plan on doing in college. Without Exeter, I would have never taken Russian or traveled to Russia for a month last summer. My Russian class has had the same eight people all three years, and we have a really strong bond.” In a letter Kirsch wrote to Peterson this spring, she said, “From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you for investing in my education. It is unbelievable the amount of opportunities I have as a 17-year-old girl from a small town in New Hampshire. Every day I get to walk into the largest secondary school library in the world. Twice a week I get to listen to inspiring assembly speakers. And
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every day I get to be surrounded by some of the most incredible humans whom I can call my friends. I am so lucky to attend Phillips Exeter Academy and I know it wouldn’t be possible without you.”
A LEGACY OF GOODNESS
The ripple effect that one man’s actions can have decades later shines in stories such as Kirsch’s, and hers is one among many. Kathy Nekton, who led Exeter’s physical education department alongside her husband, Roger, for 35 years, remembers Bissell vividly. As the girls field hockey coach, Nekton had his granddaughter, Katie Bissell ’95, on one of her teams. “Hammy was absolutely faithful in coming out to practices on his bicycle every day,” Nekton says. “And when we were going to away games, he would always come bearing chocolate bars and see us off.” Even after his granddaughter graduated, Bissell continued to attend field hockey team practices. For those young athletes, Nekton observes, having someone with such a deep and enduring connection to Exeter supporting them with such regularity had an indelible impact. “To have an older adult be so faithful was just wonderful for the girls,” she says. “It’s like having your grandpa come out and cheer you on.” Exeter, Nekton adds, has terrific resources that allow its faculty to support and care for their students, but Bissell was actually ahead of that particular curve: He led by example, and his pioneering vision is integral to what drives the school today in terms of inclusion and diversity. “He was innovative,” Nekton notes. “He was such a compassionate man and he looked for ways to make that possible for others, too. He set the context for that kind of approach, making sure that all the kids — and a wider variety of kids — had access to our community.” Wilson agrees that Bissell’s impact cannot be overstated. “He was really focused on young people in an extraordinary way, and that made all the difference. At Exeter, I learned that smart people come in all sizes, shapes, colors and genders; Exeter was a place where stereotypes were challenged. Hammy worked very hard to make Exeter an increasingly better place, in a very positive way.” E
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A CHAMPION FOR CHANCES David Beim ’58 was one of “Hammy’s boys,” and he never forgot that. A self-described “kid from the Midwest who got magically transported to four of the most transformative years of my life” at Exeter, Beim spent a lifetime dedicated to service, community and forging for others the sorts of opportunities he was so grateful to experience. He died peacefully at his home in Riverdale, New York, on June 6. He was 79 years old. Beim was a newspaper delivery boy in Minneapolis when Director of Scholarships H. Hamilton Bissell ’29 found him through the paper’s circulation director in 1954. Like so many of the students Bissell identified in that era, Beim seized his opportunity to attend Exeter and thrived in its midst, and success followed him after graduation. He shined at Stanford and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. He spent 25 years in investment banking on Wall Street, and the next 25 years in academia as professor of finance and economics at Columbia Business School. Beim remained beholden to Exeter and the doors it opened, and when he became a trustee in 2002, he was a champion for opening doors to others. His work as a trustee centered on affordability and expanding the school’s commitment to financial aid. He authored a report the Trustees used as a guidepost in increasing aid by 18 percent to lower-income students in 2006. “Our mandate from John Phillips was clear: to serve youth from every quarter, not just those who can afford the price,” Beim wrote in The Exeter Bulletin in 2012. Beim is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, a son and a daughter, and five grandchildren. An appreciation of his contributions published in The Riverdale Press included a line that aptly summarized his life’s perspective: “David Beim put family first, education second, and serving the community a very close third. Everything else was, well, everything else.” — By Patrick Garrity
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Addie Luce ’21, Rachel Saltman ’21 and Marymegan Wright ’21 pull invasive buckthorn.
Students survey the forest in nearby Lubberland Creek Preserve.
PATRICK GARRIT Y (3)
Green Day EXETER REAFFIRMS ITS S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y P R O M I S E O N C L I M AT E A C T I O N D AY By Patrick Garrity
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hen Principal Bill Rawson ’71; P’08 arrived on stage at Assembly Hall in jacket and tie to open Exeter’s fifth annual Climate Action Day on April 26, it was clear this was serious
business. “I’m wearing a tie today, which I don’t normally do, but it’s an old-fashioned way of signifying the importance of the day, to me and the community,” he told the students. “Time is a very precious commodity at Exeter. How we use time
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Benjamin Cai ’20 shows off the invasive garlic B U L L E T I mustard N he plucked.
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E VA N A N D E R M A N ’ 8 3 O F F E R S STUDENTS A NEW PERSPECTIVE OF CAMPUS By Jennifer Wagner
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CHRISTIAN HARRISON
DOUBLE TAKE ou live in a dorm, it’s warm, there are lights and run-
ning water,” began Evan Anderman ’83 (top, right). “What’s happening behind the scenes to make that happen? Have you ever thought about that?” To bring attention to the unheralded and underappreciated systems that keep the Academy running, the social-landscape photographer led nearly 40 students on an unconventional campus tour during his “In Plain Sight” Climate Action Day workshop in April. Along the way, the group got up close and personal with facilities buildings, generators, water retention ponds, and yes, the trash and recycling bins behind the dining halls. “The point of the work,” Anderman said, as students snapped pictures with their cellphones, “is to show people what it takes to support our lifestyle and to make them curious about it and ask questions.” Each image, he said, should be beautiful and also carry a message. “I ride behind Wetherell every day going to crew, but I never stopped to really look,” said Samantha Olmsted ’19. “Now I will be much more aware of what’s going on.” A collection of the images captured during the walkabout were posted outside Mayer Auditorium, and some are represented here. Can you tell where they were taken?
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PHOTO KEY: A, CHLOE MINICUCCI ’21; B, C, D, CLARA STUCKE ’20; E, PHILIP HORRIGAN ’21; F, MANA VALE ’22; G, KYLE MARSHALL ’22; H, KOJO ADUHENE ’19; I, CLARA STUCKE ’20; J, ADRIAN VENZON ’19; K, SAMANTHA OLMSTED ’19; L, REESE POPKIN ’19.
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Chris Case ’74 speaks on the latest efforts to harness the sun’s energy for solar power.
Red Bikes, the campus’ new bike-share program, hits the ground rolling.
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P AT R I C K G A R R I T Y, C H R I S T I A N H A R R I S O N
Students audit the waste generated by the campus community.
says a lot about who we are and our values as a community. And we are going to spend a whole day on environmental issues.” Rawson’s remarks launched the Academy on its daylong quest to remind each Exonian of their role in meeting challenges to the environment. Exeter offers nine sustainability-focused classes, 13 environmental clubs and the opportunity to spend a full term on a 300-acre working farm in Vermont. But nothing underscores the school’s commitment better than Climate Action Day — one of just three days on the school calendar when regular classes are suspended in favor of a singular topic. From planting dune grass on the seacoast, to auditing campus waste collected from various Academy buildings, to learning about the economic implications of the food we eat, to pulling buckthorn and garlic mustard from hiking trails across the county, students, faculty and staff rolled up their sleeves for the cause. The day’s keynote speaker was Ko Barrett, vice chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations body for assessing the science related to global changes to the climate. Other experts included National Geographic glaciologist M Jackson and air pollution researcher Sumil Thakrar, as well as eight Exeter alumni who returned to campus to share knowledge and experience. Peter Grubstein ’73 was among them. As founder of N*GEN Partners, Grubstein provides early-stage financing for ventures — including hydroponic greenhouses, all-natural drinks and renewable solar energy initiatives — that make both a positive impact and a healthy return. He stressed the power of choice and agency: “These are choices you are making. You can’t blame the industries for environmental demise. It’s your plastic cups, your plastic ear buds. … You have much more power as an individual than you think.” E
HE AIMS TO LIGHTEN E X E T E R’S CA R B O N
MARY SCHWALM
MEET WARREN BIGGINS FOOTPRINT By Adam Loyd
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hillips Exeter Academy’s new manager of sustainability and natural resources, Warren Biggins, doesn’t mind being called “green.” It’s a term, however, that applies only to his area of focus, and not to his level of expertise. He brings with him more than 15 years of professional and academic experience in conservation and sustainability. Before arriving at Exeter in February, Biggins spent four years in the sustainability department at Pitzer College in Southern California. While there, he documented the college’s greenhouse gas emissions — a mammoth task done under a short deadline — which reinforced one of Biggins’ core beliefs about the work he does: “Whatever you’re able to accomplish in sustainability is directly proportional to the strengths of the relationships you form.” As a new member of the Exeter community, Biggins is already doing that work and is encouraged by the school’s degree of institutional commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainability initiatives. In the past 10 years, Exeter’s Tier 1 carbon emissions — what is generated directly by the school — have declined by 60 percent, in part because of the switch from oil to natural gas as a heating source a few years ago. But there is more to be done, and Biggins is already at work crunching numbers to fully document the Academy’s emissions and identify a strategy for further reductions and planet-friendly initiatives. Key to his work and, he says, “my favorite part of the job,” is providing inspiration and educational opportunities for Exeter students. He has already partnered with Exonians on a number of efforts, including an energy reduction challenge among dorms, the rollout of the RedBikes bike-sharing program and leading a waste audit during the campus-wide Climate Action Day in April — not to mention acting as a resource to the 13 student
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environmental clubs at Exeter. “The textbook definition of sustainability is meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs,” he says. “I think when we talk about business, traditionally we just talk about the bottom line, but we should also look at, How is this affecting our communities? What are the social implications of our actions?” Biggins’ philosophy is honed from a series of professional stops prior to Pitzer that included interning with a land conservation organization in Seattle, working with the Chicago Park District in restoration efforts and a two-year stint as a guide at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. The native Chicagoan also earned a master’s degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology in environmental management and sustainability. Standing at the trailhead of the Academy Woods Trail Network, Biggins waves off a flying insect before pointing down a path. “There are a lot of opportunities for wildlife viewing and experiential learning,” he says of the 800 acres of forest southeast of Exeter’s main campus. He partners with colleagues in Facilities Management to manage those woodlands. “It’s really a fantastic resource.” he adds. “It can be a really interesting experience [for students] to explore this part of campus.” Biggins isn’t wasting any time to color Big Red an even brighter green.
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CONNECTIONS
News and notes from the alumni community
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On Gratitude By Morgan W. Dudley ’77, director of Institutional Advancement
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xonians around the world, from Hong Kong to Boston, from Seoul to London, have shared with me over the past three years stories of personal growth they experienced during their time at Exeter. Inevitably, each account ends with a heartfelt expression of gratitude, accompanied by a commitment to serve humanity as a way of returning to the world in some measure what many of us feel the Academy gave us. Gratitude is a defining characteristic of Exonians and their families. We know — from the Academy’s founding to the present day — it is through the vision, generosity and leadership support of so many in our community that Exeter strives to be better, to achieve excellence in both knowledge and goodness. The support of both volunteers and donors has strengthened PEA in significant ways in recent years. We’ve accomplished so much together, from the opening of the new David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Theater and Dance, to an innovative, first-of-its-kind course on digital-age ethics that paired 40 students with 40 alumni mentors (page 34). Perhaps the best way to demonstrate the life-changing impact of philanthropy is to offer the story of one student who graduated this spring. Calvin ’19, like nearly half of our student population, was a recipient of need-based financial aid. As a first-generation American, Calvin arrived at Exeter from Chicago eager to learn. “I used to think that my potential was limited because of my background,” he says. “Now I [believe] … I can have as much of an effect on this world as [anyone] can.” During his four years at Exeter, Calvin ran track and earned the Classical Diploma, while also auditing extra classes that piqued his individual interests. He had the chance to study ancient ruins in France, and to compete with the winning team in the United States Invitational Young Physicists Tournament. All the while, he made giving back to others a priority. He served as a trusted student listener, Big Sib Little Sib mentor and peer tutor. He also cofounded a nonprofit to increase access to education in the developing world. His goal is to be a teacher someday. I invite you to read his full story at exeter.edu/calvin. He is truly inspiring. Thank you for making the dreams of students like Calvin possible. As we approach another academic year, I look forward to sharing with you more stories like his, and drawing further inspiration from the next generation of Exonians. E
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A Gap Year of Growth By Sarah Zobel
alternative schools or were in and out of the justice system — I still visit one of my friends in prison. And I thought of my time at Exeter like the main character in W.E.B. DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folk: I never viewed it as my education; it was our education, and I always wanted to bring it back. That was very important to me. … My intention while volunteering with the Petey Greene Program and at Friends of Guest House was just to understand and listen. I’d sit on the bunks with the people I was tutoring, get to know them, give them confidence, listen to them. In my first two years at Exeter, I probably didn’t say a word, but I listened. There are people who have incredible life experience that I ought to be listening to and learning from.
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n a meeting with his college counBrian Zhao ‘18 takes in the view Q: Why did you choose to travel selor during the fall of his senior of the Longji Terraced Fields in abroad? year, Brian Zhao ’18 realized that Guilin, China. Zhao: I wanted to learn about “volunheading straight to higher education tourism.” Why is there such desire after graduation wasn’t the best path for him. for Instagram posts showing a white person surrounded “I’ve never been a traditional person,” Zhao says. by people of color in a rural area, but a picture of me in my “I thought, just take a risk and see how it goes.” So, the local community is considered boring? I was also thinking D.C.-area native returned home after graduating from the how people go places and say, “This country is run-down” Academy and spent the next six months tutoring youth or “This country is so clean,” but they don’t ask how it in prison and helping formerly incarcerated women navigot to that point. That inspired me to dive deeper into the gate job and housing applications. Then he headed overideas of colonialism, imperialism and empire. In India, seas — for his first time ever — and spent the rest of the I helped out in an orphanage; in the Philippines, I spent year volunteering his way around four Asian countries. time in classrooms because I wanted to learn about pedaZhao’s gap year experience was made possible by a gogy in different colonial empires. China has had bouts Perrin Fellowship, endowed by James Perrin ’46 expressly with imperialism and Western encroachment and Japan is for students who are interested in a “bridge” year. We an example of a settler colonial society. spoke to Zhao, who had just returned stateside, to hear about the lessons he learned and how he plans to share Q: What’s next? them with others. Zhao: I’ve thought about writing some scholarly articles. Something is definitely going to come from this — not about how much I know, but about the world and what’s Q: Why did you decide to get involved with criminal going on right now. I want to help people realize there’s justice during your gap year? another world outside of where we are. E Zhao: Some friends from home had been sent to
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aribel Hernández Rivera ’00 keeps a
photo of her family on her office desk. In it, she is seated in the middle of a large dining table surrounded by her two brothers. Her arms are stretched wide hugging her mother and father. The picture was taken in Houston a few months after she first arrived in the United States. She was 13 years old. Her family was undocumented. “I keep it close to remind me of the struggles that my family went through; it is what keeps me going,” says the 38-year-old. “It’s also here to remind me of how far I have come.” Born in Mexico City, the lifelong immigration advocate credits her four years at Phillips Exeter Academy for teaching her how to use one’s privilege and platform for social good. During her lower year, she attended a lecture given by representatives of the Free Tibet movement. She was so moved that she started the Exeter chapter of Students for a Free Tibet with a classmate. The club organized workshops and once led a monthlong fast to bring attention to the struggle of the Tibetan people. “Exeter not only helped me to grow academically, but also as a social advocate,” she says. “I learned that it was OK to advocate for what you believe and that I could use my privilege for social justice.” Hernández Rivera carried those lessons forward, and is now the district director for Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez. In this role, Hernández Rivera manages the Democratic congresswoman’s New York City office, fields daily requests from constituents, and helps shape immigration policy. “I came to work with the congresswoman because she speaks truth to power and is someone who uses her platform to shed light on important social issues affecting marginalized communities,” she says. Prior to this post, Hernández Rivera led a program in New York City that helped immigrants access municipal immigration legal services. She also worked for a nonprofit, supervising recent college graduates who assisted low-income families applying for immigration benefits. There was one undocumented immigrant, however, whom she was unable to help: her father, Roberto, who died tragically in a car accident. According to Hernández Rivera, her father was driving home to Texas after dropping her youngest brother, Yonatan, at the Norfolk Naval Station. The family learned of his death from a junkyard employee
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who had picked up her father’s cellphone and told them that the owner of the vehicle was dead. For a week they searched frantically for his body. “I felt helpless,” she remembers. “My father had identification on him and no one — not the emergency services, police officers, or staff at the morgue — called to notify us.” The death of her father was a defining moment for Hernández Rivera. She went on to earn a master’s degree in public policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and pursued immigration law at New York University School of Law. “I always dreamed that I would help my father sort out his status, but after his death, it cemented my mission to help others,” she says. Today she feels her work on behalf of undocumented immigrants, including members of her immediate family, is more urgent than ever. Hernández Rivera’s husband, who came to the United States when he was 18 years old, now faces the possibility of deportation due to the end of Temporary Protected Status for Hondurans, a humanitarian protection granted in 1999 that has allowed him to live and work in the states for 20 years. Having a family photo nearby inspires Hernández Rivera to keep going. “They keep me focused,” she says. “I was not able to help my father, but I will continue to help others.” E
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baby boomer scion of an international brewing company have in common? For AJ Richichi ’13 and Pete Coors ’65, it’s more than an Exeter connection: it’s a shared passion for business, social responsibility and disruptive innovation. Richichi’s startup, SENTIO, hits all three touch points, which is why Coors, vice chairman of the board of Molson Coors Brewing, became one of its first backers. Richichi developed the technology behind his company as an upper living in Dutch House. Searching for a way to assist a family member, he created ChronicleMe, a confidential social media platform that identified the common traits among people suffering from addiction, abuse and PTSD, and then provided resources to help them. Richichi believed ChronicleMe could change lives, but he needed an investor to get the idea off the ground. His opportunity came during a gap year working on Capitol Hill for Kelly Ayotte, a Republican senator from New Hampshire. Perusing a guest list to an event sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute, Richichi discovered that Coors, one of the attendees, was also an Exeter alumnus. He emailed him, outlining his concept and asking for his support. “I was intrigued,” Coors remembers. “I liked the idea of using social media to help people, but I particularly liked the process AJ designed to protect identities.” ChronicleMe attracted thousands of users, but the social network wasn’t generating revenue fast enough to scale. Richichi reasoned that the technology could be applied to other industries with faster paths to profit, such as athletics. As a former lacrosse and soccer player, he saw it as a way for collegiate and professional sports teams to recruit athletes based on their personality traits and core values. He renamed the company SENTIO and found that the teams he partnered with doubled their winning percentages over two years. With solid proof-of-concept statistics, the company secured additional financing and, in 2017,
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expanded to other business sectors. Using artificial intelligence and psycholinguistics (the study of how our brains process language and speech), SENTIO now helps companies make more-effective, less-biased hiring decisions. Job applicants complete a short personality assessment online, then data from the
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questionnaire is compiled to create a psychological profile of the applicant that organizations match to a “success profile” — an aggregate mental makeup of their top performers. Companies, including financial firms, Fortune 1000 tech outfits and fast-food restaurants, have leveraged it to hire employees at all levels. “I wanted to build something that was meaningful to people,” Richichi says. “Our mission is to make world-class personality assessments available to every company in the U.S.” Richichi and Coors have never met in person — “I encouraged AJ to use the money he would’ve spent traveling to meet me and put it back into the business,” Coors says — but they enjoy a mutually rewarding mentor-mentee relationship. “Going to Exeter was the best decision I ever made because of people like Pete who pushed me to really achieve,” Richichi says. Coors takes that one step further: “What impresses me about AJ is that, through hard work, ingenuity, and a lot of grit, he’s both helping people and building a business. That’s important. It’s why I invested in his company.” E
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FROM EVERY QUARTER E XO N I A N S M A K E C O N N E C T I O N S AT H O M E A N D A R O U N D T H E WO R L D Please note, all photos are identified left to right unless otherwise indicated.
COAST TO COAST Exonians met up at regional events across the country. CHICAGO Bruce Thomas ’58, Dr. Seung Kim ’81, hostess Liani Balasuriya ’07 and Jenny Harter ’11 at a master class taught by Dr. Kim which included an interactive discussion about his work with experiment-based methods to teach science at Exeter.
PHILADELPHIA Alumni, parents and friends were joined by Trustee Wole Coaxum ’88 at an Exeter reception held at The Merion Cricket Club. Pictured are Regional President Mike Mahoney ’88, Dan Lasley ’78; P’05, P’10 and Paulina Jerez ’91; P’21.
Abby Clyde ’18 and Ken Ford ’44; P’75, P’80, GP’16
LOS ANGELES Exonians gathered on the steps at Ysabel in West Hollywood during a happy hour.
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NEW ORLEANS Chef/owner Jason Goodenough ’97 (pictured top left wearing a bandana) invited alumni to dinner at his restaurant, Carrollton Market, with a group of PEA students who spoke about their service project in that area.
SEATTLE Tom Platt ’67, host of the Exeter Association of Washington’s annual reception, is joined by Regional President Anthony Chen ’78; P’08 and Tex Elkin 78; P’11.
Nina Russell ’82 with Phyllis Chang ’75
Brian and Sandra Bonet ’89, Sarah Cooper ’08 and Ashley Burns ’05 Dirk Komarnitsky ’17 and Evan Stanton ’18
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NEW ENGLAND Exonians enjoyed Harkness classes, receptions and events held in Maine and Massachusetts. PORTLAND An Exeter/Andover gathering at Maine Craft Distilling made for quite the happy hour.
CHERYL SENTER
BOSTON The Exeter Association of New England held its annual reception at the Museum of Science with remarks by Principal Bill Rawson ’71; P’08. Pictured: Laura Shen ’07 and Susannah Clark ’84.
Maggie Zhou P’21 and Christina Xiao ’21
Ken Marshall ’56
Nicie Johnson Panetta ’84, Ann van Dijkum Garfinkel ’87, Jen Holleran ’86; P’11 and Betsy Shields ’87; P’17, P’21
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2020 REUNION DATES If your graduation year ends in 0 or 5, mark your calendar for reunions in May 2020! Join your classmates back on campus to reconnect with old friends and discover new ones.
May 1-3 40th Reunion | Class of 1980 35th Reunion | Class of 1985 30th Reunion | Class of 1990 25th Reunion | Class of 1995 20th Reunion | Class of 2000 15th Reunion | Class of 2005 May 14-17 50th Reunion | Class of 1970
BOSTON The Urban Grape was the perfect venue for this spring’s Big Red wine tasting led by T.J. Douglas and a team of sommeliers. Ellee Mullard ’11 and her sister, Maggie Mullard ’13, joined their mom, Liz (Brisbin) Mullard ’77; P’11, P’13 for the event.
May 15-17 60th Reunion | Class of 1960 55th Reunion | Class of 1965 45th Reunion | Class of 1975 10th Reunion | Class of 2010 5th Reunion | Class of 2015 May 19-21 75th Reunion | Class of 1945 70th Reunion | Class of 1950 65th Reunion | Class of 1955
Sandy Campbell ’56, Roland Merullo ’71; P’16, P’19 and Chris Alberti ’71
BOSTON Shannon Lu ’12 and Valerie Ahao ’11 attended a Harkness discussion on “Learning to Talk About Race,” led by Stephanie Bramlett, director of equity and inclusion.
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Andy Willemsen ’78, Trustee Mark Edwards ’78; P’12, P’14 and Sasha (Diaz-Almaral) Thaler ’99
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NEW YORK The Exeter Alumnae Circle, (EXAE) met at The Colony Club for a panel discussion moderated by Chloe Gavin ’72; P’01 on “Influential Women of Exeter.” The panel: Kristin Kearns-Jordan ’87, Maud Bryt ’83; P’11, Abena (Agyemang) Higgins ’03, Chloe Gavin ’72; P’01, Vida Ha ’98, Becky Kurth ’79; P’17 and Olivia (Cowley) Wassenaar ’97
Dorrit (Thomas) Morley ’87 and Jean (Shim) Yun ’87; P’22
Ronnie Dixon ’07, Cara Pearson ’07, Sarah Hoefle ’06, Kristin Eberhart ’06 and Lisa Stebbins ’07
Dana (Cook) Feller’91, Cia (Buckley) Marakovits ’83 and Elizabeth (Eakeley) Arnall ’93
Dawn Hu, Lauren (Argenti) Rawlings and Catherine Diao, all class of 2007
NEW YORK EXAE Circle members rolled up their sleeves at the Bowery mission to help provide meals and offer job and home search support and fellowship to women recovering from homelessness. Front row: Jocelyn Bohn ’11, Alea Mitchell ’97, Ciatta Baysah ’97 and Anna Weiss ’03. Back row: Shannon Errico ’04, Cindy Cook ’76 and Ana Silva ’91.
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Abena (Agyemang) Higgins, Em (Fincke) Stone and Elaine Braithwaite, all class of 2003.
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CHRISTIAN HARRISON
NEW YORK Principal Bill Rawson ’71; P’08 delivered an Academy update to the Exeter Association of Greater New York at a luncheon this spring at The Yale Club.
Francisco Carreno ’02 and Philip Kalikman ’04
David Ehrlich ’64, Charlene (Sy) Ryan ’96 and Dr. Jean-Marc Juhel
Kwabena Safo-Agyekum ’02, Julio Peterson ’86, Adrian Hopkins ’02, Principal Rawson, Kip Davis ’71 and Ronnie Dixon ’07
Victoria Levin ’01, Georgelle Russell ’11 and Selah Hampton ’13 NEW YORK Hal Ebbott ’06, Brady Hiatt ’04, Manny Vega ’04 and Jacinta Madhere ’95 gathered at the home of Alex Murray ’90; P’22 for a meaningful Harkness discussion on race.
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Maddie Moon ’19, Sarah Lu ’19, Zac Feng ’19, Principal Bill Rawson ’71; P’08, Kendal Walker ’19, Instructor in History Cameron Brickhouse, Daniel Kang ’19, Matthew Kang ’19 and Dhruva Nistane ’19
WASHINGTON, D.C., AND MARYLAND Exonians from around the Beltway enjoyed their annual reception, held this year at the National Press Club.
Lauren Johnson ’67; P’94, Alex Boyle ’55 and Peter Hutt ’52; GP’18, GP’20
Justin Castillo ’82, Lynn Horowitch ’81; P’19 and Bill Stokes ’82
It was all smiles at this great event.
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SAMUEL HURD
Keith Gethers, Lori Lincoln ’86, Marissa Lowman ’01 and Meagen Williams ’93
FLORIDA
BOCA RATON Saint Andrews School was the location for an Exeter reception hosted by its recently appointed Head of School Ethan Shapiro P’17, P’17, P’18, P’22. Pictured: Ernesto Sanchez ’94, Dimitri Karabatsos ’92 and Melissa McFadden with Patrick Thomas ’90.
LONGBOAT KEY John Bradbury ’59; P’78, GP’09, GP’20 and Fran Fergusson hosted a reception in their home.
Trustee President Tony Downer ’75; P’06, P’06, P’07 and his wife, Amy ’75; P’06, P’06, P’07, traveled throughout Florida this spring, engaging with alumni, parents, grandparents and friends.
Phil Maywah ’99 and Luba DeWitt P’06
Hugh Bettendorf, Allison Archbold ’90, Dave Lindley ’67 and Karl Hahn ’15
NAPLES Gracious hosts Steve Teaford ’63 and wife, Barbara, opened their home for an Exonian gathering.
VERO BEACH Tony and Amy Downer joined hosts Hopie and Deke Welles ’70 at their home for an evening reception by the pool.
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Steve Teaford ’63 with Peter Kelley ’59; P’92 and his wife, Marcia P’92.
Paul Sanson ’67, Kathy Hanaway, Dick Scribner ’54 and his wife, Inez.
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ASIA Trustee President Tony Downer ’75; P’06, P’06, P’07 was welcomed by alumni and parents at events across Asia.
SHANGHAI Host Sara Jane Ho ’03, alumni and parents take in the city sights.
BANGKOK The True Sphere Leadership Club was the location for a fun evening reception.
TOKYO The Exeter Association of Tokyo held their reception at Panino Giusto.
CANADA Alumni and parents socialized around Canada this spring. MONTREAL The Phillips Exeter Academy Canadian Foundation gathered at Chez Alexandre for food and conversation. Pictured: Robert Sibthorpe P’20, Lesley Pahl P’20, John MacDonald ’97, McShane Jones ’88; P’09, P’14 and Andrew Molson ’86.
TORONTO San Eng ’88 and Evan Sequeira ’10 hosted a spring happy hour for Exonians at Cantina Mercatto. Pictured here: Ellie Hayden ’13, Adam Smith ’13, Marko Mitrovic ’18 and co-host Evan Sequeira.
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John Javornik P’89, P’91, P’94, P’95 with his son Michael ’95, his wife, Christina P’89, P’91, P’94, P’95, and Pat Shannon ’78; P’10, P’18
Joe Singer P’20, Eric Wetlaufer ’80 and Betsy Williamson ’88
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PARENTS Parents connected for a lively Exeter evening reception and a breakfast on campus.
NEW JERSEY Dr. Adrienne and Thomas Wang P’20 (front row, left) hosted a reception for Exeter parents at their home in Marlborough. Parents from all over the country attended, as well as Exeter’s Math Department Chair Gwyn Coogan ’83; P’11, P’17 (front row, fourth from right).
EXETER Student pick-up day in June offered class of 2020 parents an opportunity to meet and enjoy breakfast with each other in the Class of 1945 Library’s Kaplanoff Commons room.
EXETER LEADERSHIP WEEKEND Sept. 20-21, 2019 If you are a current Exeter volunteer — or interested in helping to plan your 2020 reunion (classes ending in 5 and 0) — please join us on campus. Highlights include: • Remarks by Principal Bill Rawson ’71; P’08 • Important news and updates from campus • Breakout sessions with volunteers to plan for reunion and nonreunion activities • Dinner with the class of 2020 and awarding of the 2019 President’s Awards
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Fragile Ghazal By Bryce Morales ’19 We weren’t warned. We blindly stumbled upon the fight out here. By the time we escaped everything was alight out here. DAVID NELSON
Cars in the distance. The whoosh passes. No one is singing. Now I know how the grass feels, nibbled by frostbite out here. Deep freeze drives fissures through the brittle ground. But even now dense bristles of sugarcane glisten in the light out here. Driven out of existence. The last shark died. Too stubborn. Today the sewer rat in exile wields her might out here. What time is it? A soft gray daylight, and growing grayer. After two more Vs of geese pass it will be night out here. When I stood smaller than a sapling, my hometown dissolved. There’s safety in solitude. I’ll survive all right out here. E
Bryce Morales ’19 was awarded the 2019 Lewis Sibley Poetry Prize for the most promising collection of original poems, including this ghazal, a form of poetry whose origins trace to seventhcentury Persia. Bryce will attend Yale University in the fall.
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PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY 20 Main Street Exeter, NH 03833-2460
Parents of Alumni: If this magazine is addressed to an Exonian who no longer maintains a permanent address at your home, please email us (records@exeter.edu) with their new address. Thank you.
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