The Exeter Bulletin, summer 2016

The Exeter Bulletin SUMMER 2016

COMMENCEMENT 2016

CHERYL SENTER

The Forrestal-Bowld Music Center’s addition nears completion and will be ready for students this fall.

The Exeter Bulletin Principal Instructor Lisa MacFarlane ’66 (Hon.); P’09, P’13 Editor Karen Ingraham Associate Editor Genny Beckman Moriarty Class Notes Editor Janice M. Reiter Contributing Editor Karen Stewart Creative Director/Design David Nelson, Nelson Design Exonians in Review Coordinator Alice Ann Gray Communications Advisory Committee Daniel G. Brown ’82, Robert C. Burtman ’74, Dorinda Elliott ’76, Alison Freeland ’72, Keith Johnson ’52, Yvonne M. Lopez ’93 Trustees President Eunice Johnson Panetta ’84 Vice President Marc C. de La Bruyère ’77 Mitchell J. Bradbury ’78, Wole C. Coaxum ’88, Flobelle Burden Davis ’87, Walter C. Donovan ’81, John A. Downer ’75, Mark A. Edwards ’78, Jonathan W. Galassi ’67, David E. Goel ’89, Jennifer P. Holleran ’86, Eiichiro Kuwana ’82, Lisa MacFarlane, Sally J. Michaels ’82, Deidre O’Byrne ’84, William K. Rawson ’71, Kerry Landreth Reed ’91, Dr. Nina D. Russell ’82, J. Douglas Smith ’83, Morgan C. Sze ’83 and Remy White Trafelet ’88 The Exeter Bulletin (ISSN No. 0195-0207) is published four times each year: fall, winter, spring and summer,

by Phillips Exeter Academy 20 Main Street, Exeter NH 03833-2460 Telephone 603-772-4311 Periodicals postage paid at Exeter, NH, and at additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA by Cummings Printing.

The Exeter Bulletin is printed on recycled paper and sent free of charge to alumni, parents, grandparents, friends, and educational institutions by Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH. Communications may be addressed to the editor; email bulletin@exeter.edu.

Copyright 2016 by the Trustees of Phillips Exeter Academy.

ISSN-0195-0207 Postmasters: Send address changes to: Phillips Exeter Academy Records Office 20 Main Street Exeter, NH 03833-2460

(Right) Classics scholar Elizabeth Kim ’16

SUMMER

“YOUR ENERGY, PASSION, TALENT, QUICK WIT, KINDNESS AND AMBITION HAVE INSPIRED AND SUSTAINED ME ...”

—page 22

Kyle Xia and Brycen Yarmo

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IN THIS ISSUE

Volume CXXI, Issue no. 4

Features

22 Commencement 2016

Celebrating Exeter’s 304 newest alumni

Photography by Cheryl Senter

30 Snapshots of Cuba

Reflections on a historic first trip

By Meg Foley and Taylor Jean-Jacques ’16

36 A Capitol Experience

The Washington Intern Program at 50

By Lynn Horowitch ’81; P‘19

Departments 6

Around the Table: Non Sibi in a Minute, Meet an Exonian, Exeter Deconstructed, Campus Life at a Glance, and more

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Table Talk with Tracy Sundlun ’70

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Inside the Writing Life: A Conversation with John Irving ’61

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Sports: Taking Life, Olympics in Stride.

Plus, spring sports roundup.

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Connections: News and Notes from the Alumni Community

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Profiles: Neely Laurenzo Myers ’97, Richard Wolfenden ’52 and Charles Carter ’63

104 Finis Origine Pendet: Carrying the Gift of Goodness from Exeter to Bosnia, by Arslan Berbic ’15 —Cover illustration by Stan Fellows —PHOTOGRAPH OPPOSITE PAGE, CHERYL SENTER

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AROUND THE TABLE

What’s new and notable at the Academy

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Finding Strength in Community

By Principal Lisa MacFarlane P’09, P’13

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ne of Exeter’s greatest strengths is evident in times of challenge: the commitment of our

community. Many of you have rightfully and powerfully engaged in a conversation about student safety and well-being. There is nothing more important. That conversation is taking place on social media, over phone lines and in person. It has been enveloped in anger, sorrow and shock. It has also been framed by action and compassion for your fellow Exonians. Thank you.

Current students, in particular, have reached out to me and to members of our faculty with suggestions for making Exeter an even stronger and more vibrant school. They have asked how they can contribute, and how they can be leaders in the months ahead. Their ideas have been constructive, thoughtful and creative, and I am moved by their overwhelming commitment to the union of goodness and knowledge. I am eager to work with them this year and every year, and to support them in any way that I can.

Every challenge faced also sets before us an image of an ideal, and demands that we reach for it. For Exeter, that ideal is a community buoyed by trust and empathy, one that builds upon the vision so carefully defined in our Deed of Gift. Together we can work toward that aspiration; overcome the challenges before us; support the healing of those around us; and build an Exeter that extends our values into the future.

I will continue to share with you what the school is doing to further support and protect our students, including the hiring of a new interim director of student safety and well-being as we conduct a national search for that position. I’m pleased to report that interim position will be filled by the start of school.

To do anything to the standards of excellence that Exonians correctly expect from their school takes time. While there are several immediate actions that we have taken and will continue to implement as needed, there are also longer-term initiatives that we approach with great care and consideration. The right kind of change is broad, reflective, and collective, like a good Harkness conversation. Our community deserves nothing less.

To support the important dialogue around the issue of student well-being here at Exeter, we are developing a progress report to provide an overview and status of current and forthcoming efforts. This report, which will be available on our website, will be updated as new initiatives are launched and milestones reached.

My conversations with students this summer have filled me with hope and conviction. I look forward to a year filled with conversation, shared commitments and engagement, and a tightening of the bond that holds this special community together. E

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hen he takes the stage during a debate competition, Eric Tang

CHERYL SENTER

HONING THE POWER OF SPEECH

’17 positions his body carefully behind the podium so that the other team doesn’t see his left leg shake. Even after three years of debating, there’s an ever-present fear, a churning nervousness during his speeches. And he loves that feeling.

“I know that at some point in my speech, I’m going to stumble,” Tang says.

“I’m going to hang for a moment, but I know that I can keep pushing myself through that and remain calm. …It’s a rush. It makes me feel alive.”

During his prep fall, Tang joined Exeter’s Daniel Webster Debate Society looking to discuss real-world issues, learn to build logical arguments and become better at thinking on his feet. But he had another reason, as well.

“I’ve always been a quiet person, which means sometimes I have trouble speaking up when I really need to, especially before I came to Exeter,” he says.

“I was too quiet. I was too shy. I didn’t have enough confidence to really speak up. I wanted to change that.”

Tang’s decision to try overcoming his introversion led him to a national stage this spring. He was the only Exeter representative to qualify for the World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championships (WIDPSC) — a five-day tournament with 96 competitors from 11 countries.

Through four rounds of competition at the WIDPSC, Eric partnered with randomly assigned students from Australia, Hong Kong, Canada and South Africa. He advanced through the tournament and closed out his experience with a debate in front of an audience of 200. He returned to Exeter having placed 17th overall, fourth in Impromptu Speaking and first in Parliamentary Debate.

“Since starting debate I’ve found that I can think much more fluidly and I express myself much more articulately,” he says. “From Harkness discussions to late-night conversations with dorm mates to internship interviews, these skills have been a massive help over the last three years.”

The real value, Tang adds, is the “intellectual empathy” that develops as participants listen carefully to other viewpoints and work to see issues from all perspectives.

“I like to think about it as seeing the world from another point of view,” he says. “A debate will force you to argue a side you don’t believe in or that you haven’t even thought about. I think spending time to build an argument and then putting it to the test is really good at stretching people’s ability to step into other people’s shoes ... to have that intellectual empathy ... to see the world from another angle.”

Tang has learned that his introversion can be a gift. “Often, quieter people make better debaters,” Tang continues. “They listen more. They think more before speaking. They go through things in their head before jumping out there. That’s something that I’ve come to value in my time at Exeter.”

As he heads into senior year as the debate team’s captain of curriculum, Tang looks forward to helping younger students and novices learn to handle their nerves and find their voice in a discussion. Teaching is something he’s considering as a future profession, and he’s been spending his summers instructing middle school students in science and creative writing at a Bay Area nonprofit.

“I’ve always really loved teaching other people,” he says. “The moment when someone gets it — when their face just lights up or you see them apply what you’ve taught them to something else — those are just beautiful, beautiful moments. They make me really happy.” E

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Exeter’s Youngest Members Practice Giving Back

By Amanda Campano, enrollment and finance manager, HFCC

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or the last several years, Harris Family Children’s Center (HFCC), which provides care for the children of PEA families and the wider Exeter community, has been partnering with the local Women, Infants and Children program to provide gently used clothing for families in need. Although we have had many successful campaigns for donations, we have seen tremendous growth in family participation in the last two years, and we are incredibly proud of the record-setting donations this year: Sixty-eight children and their families contributed more than 1,100 pieces of gently used clothing for children from birth to age 8 — in just five days. We have a fabulous group of loving and giving families who help make us one of the biggest WIC clothing donors on the Seacoast.

Each year, our staff members notify parents of the drive, advertise it in their classroom newsletters, email reminders and hang posters throughout the building. We also partner with our local WIC volunteer, Helen Krupp, who is an incredible asset to our community. She not only collects and delivers the donations to local clinics, but also sorts through hundreds of items to categorize them by age group, gender and season.

We believe the concept of giving back translates to even the youngest Exonians on campus. The children are involved in gathering, transporting and cautiously leaving their beloved items with us, and they look forward to organizing, counting and graphing the donations. Our preschool and kindergarten classrooms have lengthy discussions about community and giving, which we believe strengthens connectivity and communication.

The level of community and family participation in this event truly exemplifies the Academy’s philosophy of non sibi and echoes what we all are trying to instill in our children: generosity and goodness. E

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SCENES FROM EXETER SUMMER 2016 401

Established in 1919 with just 65 students, Summer students from the U.S.

Representing

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School, now named Exeter Summer, has evolved considerably since then. In its 98th season, the program

states, plus

welcomed 775 students from more than 40 states and

Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico

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nearly 50 countries. One thing remains the same, year after year: the opportunity to make new and lasting

international students

from

friends from around the globe.

different countries

In 2016, Exeter Summer offered:

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Access Exeter clusters and

Upper School clusters

students in the ExeterStanford Collaboration: The Process of Creativity

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students in the Charles J. Hamm ’55 Leadership Program

86

different courses taught in Upper School

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More than different athletic offerings

32% of students received a full or partial scholarship

Exeter Summer students come from near and far: As the crow flies, here is the distance in miles from Exeter to …

Kazakhstan................5,643 Morocco....................3,502 Beijing .......................6,669 Las Vegas .................. 2,766 Burlington, Vermont..... 193

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Champion of the Sport U . S . O LY M P I C T R A C K A N D F I E L D T E A M M A N A G E R T R A C Y S U N D LU N A N D H I S I M PAC T O N T H E S P O RT O F R U N N I N G

By Debbie Kane

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12-year-old tennis player, Tracy Sundlun

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more athletic and sports requirements now, not fewer — like it used to be.”

Sundlun immersed himself in Exeter’s track and field program. As a prep, he became the team manager for coach Ralph Lovshin. He managed the track and field team all four years in addition to playing other sports, and Lovshin began to mentor him as a coach. During summers, he coached recreational men’s and women’s track clubs in Washington, D.C.; his senior project was creating a dorm Olympics. “The beauty of Exeter is, if you have something that drives you, they let you take it as far as you can take it,” he says.

After Exeter, he followed his coaching dream; coaching the D.C. Striders in the early 1970s gave Sundlun entrée into Olympic competition.

Two members of his team became Olympic qualifiers: Maurice Peoples for the 4x400-meter relay and Bill Dinneen for the hammer throw. Dinneen competed for Puerto Rico, and at 20 years old, Sundlun was invited to the 1972 Olympics in Munich as Puerto Rico’s assistant track and field coach — the youngest Olympic coach ever.

It was an incredible opportunity that turned heartbreaking. On Sept. 5, 1972, Palestinian terrorists took nine Israeli athletes hostage in the Olympic Village, killing two. The nightmare lasted 20 hours before the remaining hostages and six others were killed. Sundlun, who is Jewish, had many conflicting thoughts. “What’s going to happen to the Olympics? Will they be canceled? How do I keep my athletes focused?” he says. “In athletics there’s

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’70 had just won a local tournament in Washington, D.C. He was walking back to school when he noticed a discus thrower practicing and thought something didn’t look right. Feeling cocky, he stopped and told the athlete what he thought. The thrower, who turned out to be the city record-holder, magnanimously took his advice. Fortunately, it worked. “I found a calling that afternoon,” Sundlun says. “I was hooked. I had always had an eye for movement and technique, and now I had found my sport.”

That calling launched Sundlun’s distinguished career coaching high school, college, club and Olympic track athletes.

It also led him to where he is now: organizer of the successful Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon and Half-Marathon Series and senior vice president of San Diegobased Competitor Group, Inc. He’s been involved in five Olympics as a coach, manager or administrator, including head men’s track coach for Antiqua and Barbuda in 1976.

This summer, he is head manager of the U.S. Olympic track and field team in Rio. Through it all, Sundlun has stayed true to a core belief, fostered at Exeter, that sports should involve athletes of all ages and abilities and impact as many people as possible. “None of this would’ve happened if it hadn’t been for Exeter,” he says. “I truly believe what happens in every sport on every field there contributes to the academic and social growth of each Exeter student, and there should be

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plan A, B, or C. There was no plan for this. The Olympics are supposed to promote peace and glorify life; this made no sense.” Although his athletes eventually competed, the tragedy overshadowed the games.

Two years later, Sundlun met Esther Roth, an Israeli sprinter and hurdler who had quit running after her coach was killed in the Munich massacre. Newly married, she was encouraged by her husband to return to the track, and she came to run for Sundlun’s club in California. Roth competed for Israel at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, where she carried the Israeli flag during opening ceremonies, despite receiving death threats. Head coach of Antigua and Barbuda’s Olympic track and field team, Sundlun was already on the field when Roth walked into the stadium. “We locked eyes just before she came out of the tunnel,” Sundlun says. “At the moment she stepped onto the track, she took the flag out of its holder and thrust it into the air, defying them to “kill [her] now.” The crowd went nuts. “I remember the performances of almost everyone I coach, but to this day I can’t remember what she ran in the Games … but that moment is still one of the greatest memories of my time in sports.”

Sundlun has been at the forefront of many major U.S. field milestones. In the early 1970s, he supported Title IX, congressional legislation prohibiting discrimination against women in federally funded education and athletic programs, initiating efforts to create college athletic scholarships for women. He was the original leader in the effort to introduce and involve chiropractic in track and field — a battle for acceptance within the mainstream medical and sports communities. As a college coach in the 1970s for the University of Southern California, and later for the University of Colorado, he coached world-record holding collegiate and Olympic athletes such as Mary Decker, Annette Tannander, Dana Slater, Tom Andrews and Clancy Edwards.

In 1980, Sundlun got involved with road running and marathons and initiated the first test case, which led to open running as we know it today, with prize money and publicized appearance money. Four years later, he established the National Scholastic Indoor Track & Field Championships, the country’s first national track and field championship for high school athletes. The majority of America’s U.S. Olympic and world champion track and field athletes get national exposure at this New York City event (and its sister outdoor championship in North Carolina), originally created and run under the auspices

of New York’s Metropolitan Athletic Congress (MAC).

As MAC’s executive director, Sundlun promoted the idea that athletics are academic and social tools that provide stability and goals, help students become better citizens, and create life-changing opportunities. “We created millions of dollars worth of scholarship opportunities,” says Sundlun. “I wanted to create programs for kids that provided each and every opportunity in and through the sport that a child’s body or mind demanded or desired.”

Sundlun’s can-do organizational skills and outreach to runners of all types led him back to California in 1997 to co-found the Rock ’n’Roll Marathon, which has turned into the largest running series in the world. “Unlike traditional races, these were the first themed events with live bands and cheerleaders every mile along the course, pre-race health and fitness expos and a post-race headliner concert.

We wanted to take our sport to the people and make the races fun.

We were also the first running organization to truly embrace and promote raising money for charity through sponsored runners,” Sundlun says. “People used to roll their eyes and tell me I was crazy.”

No one, however, is rolling their eyes over the money Rock ’n’ Roll events raise: more than $320 million net since 1998.

Despite the popularity of road races, Sundlun sees a shift in the sport of distance running. “The activity of running is healthy, but the sport of running is not,” he says. Once considered cultish, running is eagerly embraced by people of all ages. But it’s rare that a marathon runner or track star makes the cover of sports media outlets like Sports Illustrated. Sundlun attributes this in part to the sport itself — “Watching LeBron James slam dunk is more visually interesting than a guy running down a track”— but also to the general public’s perception. What used to be thought of as a major sport now reaches national consciousness only during Olympic years. “We used to be covered by the media for the quality of competition and athleticism,” he says.

“Today you get coverage based on the quality of your public relations team.”

Sundlun is humble about his many achievements.

He’s happy to still be following his passions. “I’ve lived an absolutely charmed life,” he says. “I’ve never worked a day in my life. My avocation became my occupation. I’m doing work I’m passionate about. It’s very cool to impact so many doing what you love.” E

“I’VE NEVER

WORKED A DAY IN MY LIFE. MY AVOCATION BECAME MY

OCCUPATION.”

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CAMPUS LIFE AT A GLANCE

XITAI CHEN

SPRING DANCE CONCERT The Exeter Dance Company presents their spring production, “Re-Imagining Dance.”

JOANNE LEMBO NICOLE PELLATON

PROM Friendship and laughter are highlights of prom.

MIKE NAGEL

TIME CAPSULES Seniors Meghan Tanguay, Audrey Hood and Claire Hawkins share memories from prep year, including mixed CDs and an iPod Nano, as they look through their time capsules.

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LARAMIE PROJECT Quinn Hickey appears in the mainstage production of The Laramie Project.

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RACHEL LUO

DAN COURTER

DORM TEAS Seniors Madeline Toole, Lily Sexton and Ashley Baxter at Wheelwright’s dorm tea.

RACHEL LUO

MIKE CATANO

FOUNDER’S DAY Julie Dunfey ’76 accepts the Founder’s Day Award in May.

PRINCIPAL’S DAY Jorge Colmenares ’16, Mykel Miller ’16 and Chukwude Udeh ’16 are ready to relax in the new Adirondack chairs on Principal’s Day.

RACHEL LUO

RELAY FOR LIFE Jackson Parrell ’18 has some fun while raising money for a good cause at Relay for Life.

ESSO FIELD DAY Kat Dumoulin ’17 and Bridgette Han ’18 toss bubbles at ESSO Field Day.

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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

THE LIBRARY LAWN ONE ABBOT PLACE, built in 1811 and known informally as the “Mansion House,” was used for many years as the principal’s residence and then turned into a dormitory when Principal Bill Saltonstall ’24 moved to Pine Street in 1946.

The building was razed to make room for the Class of 1945 Library, which was designed by famed architect Louis Kahn and constructed in 1971.

THE EUROPEAN PURPLE-LEAFED BEECH in front of the library is approximately 100 years old. Though against the rules, its lower branches have long been favorite spots for students and faculty children alike to perch. The aging tree is cared for by consulting arborists who perform annual pruning and upkeep.

This 1957 map depicts a very different library lawn.

THE KOREAN-VIETNAM MEMORIAL was dedicated in 1995 to honor the 15 Exonians “who in the spirit of non sibi, gave their lives” in those wars. In May, the town of Exeter’s annual Memorial Day parade included a stop at the memorial and concluded at nearby Gale Park, where retired Navy SEAL Jeffrey Eggers ’89 gave the address.

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THE CLASS OF 1945 LIBRARY On Nov. 16, 1971, classes were suspended for the day so that students and faculty could help move 60,000 books into the new library. The largest secondary school library in the world, it now holds 160,000 volumes on nine levels and has a shelf capacity of 250,000 volumes.

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Where Past and Future Meet A C O N V E R S AT I O N W I T H J O H N I R V I N G ’6 1

By Daneet Steffens ’82

a Mexican dump just before Juan Diego and his sister, the mind-reading Lupe, find refuge with a circus, Avenue of Mysteries also follows the adult Juan Diego on a peripatetic visit to the Philippines, where he’s gone to fulfill a childhood pledge.

Peppered with John Irving’s trademark quirky characters — including the wiliest mother-daughter team since the Sigourney Weaver-Jennifer Love Hewitt dynamic duo of 2001’s Heartbreakers — his 14th novel cannily covers such topics as books, reading and imagination. “I don’t know what I think of fiction,” Lupe says, in one of her sardonic asides. “Not all storytelling is what it’s cracked up to be.”

Except, of course, when it comes to Irving, a masterful storyteller who has mesmerized readers since 1968’s Setting Free the Bears.

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picaresque tale that begins at

Q: Why is this novel dedicated to photographer Mary Ellen Mark and director Martin Bell?

Irving: They’re old, old friends of mine.

They showed me Mary Ellen’s photographs of child performers in Indian circuses and said, “What about it? You’re always interested in children, you’re always interested in….” Well, the way Martin put it was, “You’re always interested in the shit that happens to children, or children in peril, or something happening to a child.” They knew that because they knew me, they knew my books and they knew me as a father — they’d seen my kids grow up. They thought that a story about children at high risk in an Indian circus would appall me, which it did, and therefore attract me, which it did. So I started working on a screenplay, which Martin was going to direct, called Escaping Maharashtra, and we spent all of January 1990 with the Great Royal

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John Irving’s latest novel originated from an idea for a screenplay hatched more than 25 years ago. The book is finished; the screenplay remains a work in progress.

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Circus in the north of India. We found out a lot about the circumstances of children who were performing aerial acts — like the one in Avenue of Mysteries — that could not have been performed by an adult because adults are too heavy.

Then, because of India’s Central Board of Film Certification regulations, we shifted the story. Mary Ellen, who died last May, was always two steps ahead of Martin and me.

She’d seen circuses in Mexico. They were more rudimentary, more basic, more amateurish than the ones in India, but the bottom line was the same: What circumstances did the children come from, and was there a safety net to be found? God, in some cases, there wasn’t even a ring! In some cases the lions came into the ring without bars — they just fed them before they came out.

Also, I wanted a draft dodger in the story, and it was hard to make believable a young American draft dodger from the war in Vietnam getting all the way to India.

That was the real jewel that we gained by relocating. And that was how I saw that this could become a novel — not instead of, but before Martin and I continued to make it a film.”

“THERE ARE ALWAYS THESE NOVELS WAITING, AND I JUST FEEL I CAN’T KNOW ENOUGH ABOUT SOMETHING BEFORE I START IT.”

Q: When did that happen?

Irving: Martin and I first went to Mexico in 1997, again in 2002-2003 and

between Christmas and New Year’s of 2008-2009. We started this project in ’88 or ’89, we were in India in ’90 — now it’s 20 years later and we still haven’t made the movie. I’ve written I can’t even tell you how many drafts of the screenplay, which kept changing and changing and changing, but also staying the same: The boy was always crippled, the sister was always preternaturally clairvoyant, there was always a good-hearted missionary who discovers he’s gay, and there’s our gringo, the draft dodger — all these characters were virtually the same. One night on that Christmas-New Year’s visit, I said to Martin, “If this were a novel, I would begin it 40 years later and Juan Diego would be on his way to the Philippines to keep his promise to the gringo, the promise he absurdly makes which no one in his right mind would keep. You’d have to be a real dreamer, as Juan Diego is, a real romantic. But it says a lot about Juan Diego that he is the kind of guy who would keep such a promise that he made as a 14-year-old.

Q: I was delighted to stumble across Jeanette Winterson’s novel The Passion in Juan Diego’s carry-on.

Irving: Well, you can see why he would like it: There are some wonderful mysteries at its core. I’ve always loved Winterson and that novel in particular, and I also knew it would provoke a ridiculous response from Juan Diego’s former student Clark French. I was always looking for ways to enhance the comedic appeal of Clark, who’s not a bad guy but a real nerd. Unquestionably, the Winterson would rile him up and pique his curiosity in an absurd way, so ...

Q: You take years to write your novels and this one was no different. How does that process work?

Irving: It’s not unusual for me to wait as long as 10 or 15 years before I begin to write a novel that has been gathering notes, details, characters and story lines; it takes me anywhere from three to seven years to write a novel once I say, “OK, I’m now writing this novel from start to finish.” I never start writing until I know everything about a novel, until I’ve already written not just the last sentence, but eight or nine pages that are pretty concretely much as they will be at the end of the book. Last sentences themselves have never changed — not a word, not a comma. It’s not a religion: If in the course of writing a book I thought of a better last sentence, I wouldn’t hesitate to use it, but it just hasn’t happened. It’s common for a book to sit around for years, virtually fully formed, but

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there’s something that compels me to write another one first; maybe I know more about the ending of that one.

There are always these novels waiting, and I just feel I can’t know enough about something before I start it.

Q: Like all your novels, this one runs on canny, entertaining, evocative language: “Juan Diego didn’t resemble a risk-taker, except when it came to his imagination”; a Virgin Mary statue at a restaurant, described as “a menacing Mary — a Mary with a bouncer’s attitude…”; and my personal favorite, “Nobody knows the rules for ghosts.”

Irving: That “rules for ghosts” phrase that you like, that was mine for a long time before I gave it to Dorothy in this novel. I’ve been working on an original screenplay, a ghost story set in Colorado — called Rules for Ghosts — which I’m very much inclined now to write as a novel. So that’s a phrase that has been in my head and was kind of on my tongue while I was writing.

One reason I predetermine what happens in a story before I start a novel is because, once I start writing, I only want to be thinking of the language.

The language gets as much attention as it does because I already know where I’m going.

Q: You’ve incorporated Exeter into several novels. What sticks with you from that time?

Irving: The most indelible part of the school for me is the old Thompson Cage, really. When I started wrestling, our room was in the basement of the old Thompson gymnasium and it moved from the basement to the second floor of the Cage, off the wooden running track. Because I was a townie, because I was a faculty brat, I also have a very strong memory of the school when the students weren’t there, when it was emptied out. I liked running in the Cage in the summer because it was cool and there wasn’t anybody else in it. E

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I N

R E V I E W

Alumni are encouraged to advise the Bulletin editor (bulletin@exeter.edu) of their own publications, recordings, films, etc., in any field, and those of classmates, for inclusion in future Exonians in Review columns. Please send a review copy of your published work to the editor to be considered for an extended profile or review in future issues. Works can be sent to: Bulletin Editor, Phillips Exeter Academy, 20 Main Street, Exeter, NH 03833-2460.

Compiled by Alice Ann Gray ALUMNI 1955—Robert W. Parson.

In the Eye of the Beholder: Tales from a Lifetime.

(Wheatmark Publishing, 2016) 1966—Alfred K. LaMotte.

Savor Eternity One Moment at a Time [poems]. (Saint Julian Press, 2016) 1969—Jim Austin.

Leading Strategic Change in an Era of Healthcare Transformation. (Springer International, 2016) 1973—Webb Keane. Ethical Life: Its Natural and Social Histories. (Princeton University Press, 2016)

1989—Rev. Elizabeth Rogers Goodman. Breaking and Entering: Unexpected Sermons for an Unfinished World. (Wipf and Stock, 2016) B R I E F LY N OT E D 1950—Thomas Merriam.

“Is It Time to Re-think King John?” IN Digital Scholarship in the Humanities (online).

(Oxford University Press, May 2016) 1960—Stephen C. Schlesinger. [foreword] IN Why England Slept by John F. Kennedy (Praeger, reissue 2016)

1987—Michael Socolow. Six Minutes In Berlin: Broadcast Spectacle and Rowing Gold at the Nazi Olympics.

(University of Illinois Press, 2016)

1966—Tom Davison and Keith Turner. “The Reverse Mortgage: A Strategic Lifetime Income Planning Resource.” IN The Journal of Retirement. (vol. 3, no. 2, fall 2015) FAC U LT Y Matt W. Miller. “High School Reunion” [poem]. IN Crazyhorse. (no. 89, spring 2016)

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S P O RTS

Hurdling Forward C O A C H T O Y I N TA K E S L I F E — A N D T H E O LY M P I C S — I N S T R I D E

By Janet Reynolds

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ome people see a hurdle on a track and think “obstacle.” Olutoyin Augustus-Ikwuakor sees opportunity.

Those looking for proof of that mindset need look no further than her recent bid: Augustus-Ikwuakor, or “Coach Toyin,” who coaches track and field and works in the Office of Multicultural Affairs at Exeter, returned to competition in an attempt to represent her native Nigeria at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. This despite the fact that at 35 and as the mother of a toddler, she would be entirely forgiven if the only running she did was around her home, chasing little Haiven.

This was Augustus-Ikwuakor’s second go-round at the Olympics. She represented Nigeria in 2008 in Beijing, China, where her time of 13.34 seconds was not fast enough to qualify her for the 100-meter hurdles semifinals. (Although AugustusIkwuakor is an American citizen, athletes are allowed to compete for their native countries.) She sat out the 2012 Olympics in London. Married to Akobundu Ikwuakor, himself a hurdler and runner, she was pregnant.

But Augustus-Ikwuakor never really hung up her track shoes.

She coaches by example, getting out on the track with her team every day. Even Augustus-Ikwuakor, though, recognizes there’s a big difference between running drills with a high school team and prepping for the Olympics.

“I’m a practical person,” she explains. “Practicality kept telling me, ‘Exeter keeps you too busy. You know what it’s like in the summer time. You’re 35. Really?’

“None of those reasons really mean I can’t do it,” she says. “It just means it’ll be harder.”

The strict training regimen and the dream itself are also teachable moments for Augustus-Ikwuakor — and she loves the metaphors inherent in working hard at something such as hurdles. “At the beginning I just liked that I was good at it,” she says, recalling her early years with the sport. “Kids don’t know what they can be good at, so when they’re given something that they get validation for, they tend to cling to it.

“Now what I love so much about the hurdles, track and field, and athletics in general, is how it translates into everyday life,” she says. “You can’t run around the hurdles or you get disqualified. If you run too far to one side you can hurt others. There is only one way to attack a hurdle and that’s with force and straight through.”

In other words, it’s just like life. “We teach them to run the hurdles, not jump the hurdles,” she says. “It’s not about avoiding it but going through it. I love that. That’s something I preach to my kids.

“When faced with obstacles, we have to choose how we’re going to make it through,” Augustus-Ikwuakor continues. “I have students all the time who run up to a hurdle and stop.

Quitting and running around is never an option. I don’t care if you fall through it, if you kick it down — you have to go through it. Whatever you do, that’s how you run the hurdles. I think it sticks with them in athletics and with life.”

Augustus-Ikwuakor got into hurdles by way of her older sister. Her father took them to the

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track, where she watched her sister running the hurdles. Her dad suggested she give it a try. “I remember racing her and beating her,” Augustus-Ikwuakor says, adding that she had no real form.

“I realized I could be good at this. Clearly, if my sister, who is really good at everything, is not as good as me somehow, this must be something I should really try for. I always looked up to her.”

Augustus-Ikwuakor, who moved to the United States with her family as a young child, was in middle school at the time, a place for field days rather than serious hurdle training. She ran track, but she didn’t get bona fide hurdle training until she was in high school. “I just played with it and did sprints,” she says of her middle school years.

Augustus-Ikwuakor wasn’t far into her high school years in Alabama, however, before she started making an impression. She was a track star, earning MVP honors on the Huntsville All-Metro team after winning four events, including the hurdles, at a meet. She continued competing at Penn State, and after graduation competed in a variety of African and world championships.

“The trials and tribulations of being an amateur athlete in track and field are too numerous to tell,” she says. “There were plenty of times I wanted to give up. I couldn’t. You’re not what you say every day. You’re what you do every day.”

Augustus-Ikwuakor began her comeback training two years ago. She competed indoors a bit but then was injured and couldn’t finish the indoor season. “I did win all my meets but not at a high level,” she says. “But I felt revitalized by it.”

She also felt she was getting the message to keep going. “If this is not a direction God wants me to take, he will slam shut the doors,” she says. “The door is opening so far so I feel there’s a greater purpose beyond this. I’m not sure what it is but I’m going to stay true to my purpose.”

Ever analytical, Augustus-Ikwuakor speaks dispassionately of her weaknesses in hurdling. Take, for example, her height of 5 feet 4 inches in a sport often dominated by people 6 feet and taller. “My biggest [weakness] right now is body positioning over the hurdles,” she says. “The effort it takes me to overcome a hurdle is more because of my height.” Hurdles are 33 inches high for women. “I just have to have more power to compensate.”

Fitting in her workouts during the academic year was no small feat, either.

“It had to fit my Exeter schedule,” she says. Wednesday workouts, which were about three hours, included speed workouts on the track — hurdle drills and sprints — followed by weight room powerlifting. Thursday was a recovery day — running and stretches with perhaps some rudimentary isometric exercises.

Friday was all about speed endurance; she ran 150 meters 12 times with short rests, followed by the weight room and some strength exercises compatible with the earlier endurance work. Saturdays were for focusing on the technical aspects of hurdles, followed by some medicine ball work for core and stability. AugustusIkwuakor took Sundays off, which was good because Mondays were for the “real strength workout. It’s a grueling day where you have to get your mind right,” she says of her runs up and down Shaw’s Hill.

Scheduling got a little easier this spring, when Exeter granted Augustus-Ikwuakor a partial sabbatical so that she could focus more on training and competing. She had until July to shave two-tenths of a second off her time and achieve the Olympic standard of 13 seconds flat in the 100-meter hurdles, by competing in various national and world championships. Based on her season best, she should have taken home the gold at the African Championships in Durban, South Africa, but she stumbled after hitting a hurdle, losing most of her momentum. She had two Olympic trials remaining and ultimately did not qualify for the Rio team. Posting to Instagram after the last trial, she wrote: “My journey is not about getting everything I set out to get, but learning and growing through the process.”

Grateful for the opportunity, she takes comfort in having put her whole heart into following her dreams. For Augustus-Ikwuakor, there was never a question about taking the risk. “When the opportunity came … for me to actually think seriously about trying to compete again, it almost felt like, ‘This is what you’re supposed to be doing,’ ” she says. “The time is now.” E

“THERE WERE PLENTY OF TIMES I WANTED TO GIVE UP. I COULDN’T. YOU’RE NOT WHAT YOU SAY EVERY DAY. YOU’RE WHAT YOU DO EVERY DAY.”

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SPRING SPORTS GIRLS CREW RECORD: 8-4

Head Coach: Sally Morris Assistant Coach: Becky Moore Captains: Lily Sexton ’16, Amelia Stucke ’16 MVP: Hailey Hudson ’16

BASEBALL RECORD: 16-6

Head Coach: Dana Barbin Assistant Coaches: Nat Hawkins, Tim Mitropoulos ’10 Captain: JT Thompson ’16 MVPs: Steve Cerrone ’16, Collin Shapiro ’17

BOYS CREW RECORD: 6-6

Head Coach: Tyler Caldwell Assistant Coach: Greg Spanier Captains: Jake DellaPasqua ’16, Marq Schieber ’16 MVP: Will Rau ’16

BOYS AND GIRLS CYCLING RECORD: 1-0 IN DUAL RACES; SECOND PLACE IN NERC CHAMPIONSHIP

GIRLS LACROSSE RECORD: 16-1

Head Coach: Don Mills Assistant Coaches: Vicki Baggia, Patty Burke Hickey, Roger Wakeman, Tim Whittemore Captains: Killian Dickson ’16, Tessa Vaccaro ’16 MVP: Killian Dickson

BOYS AND GIRLS GOLF RECORD: 17-1; FIRST PLACE IN KINGSWOOD OXFORD TOURNAMENT

Head Coach: Bob Bailey Assistant Coaches: Josh Civielo, Tracey Marshall Captains: Steven DiLisio ’16, Charlie Dubiel ’17, Zanny Merullo ’16, Stella Woo ’17 MVP: Steven DiLisio

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PHOTOS RACHEL LUO’16: BASEBALL, CYCLING DIANA DAVIDSON ‘18: CREW MIKE CATANO: LAX, SOFTBALL , TENNIS, VOLLEYBALL , WATER POLO CRAIG CELESTIN ‘17: TRACK B O B B A I L E Y: G O L F

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Head Coach: Christina Breen Assistant Coach: Porter Hayes Captains: Jacie Lemos ’16, Josie Russ ’16, Bronwyn Shields ’16 MVP: Allegra Grant ’16

BOYS LACROSSE RECORD: 13-5

Head Coach: Bill Glennon Assistant Coach: David Huoppi Captains: Henry Behrens ’16, Jason Corcoran ’16, Alex Farley ’16, Jimmy Young ’16 MVPs: Andrew Bowman ’16, Jack Young ’17

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BOYS A TENNIS RECORD: 4-4

Head Coach: Fred Brussel Captain: Rex Tercek ’16 MVP: Joon Kim ’16

GIRLS A TENNIS RECORD: 4-4

Head Coach: Jean Farnum Captain: Taylor Jean-Jacques ’16 MVP: Taylor Jean-Jacques

SOFTBALL RECORD: 9-10

Head Coach: Nancy Thompson Assistant Coach: Amy MacLean Captains: Courtney Gibeley ’16, Sequoia Johnson ’16 MVP: Lauren Fidelak ’17

BOYS VOLLEYBALL RECORD: 10-1; NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONS

BOYS TRACK RECORD: 10-3

Head Coach: Hilary Coder Assistant Coaches: Mustafa AbdulRahim, Michele Chapman, Hobart Hardej, Mark Hiza, Jill Lyon, Julia McPhee, Brandon Newbould, Kurt Prescott Captains: Chudi Ikpeazu ’16, Vincent Vaughns ’16 MVP: Chudi Ikpeazu

Head Coach: Bruce Shang Captains: Max Kirsch ’16, Kyle Xia ’16, Cesar Zamudio ’16 MVPs: Max Kirsch, Graham Rutledge ’17

GIRLS TRACK RECORD: 9-1; SECOND PLACE AT INTERSCHOLS

Head Coach: Hilary Coder Assistant Coaches: Mustafa Abdul-Rahim, Michele Chapman, Hobart Hardej, Mark Hiza, Jill Lyon, Julia McPhee, Brandon Newbould, Kurt Prescott Captains: Bridget Higgins ’16, Jordyn Marlin ’16, Michaela Streep ’16 MVP: Christine Hu ’17

GIRLS WATER POLO RECORD: 6-8

Head Coaches: Andrew McTammany, Melissa Pacific Captains: Abby Ambrogi ’16, Madison Hillyard ’16 MVP: Madison Hillyard

COMMENCE

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MENT 2016 PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHERYL SENTER

Watch an on-demand video of the entire graduation ceremony at www.exeter.edu/graduation.

The day was damp but the mood was festive as 304 seniors received their diplomas June 5 on the Academy lawn.

Congratulations to the talented class of 2016 — our newest alumni.

Facing page: Caroline del Real with diploma in hand. Top left: Nothing can dampen the spirit of Khymaya Perkins. Bottom left: Kirsten Nergaard shares a moment with her mother. Clockwise, above: Classical diploma recipient Scott Lu checks his wreath; Jack Hirsch congratulates a fellow graduate; and a group of Classics scholars pose happily together.

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Top to bottom, this page: Charles D. Lynn grins as he peers out at the crowd; Maegan Moriarty and Lucy Weiler are all smiles before the ceremony; Emmaline Kim grabs a selfie with Principal MacFarlane; Ethan Gould looks pleased; William Rau walks off stage after receiving his diploma; happy family members don’t let the rain keep them down; and Hebe Hilhorst in a congratulatory hug with her parents. Facing page: Friends Sophie Byrne and Efe Airewele after the ceremony.

“YOUR ENERGY, PASSION, TALENT, QUICK WIT, KINDNESS AND AMBITION HAVE INSPIRED AND SUSTAINED ME AND REMINDED ME EVERY DAY THAT I AM LUCKY TO BE AT EXETER.” — PRINCIPAL LISA MACFARLANE

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This page: Tommy Cefalu and Fedja Celebic exit Phillips Church.

Facing page: (Top) Blandine Hoge holds her diploma aloft.

(Bottom) Thomas Charles Appleton, recipient of the Perry Cup, and Jacie Lee Lemos, recipient of the Ruth and Paul Sadler ’23 Cup.

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“... EACH OF US HAS HAD THE PRIVILEGE TO GROW ACADEMICALLY, ATHLETICALLY, ARTISTICALLY AND SPIRITUALLY IN THE ABUNDANCE OF THIS PLACE.” —DAVID SHEPLEY ’16, PROCTOR AT PHILLIPS CHURCH

GRADUATION PRIZES The Yale Cup, awarded each year by the Aurelian Honor Society of Yale University to the member of the senior class who best combines the highest standards of character and leadership with excellence in his studies and in athletics: Rex John Tercek, Washington, D.C. 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: Jacie Lee Lemos, Rye, New Hampshire 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: Thomas Charles Appleton, Durham, New Hampshire The Williams Cup, established in memory of George Lynde Richardson Jr. ’37, and given annually to a student who, having been in the Academy four years, has, by personal qualities, brought distinction to Phillips Exeter: Meena Jagadeesan, Naperville, Illinois 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: Jade Moses, Richmond Hill, New York 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: Thomas Charles Appleton, Durham, New Hampshire 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 and other aspects of identity.

Cesar Augusto Zamudio, Manchester, New Hampshire 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: Julie Sunyoung Chung, Buena Park, California Meena Jagadeesan, Naperville, Illinois Arianna Aislinn Serafini, Belmont, California Angela Song, Colorado Springs, Colorado Caroline Frances Sullivan, Hopkinton, Massachusetts 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: Arianna Aislinn Serafini, Belmont, California

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“ALTHOUGH IN A FEW DAYS WE WILL BE SCATTERED AROUND THE WORLD, OUR ROOTS WILL ALWAYS BE HERE, ON THIS CAMPUS.” — STUDENT COUNCIL PRESIDENT REBECCA JU

This page, top to bottom: Josie Russ walks proudly off stage; Student Council President Rebecca Ju welcomes family and friends; Ju with David Shepley, Alexandra Merullo and Seongjun Park. Facing page: Kevin Zhen, president of the senior class, with the last diploma awarded.

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SNAPSHOTS

By Meg Foley and Taylor Jean-Jacques ’16, photos by Meg Foley

Classic cars line the streets of Trinidad.

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OF CUBA Exonians take a sunny rest on the Malecón, overlooking Havana Harbor.

L

ingering meals and amazing conversations at long

tables in the warm open air. Old American cars and shiny new tourist buses. Singing along with our guide, Flaco, as he plays ukulele on the bus and we ride past villages where kids are playing soccer on dusty fields. These memories evoke a camaraderie that I will never forget from the nine days in March when my colleague Bill Jordan, chair of the History Department, and I traveled to Havana, Cienfuegos and Trinidad in Cuba with 14 students from the upper and senior classes.

I had been to Cuba in 2001, and I’ve often thought back to that trip while teaching. Two history courses — Why are Poor Nations Poor? and Capitalism and Its Critics — raise questions about the Cuban model, and we look at the U.S.-Cuban relationship throughout U.S. history courses as well. With the expansion of the Academy’s Global Initiatives in recent years and the easing of travel restrictions between the two countries, I started to think that Cuba would be a fascinating destination for students interested in questions of economic philosophy and development, as well as history and politics.

We were cared for in our journey by Pata Delgacio and Flaco Hinapié, two Colombian guides from Envoys, the

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student travel organization with whom Exeter partnered.

In accordance with rules for U.S. State Departmentsanctioned travel groups, a Cuban guide, Marta Palacio, also accompanied us.

Our student travelers were keen observers and intrepid questioners about the Cuban model, and they soaked up every opportunity to listen to music, peoplewatch and stargaze. The combination of our tight-knit group and the remarkable culture made for deeply implanted memories. In the reflections below, Taylor Jean-Jacques ’16 and I offer some snapshots to show how this trip became a learning experience both intellectual and emotional. — History Instructor Meg Foley

PRESENCE AND DISCOVERY

By Meg Foley, Arthur A. Seeligson ‘13 Professor in Business, Economics and History

DAY 1 HAVANA AIRPORT

As our plane from Miami lands, the pilot says, “The good news is, our flight arrived early. The bad news is that three other flights have just landed, and there is only one T H E

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set of rolling stairs for disembarking the plane. We could be here awhile.”

At that moment, Spencer Burleigh ’16 starts taking his copious notes.

Throughout the trip, he is our documentarian, continually tapping away into his phone to record his economic observations.

Our first dinner is at a paladar (private restaurant in a home) called simply La Casa (the House).

The oldest paladar in Havana, it dates to 1995. Marta, who is clearly impressed, tells us that the owner, Alejandro, is quite famous in Havana and now has enough money for a second house and travel outside the country. The owner comes to our tables during dessert, interrupting the salsa musicians to welcome us and praise President Obama’s openness to Cuba. As we depart the restaurant, he hands us business cards that read, “Please review us on TripAdvisor.” In a country with almost no visible advertising, I love the irony that he is asking us to do his marketing to other tourists for him — once we are home, with access to the internet.

DAY 2 HAVANA

Chris Agard ’17 and Raul Galvan ’17 take in the sights from the rooftop of their casa particular in Trinidad.

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We learn about the preservation efforts in Old Havana and follow our lesson with a walking tour. The state has poured a tremendous amount of money into renovating the old buildings and re-creating the cohesive feel of Old Havana. Cubans have only recently been given title to the properties where they live. They welcome being within the preservation district, because there is no government money for improvements outside the district.

As we walk through the streets, we are impressed by the intensity of this preservation effort. Students eagerly examine the book and poster stands along the sidewalks in the Plaza de Armas. I spend 10 CUCs (the Cuban convertible peso, or tourist peso, roughly equivalent to the dollar) on a retro children’s book about the heroes of the revolution. When I ask the bookseller for a receipt he replies, “Receipt? No receipt. This is the free market!”

Late in the afternoon, after lemonade on the lawn of the Hotel Nacional overlooking the Straits of Florida, we walk along the entire length of the Malecón, the long waterfront sidewalk that draws in the Habaneros (Havana natives). The students park themselves on the wall in the setting sun, watching young guys fishing, couples and children strolling, and all the old cars rolling by. They are soaking in this quintessentially Cuban oceanside experience.

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DAY 4 HAVANA TO CIENFUEGOS

Marta gives us little topical lectures whenever we have a bus ride of any length. Today, she relates the history of Cuban-U.S. relations, reminding us repeatedly that Cuba is a poor country. She explains the free-through-university education system, and when she tells us she used to be an English teacher, we surmise that she left teaching for a lucky spot in the tourist industry.

She tells us, too, about the Special Period in the 1990s, with its extreme hardships after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Marta has one daughter, born in 1992. She couldn’t consider having more than one child in those days, even though she would have welcomed more. Maegan Moriarty ’16 asks her more about her daughter, who is now a filmmaker living in Angola. She recounts that when her daughter was finishing her film studies in Paris, she saved enough money to bring her mother over for a visit. That was Marta’s first and only trip abroad.

Marta responds to our every question, but we don’t ask her the questions we know she can’t answer. We wish we could host her in Exeter; she has made the trip what it is for us, and we feel a gulf in being unable to return the hospitality.

We arrive midafternoon at Playa Giron, where the American troops landed in 1961, and we spend a lot of time wrapping our heads around the United States’ Bay of Pigs invasion here. The beach is home to a nice, simple, retro-style motel.

Marta tells us it was here that the invasion happened. As we read a detailed history of the incident, we look out to the sea and try to visualize the various craft landing on this beach, and the fighting that ensued in the huge surrounding mangrove swamp. Now we understand the simple white memorials we saw alongside the road for the past 50 kilometers or so. They are memorials to Cubans who were killed while defending against the invasion.

We consider the moniker, “fiasco,” often attached to “Bay of Pigs” in U.S. history books. I think we understand it differently here.

Alan Lu ‘17 and Kaityln Kang ‘17 looking over the Valley de los Ingenios in Trinidad.

DAY 6 TRINIDAD

Trinidad is a lovely, must-see colonial town. Its pristine cobblestone pedestrian streets and pastel stucco houses in the historical center are the result of a huge preservation effort funded by UNESCO. After a full day here, students want to interrogate how “real” this Cuba is. How real is anything that we are seeing?

The heat of the day kicks in and we realize we need time to rest and to consciously process our role as tourists. We sit on the cool concrete floor of one of the casas particulares (guest houses) where we are staying. Armed with a couple of articles on tourism in the developing world, we take time to have a Harkness class, combining these readings with our observations thus far. We decide to spend the rest of the afternoon in pairs, trying to be not just consumers, but deeper observers of the culture — not just tourists, but travelers.

The kids come back from their afternoon of exploration both elated and sobered by their discoveries. Two girls with minimal Spanish worked to speak up in the shops they visited, rather than relying on the more fluent speakers. Chris Agard ’17 and Raul Galvan ’17 tried to find a barber. Spencer, Holly MacAlpine ’16 and Sasha Kennedy ’16 went beyond the historical downtown and found a stark difference as they walked farther: decaying homes, people unaccustomed to tourists in their street. Bill and I happened upon an elementary

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The travelers strike a contemplative pose in front of Kcho’s “El Pensador” (“The Thinker”), at the artist’s studio in Havana.

school and were welcomed in to see the four classrooms and the courtyard playground.

The woman who lets us in asks for a tip. We learn from Marta later that she shouldn’t have allowed us in or asked for the tip.

DAY 7 TRINIDAD

Last night we tried our luck dancing salsa at La Casa de Musica, a fabulous open-air dance hall on a wide set of stairs in the center of town. But it was full of tourists and amazing Cuban dancers; it was an intimidating place to learn salsa. So, Pata and Flaco have promised us that this evening, they will teach us to salsa.

After dinner we retreat to the rooftop of one of our casas particulares with iPhone music instead of a salsa band. It is a gorgeous night and you can hear the bands in the distance. We have barely begun our lesson when there is a townwide power outage and everything goes black. We dance for a while longer, but then Abhijay Bhatnagar ’17 lies down and coaxes us to look up at the stars. We lie there long after the power resumes, calling out shooting stars, claiming to recognize constellations, and repeating over and over, “This is amazing.”

We have been without phone or internet use for a week. We are truly present, aware, listening, watching — and deeply contented.

DAY 8 VALLEY DE LOS INGENIOS

After a long hike trough a tropical mountain forest, we come upon a waterfall and tranquil pool. Flaco checks it out and asks me if I think the kids will want to swim. I nod wholeheartedly. We pull off as many layers as we can while maintaining decency and we plunge in. Kaitlyn Tonra ’16, Honor Clements ’17 and I float on our backs and tell ourselves to remember this moment when things get busy during spring term. Spencer, Holly,

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Caroline Colbert ’17 and I swim behind the waterfall and try not to hear Flaco calling out that it is time to leave.

DAY 9 RETURN TO U.S.

We linger a long time in the Havana airport terminal to say our goodbyes to Marta and Flaco. We don’t want this to end.

With great deliberation and reluctance, students turn their phones back on upon touching down in Miami. The spell is broken, but the friendships and memories have been firmly planted, and each of us wants to go back to Cuba again — even though it can never be the same as it was with this magical group, at this singular moment in Cuba’s existence.

REFLECTIONS UNDER THE STARS

By Taylor Jean-Jacques ’16

When people say Cuba is frozen in time, they aren’t wrong. After landing and passing through immigration, we rush outside, standing on tiptoes to see through a crowd of Cubans awaiting their loved ones, and a parking lot full of clapped-out 1953 Chevys and 1957 Ford Fairlanes.

Leaving our baggage at the hotel, our hungry group travels to La Casa, a family owned restaurant. We eat the traditional foods served in almost every restaurant across Cuba: moros y cristianos (white rice with bean sauce), platanos (fried plantains), cabbage and other vegetables, swordfish, and a selection of meats — lamb, beef and chicken. The braver students even try rabbit. During our meal, we are serenaded by a Cuban band playing traditional guitar music called Guajira and are introduced to the most popular song on the island, “Guantanamera.” We quickly learn the lyrics and sing this song throughout our trip.

Over the next few days in Havana, we learn about the Cuban education model, in which education is free of charge at all levels, and schools after the secondary level are specific to various interests: the arts, athletics, medicine, etc. We tour the University of Havana with an undergraduate student and buy books in Spanish from the street vendors outside. In Cuba, the government funds the health care, education and housing of all of its citizens. Its socioeconomic hierarchy is reversed, compared with that of the United States, due to the tourism-based economy. Tourism is becoming a large source of income for the island as U.S. citizens begin to travel to Cuba. Here, a cab driver who transports tourists will have a higher income than a doctor would.

We learn about Cuban art, too, visiting a museum just outside Havana that houses the works of many artists, including paintings and sculptures by Wifredo Lam, a Cuban artist who played a role in reviving Afro-Cuban culture. We are fascinated by his unique style of portraying hybrid figures. Driving past sculptures of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, we arrive at a pottery gallery filled with abstract vases and plates that are painted with scenes of the Cuban countryside.

Later, we visit a museum/center for artists-in-residence —continued on page 103

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Chris Agard, Honor Clements, Annie Ning and Maegan Moriarty at Kcho Estudio in Havana.

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EXPERIENCE T H E WA S H I N G T O N I N T E R N P R O G R A M AT 5 0

By Lynn Horowitch ’81; P’19

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LISA HELFERT

2016 spring interns take a short break in the Rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building.

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heir days included tweeting on behalf of a congressman, shadowing a senator for a day, and attending a charity ball. One Exonian got a chance to speak on the phone with former Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, another met an Olympic gold medalist, and a third rode the Russell Building tram with Arizona Sen. John McCain.

For the 12 seniors who spent spring term working in the nation’s capital, each assigned to the office of a senator or representative, Exeter’s Washington Intern Program provided hands-on access to the inner workings of our government. Days were spent carrying out traditional intern tasks: writing memos, attending briefings, answering constituent mail and phone calls, sorting press clippings, giving tours of the Capitol. In the evenings, they explored the city and also read English assignments, wrote in their journals, and attended seminars with accomplished Exeter alumni and parents. In the process, these Exonians discovered, on the program’s 50th anniversary, why it’s worth missing senior spring at Exeter.

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Class of 2006 interns: From left, back row: Jina Chung, Qian Qian Tang, Mark Jia From left front row: Miriam Rose Baker, Rachel Mak, Marty Maull.

RACHEL MAK ’06

Emerita History Instructor Barbara Eggers ’66 (Hon.); P’89, P’91 served as faculty adviser for spring 2016. She says, “The students gain an appreciation for the amount of work that has to be done.

They look at the schedule for the elected official and are blown away.” The volume of correspondence an elected official receives underscores for Exonians why “a team approach is necessary,” adds Eggers.

From their base in the Capitol Hill Hotel on a quiet street of row houses in the shadow of the Capitol, the students made the most of their experiences. And if history is any guide, the program will provide a lasting legacy in their lives, as it has done for participants for the past 50 years.

When Exeter’s History Department voted in 1966 to establish the Washington Intern Program, the faculty may not have anticipated two things.

First, that the program would still be going strong today. The WIP had fairly humble beginnings that year, when an enterprising student, Meir Ribalow ’66, entreated the faculty to allow him to intern in the office of Sen. Jacob Javits, R-N.Y. Ribalow had worked for Javits the previous summer and wanted to return during his senior spring and earn academic credit. His adviser, longtime instructor and coach Werner Brandes, recalls that the History Department “liked the concept of a service program in Congress.” So with help from Dick Schrader ’51, Hammy Bissell and numerous Exeter alumni in Washington, the program was born.

The WIP became a signature Exeter program, and

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it wasn’t long before Andover joined in. Up until 2002, both schools sent contingents to Washington each spring. Upward of 30 students would head south, bunking at the Bellevue Hotel on Massachusetts Avenue near Union Station. For the past 14 years, Exeter has been the only secondary school in the nation to run an intern program. Now competing with numerous global travel options — Exeter students can study in 17 locales across five continents — the Washington Intern Program continues to attract an annual cohort that perpetuates the program. “Exonians do such good work that interns are always wanted the next year,” Eggers says. “The various offices will help us find new positions.”

In addition to Eggers and Brandes, who holds the record for number of years as a WIP adviser, several of Exeter’s best-loved and longest-tenured teachers have served as resident advisers: Eggers, Jack Herney, Andy Hertig, Bob Grey, Norval Rindfleisch, Bill Bolden and

Bassam Gergi ‘08 interned with Sen. Barack Obama, whose campaign Gergi later worked on.

Harvard Knowles.

While a number of Exonians have gone into public service, those who sat in the Latin Study and voted to start the program might be surprised at the breadth of ways that the WIP has helped students develop professionally. For the 700+ participants, the Washington Intern Program has provided a base — a first professional experience, the chance to explore a city, the ability to navigate the labyrinthine halls of the Capitol complex — that has served as a stepping-stone to a wide array of experiences

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in the public and private sector.

As an active member of Exeter’s Democratic Insider Access Club and an avid spectator in the Kerry vs. Bush An exciting part of the WIP experience is attending election in 2004, Marty Maull ’06 wanted to seminars with prominent Washington alumni and find out what happens after people are elected. members of the parent community. As Jack Herney A native of Exeter who attended the Academy recalls, “The seminar program has been replete with as a day student, Maull was particularly intergreat people. Alumni would call up and ask, ‘How can ested in working for Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis. Feingold’s office had never had an Exeter intern, we help?’” but after some finagling, Maull had her posiPast interns met Supreme Court Justice Potter tion. “The staffers didn’t understand why a high Stewart; Jerry Jones, who served as staff secretary school student could be an intern,” Maull says. and director of the White House Personnel Office “I was thrown in with college juniors and seniors under Richard Nixon and addressed the interns in and had to prove myself.” She quickly learned the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White important lessons about professionalism. “One House; Judge Gerhard Gesell, a Federal judge during of the things I learned: Don’t wear flip-flops to Watergate; and many more. “Very heady stuff!” the office!” she says.

Herney says.

Maull was surprised by how long and involved The 2016 interns met with Michael Crowley ’90, the legislative process is. “I definitely learned senior foreign affairs correspondent, Politico; Nick how the sausage is made,” she says. “I thought it Eberstadt ’72, resident research scholar, American would be like The West Wing, with things happening each month, but it takes years sometimes.”

Enterprise Institute; Jeff Eggers ’89, retired U.S. Maull studied Wisconsin facts and figures so Navy commander and Navy SEAL and former special she could converse well with visitors on Capitol assistant to President Obama, National Security Building tours she led. “Of course, visitors want Council; Adam Liptak, Supreme Court correspondent, to see the statues from Wisconsin in Statuary The New York Times; Sen. Jeanne Shaheen D-N.H.; Hall,” she explains. Connecting with constituformer Sen. Timothy Wirth ’57 D-Colo., vice chair, ents was a perk of the job, and Maull found that United Nations Foundation; and more. she loved reading constituent mail. She says, “People go to their congresspeople for a lot of things: business disputes, adoption, entry into checking in one minute before curfew every night during armed forces academies. They share so many intimate his senior spring, after he’d explored Georgetown, details.”

Dupont Circle, the U Street Corridor and other neighborWhen she graduated from Smith College in 2010 with a hoods. Fenkell says, “If I hadn’t done the intern program degree in economics, job openings were scarce because of I would never have found myself in D.C.” And the intern the global recession. But Maull’s Senate experience led to her hiring by the Inspector General’s office at the FDIC. Now experience helps him in his work for Ford on federal pola special agent in the FDIC’s Atlanta office, Maull credits the icy. “My job calls for research on legislation and reaching out to members on the Hill,” he says. “I’m building on my intern program with providing an entrée to her role. intern experience and now am seeing how a Fortune 10 The city of Washington itself was the draw for Max company operates in D.C.” Fenkell ’10, now a legislative coordinator for the Ford Like Fenkell, Nicolas Coleman ’16 also found the value Motor Company. A native of Philadelphia, Fenkell of a positive attitude this spring. Coleman worked as an worked for Sen. Jay Rockefeller ’54, D-W. Va., whose intern for Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., picking up important office took an Exeter intern each spring of his term from lessons. “The first responsibility is to do anything staffers 2009 to 2015. Fenkell quickly developed his intern stratask: pick up a sandwich, attend briefings,” he says. While egy: Never say no; be willing to do anything. That attithe tasks were sometimes mundane, several moments tude led him to be part of a pool of photographers from were thrilling. “I went to a briefing in the Kennedy national newspapers including The New York Times and Caucus Room, on the role of the Senate in holding conUSA Today jockeying for position to take a picture of Neil firmation hearings for the Supreme Court,” Coleman Armstrong at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing. says. “Senators Orrin Hatch and Patrick Leahy took turns “My office was desperate for someone to take photos and I was an OK photographer,” Fenkell says. “Out of 100 pic- speaking, and at the end, Leahy presented Ted Kennedy’s Senate Judiciary Committee gavel to his widow. It was tures I took, I think at least one came out!” really interesting to be a Fenkell loved the size and pace of D.C. and recalls —continued on page 102

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… ON MAY 21, [WE] GATHERED TO SAY GOODBYE AND HONOR A BUILDING BELOVED BY GENERATIONS OF EXONIANS.

CHERYL SENTER

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CONNECTIONS

News and notes from the alumni community

South Campus Update

For more info on the South Campus construction projects, including on-site photos, time-lapse videos, architectural renderings and more, visit www.exeter.edu/southcampus.

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n May 21, hundreds of alumni and members of the

campus community gathered in the Thompson Cage to say goodbye and honor a building beloved by generations of Exonians. The morning’s highlights featured a self-guided tour of old photographs, athletic equipment, and the record boards created by coach Ralph Lovshin. Attendees also brought home a commemorative bottle of Cage dirt. Guest speakers included Nick Moore ’03, who gave a presentation on the history of the Cage and PEA athletics; Susan Herney, PEA’s first girls gymnastics coach; Rick Mahoney ’61, alumnus and longtime coach; and Vice President of the Trustees Marc de La Bruyere ’77. The Cage was torn down this summer and will be replaced by a new field house, which will open in 2018.

A month earlier, farther up Gilman Lane near the Front Street tennis courts, the Academy formally began construction on the new David E. Goel and Stacy L. Goel Center for Theater and Dance, which will open in 2018. Architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien joined Principal Lisa MacFarlane, President of the Trustees Nicie Panetta ’84, alumni and parent donors, and the Academy community to break ground and mark this momentous occasion in the school’s history.

Attendees enjoyed remarks by performing arts faculty and students, as well as a musical medley performed by the student cast of the school’s Into the Woods winter mainstage production. E

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Emeritus Math Instructor Dick Brown, with grandchild Griffin ’20 and wife Connie, reminisces with alums at the Cage Farewell. Brown also ran a lap around the track after the event.

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Of Urzymes and Enzymes

By Sarah Zobel

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n response to Charles Darwin’s publication of On the Origin of Species, one of his peers, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, a Scottish physicist and engineer, expressed skepticism. How was it possible, Baron Kelvin wanted to know, for life on Earth to have evolved so profoundly in such a short period of time?

“It sounded like a reasonable question, certainly, and Darwin had no answer to it,” says Richard Wolfenden ’52. “Was there enough time for all this to happen?” But Kelvin was operating on the assumption that the Earth was only about 30 million years old. “In fact, he was off by a factor of about 150,” says Wolfenden, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

In a sense, Wolfenden has been working on his own groundbreaking ideas about the origins of life, based on his research on enzymes and their role in speeding up biochemical reactions. Together with Charles Carter Jr. ’63, professor of biochemistry and biophysics at UNC-Chapel Hill, he recently published two articles on the subject in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

The papers upended the notion of the “RNA world,” a hypothesis popular among molecular biologists that assumes RNA led to the creation of proteins and, therefore, the genetic code. But Wolfenden and Carter’s research shows that RNA and proteins probably evolved together. Their work is not for the scientifically faint of heart, but both men are happy to patiently explain the significance not only of enzymes, but also of molecular family trees, global temperatures, urzymes and salad dressing.

If memories of lessons learned in Exeter science classes are a bit hazy, a primer: To function, the human body requires 20 amino acids, nine of which come from food; the remaining 11 are created by the body itself. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, which in turn make up some 20 percent of our bodies. They’re found in every cell and are at the heart of organ function, structure and regulation. In addition, the UNC-Chapel Hill researchers Richard human body contains several thousand enzymes, complex proteins that act as Wolfenden ’52 and Charles Carter Jr. ’63. catalysts in synchronizing chemical changes. Wolfenden has devoted years of study to the question of the degree to which enzymes speed up reactions, and, more recently, to what would happen in their absence.

“The reactions that go on when things are attached to enzymes … take place in a fraction of a second. When you don’t have the enzyme there, things are much slower, but nobody had really thought to ask how much slower,” he says. His idea was to increase temperature in order to measure the rates of slow reactions. Elevating the temperature from 25 to 100 degrees Celsius accelerates some reactions 10-millionfold.

In essence by increasing temperature, Wolfenden was speeding up time. After a decade or more of experimentation, he began to see a connection to Kelvin’s question of evolution, and an answer: “In effect, temperature collapses time. There was plenty of time” for evolution to occur as Darwin had posited, Wolfenden says. The findings also suggested that the Earth’s temperature had once been

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higher. By creating enzymes in the lab with amino acid sequences of their last common ancestors and then determining their properties, other investigators have found that, in fact, these so-called ‘ancestral reconstructions’ are enormously stable at high temperatures. “It’s as if you’re holding in your hand the skull of Yorick. It just jumps out at you: These ancestors lived in much hotter environments,” he says.

Carter, a structural biologist, began his career with a focus on X-ray crystallography — the use of X-rays to generate high-resolution images of molecules. He has made a cottage industry of constructing family trees for molecules, which allows him to compare hundreds of different protein molecules through three-dimensional images and coordinate sets. Carter’s interest in molecular evolution has focused in particular on the enzymes that translate the genetic code, which they accomplish by attaching the correct amino acids to the correct transfer RNA, or tRNA, an essential component in the creation of new proteins.

“Genes are very much like computer programs, and they’re written according to a programming language that encodes the properties of the amino acids,” Carter says. Amino acids, meanwhile, he likens to salad dressing, which, on standing, will separate, with some of the seasonings staying in the aqueous, or water-based, phase and the rest staying in the oil phase. Amino acids undergo the same process. Thus, an amino acid’s polarity determines whether it is drawn to the oil or to the water.

Wolfenden had already been looking at the separation of amino acids between water and oil to see whether their distribution changes at higher temperatures. Together, he and Carter showed that the 20 amino acids differ not only in polarity, but also in their size or volume. Because those two measurements don’t correlate, Carter believed they might form a coordinate system for defining where an amino acid will end up when a protein made of those amino acids folds. He and Wolfenden then confirmed that guess.

“Once the string of amino acids is synthesized on the ribosome, it essentially knows how to fold up like a piece of cooked spaghetti to a very compact form,” Carter says.

“They always fold up in a way that brings the active components into the precise locations necessary to carry out chemistry.” Although there can be glitches — Alzheimer’s disease is one example — for the most part, the process is universally successful. The coordinate system is sufficient to determine where any one of the 20 amino acids will land on a surface protein, a concept Wolfenden and Carter shared in one of the two PNAS articles.

Wolfenden and Carter expect to continue their collaboration. This past spring semester, together with four other UNC professors, they co-taught a graduate-level course on the origin and early evolution of life. With just six students enrolled, it was, says Carter, “the heart of Harkness, and a number of ideas emerged from both students and faculty that are certainly worth pursuing.”

In May, Wolfenden submitted for publication another paper that shows that spontaneous mutation happened 4,000 times more rapidly in the Earth’s early years than it does today. “Higher temperatures mean that during the early stages of the evolution of life on Earth you’ve been shaking the dice frantically, producing and testing new combinations just from the effect of temperature on mutation into your natural selection,” he says. “Many of the chemical bonds on which genetic information depends fall apart within a matter of days in hot water. How nucleic acids managed to store genetic information is one of the big unanswered questions.”

Which brings Carter to the concept of urzymes. It’s a word he coined by combining the German ur (original, earliest) and enzyme, and it refers to an ancestral synthase, much smaller than its present-day descendants, that is capable of activating amino acids, recognizing the tRNA acceptor stem, and attaching the two. How, Carter, wondered, did urzymes pair tRNA with the correct amino acid, whether oily or soluble? Using multiple regression models, he determined that in fact urzymes were capable only of recognizing the acceptor stem and therefore were operating with a set of coding principles that involve only amino acid size.

“The oldest coding that nature discovered — that we can identify — is the discrimination between small amino acids and big amino acids,” Carter says. “It’s a very exciting time to be interested in the origin of life because, for the first time, things that make sense are starting to emerge.”

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“IT’S AS IF YOU’RE HOLDING IN YOUR HAND THE SKULL OF YORICK.”

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Re-thinking Mental Health Care

By Janet Reynolds

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eely Laurenzo Myers’ life-changing moment

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my pain, but to instead let it give me strength to bring light into dark places.” She ultimately was one of five seniors chosen to present a meditation in the chapel. “I wrote about my brother,” she says. A bagpiper played “Amazing Grace” and the ceremony ended with her asking everyone to kneel down and say the Our Father with her, or another prayer of their choosing— an appeal to any higher power to help people with mental illnesses.

“It made me realize that I could write and that writing could be cathartic,” she says, “and that I could use my writing to make an impact.”

Recovery’s Edge: An Ethnography of Mental Health Care and Moral Agency (Vanderbilt University Press) is one result of that realization. Myers spent three years engaging with people using services at a mental health care center called Horizons that was dedicated to using a new “recovery” approach to mental health illness. In the traditional method, the treatment providers focus on stabilizing the illness (mostly through medication), reducing the most negative impacts of the illness, and then preventing rehospitalization. The recovery approach, on the other hand, argues that goals should include reintegration into the community and that the people with lived experiences of mental illness can actually help others recover as well as direct their own recoveries with more success if given the chance. It is a whole-person approach to mental health care.

“It doesn’t matter who we are,” Myers says. “We all need love and connection and care. I don’t see the mental health system offering this to people. We isolate them and we don’t let them reconnect. They feel deeply unloved.

“We don’t have the same conversations around schizophrenia that we do about diabetes,” she adds.

“We should. There needs to be a shift in the stigma in our culture. There has to be more that is done than just throwing a pill at it. We can do this so much better.” E ALLEN MYERS

came when she was 14 and her brother was 7. One day they were playing games in their imaginary kingdom of Kavinia, and the next her brother was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

Myers, now 36 and an assistant professor at Southern Methodist University, recalls some of her fear and pain upon learning of her brother’s illness. I dreamt my brother swallowed nails,” she says. “In the dream I knew I could only wait until the nails had passed through his tiny body, hoping they would not tear him apart.”

Myers ’97 was an upper at Exeter when her brother was sent to live in a residential facility. Today, with a new book that outlines a different way to approach mental health care in this country, she credits the Academy with helping her find her way during this challenging time and find her life’s purpose.

Part of an Air Force family always on the move, Myers was living in Lubbock, Texas, when she began dreaming of going to boarding school, though this was not a universally popular idea in her family. “My mom told me the only way she was letting me leave home was if I got into Exeter,” she laughs. “And then I got in.”

The Academy proved to be “an amazing place to hone my critical thinking skills,” Myers says. “I went from smalltown public schools to really being in a blender of ideas.

You bring people from all over the country and the world and think through things together. You can’t be the same after you’ve been there. It expanded my sense of what’s possible and what I could achieve with one short life.”

The extended Exeter family also offered Myers muchneeded emotional support. “I needed some space from what was going on at home. Exeter really helped me with that.” “[Religion Instructor] Russell Weatherspoon especially made a difference,” Myers adds. “He said, ‘Neely, we are clay vessels made to break so that our light can shine through.’ I took this as a challenge not to dismiss

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Exeter, Every Five

By Karen Stewart

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DAN COURTER

This service to others comes easily for Rose. He n the occasion of his 50th high school graduated from Exeter in an accelerated program in 1946 reunion, in 1996, Jim Rose reflected that to join the U.S. Army. “Exeter teaches you to help one Exeter had imparted to him an ability to “face new situations and challenges and to find new another. My career in public service was inspired by that spirit,” he says. Exeter also sharpened the public speaking friends in strangers.” These are useful traits for Rose ’46; skills he has relied on throughout his life. “When you go P’81, P’84, who has returned to campus for every one of his class reunions over 70 years, each time uncovering old away to school it is important to find something you feel you are good at, and that your classmates recognize as a friendships and making new connections.

“Plenty of people don’t go to their reunions because they say, ‘No one I know will be there.’ This is a tremendous mistake.

It’s for the people you didn’t know at school … when you see them at a reunion and find that your paths have more or less come together,” he says. As an example, Rose cites a dorm mate from his Exeter days who disliked the classical music Rose played on his phonograph. Decades later, at an Exeter reunion, Rose learned that that boy had become a board member of the Chicago Symphony.

He also acknowledges that as a student who “wasn’t afraid to be alone” he didn’t know all of his classmates well, and he has used his return visits to get to know and appreciate Exeter, and education, is a Rose family affair: Jim and Anne, a former them. teacher at the National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C., at Jim’s Rose’s like-clockwork reunion attendance 2016 reunion. Jim’s grandfather, William B. Goodwin, graduated started with two other schools: Princeton from the Academy 100 years before daughters Annie ’81 and Lee ’84.

University and Harvard Law School. As a particular talent,” says Rose, who as a prep was selected young lawyer in New York City, first with the law firm (with upper Gore Vidal) for the debate team. He also was Dewey Ballantine and then Atlantic Mutual Insurance vice president of the Exeter Senate and secretary of the Company, he was an easy train ride from his annual Golden Branch, a literary society that sponsors debates.

Princeton reunions. The routine — Princeton every year, As a senior he competed for the coveted Merrill Prize Harvard and Exeter every five — was set by the time he took a job with the federal government in 1971 and moved Speaking Award.

Reflecting on his career and the various posts he held, with his family to Washington, D.C. For 28 years he was Rose says the five years he spent as an Assistant United a federal employee, rising to acting federal insurance States Attorney in New York City were the most satisfyadministrator in the Federal Emergency Management ing. He recalls collegial relationships between offices and Agency. Today Rose and his wife, Anne, live year-round his reputation for conscientiousness, his natural integrity at Piper Shores in Scarborough, Maine. He maintains his enhanced by a keen awareness that his actions reflected connection with the Academy as a regular participant at upon the government. “It was an effective agency,” he Exeter Leadership Weekend and, naturally, by attending says simply. his reunions. This year he stepped in and helped class Jim Rose is still effective. He plans to attend his 75th president John MacKenty ’46; P’75, P’78, to plan the Exeter reunion, in 2021. Chances are, he will find new event. He also has served as class correspondent since friends among his classmates from 1946. E 2011, and recently signed on for another term.

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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.

WASHINGTON, D.C. The annual reception in the nation’s capital was held on April 28.

Rob Province ’62; Principal Lisa MacFarlane P’09, P’13; Charlie Hoyt ’55; Alex Boyle ’55

Mika Devonshire ’08; Ysabel McAleer P’08; Owen McAleer ’08

Pharibe Wise ’78; Denny Creighton ’73; Craig Flinner; Martha Thomas ’79

Kelly Stuart ’89; P’19; Tom Cochran ’96; John Faulkingham ’85; Keith Ausbrook ’76; Bill Stokes ’82; P’19

Jeff Eggers ’89; Jocelyn Brown Hall ’84; P’19; Barbara Eggers P’89; P’91, instructor in history emerita, and faculty adviser of the Washington Intern Program

LINDSAY KING

Vivian DiBuono ’09; Assistant Principal Ron Kim P’18; P’20

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Ben Winneg ’09; Grace Colby ’09; Caroline Thomas ’09

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HAWAII A Honolulu happy hour was held at the home of Robert Littman ’61 on May 7.

Junji Takeshita ’80; Ali Grimes ’93; Robert Littman ’61; Kathy Ward ’83; Sultan White ’13; Biff Kennedy ’56

MINNESOTA Sports fans get ready to cheer on their team.

Tchao Thao ’01 hosted fellow Exonians in the Merchant & Gould Timberwolves suite for an NBA game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Los Angeles Clippers on March 30.

NEW YORK Exeter alumni, parents, students and siblings gathered for fun and service.

YOUNG ALUMNI MINI REUNION Katie Quan ’10; Katie Newton ’09; Julia Ryan ’09; Jocelyn Bohn ’11; Tom Guthrie ’11; Valentin Hernandez ’11; Will Ford ’09; Alec Kohli ’10; Katie Sullivan ’11

MORNINGSIDE PARK CLEANUP The Exeter Association of New York and Partnerships for Parks joined forces for a project in Harlem. The Mowen family were among the Exonian volunteers: Emmet Mowen; Bob Mowen P’19; Oliver Mowen; Thomas Mowen ’19; Traci Johnson P’19.

Chiamaka Nnebe ‘13; Kayla Oliva ‘13

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EXETER, NH Class of 2019 day student parents gathered in Exeter on May 24.

Alison Goyette P’18, P’19; Thomas Crossman P’19; Tom Christie P’16, P’19; Patricia Pangan P’19; Eileen McGrath P’19; Michelle Denny P’19; Karen and Tim Diaz P’19 (who provided the venue); Michael Pangan P’19

CANADA Following the PEA Canadian Foundation annual meeting in Montreal on May 17, alumni and parents gathered for a reception.

Ryan Vaupshas ’06; Anna Lappas P’16; Sophia Bachilova ’05; Carlos DeSousa P’16; Daniel Fournier ’73

Daniel Fournier ’73; Isabelle Marcoux ’87; P’15; Jeanne Olivier ’15 Canadian Foundation President McShane Jones ’88; P’09, P’14; Canadian Foundation Director John MacDonald ’97

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BOSTON A Boston summer kickoff brought Exonians together on June 8.

Jack Herney ’46, ’69, ’71, ’74, ’92, ’95 (Hon.), Doug Shenson ’73, Philip Chang ’15

REUNIONS 2017 Susan Herney ’69, ’74, ’83 (Hon.); Stephanie Neal-Johnson ’85; P’19

Each Exeter class hosts a reunion on campus every five years. If your graduation year ends in a 2 or a 7, make your plans now to reconnect with old friends and discover new ones.

We look forward to seeing you in May!

Lars Ojukwu ’03, Ashley Dreimiller ’06, Instructor in Health Education Rob Morris

Attention!

Class Officers • Regional Association Volunteers • GAA Directors • Members of 2017 Reunion Classes • Admissions Representatives • Parents Committee Members •

Exeter Leadership Weekend | September 23-24, 2016 If you are a current Exeter volunteer — or interested in helping plan your 2017 reunion (classes ending in 2 and 7) — please join us on campus Friday and Saturday, Sept. 23 and 24.

May 5-7, 2017 1987 30th Reunion 1992 25th Reunion 1997 20th Reunion 2002 15th Reunion May 12-14, 2017 1962 55th Reunion 1977 40th Reunion 1982 35th Reunion 2007 10th Reunion May 18-21, 2017 1967 50th Reunion

• Celebrate the start of the school year with the class of 2017 • Toast the accomplishments of the past year • Gain useful insights from school leaders and fellow volunteers

May 19-21, 2017 1957 60th Reunion 1972 45th Reunion 2012 5th Reunion

Watch your email for program and registration information or contact Dawn Perkins, Office of Alumni Relations, at dperkins@exeter.edu or 603-777-3022.

May 23-25, 2017 1947 70th Reunion 1952 65th Reunion

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www.facebook.com/phillipsexeter

www.twitter.com/phillipsexeter T H E

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Exeter REUNIONS

2016

Alumni in the classes of 1946 to 2011 returned to the Academy in May to reconnect with the school and their former classmates and to find the youthful selves they remember from their time on campus. They served on panels and discussed contemporary issues, reacquainting themselves with the virtues of Exeter: the sharing of knowledge, the respect for ideas and the adherence to lifelong learning — and the renewal of friendships from days gone by.

1991: Class Photo 1966: First Evening on Campus

For more photos visit www.exeter.edu/alumni.

Reunion photos by Dan Courter, Cheryl Senter, Rachel Luo ’17.

1966: Art Cilley, Rick Smith, Peter Thompson, Keith Colburn, Dan Clement, Carl Walter Choral Sing-along with Wes Kim ’86

1996: Paulo Carminati, Andrea Chase, Nellie Carter

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1981: Reunion Volunteers

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2011 Boat cruise: Tyler Williams, Nate Williams, Arjun Nukal, Cara Jankowski, Forrest Beck, Taylor Cathcart, Mark Greenan 2001: Sara Harlow and Joaquin Walker, Russell Weatherspoon, Seisei Tatebe-Goddu, Viana Turcios-Cotto and Robert Cotto, Jackie Weatherspoon

2006: Harkness Class with Jack Herney 1971: Nat Clark, Tom Donovan, Mike Juceam

1951: Steve Reynolds, Lori Matthews, Doris Reynolds, Mitch Matthews 1956: Pam and Bob Adams, Wally Saxe

1961: Yoke San Reynolds, Kakki (Reynolds) Lewis ’90, Dave Hayes, Bruce Reynolds, Mike McCarthy 1966: Reception with Senior Class

1976: Keith Ausbrook, Jeremy Bromberg, Naida Wharton

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1946: Ed Williams, Joe Green, Jim Rose, Fred Joseph, Update your address . by emailing records@exeter.edu.

Buz Brumbaugh

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Washington Interns —continued from page 39

part of, both for its contemporary and historic significance.”

Serena May ’08, who worked in the office of Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., has found many commonalities between her internship and her current role as a global strategist in marketing with McCann Worldgroup. “It all comes down to communications,” she says. “As an intern, I drafted letters and answered phone calls, the basics. It was part of supporting my congressman and contributing in a small way to decisions that were made. Now I’m doing that, but at a different level, helping McCann Worldgroup integrate digital into everything the company’s agencies do for clients.”

May has found that communications, whether for a U.S. representative or for a global agency, involves understanding the forces that are at work on the public. “Marketing is all about how you play a part in cultures and understanding the implications of the news, grass roots, all different influences,” she says. As an intern, May learned how these forces influence public policy and now applies this knowledge to help brands play a meaningful role in people’s lives.

May also found that her WIP experience gave her a great sense of confidence: “It was a rare opportunity to have exposure to leaders. I was less afraid to be a junior person at a company because of that.”

The program inspired a course of study for May’s classmate, Bassam Gergi ’08. Now finishing his second year at Yale Law School, Gergi interned in 2008 with then-rookie Sen. Barack Obama.

Gergi’s placement with Sen. Obama was the result of a longstanding friendship between Emeritus History Instructor Jack Herney ’46, ’69, ’71, ’74, ’92, ’95 (Hon.) and Pete Rouse, who worked on Capitol Hill for years and ultimately as chief of

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staff to Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle and finally as chief of staff to Sen. and then President Obama. Herney met Rouse on Sen. Tom McIntyre’s D-N.H. softball team in 1972 when he was in Washington with the interns, “Pete was a fabulous shortstop,” says Herney, but more important to Exeter, he became a supporter of the WIP, “the best friend the program had, because of his huge Rolodex” Herney says. “He always found an office for us when needed.”

After graduating from Exeter, Gergi spent six months as a field organizer for Obama in Rochester, New Hampshire. After Obama’s election to the presidency, Gergi spent another six months working at the White House as an assistant in the Office of Management and Budget, whose director at the time was Peter Orszag ’87.

For Gergi, interning in the Senate put him in the company of other “public-spirited young people.” He continues, “In an age of intense cynicism about politics, this was refreshing and inspiring, and it heavily contributed to my decision to defer university for a year to work on the Obama campaign and in the White House, which, in turn, contributed to my pursuing a master’s degree in comparative government and then law school.”

This year’s interns have taken full advantage of the extra activity in Washington during an election year. When Ted Cruz and John Kasich abandoned their bids for the Republican nomination for president following their losses in the Indiana primary in early May, it had a direct effect on Anastasia Kurochkina ’16. As an intern for Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., Kurochkina, who is from Moscow and had never been to Washington, D.C., helped sort through press clips. In the days leading up to and following the Indiana primary, the state was all over the news, and Kurochkina spent up to

five hours a day reading the coverage in the national press.

Kurochkina, who will attend Scripps College, has found that her time on Capitol Hill and her academic experience have enhanced each other. With Congress out of session, she attended a hearing on Tunisia. She notes, “If I hadn’t taken the Contemporary Middle East class with [History Instructor] Mr. [Michael] Golay, I wouldn’t have fully understood the hearing on Tunisia. It’s having the opportunity to experience both that makes it multidimensional.”

One of the perks of being an intern is seeing that politics and government are handled by real people. As Kurochkina says, “It’s not an abstract policy debate, and there isn’t always a right answer. The people who do this work are passionate.

They also get nervous and frustrated at times. It’s very humanizing to see.”

Washington interns give up their last weeks on the Exeter campus and perhaps their only moments to glide through an Exeter spring. Is it worth it? When asked near the end of their time in Washington if they would do it again, all 12 interns from the class of 2016 instantly raised their hands in the affirmative.

As Bassam Gergi says, “The Washington Intern Program is a oncein-a-lifetime opportunity to get a firsthand look into the day-to-day realities of life on Capitol Hill, and if you have any inclination that this may be the type of work you’d like to do, then you owe it to yourself to give it a shot.”

And will it someday lead to an intern elected to Congress?

Coleman will attend Duke University in the fall. He is considering political science or public policy as a major. While he isn’t sure of his long-term career goals, he notes that when he gave tours of the Capitol, visitors always asked if he wanted to run for public office. His conclusion?

“It wouldn’t be a bad job to have!” E

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Cuba

—continued from page 35

that serves as a daycare for children with Down syndrome. Although we know little Spanish, we are still able to interact with people — drawing and singing along with the kids and learning to work with clay alongside a potter. I had thought not knowing Spanish would hinder my experience, but I learn to connect to people without using much language.

As we walk through the streets, people ask where we are from and they welcome us to their country.

We spend a great deal of time in museums, including the Museo de la Revolution — housed in the former “White House” of Cuba, where artifacts such as Fidel Castro’s glasses and the key to his Presidio Modelo prison cell line the walls of the former presidential office. The hallways are marked with bullet holes, left untouched since the Cuban Revolution. We stop by Havana Cathedral.

Built in 1777, it served as a church, convent and collegium for the Jesuit missionaries on the island.

Our final days in Havana are spent exploring, buying posters and Cuban chocolate with our pesos, listening and singing along to live bands on the street. We navigate a traditional Cuban market, enjoy our favorite street food of chiviricos (fried dough covered in sugar), and spend an afternoon walking miles along the iconic Malecón,

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where ocean water laps at the esplanade. We end our time in Havana with the cannon ceremony. This ceremony is held at the Fortaleza de San Carlos de Cabaña, built by Spaniards in 1774 to control Havana’s port. Our group huddles in the cool night breeze as we watch soldiers march in 18th-century uniform and fire a cannon into the Havana Bay at precisely 9 p.m.

We spend the next part of our trip traveling the countryside and living in houses in Trinidad.

Partway through the cross-country drive, we stop by the beach to splash in the water and relax a little, then visit the Che Guevara mausoleum. El Che was known not only for his major role in the revolution, but for his role in reforming Cuba afterward. He initiated agrarian land reform, spearheaded a literacy campaign across the country, and served as president of the national bank and a Cuban diplomat. The mausoleum holds El Che’s remains, and there is a wall inscribed with his farewell letter to Fidel Castro. We listen as it’s read aloud to us. Cuba is certainly evolving, but it is still restricted in certain ways by its socialist ruler, Raul Castro (Fidel Castro’s brother). Because our group is from the United States, for example, we are required to travel at all times on a tour bus that is tracked by the government. Marta explains that if we travel off the path mapped out for us by

government officials, she could be reprimanded or lose her job.

During these sun-filled days in Cuba, we grow as we adapt to a more simple life, without luxuries or typical amenities such as internet access or even toilet paper. We spend more time interacting with one another and our environment, and we find ways to entertain each other — playing card games or reading books about Cuban history — instead of reaching for our phones.

Roaming the streets in groups, we stop for gelato, sing along to musicians and climb to the top of the city’s bell tower. In the evenings we sip nonalcoholic mojitos at an outdoor club with live music, and Pata and Flaco teach us to salsa. At night we share reflections on the roof of our Trinidadian homes and fall asleep under the stars.

We end our trip with a two-hour hike through the rain forests. As we climb through the trees, our instructor points out various plants and animals.

Halfway through the hike, we stop for a dip in the natural pool of crystalclear water. Traveling back to the airport on our last day, we celebrate with traditional Cuban sandwiches of ham and cheese. Over these nine days together, we have learned not only about Cuba’s past and present, but we have learned about ourselves as well. I can confidently say that our trip to Cuba is one we will remember forever. E

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die trying to cross Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria to get to Germany. By the time they arrive in Serbia their resources are already spent, and yet there are so many more borders to cross. In addition, the European Union has signed an agreement with Turkey to repatriate those without identity documents and refugee status.

Their struggle has grown to a level beyond my understanding, and the need is incredibly great. This summer, I have partnered with the American playwright Amy Seham to interview refugees, write stories and create a documentary about the real journey of these families, in a hope that the world will come to understand their plight.

I am sad that we cannot help them all, and thrilled that I was able to help even a few. In the process, I have regained faith in our world, because while the governments are having such trouble deciding on a refugee policy, I have met so many people who have given from the heart, so many who have joined me in the spirit and hope that the humanity is still human. This is why I know that I will never stop.

That life’s twists and turns, ambitions and vanities, will not prevent me from taking action that can benefit the world around me, in a small or a big way. E

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EXETER FAMILY WEEKEND 2016 Save the Date!

OCTOBER 21-24, 2016 Family members of current students are warmly invited to spend an autumn weekend on campus and experience the richness and variety of life at Exeter.

• Visit your student’s Harkness classes • Attend Lisa MacFarlane’s assembly • Take in sports team practices and music ensemble rehearsals • Hear from the College Counseling Office • Tour the campus • Get to know other Exeter families from around the world

Watch your email for more information.

A program of events and travel information will be available closer to the date at www.exeter.edu/familyweekend

F I N I S

O R I G I N E

P E N D E T

Carrying the Gift of Goodness from Exeter to Bosnia

By Arslan Berbic ’15

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sense of accomplishment. I felt like my mission was complete — I felt complete. Unfortunately, the day I returned home diminished that feeling very quickly.

My sister picked me up at the airport in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Instead of a ride filled with my stories about the United States and my senior year, I was silent and stricken by what I saw out the car windows. Thousands of men, women and children were walking along the highway, heads down in a line of desperation. I could not believe it. I had a flashback to my childhood in Bosnia — it was happening all over again. Bosnian refugees had stopped crossing the border many years ago.

The international community has said such human tragedy should never be repeated, and yet there it was, right in front of my eyes: devastation and suffering on the European borders again, only this time it was not Bosnians, but Syrians.

To me, it did not matter that they came from another culture, another nation, another continent. In their eyes I saw the expression so familiar to me. I saw my great-grandfather who had to flee Yugoslavia after the Second World War. I saw my friends and relatives who had to flee after the Bosnian War. I recognized them, even though Europe did not.

They are human, and they need our help. You see, the words that so many of us use as an excuse not to do anything despite the images of terror about us are not part of my makeup. I know that I can do something, that I have to do anything, even if it is a drop in the ocean of need.

So the minute I arrived home I got on my computer and started talking to my friends about getting together and making a difference. This is how the campaign started. I spent that summer using crowdfunding opportunities to gather help for our cause, and to give those refugees what they needed the most. What most did not realize was that their needs were great, but simple: water for their children, food for the weak, clothes, diapers, medicine. We raised the funds to purchase these, and partnered with local companies to double up our efforts. We could help only a comparative few because the numbers in which they are coming to Europe for refuge are difficult to comprehend.

On their long journey, so many are born, and so many

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here are a few things that I hold to be true. I have lived by these principles before, during and after Exeter. You see, I was born during the most difficult time in my country’s history. In 1994 Bosnia and Herzegovina was a nation of devastation and war, a country where one-third of the population was ethnically cleansed, or simply had no other choice but to leave their homes — abandon all that was familiar and dear for the promise of a better future elsewhere.

I spent most of my childhood and adolescence witnessing how those who have lived in peace, those who have succeeded in their careers, those with families and strong ties to their communities can simply lose everything and be forced to give up their sense of belonging for the hope of peace and normalcy in foreign lands. This is why I’ve grown to realize that life is not a linear state of being, but rather a weaving of circumstances, many of which are out of our control. Some are beautiful and full of sublime wonder, and others more atrocious than any script written by man.

I have accepted this, and made it my mission to keep my eyes wide open for the ways I can help those along their paths who need a hand. If so many people whom I have never met and will never know have helped my homeland tremendously, then I am of a belief that by simply paying attention, we can find ways to contribute whatever we can in any situation. This is why I have worked, as long as I can remember, on projects that have changed the world around me for the better, either in big ways or small. By organizing nearly 14,000 people to kiss simultaneously in our town square in Tuzla and break the Guinness World Record, we’ve managed to show the world that we are the city of love and not hatred. Through projects such as Give a Book, Give a Life, I’ve gotten the entire city to donate books for my school’s library.

Organizing and working on such projects brought so much positivity and hope, but also gave me a sense of empowerment, greater than any A in school. Coming to Exeter was my dream, and I am eternally grateful to those who have made that possible. When I first arrived at Exeter, I struggled with the course load in the sense that it gave me little time to think about my new community, and whether it needed me. But soon enough, I realized that every community could use a little help. I initiated an action through the Rotary Interact Club and raised more than $15,000 worth of food for the St. Vincent de Paul center in town.

The day I graduated from the Academy I had a strong

—continued on page 103

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20 Main Street Exeter, NH 03833-2460 Parents of Alumni: If this magazine is addressed to a son or daughter who no longer maintains a permanent address at your home, please email us (records@exeter.edu) with his or her new address. Thank you.

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My family’s finances never served as a barrier …

I was never discouraged from pursuing my interests.

Exeter gave me a sense of feeling limitless.

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