The Exeter Bulletin WINTER 2016
A Thousand Brushstrokes
Exonians work to expand cultural awareness on campus, and off
EXETER REUNIONS 2016 REUNION DATE
CLASS
YEAR
May 6-8
1986
30th
1991
25th
1996
20th
2001
15th
1961
55th
1971
45th
1981
35th
2006
10th
May 19-22
1966
50th
May 20-22
1956
60th
1976
40th
2011
5th
1946
70th
1951
65th
May 13-15
May 24-26
Connect the past, the present and the possible.
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT WWW.EXETER.EDU/REUNIONS OR CALL THE ALUMNI AND PARENT RELATIONS OFFICE AT 603-777-3264.
WINTER
The Exeter Bulletin Principal Instructor Lisa MacFarlane P’09, P’13 Director of Communications Robin Giampa Editor Karen Ingraham Associate Editor Genny Beckman Moriarty Class Notes Editor Janice M. Reiter Contributing Editor Karen Stewart Creative Director/Design David Nelson, Nelson Design Staff Writers Mike Catano Nicole Pellaton Exonians in Review coordinator Alice Ann Gray Editorial Assistant Susan Goraczkowski 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
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.
CREDIT
Periodicals postage paid at Exeter, NH, and at additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA by Cummings Printing.
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
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“WE LOOK AT STUDENTS WITH A CULTURAL LENS AND TRY TO GIVE THEM WHAT THEY NEED TO FEEL A SENSE OF OWNERSHIP AND BELONGING... .” —page 20
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IN THIS ISSUE
Features
20 Prep Programs
Expanding opportunity through education
By Genny Beckman Moriarty
26 Finding Voice, Taking Action
PEA co-learning trip tackles social justice issues in Alabama
By Sarah Zobel
30 #EllisStory
Two Exonians choreograph an inventive film premiere
By Janet Reynolds
Departments 6
Around the Table: Campus Life at a Glance, Non Sibi in a Minute, Exeter Deconstructed, Exonian social innovators, and more.
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Table Talk with Scott Crouch ‘09
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Inside the Writing Life: A Conversation with David Payne ’73, plus Exonians in Review
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Fall Sports Roundup
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Connections: News and Notes from the Alumni Community
36 Profiles: Charles “Chiz” Schultz ’50, Emily Fagan ’78 and Jason Kang ’12 96
Finis Origine Pendet: Moments of Discovery, by Olivia Knauss
—Cover illustration by Mike Austin FA L L
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What’s new and notable at the Academy
Heard at Assembly…
Watch each of these assemblies, and more, on Exeter’s live-stream channel: www.exeter.edu/exeterlive.
On Nov. 17
On Nov. 20
“There are lots of different ways to
“We will never change any
feel courage ... the courage to do
of these important issues
things differently, the courage to
until we fix it, until we
stand behind your convictions ... the
fix this democracy, until
courage to make sure that you’re
we get the justice that
making the world a better place and
democracy promises. The
you’re doing whatever it takes to get
democracy that promises
there. … And certainly, all of you will
equal citizens equality in
face the kind of courage that it takes every day to do something that
their political system. Not equality of wealth but equality as citizens.
you know is the right thing to do, even when those around you or the
That promise has been denied to America’s democracy.”
systems around you don’t think that that’s the right thing.” —Jennie Niles ’84, deputy mayor for education, Washington, D.C.
—Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School
On Jan. 12
On Jan. 19
“Donald Trump and any candidates who
“What I want to suggest to you today
are not being vetted through a PolitiFact
is that while playing the game may
but who are being vetted through a test
indeed benefit us as individuals, we
of bigotry would not survive in another
owe each other so much more. Those
media climate. They would survive in a
of us who are or will be in positions to
media climate that is poised to amuse
navigate spaces where decisions and
itself to death. But every provocative
influence and power are exercised,
statement generates clicks and views and
which includes all of us here, must
we live in a metric-driven landscape and so the connection between
find ways to use those positions to not simply teach people to be
the success of a political candidate [electorally] and his or her media
successful and conform to the existing codes. Instead, we need to
profile are intertwined and it’s the responsibility of you as journalists
instigate a much more fundamental kind of social change through
but moreover as citizens to determine whether or not a candidate
hacking systems of power and privilege in small and large ways.”
should be put through a test other than a test of fact.” —Alexander Heffner, PBS host of “The Open Mind” and Fitzwater
—Ruha Benjamin, author and assistant professor in Princeton University’s Department of African American Studies
Fellow at Franklin Pierce University
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Watch Exeter Events Live
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hanks to the generosity of a PEA family, the Academy is now live streaming athletic competitions, performances, assemblies and other events. Athletic venues include Exeter’s main hockey rink, Love Gymnasium, Phelps Stadium and Hatch Field. During winter term, that means you can watch all varsity girls and boys hockey and basketball games at Exeter. In the spring, lacrosse and boys volleyball will be broadcast. Assembly Hall and Fisher Theater are also equipped with cameras. Assemblies are typically aired every week and theater and dance performances will be streamed as copyrights allow. Free access to Exeter’s live-stream channel is available at www.exeter.edu/exeterlive. Simply choose “Request Access” on your first visit; enter your email address; and follow the instructions to create an account. Schedules are available at exeter.edu or exeter.edu/exeterlive. And don’t worry if you miss a game or event. All live-stream video is available to watch on demand, at your leisure. We hope you enjoy this new way of having realtime connection to Exeter. E
MUSIC BUILDING EXPANSION TAKES SHAPE Construction of the 12,000-square-foot expansion to the Forrestal-Bowld Music Center, begun in May 2015, is well underway. Designed to accommodate the needs of Exeter’s expanding music program, which serves about half of the student body, the new building will contain a recital and rehearsal hall with seating for 250, a Harkness classroom, a music and media technology center, practice rooms and a musicianship studio. The addition will eliminate over-crowding and scheduling for music lessons and practices; add classroom space for theory and composition classes; and increase the number of rehearsal studios, while providing an acoustically correct recital hall. The project is on track to be completed by September 2016. To view design renderings for the addition, visit www.exeter.edu/bulletinextras. E
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Caring for Thailand’s Animals By Genny Beckman Moriarty
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f you ask Melanie Duenas ’17 what it’s like to help neuter an abandoned dog or draw blood, she won’t flinch. But ask her about the bugs, and that’s another story. In July 2015, Duenas traveled to Thailand, where she volunteered at an elephant nature preserve and also worked closely with veterinarians at a sanctuary for abandoned dogs, both run by Elephant Nature Park in the Chiang Mai province. During the first week, volunteers helped unload supplies and prepare food for the elephants. With a partner, Duenas spent one full day following a single elephant. As part of a dietary study, the two tracked what the elephant ate, when she ate it and when she evacuated. Mae Boon Ma, or “Mother Merit Come,” the elephant Duenas tracked, is blind in her right eye from abuse she suffered at the hands of handlers in the illegal logging trade. Duenas says many of the elephants at the nature park have been rescued from circuses or the logging and tourism industries. Elephant
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Nature Park provides a safe haven for the rescued elephants and works with members of the tourism trade to find gentler, more humane ways of gaining the elephants’ cooperation. Duenas spent her second week at Animal Rescue — where more than 2,000 dogs have been rescued since catastrophic flooding in 2011 left thousands of pets without homes. The volunteers’ time was divided between lectures in the mornings and practical, hands-on work in the afternoons. They walked, fed and socialized the dogs and cleaned their crates. On the way from their sleeping barracks to the sanctuary one morning, Duenas and her friends encountered two puppies covered in ticks. They took turns removing the ticks, a process that took several hours. “Even though they were in so much pain,” Duenas recalls, “after a while they started to feel better, and you could see their relief and trust.” Duenas and other sanctuary volunteers practiced suturing, blood draws and physical exams on makeshift models. They had the opportunity to put their new skills into practice at the end of their stay, assisting veterinarians during surgeries by prepping instruments and helping with incisions. “I wasn’t squeamish,” Duenas recalls, attributing her composure to a biomedical course she took the summer after sixth grade, when she performed a number of dissections. “Sticking needles into a dog for the blood draw made me a little nervous, but I was the only person in the group to get it in and out perfectly.” An animal lover who “has never had a proper pet,” Duenas says her experience in Thailand strengthened her interest in veterinary medicine. “But it also made me realize I don’t want to do field work,” she says with a laugh, recalling the first night in her bunk, when she slept under mosquito netting that had giant tears covered in duct tape. “I was paranoid of tiny bugs getting in. I can’t take the bugs!” Duenas, a Jack Kent Cooke scholar, is grateful for the foundation’s help in selecting and financing an experiential travel program each summer. She hopes to give back to her community one day by opening a nonprofit veterinary clinic for low-income pet owners. E
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Keeping the Future in Mind By Eiichiro Kuwana ’82; P’15, P’16, P’18
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hank you. It will be an honor and privilege to serve the Academy.” So concluded my conversation on a balmy and clear spring afternoon with Tom Hutton ’73, then president of the Trustees, who had called to officially inform me of my appointment as a term trustee for Phillips Exeter Academy. As I hung up the phone and reflected on the call and its implications, unlike the weather outside, my emotions were in a state of tumult. Exeter has been the educational bedrock not just for me, but for all three of my children, who either are attending or have graduated from the Academy. Since Exeter has given my children and me so much, the responsibility of being a steward of the school was daunting and unnerving. As I contemplated how I could possibly fulfill my obligation, one possibility was for me to be an ambassador for Harkness through association with my wife’s nonprofit, Global Citizens Initiative (GCI), and my travels abroad. GCI hosts a summit every summer at which 24 high school students populate two Harkness tables and seek ways to become better global citizens. These students, who have hailed from such places as Rwanda, Jordan, Ethiopia, Brazil and China, are unanimous in their view that Harkness is the most effective teaching method they have encountered. Many have gone back to their communities and spoken with school administrators about instituting the Harkness method at their schools. During my most recent trips to Japan, I met with heads of the leading secondary schools in that country. Our conversations inevitably turned to how they could forge closer associations with the Academy, as these schools regard Exeter as a leader in global secondary education. Accordingly, we have continuing dialogue with a number of Japanese schools to identify ways to build relationships beneficial to all parties. While Exeter is in an enviable position, the Academy still must confront and address the various challenges and opportunities posed by the unprecedented digitization and globalization of the world. At the same time,
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changing demographics will pressure our ability to attract the best candidates from both within the United States and abroad, and this will in turn place a greater focus on our value proposition as an educational institution. Although I have much to learn as a trustee and have few, if any, answers, the question I will continually ask
Eiichiro Kuwana ‘82 and his wife, Yumi Mera Kuwana.
myself when considering the merits of a project or a program is, “How will this help Exeter be in better sync with a changing world?” As long as I am able to answer this question with some clarity, I am hopeful of advancing the conversation with all parties who are passionate about Exeter’s mission and future. This is a tremendously exciting time at the Academy, as Principal Lisa MacFarlane kicks off her leadership as Exeter’s 15th principal instructor. I am deeply humbled to have an opportunity to work closely with and support her as she crafts her vision for the future of the Academy. It is clear that Principal MacFarlane and President of Trustees Nicie Panetta ’84 constitute a formidable and inspired leadership team. In partnership with my fellow trustees, the faculty and the staff, they will formulate ideas and execute them in the spirit of Harkness collaboration that will surely set Exeter on the correct path for the future. To the extent that I am able to assist, it will be an honor and privilege to serve the Academy. E
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Rethinking Access to Health Care
To watch the team’s video entry for the competition, go to www.exeter.edu/bulletinextras.
E X O N I A N I N N O VAT O R S E A R N S TAT E W I D E R E C O G N I T I O N Connie Cai ’17, Gillian Chu ’16, Vinjai Vale ’18, Divya Bade ’17 and Abhijay Bhatnagar ’17 (pictured left to right) all contributed to the writing of this story. Editor’s Note: In November, a team of five Exeter students competed in the final round of the Social Venture Innovation Challenge (SVIC) at the University of New Hampshire, a competition designed “to identify pressing social and/or environmental issues at the state, national or global level, and then find an innovative business-oriented approach to solving them.” The team earned honorable mention for its project, RAD (Rural Area Diagnostics) Health, which would bring online medical kiosks to rural areas facing a shortage of primary care physicians, in order to improve health care outcomes and efficiency. The Exonians, along with a second student team from PEA, competed in the “community” category, as the “student” category was open only to University System of New Hampshire undergraduate and graduate students. They were the only two high school groups in the competition and the
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RAD project was one of just 16 finalists. Below, the student finalists provide first-person accounts of their project’s development and reflect on what it was like to compete against teams of college students and professionals.
THE GERM OF AN IDEA
Vinjai approached each of us individually, asking us if we wanted to form a team for the challenge, which Mrs. [Liz] Reyes [the community service coordinator for the Exeter Social Service Organization] had emailed us about just a few days before. At our initial meetings, each of us suggested various ideas we wanted to pursue, ranging from providing better elderly support services to raising concussion awareness at secondary schools. Over the course of a few days, we realized that many of our proposals were tied to health care. Eventually, it became clear
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that an idea Vinjai had suggested was the one we wanted to pursue: a solution of [installing] medical kiosks in rural areas to dramatically increase the efficiency of primary care delivery and ultimately ensure more equal access to health care. Our program, RAD Health, would place small kiosks in convenience stores, pharmacies, supermarkets, assisted living housing, and even large factories or company offices in areas facing shortages of primary care physicians. Patients would be guided within to take their own vitals and could teleconference with a doctor or nurse to get diagnosed for simple illnesses. Our walk-in stations would reduce the difficulties of scheduling and attending appointments. The kiosks would offer a streamlined process for accessing electronic records and analyzing and ordering laboratory reports. Patient information would be easily relayed to specialists for any necessary follow-up visits. Medical kiosks have been attempted before, but none combine the different technologies of diagnosis, prescription, teleconferencing, vitals and record-keeping as the RAD kiosk does — with the focus on patient satisfaction and optimizing a doctor’s time. RAD Health combines those technologies with teleconferencing so patients living in rural areas can more easily obtain necessary treatment. Applying technological and marketdriven innovation to solve social problems is something that many of us are passionate about, and this project fit the mold perfectly. After watching many of the winning videos from previous years, we were all inspired by the incredible commitment to the community and the ingenuity of the solutions of past [social innovation] teams. And though this was the first time for some of us tackling health care, all of us shared a drive to better our communities and use what we had learned in the classroom — from our biology courses to computer science courses — to come up with a unique way to improve our society.
acknowledged that all of our ideas pooled together could make for an amazing outcome. By the end, we weren’t just five individuals, but a team sharing a goal of improving health care access in America. The project allowed us to utilize the different strengths we each brought to it. Some of us, for example, were skilled video editors and others were good at writing proposals. One of the major skills we gained by participating in SVIC was an ability to be cohesive and work together as a unit.
PITCHING THE SOLUTION
The final competition required two of us to present our video and a shortened two-minute rundown of our proposal to a panel of judges, all of whom were involved in business and entrepreneurship in New Hampshire. To prepare, we wrote a script that Vinjai and Abhijay would present in front of the judges and audience. Before doing so, they went to UNH for a presentation coaching appointment with Mr. Tom Towle, a UNH faculty member who works in the social venture field. He provided our team with invaluable feedback that we incorporated into our final script, which Vinjai and Abhijay rigorously practiced. The rest of the team came up with questions that the judges might ask and grilled our two presenters to make sure they were competition-ready. In light of our participation in the community track, the competition’s rules have been changed to include high school students in the student track. Many of the adults in the community track already had concrete startups they had spent months building, and they were looking for some additional funding to help them move forward through SVIC. In contrast, we did not have a concrete startup created, but we had our idea for a medical kiosk, a proposal to which we had devoted a month of research and enthusiasm. The competition was an amazing and humbling experience. We were able to meet many great social entrepreneurs who were working toward real, concrete change, and they offered us so much support to further our ideas. Just being able to watch the other presentations was truly inspiring, and the competition enabled us to see the depth of dedication and talent in New Hampshire. We were awarded honorable mention at the competition, and we are incredibly honored and humbled by this recognition. E
“WE WEREN’T JUST FIVE INDIVIDUALS, BUT A TEAM SHARING A GOAL OF IMPROVING HEALTH CARE ACCESS ... .”
A TEAM-BASED APPROACH
We all knew one another before [the competition], and working together as a team only strengthened our friendships. It made the process of working together fun, and allowed us to spend 12 hours together one day finalizing our proposal, filming and editing our video, and putting together our application. The big decisions were group efforts, and we decided things democratically over a lunch meeting or a meeting in the library. We
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A Digital Assist for Police TA B L E TA L K W I T H S C O T T C R O U C H ’0 9 By Lori Ferguson
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s a junior at Harvard in 2012, Scott Crouch ’09 took a course that focused on how
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the Massachusetts State Police were combating gang violence in the western part of the state. What he saw in the stations distressed him almost as much as the violence taking place in the streets. “Officers were working with antiquated software, Windows 95 and the like, and using databases from the early ’90s,” Crouch recalls. “They were struggling to obtain relevant information in a timely manner and spending an excessive amount of time on paperwork, taking two to three hours to complete reports that should have taken no more than 45 minutes, tops.” So the electrical engineering major and two classmates set themselves a precise, yet incredibly complicated task: reinvent the way law enforcement interacts with data. “I come from a family of first responders, members of the NYPD and FDNY, particularly on my mother’s side,” Crouch explains, “so I’m both deeply grateful for all the good work that law enforcement does and keenly aware of the challenges they face. There are approximately 14,000 homicides and 80,000 rapes in the country every year, Crouch notes, but law enforcement is impeded in its efforts to fight these crimes by outdated software and computer systems and poor information sharing. “It’s completely unacceptable,” he says. Crouch also believes the public has in many ways marginalized the police by allowing a small number of bad cops to define the majority. “I wanted to do something to let the police know that someone had their backs.” Crouch and his classmates wasted little time in pursuing their goal. The trio founded Mark43 in 2012 and started working at the company full time the following year, with the goal of building their flagship product, Cobalt, an innovative, cloud-based app that streamlines tasks, research and paperwork for law enforcement officials, making delivery of real-time information in the field a reality. “Our goal in creating Cobalt was to help everyone, from the officer on the street to the
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WHAT’S YOUR STORY?
detective investigating a homicide,” Crouch says. “Every piece of data gathered by law enforcement goes through the system — the Each of us has a story to tell, of a simple moment or life-altering software platform is all-encompassing.” experience, or of a person whose influence has been subtle but It’s taken two years of hard work to build profound. We want to share as many of those stories as possible, a viable product, Crouch notes, because and we need your help. Tell us your story. It can be about your developers have to be extremely careful Exeter experience, what or who made it memorable, survivable, with every bit of data and report they transcribe. “If one piece of data is missing or life-changing … or simply fun. Or, tell us about life after Exeter, how incorrect, it can blow a case,” he says. The you’ve changed, what you’ve accomplished, how connections forged project has been challenging, but Crouch here continue to be meaningful. We don’t need a lot to get started. says he and his team have succeeded Just a few sentences, an image or video … something that gives because of the talent behind the company: us a starting point. Connect with us at www.exeter.edu/mystory “We’ve got an incredible group of nearly to share the beginning of your story, or someone else’s, and we’ll 40 employees from top-notch institutions including MIT, Harvard, Brown, Columbia contact you to learn more. Thank you for helping us tell the stories and the U.S. Army and Air Force.” of Exeter people. The business and law enforcement communities are taking note. Mark43 has attracted an august list of investors, against terrorism. And he couldn’t be more excited about including Gen. David Petraeus, former CIA Director the software platform’s abilities to make a difference. The George Tenet, actress Sophia Bush, Alphabet chairman software combines records management — from inciEric Schmidt, Spark Capital, General Catalyst Partners dent, offense and arrest reports to and Lowercase Capital, and Crouch information on recovered property has garnered considerable personal and evidence — with analytical attention as well. Goldman Sachs tools. Having easy access to an array recognized him as among its 100 of relevant data allows officers to Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of make quick and intelligent decisions 2015 and Forbes named Crouch while on the job. “It may influence and his co-founders to its 2015 30 whether to call for backup, retain the Under 30 list in the Enterprise Tech individual for questioning, and the division, recognizing the three as like,” explains Crouch. among those entrepreneurs who In addition to making real-time are “battling giants to create the police work more effective, Crouch billion-dollar startups of tomorrow.” believes his solution reduces the Mark43 also recently announced a amount of time departments spend partnership with the Washington, on training and record-keeping, and D.C., Metropolitan Police he and his partners have worked Department, establishing Cobalt as hard to reduce upfront costs so the primary software platform for all that purchasing Cobalt doesn’t of D.C. — serving over 10,000 users put an undue financial burden on in more than 44 law enforcement police departments. By reducing agencies that have jurisdiction in the the number of hours spent entering District — and making the rollout and retrieving data, Crouch notes, one of the largest deployments of “Departments literally stand to save law enforcement software in the hundreds of thousands of man-hours per year.” country. Crouch is excited about Cobalt’s possibilities and Crouch is aware that he and his partners are bringfeels confident the product will continue to evolve as a ing Cobalt to market at a time when law enforcement is game-changing tool for law enforcement, making it easier front and center for a number of reasons, from policing “for officers to do their jobs with maximum efficiency and controversies in cities such as Baltimore, Chicago and effectiveness.” That’s a prospect he finds satisfying both Cleveland to the mass shootings occurring with alarming personally and professionally. E frequency across the country, as well as the ongoing fight
“I’M BOTH DEEPLY GRATEFUL FOR ALL THE GOOD WORK THAT LAW ENFORCEMENT DOES AND KEENLY AWARE OF THE CHALLENGES THEY FACE.”
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CAMPUS LIFE AT A GLANCE BLOOD WEDDING PLAY The Theater and Dance Department’s fall mainstage production: Federico García Lorca’s Blood Wedding, with an original translation by PEA faculty members Elena Gosalvez-Blanco and Todd Hearon.
BRAGDON FELLOW D.C. Deputy Mayor for Education Jennie Niles ’84 (center), recipient of the Bragdon Fellow award, with her parents Maggie and Nick Niles ‘57 after assembly.
DEBATE TEAM Exeter’s Debate Club finishes first overall out of 21 teams at an Andover debate tournament in November, one of the season’s largest tournaments for the Debating Association of New England Independent Schools.
FAMILY WEEKEND Parents and children connect on campus during Family Weekend in October.
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LAMONT GALLERY: RIVERA PAINTING Diego Rivera: Portrait of Irene Estrella, 1946, Collection: Lamont Gallery. On view at Exeter for the first time in more than 36 years. Gift of Corliss Lamont ’20.
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VOLLEYBALL CHAMPS Varsity girls volleyball defeats Andover and ultimately captures the New England Championship trophy for second year.
JOHN PHILLIPS AWARD 2015 John Phillips Award recipient and human rights activist Eric Rosenthal ’81 speaks to students after assembly.
FALL DANCE PRODUCTION Adeline Millman ’18 and Marisa Ngbemeneh ’16 perform in the Fall Dance Concert, “Why We Dance.”
HOLIDAY CONCERT Exeter students perform in a variety of ensembles at the annual Holiday Concert in December.
Costa Rica ESSO trip
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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
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Writing Through the Darkness A C O N V E R S AT I O N W I T H A U T H O R D AV I D P AY N E ’ 7 3 By Daneet Steffens ’82
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his hand to memoir. The result, Barefoot to Avalon, is an unblinking look at the devastating effects that collusion replicates across generations. “We were a family and believed that family love was stronger than time or death, except it wasn’t” echoes in various permutations through Payne’s prose as he comes to grips with his brother’s bipolar disorder and his own scarred but resilient psyche. Avalon — lauded in 2015 as a Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book, an Amazon Best of Biographies & Memoirs and an Amazon Best Book — is a triumphant story of grasping in the darkness for the scary bits hidden there, catching them, bringing them to light and, ultimately, alleviating their impact.
Q: Part of what makes Avalon so riveting is imagery: You conjure a temper as “those absinthe-colored neurotoxins he sprays like an octopus out of its ink hole” and reimagine a family lie as a piece of burning coal. You bring your rage to vivid life, as well as the euphoria of the four-month “hypomanic” episode during which you completed your first novel, and you write with clear-eyed empathy about your brother. Avalon has a terrifically novelistic feel to it, verging, at times, into the poetic. How was writing a memoir different from writing a novel?
MATHIEU BOURGEOIS
avid Payne ’73 wrote five critically acclaimed novels before turning
Payne: One major difference is that in fiction, you succeed, at least partly, by creating your characters’ interior lives, imagining your way into their thoughts and feelings. In memoir — as in life — to say without verification what another person thinks or feels is a trespass. So in writing about my brother’s manic episodes, I never said what George A. thought and felt; I said what he did, and I said what I thought and felt when I was in a heightened, possibly hypomanic state at the end of writing Confessions of a Taoist on Wall Street. Is what I felt similar to what he felt? I can ask the question, but I can’t answer it. A second issue has to do with story. Stories involve a character who wants something, pursues it, faces obstacles, succeeds or fails, and changes or has the possibility of change. From National Treasure and The Hobbit to Anna Karenina and Moby-Dick, the reason that paradigm is so powerful and pervasive has to do with agency; as readers, we turn toward it like green things toward sunlight. The structure of Avalon is so different from my novels that I’m tempted to say that I left that behind when I moved to memoir. But, in fact, I was a character who wanted something — to understand and extricate myself from the trouble I was in — and I pursued it and faced obstacles, not least, my own ignorance and unconscious resistances. And I did understand more at the end than at the beginning. Q: There’s an enormous lift toward the end of Avalon, a palpable sense of relief when you address
certain issues with your son. Was that a real paradigm shift?
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Payne: That occurred in 2006. Four years later, when Will was 10, he and I were leaving a Cub Scout banquet, driving home at night. Another boy at the dinner had drawn attention to himself, knocking people’s hats off and acting up. Will said, “What’s his problem, Dad?” and I said, “I suspect he’s angry about something that’s going on at home, don’t you?” Will was quiet for a beat, and then he said, “I used to be angry like that, didn’t I?” and I was glad it was dark because tears welled in my eyes. That’s when I knew we’d come through. The anger and contention that we’d felt were in the past. As a father, I’d had to go from seeing his and his sister’s efforts to differentiate themselves from me as threats and insubordination — the way I think my parents had seen mine and my brothers’ — to seeing them as expressions of selfhood to be encouraged. Before I could grant my children that permission, I’d had to grant it to myself. That’s what Avalon is really about. Q: There’s a lovely interlude when you meet dorm mate Eric Rosen at Exeter and relish the fun of wordplay. You also articulate your immersion in Mr. Coffin’s Latin classes. What else sticks with you, Exeter-wise?
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Q: Your mom was against you writing about your brother, but when she read your book she gave it her blessing. What other reactions has Avalon generated?
AND I WAS GLAD IT WAS DARK BECAUSE TEARS WELLED IN MY EYES. THAT’S WHEN I KNEW WE’D COME THROUGH. THE ANGER AND CONTENTION THAT WE’D FELT WERE IN THE PAST.
Payne: I went in a skinny, provincial 14-year-old from a tobacco town in eastern North Carolina, and I came out on fire to be a poet. Listening to Coltrane and Ornette Coleman in Eric’s room (“Eric” is a pseudonym for Peter London ’73); Carole France’s transforming English class; smoking dope by the railroad tracks and in the woods beyond the stadium; seeing Zabriskie Point at the Ioka, when the whole school turned out on Friday night; the vibration that passed through assembly when the bombing of Cambodia was announced; hanging out at Grill and Ferlita’s; above all, the friendships — the greatest of my life — forged in the hours and hours we spent playing scoreless bridge in the Peabody butt room and in Randy Lombardo and Andy Sweet’s corner room on the second floor, shooting the shit with them, Tom Hutton and John Guarnaccia, sharing our traumas and sorrows, learning to laugh at them and ourselves, reasoning out our positions in the universe
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with the aid of the Socratic method we absorbed in the classroom. “All those wasted hours,” as Arcade Fire says, “if I could have them back I’d only waste them again, how I’d love to waste them again.”
Payne: The letters from strangers are incredibly affecting. A woman sent me an old photo of herself and her brother, taken shortly before his diagnosis with schizophrenia, when he was still in college, a champion snowboarder who dreamed of a career in wildlife management. And someone else emailed me: “Your book made me weep and then I had to call my brother who mostly disappeared from my life for nearly 20 years… you reminded me what it’s like to love someone that you also hated but who is the only person on earth that knows what it’s like to grow up in your family and I’m just so grateful to you for that.” Q: Your website features Ernest Hemingway: “Write hard and clear about what hurts.” Why this quote? Payne: The first creative-writing assign-
ment I ever received, from Robert Kirkpatrick at UNC in 1973, was to “write a letter that says the thing you most need to say and could never say to the person you most need to say it to and could never say it to.” I wrote to my father, addressing his drunken assault on my mother in a Boston hotel room the night before I entered Exeter. I was in the room with them, on the rollaway, and my father threatened to kill me if I interfered. Kirkpatrick’s invitation to write this was electrifying and liberating: After 40 years, my letter turned into the scene in Avalon’s Chapter 4. I now assign the exercise to my students: Over and over, it turns out that the story they’ve kept most secret, that they’ve felt most ashamed of and isolated by, is the one that connects and resonates most powerfully with others, who have their version of the story, too. I latched onto the Hemingway quote because it captures this so succinctly. E
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Alumni are encouraged to advise the Bulletin editor (bulletin@exeter.edu) of their own publications, recordings, films, etc., in any field, and those of classmates, for inclusion in future Exonians in Review columns. Please send a review copy of your published work to the editor to be considered for an extended profile or review in future issues. Works can be sent to: Bulletin Editor, Phillips Exeter Academy, 20 Main Street, Exeter, NH 03833-2460. Compiled by Alice Ann Gray ALUMNI 1949—Jonathan Calvert. The Urge to Know. (Hamilton Books, 2014) 1954—Jon J. Masters. Fear, Fathers and Family: In Search of the American Dream [memoir]. (Outskirts Press, 2015)
Career [Kindle edition]. (iUniverse, 2015) — Just In Case You Were Wondering. (Outskirts Press, 2015) 1962—Harrison Young. Nantucket: Where the Rich and Beautiful Come to Play [Kindle edition]. (Ventura Press, 2015) 1967—Vincent G. Vaccarello [as Skip Vaccarello] and Pat Gelsinger, foreword. Finding God in Silicon Valley: Spiritual Journeys in a High-Tech World. (Creative Team Publishing, 2015) 1979—Kevin Boileau. Critical Existential Psycho-Analysis. (EPIS Press, 2014)
1954—Rennie McQuilkin. Going On: New & Collected Poems [Poet Laureate of Connecticut]. (Antrim House, 2015) 1956—William Bayer. The Luzern Photograph: A Noir Thriller. (Severn House, 2016)
1979—Alexandra (Whelan) Dunietz. The Cosmic Perils of Qadi Ḥusayn Maybudī in Fifteenth-Century Iran [Islamicate Intellectual History, book 1]. (Brill, 2015) 1985—Stephen Bobick. Northern Sketches [CD]. (Magruder, 2015)
1989—Ann Gagliardi, translator. Morning Sea: A Novel, by Margaret Mazzantini [winner of the Cesare Pavese Award for Fiction and the English Pen Award]. (Oneworld Publications, 2015) 1990—André Landau-Remy and Heinrich Landau-Remy. Da Alemanha ao Brasil: A trajetória de minha família [Portuguese edition]. (CreateSpace, 2015) 1993—John N. Psaris [as Nick Psaris]. Q Tips: Fast, Scalable and Maintainable Kdb+. (Vector Sigma, 2015)
— “She Who Was Able to Embrace the Eagle Knew Its Last Thought” [poem]. IN Glassworks [“Poetry”]. (no. 11, 17, fall 2015) — “Bone Lament” [poem]. IN Tar River Poetry [East Carolina University]. (v. 55, no. 1, fall 2015) — “Why do you imagine golden birds?” [fiction]. IN bosque 5 [Fifth Annual Fiction Contest finalist]. (Bosque Press, November 2015)
FAC U LT Y Matt W. Miller. “Take Arms” [essay]. IN Hippocampus Magazine. (December 2015) B R I E F LY N OT E D 1969—Daniel J. Hoffheimer and J. Donald Mottley. “Ohio Income Tax Residency: Is There Still a ‘Bright Line’ Test After Cunningham v. Testa.” IN Probate Law Journal of Ohio. (v. 26, no. 1, September/ October 2015) 1981—Claudia Putnam [former Bennett Fellow] ”Goats” [poem]. IN Spillway 23 [“Everyday Epiphanies”]. (June 2015)
Katherine Towler [former Bennett Fellow]. The Penny Poet of Portsmouth: A Memoir of Place, Solitude and Friendship. (Counterpoint, 2016)
— “The Earth Between” [poem]. IN I-70 Review. (summer/fall 2015)
1959—Wendell A. Duffield. Jiggles, Rolf, and the Remarkable Finale to Frank Stone’s
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1987—Col. Robert B. Lim, editor. Surgery During Natural Disaster, Combat, Terrorist Attacks, and Crisis Situations. (Springer, 2015)
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PREP PROGRAMS EXPANDING OPPORTUNITY THROUGH EDUCATION By Genny Beckman Moriarty
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Photographs by Cheryl Senter
varsity athlete who throws a shot 48 feet and hurls a discus up to 129 feet in track and field competitions, Mykel Miller ’16 is equally comfortable dissecting the role of gender in society or teaching young kids to play chess and quidditch. A natural leader,
Miller was selected as a student listener and a dorm proctor for Main Street North. He is the children’s coordinator for the Exeter Social Service Organization’s 25 children’s clubs and one of ESSO’s eight board members. An advocate for gender equality, he is a devoted member of Fem Club, a feminist advocacy group at Exeter. He plans to pursue a dual major in women and gender studies and Chinese language, which he hopes to combine with a premed track. “With my interest in medicine and working with children,” says Miller, “I definitely see myself as a pediatrician someday.” Miller, who attended public elementary school in Brooklyn, New York, began to yearn for boarding school life after reading The Catcher in the Rye. Undeterred by his teacher’s warnings that schools like Exeter were only for rich white kids, he became affiliated with the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and PREP 9, two organizations dedicated to bridging the education gap for exceptional students from underprivileged backgrounds. Exeter currently enrolls nearly 80 students affiliated with one or more prep programs, designed like PREP 9 and Jack Kent Cooke to mitigate the effects of an unequal public education system that leaves schools in low-income areas struggling for resources. Such organizations give underrepresented students access to the challenging curriculum and wealth of opportunities found at top secondary and postsecondary institutions and offer support in the form of scholarships, long-term academic advising,
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“[SO] ALL MEN OF COLOR CAN FEEL AT HOME, WHEREVER THEY MAY BE.” —Mykel Miller ’16, on forming the student club Young Brothers’ Society
mentoring, and college and career counseling. Nationwide, the high school graduation rate for Hispanic and African-American students is 10 to 15 percent lower than it is for white students, and while the overall graduation rate across the U.S. is closing in on 90 percent, it hovers between 60 and 70 percent in urban areas with the highest concentrations of low-income students, regardless of race, according to a 2014 report released by Johns Hopkins University. In the face of such statistics, Dean of Multicultural Affairs Rosanna Salcedo sees our partnership with such prep programs as a social justice imperative. “As the world becomes increasingly global and income disparity continues to grow,” she argues, “it’s a societal responsibility to make sure we are educating all students.” Working in tandem with these programs, Exeter is able to reach more students while continuing its mission of serving “youth from every quarter.” Access to the rich resources and programming at a school such as Exeter expands students’ possibilities, enabling them to reach their full potential. Salcedo, who is also an instructor in
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the Modern Languages Department, is quick to point out that this is not just a practical matter, but a spiritual one, too: “We want these kids to thrive. We don’t just want them to survive.” The students who come to Exeter are, in their own estimation and by all external measures, certainly thriving. Opportunities for transformation are the programs’ biggest gifts. In turn, students contribute as much to the community as they gain, bringing their passion, their talents and their myriad voices to the classrooms, hallways and playing fields. Raul Galvan ’17 lives just outside of Chicago. The son of
immigrants who came to the United States as children, he will be the first in his family to attend college. Galvan says boarding schools were not on his radar screen until he heard about them from an adviser at the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund, a program that provides educational opportunities and scholarship assistance to Chicago youth from low-income families. While his parents had hoped he would attend one of the excellent Catholic schools in the area, Exeter’s residential life and array of activities were a big draw for him. Despite their initial reluctance to let him go so far away, his parents found reassurance in talking to other parents who were part of Daniel Murphy’s extensive alumni network. Galvan says
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it was important for them “to see that it gets better...that it’s not always sad.” His mother warmed to the idea first. “She saw I would get a lot out of it,” he says. Director of Admissions Michael Gary considers programs such as Daniel Murphy to be extensions of his admissions team, helping them find and attract exceptional students who, like Galvan, may never have considered boarding schools. Institutions like Exeter, Gary says, “continue to be a foreign concept to many families. By breaking down stereotypes and building relationships … these programs play a paramount and pivotal role in encouraging families to even look at us.” Galvan becomes animated as he talks about his “Wentworth brotherhood” and landing a lead role in the fall DRAMAT production of Blood Wedding. Galvan, who fell in love with acting during his eighth-grade district musical, says his work in the Department of Theater and Dance has been a huge step up from where he was before. “It was something that I was really passionate
“IT WAS SOMETHING THAT I WAS REALLY PASSIONATE ABOUT, BUT NOT SOMETHING I THOUGHT I COULD BECOME GOOD AT ... .” —Raul Galvan ’17
about, but not something I thought I could become good at because at my middle school, the resources were not so good,” he says. Galvan delights in telling of the ways he has grown and stretched himself since his arrival — including his discovery that this city boy is a nature lover who enjoys running on Exeter’s trails, surrounded by trees, or being out on the water during crew practice. A coxswain for the boys team, Galvan had never heard of the sport until he came to Exeter, but has discovered it’s a good fit, noting that “Coxswains are the leaders, the minds of the boat.” He appreciates that responsibility and the chance to discover a new side of himself.
NAVIGATING DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS
When Alayna D’Amico ’19 arrived at the Bancroft dorm last July to attend Exeter Summer School, she was surrounded by family members and looked a little bit stunned. As a participant in Exeter’s newly launched E3: Enrich, Enhance, Excel, D’Amico had been invited to take part in a five-week summer enrichment program for low-income and first-generation students entering the Academy as preps in the fall. Like PREP 9 and the other external programs, E3 is designed to foster a smooth transition, equipping students with the skills and tools needed to navigate their new environment with confidence.
“THERE WERE FRIENDS I MADE [LAST] SUMMER WHO I KNEW WOULD BE PART OF THE NEXT FOUR YEARS.” —Alayna D’Amico ’19
D’Amico, whose sister had a positive experience at Exeter, hadn’t anticipated just how hard it would feel to be away from home for the first time, even though she lives only 45 minutes away, in Lynn, Massachusetts. Her struggles with homesickness and culture shock were exacerbated by her own ambivalence about whether she was at Exeter for her own reasons or was merely trying to meet other peoples’ expectations. Having a supportive network on campus helped in her decision-making. “There were friends I made [last] summer who I knew would be part of the next four years,” she says, “and I knew Dean Salcedo was on my side.” D’Amico also realized that she would have to separate herself to some degree from the daily life at home in order to truly feel a part of life at Exeter. Miller experienced some of those same complexities when he first arrived. He says young men of color who attend boarding school can feel like “oreos” — black on the outside, white on the inside — but “too black to fit in.” Inspired by his own desire to shape an authentic identity while making a new home for himself, he started the Young Brothers’ Society at Exeter to give “black men on campus a place to joke around, recount experiences, and most of all, be [ourselves] without fear of being judged.” The group aims to help “all men of color feel at home, wherever they may be,” says Miller. Salcedo says it’s not unusual for students to experience
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a bit of dislocation when they first arrive on campus. “There are all kinds of rules and ways of being and cultural nuances about being in a school like this that can make it different and difficult to adapt,” she says. “Some of the challenges have to do with feelings of inadequacy, or guilt, and having to navigate between multiple environments — that can shake their sense of identity.” By pre-empting some of those challenges, prep programs can fortify students before their arrival and help them feel more comfortable as they settle in.
PROVIDING STRATEGIES AND SUPPORT
A division of Prep for Prep, PREP 9 assists outstanding students of color from the greater New York City area in applying to independent boarding schools in New England. With its rigorous screening process, the program can rightly boast that it’s harder to get into than Harvard. And if getting in is tough, sticking with it is even tougher: Once admitted, students undergo an intensive 14-month “boot camp” to prepare them for success in an independent boarding school setting. Preparation includes a full academic course load in the summers before and after eighth grade, with about four hours of homework a night, and Saturday classes throughout the school year. Only a small percentage of Prep for Prep students transition into PREP 9, and a smaller percentage
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still will make it all the way through the boot camp. Those who do are well prepared for the demands of high school and living a life of leadership. His PREP 9 training helped Miller survive the entry to Exeter with its demanding work load — a transition that can be difficult for many entering preps. While his firstterm grades were admittedly a mixed bag (with an easy A in math and a hard-earned C in Chinese), he feels he had an advantage over those peers who hadn’t yet developed a strong work ethic or learned “how to push themselves to the limit.” Armed with the knowledge he’d gained from PREP 9 that “success comes from hard work,” Miller kept working to become proficient in the new and difficult language, and he fell in love with it in the process. Last summer, sponsored by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, he spent four weeks traveling and studying in China as part of an intensive cultural and language immersion program. “I was able to get around by train and hold conversations, despite what a hard time I had initially with Chinese class,” he says with a note of delight. Jena Yun ’17, another Jack Kent Cooke scholar, was assigned an educational adviser in eighth grade who visited her at home in Fresh Meadows, a neighborhood in Queens, New York, where she and her sister attended a public middle school.
During the high school selection process, Yun’s adviser helped her select schools that would be a good fit and set regular deadlines for her to meet. “I don’t have the same guidance from my family and sister here,” says Yun. “So, paving your own way, that’s part of the reason I came ... but it can also be challenging.” Now that Yun is here, she talks to her adviser at least once a month to set up goals and form an independent learning plan. By supplementing what the prep programs provide and reaching out to include students who are not affiliated with them, the Offices of Multicultural Affairs and Financial Aid work to widen the web of support for underrepresented students. Beyond providing a safe place for students to voice their concerns and raising cultural awareness among the larger student body, they can also use discretionary funds to finance sports equipment, formal attire, college visits or visits from family when costs are prohibitive. “We look at students with a cultural lens and try to give them what they need to feel a sense of ownership and belonging at Exeter,” says Salcedo. Sarah Hardcastle ’19, who like D’Amico attended Summer School orientation with E3, says the close bonds she formed over the summer gave her more confidence when transitioning into the regular session. “Because we spent so much time together, we became a tight-knit group,” she says. In addition to all of the practical help E3 has given her (like “getting the gist of Harkness” and getting to know campus), those friendships have been a source of strength. Having such close ties already —Jena Yun ’17 when the school year began “helped me feel more comfortable approaching other people as well,” she says.
“PAVING YOUR OWN WAY, THAT’S PART OF THE REASON I CAME... .”
SPARKING A DESIRE TO CHANGE THE WORLD
Prep Malobika Syed’s speech is peppered with maxims and inspirational quotes, expressed with irresistible enthusiasm. Wearing an Exeter sweatshirt, with her hair in a messy side braid, she waves her hands and speaks about her passion for social and racial justice. Syed is the youngest of four kids, all of whom went from their public elementary school in the Bronx to independent boarding schools in
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New England through PREP 9. Her brother Milton ’14 — who was head of the Academy’s Muslim Student Association while a student at Exeter and is now studying at Harvard — is her role model. She gained a lot from witnessing his perseverance, commitment to his studies and involvement in extracurricular activities. “I saw that he was smart but also wellrounded,” she says. “Looking at his successes forced me to work harder and showed me what I could do.” Syed’s involvement in PREP 9 helped her cultivate an intense appreciation for the multitude of voices, personalities and opinions she encounters at Exeter. She says she was drawn to the school’s size and diversity, and feels the PREP 9 orientation prepared students well to appreciate and navigate cultural differences. “It really prepared us to break the habit of fitting into stereotypes. It’s not only an academic process, but it makes us into better people,” she adds. Syed lights up when she talks about being “woke,” a term used to describe a person’s awareness about issues of racial and social justice. She is thrilled to have found “so many amazing friends full of character and ambition at Exeter [who] all speak out against prejudice.” She and her friends pride themselves on being part of a community united not by background but by intellectual curiosity and a desire to make a difference, but it is not always possible to block out the rest of the world. In a sleepy New England town where the crime rate is low and the racial makeup is overwhelmingly white, students of color can feel ill at ease walking into town alone for fear of being verbally assaulted by passing motorists or profiled by store owners. The Academy community itself is not immune from prejudice either, as Syed found out. When she encountered hurtful opinions on a campus-wide social media page, it was distressing to her. Initially, she “felt like screaming,” but says she has learned to welcome debates since then: “I get more experiences and I grow from them.” In her upbeat way, Syed is learning not to let negative comments or emotions get the best of
“... IMAGINING WHAT CAN HAPPEN, MAKES ME SEE I DO HAVE SOMETHING TO WORK FOR.”
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her. “I like to ask myself what could happen if I went about it in another way. Maybe I could teach them,” she says. —Malobika Syed ’19 Putting a positive spin on things makes Syed feel empowered. “Just seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and imagining what can happen, makes me see I do have something to work for,” she says. But whether in the form of inappropriate attempts at humor, the sharp sting of unrecognized privilege or wounding racial slurs, instances of stereotyping and intolerance are painful. Not everyone can turn them into teaching moments as Syed tries to do — and they shouldn’t have to. The Academy community is working to raise awareness both internally and externally through partnerships with local church and community leaders and on-campus initiatives led by faculty, staff and quite often, students. Recent collaborations include a walk for racial unity and a “One Town One Book” reading series that kicked off with Ta-Nehesi Coates’ Between the World and Me. Last May, the Office of Multicultural Affairs created the Council for Social Justice and Equity. In December, concerned faculty members organized a special assembly to address —continued on page 95
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FINDING VOICE,
Trip leader and Physical Education Instructor Olutoyin Augustus-Ikwuakor (left) and Peace Kabari ’16 with other students at the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, AL.
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TAKING ACTION
P E A C O - L E A R N I N G T R I P TA C K L E S S O C I A L J U S T I C E I S S U E S I N A L A B A M A
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By Sarah Zobel
t last January’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration, Bryan Stevenson, the
founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, told an audience of Exonians that the U.S. justice system helps those who are rich and guilty more than people who are poor and innocent. It’s the “new Jim Crow,” he
explained, an evolution from slavery to segregation to mass incarceration. The student body was rapt as Stevenson, whose TED Talk on injustice has been viewed more than 2.5 million times, spoke about the work he and his colleagues are doing to address racial and class disparities, such as litigating on behalf of imprisoned youth and adults who’ve been wrongly convicted and are serving death sentences. His words resonated long after the talk was over. “Every student who was at that assembly came out of it talking about … how it was one of the best things they’d ever seen,” says Cesar Zamudio ’16. “He is there using his privilege and his voice to give to those who are more vulnerable in our society.” “It’s hard to believe this is our world and it’s happening, because it can be easy to turn your head and pretend such injustice does not exist,” says Szu-Hui Lee, a psychologist in PEA’s Lamont Health and Wellness Center. “And then when you are invited to take a closer and deeper look, you realize this is part of our world and it does matter to us, all of us.” Olutoyin Augustus-Ikwuakor, PEA instructor in physical education, or “Coach Toyin” as most know her, was also in the audience. “I was deeply moved by the work [Stevenson] is doing toward equal justice, and felt that this was something that that we needed as a community to devote a little more time to,” says Augustus-Ikwuakor, who is also an adviser to Transitions, an affinity group for female students of color. “There are a lot of different social justice issues that are happening around the world, but this one in particular affects students I work with closely, as well as other faculty members. Part of his message was about proximity, and that hit home with me. It’s easy to hear a story and be moved, and then go about your business. But when you have an opportunity to be really up close and personal with people and their circumstances, those lessons are not easily forgotten.” So Augustus-Ikwuakor, who spent much of her childhood in Huntsville, Alabama, planned a Thanksgiving
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break visit to Montgomery, Alabama, where the Equal Justice Initiative offices are located. Sixteen self-selected students, along with Lee and History Instructor Erik Wade, signed on for the four-day trip. Today, the students are working on a proposal for an interdisciplinary course on the subjects they learned about in their short time in Alabama. While it would originate in the History Department, it would include the English Department and possibly the arts. Ideally, Augustus-Ikwuakor says, the course would be open to all students and would not be designed to promote a particular stance or viewpoint. “A lot of it is you don’t know what you don’t know, and when you figure it out, you think, ‘I really should have known this before, or at least be exposed to it so I can form my own opinions,’” she says. The trip began with a full day at the Equal Justice
Initiative, where staff attorneys spoke about their cases and broke down the history of African-Americans and other minorities in the United States. They discussed slavery and the dehumanizing mentality behind it, along with how it evolved into mass incarceration and an overreliance on the death penalty, often resulting in the execution of innocent people. They also talked about the sentencing of children to life in prison, an issue they took to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has since banned death-in-prison sentences for children convicted of non-homicide crimes and mandatory death-in-prison sentences for all children. And they spoke of the corruption within the prison system and the abuse and rape suffered by portions of the inmate population. The students listened, surrounded by walls lined with photographs of people who’ve been wrongly convicted and of children who’ve received life sentences. “One guy under the three strikes program was
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and be open to other ideas — I would have sentenced to life without parole — his Left to right: Exonians on liked to have a little more of that so we can third strike was something like he stole a bus like the one Rosa think a little bit deeper about what we’re a bicycle,” Charlotte Polk ’18 reflects. Parks rode; remembersaying.” It’s easy to have conversations with Another photograph showed a 14-year-old ing Virgil Lamar at the those who share our beliefs, she says, adding, hugging her father after she’d been senCivil Rights Memorial; “But what if someone says, ‘I disagree for this tenced. “It was very moving to see their Adedolapo Adedokun ‘18 reason.’ Then what do you do? We talked a lot faces; a lot of [the accompanying descripand Cesar Zamudio ‘16 about that, too.” tions] didn’t mention the crime they’d back on campus. Lee calls it a co-learning trip, since committed, so you’re forced to think about she and her colleagues took in as much new informa[the issue] more broadly, as opposed to the specific.” tion as their charges; students and faculty agreed that The Exonians spent so much time with EJI staff that one of the most memorable moments came after they’d they reported feeling guilty keeping the lawyers from watched a video on wrongful imprisonment that focused their work, but Augustus-Ikwuakor says everyone underon Anthony Ray Hinton, who had been exonerated just a stood such face time was important, too. few months earlier — thanks to the work of the EJI — after “You can’t just fight these legal battles without try30 years on death row. At the video’s end, Hinton himing to change the construct,” she says. “I think it’s really self appeared in the room and spoke at length about his when society and expectations, assumptions and stereoreturn to freedom. He told the students the day he was types, all of those things, change that you’re able to make released was the first time in 30 years he’d felt rain, and lasting change.” that he still showers every other day and wakes at 3 a.m. for breakfast because that was his schedule in prison. Yet, The students came from a mix of racial, ethnic and sociosays Lee, who called it “humbling” to meet Hinton, it was economic backgrounds, and the multiple perspectives clear he had maintained his sense of humor and mastered resulted in what Wade termed “complicated conversathe art of keeping his mind outside the cell where he had tions about what do we do now that we’re informed.” spent 23 hours a day. “Doing little things in your community can make a That meeting was pivotal for Sarah Shepley ’18, but difference, just to make people aware,” says Adedolapo so too was the group’s visit to Alabama State University, Adedokun ’18. “Even just spreading information around a historically black institution. There, Shepley, who to your family, your classmates, your friends.” Inspired to acknowledges that she comes from a fairly sheltered join the trip after overhearing race-based comments that background where incarceration and racism are not stanhe says came from a place of ignorance, but not feeling dard topics of conversation, felt briefly what it means to fully equipped to correct them, Adedokun says he now be in a racial minority. feels empowered to engage in informed discussions with “I’m not used to being in a minority, but it definitely individuals who make such comments. Natalia Madison ’19 changed my perspective. I’m going to be more aware and — one of a handful of preps — knew before heading to Montgomery that she was in the group’s minority with her more sympathetic in terms of helping people feel more comfortable,” she says. support of the death penalty. Listening to the EJI attorAlthough that was one purpose of the visit, Augustusneys speak about wrongful imprisonment and children in Ikwuakor also wanted to put the idea of historically prison didn’t change her opinion, but it did help her see black institutions on students’ radars — including, for that changes need to be made to the death penalty if it is some, seeing themselves as prospective students. Wade to remain viable. points out that such schools are a positive outcome of “Ninety-five percent of the kids were on the same page institutional racism — the flip side to slavery and the in terms of opinions, but we weren’t all like-minded, which prison pipeline — and says it was important for the I appreciated,” says Augustus-Ikwuakor. “It was tough Exonians to take in a majority-black population focused because it was a clear minority on the other side, but for us on higher education. to all take a minute and listen and digest another opinion 28 • T H E
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“WE’RE DEALING WITH A LOT OF VERY HEAVY TOPICS IN AMERICA RIGHT NOW THAT MAKE THIS VERY SALIENT ...” There was time for discussion each day, fueled by the stu-
dents’ pre-existing interests and extracurricular pursuits. Each student had read Stevenson’s Just Mercy, a memoir of his life and work within the justice system, and most are active participants in on-campus groups including the Afro-Latino Exonian Society (ALES), the Young Brothers’ Society (for boys of color), the Diversity Council, the Council for Equity and Social Justice, and the Exonian Encounter Committee. Many of the students had also dealt personally with racism or classism, and in light of current events, the trip was timely. “We’re dealing with a lot of very heavy topics in America right now that make this very salient to them,” Augustus-Ikwuakor says of the visitors. “I think some of it felt like a bit of an overload, and for all of us it was like, ‘So what do we do?’ You see this huge problem and you feel sort of helpless — and in some instances hopeless — but it was framed in a way that we could see that things were being done and changes were being made.” The trip included tours of the Civil Rights Memorial, which is sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Alabama Department of Archives. The group also learned about a special EJI project: Staff members are visiting locations around the state where people were lynched, gathering a little soil from each spot, and putting it in a jar labeled with the victim’s name. AugustusIkwuakor was moved by one jar containing soil from the site where a man named Wes Brown was lynched, in her hometown; Wade, whose research centers on race and lynching, says he’s planning to return during winter or spring break to help with the project. Students and staff posted pictures of the trip on Facebook and Instagram so interested Exonians could join in the conversation. But the meatiest discussions took place over meals featuring Southern cooking and Korean barbecue. Lee says some debriefings that were expected to last 30 minutes continued for a couple of hours, often late into the night (“Sleep was apparently optional,” says Augustus-Ikwuakor, laughing). “These kids are so well versed in Harkness that they brought the Harkness table with them,” Lee says. “Different kids are at different places in terms of where they see race as an issue in our country, and I think context matters. Students that may be further along were helping students that may be grappling with race and
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class issues.” They’re big topics for high schoolers to digest, and Wade says it was interesting to watch the students’ faces as they were peppered with information. Yet the students say that in many ways, they’re already thinking about those issues. “What we learned from visiting Montgomery is realizing that it’s not specific as to what can you do, but what are we doing in our own community addressing those issues of injustice,” says Zamudio, a native of Colombia. “Even at Exeter, where we’re sort of trapped in a bubble, there are still those big issues of justice that we have to address — making sure we’re having good dialogue on that, and caring for each other and respecting each other so that we’re all living in a community where we can feel safe and appreciated and respected, where we can thrive as students and go on to make great changes. All of us at Exeter have this privilege of an elite education that we’ve been given, and it’s in our power and it’s our responsibility to use that to advocate for those who don’t have that privilege and that power.” For some, like Polk, the trip takeaway applies to all of humanity. “The broader moral message is to believe in people. I was talking to a freshman on the trip, and she said people think it’s a flaw to believe in people, but it’s a very good thing,” she says. Augustus-Ikwuakor is already planning next year’s trip. She’d like to tack on a visit to Selma, as well as allow students more time to connect with people who live in Alabama. She also hopes to include more time for debate and discussion, in recognition of the diversity of experiences and viewpoints. Lee agrees that continuing the dialogue is essential. “I think we can all be alone in our silos — and believe we know how Asian-Americans struggle, and how African-Americans struggle, and how do Latinos struggle, or how any silenced group struggles? — but it is important to come out of our silos and share our stories as well as listen to stories of others. It is through these important dialogues that we grow and come together as a community. If these 16 kids are realizing the importance of such dialogues and that there’s power in coming together, then think about the thousand kids we have on campus coming together. That would be something!” E
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#EllisStory T WO E XO N I A N S C H O R E O G R A P H AN INVENTIVE FILM PREMIERE By Janet Reynolds
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his story begins on Instagram.
Seniors Caroline del Real and Annie Ning were in final college application deadline mode. Del Real took an Instagram break and saw something that turned a moment of procrastination into a moment of action. Internationally renowned photographer JR, whom she’d been following, had made a short film about Ellis Island. “Creative” screenings of the film, called Ellis and featuring Robert De Niro, were being offered by the Tribeca Film Festival to groups around the country with this caveat: The screening needed to be part of an inventive multimedia event inspired by JR’s work. Applications were due Nov. 1. Del Real was reading this on Oct. 30. Oh, and if their still-unformed project was accepted, the creative screenings had to be shown between Nov. 9 and Nov. 22. Some might have been deterred by this timeline. Not these young ladies. Del Real tackled the homage to JR, and Ning, who is involved in various Exeter dramatic and music groups, took on other presentation possibilities. They sent in their application the next day. On Nov. 1 they learned that their project had been chosen, making Phillips Exeter Academy one of only 800 communities around America selected to participate in this unusual screening opportunity. “It was really surprising,” del Real says, before admitting it was also a little scary. “We only had two weeks to pull the whole thing together.” Del Real and Ning both credit the backing they got from Exeter faculty, particularly Art Department Chair Tara Misenheimer and adjunct Music Instructor Jon Sakata, with enabling them to make the screening deadline and premiere the film on Nov. 20. “It was very hectic,” Ning says. “But as soon as our teachers heard about it, there was immediately so much support from so many directions.” Del Real had already done a tribute to JR as part of a lower-year photography class. He’s a bit of an iconoclast — JR is not his real name and he uses the streets and public spaces as the galleries for many of his large photographs. Inspired by his series of aging rock ’n’ roll artists who’ve faded, for the most part, into musical history, del Real photographed for her class project the people behind the scenes at Exeter — those who make the school run who aren’t always appreciated as much as they
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Portraits of students whose families immigrated fewer than 100 years ago.
should be. She hung the large 5-by-10-foot photos off the side of the library. The film Ellis is a short documentary that uses JR’s initial on-site photographic installation of portraits of those who came to Ellis Island. Instead of examining the people who arrived at Ellis Island Hospital, however, the film, with De Niro acting as the ghost narrator, imagines what it was like for these immigrants to leave the hospital to begin a new life. Del Real used her original project as a jumping-off point for the Ellis event. Her grandfather emigrated from Cuba in the 1950s, and she wanted to depict Exeter’s multicultural life photographically, to echo the concept JR raised in Ellis. “My photo staff, Rachel Luo ’17 and Steven Kim ’17, and I took 500 portraits of people from families who immigrated,” she says. “We walked around [the] dining [hall] and asked random students if anyone in their family has immigrated in the last 100 years.” Then she took these large-format images and made a “JR-type wallpaper out of them.” The wallpaper of people’s faces on the large marble columns greeted attendees as they entered the Academy Building, a setting whose place of passage and transition within the school’s heritage echoed the theme of the event and film. Ning was in charge of the evening’s performance art. The film itself obviously needed to be front and center. Rather than one simple screening, however, Ning, who as head of the student club Democracy of Sound regularly uses overlooked spaces in the school for music and sonic installations, wanted to create a different experience. The audience could watch the 14-minute film in the auditorium. But Ning also created a more ethereal experience by projecting the film onto light scrim material held by students in the building’s lobby. This way the images zigzagged through the material.
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“The film became very transparent and mobile because students were holding up the screen. The effect was an almost-transparent layered image,” Ning says. “In the film there are layered faces on the ground. Some transparent images are wallpapered on the walls that De Niro walks through. I was trying to get that effect but in the space we were working in.” Ning also asked some of the Democracy of Sounds members to create music in and around the marble staircases. “I wanted an expression of student voices, too. We have so many examples of immigration just on our campus,” says Ning, who is Asian-American. As head of the W.O.R.D. (We Only Recite Dramatically) Club, Ning asked members if they would tell their own family stories of immigration or produce a piece about living in a foreign environment and assimilating into American culture. Ning also found oral histories from Ellis Island immigrants talking about their experience. She asked members of the senior acting club DRAMAT to stage dramatic readings of those transcripts. “We were able to voice and elaborate on the experiences of Ellis Island even more so than the film,” she says. The project was both spontaneous and carefully cho-
Adjunct Music Instructor Jung Mi Lee and Caroline del Real ’16 prepare the ELLIS art installation.
outside China,” Ning says. “I have seen firsthand what the first-generation [life] is like. I heard their stories — my dad and mom being separated for three years while Mom was in China and Dad was trying to create [a] life here. Mom working in a Chinese restaurant making food and delivering it. My aunts and uncles in China telling us how lucky we are and seeing the U.S. as a beacon of wealth and success.” Bringing that story to life was one reason she and del Real were drawn to the film and project. But they also saw potential for raising awareness at the school and in the town of Exeter. “When you think of Exeter you think academic,” del Real says. “They’re trying to prioritize that we’re a community of smart people but that we come from different backgrounds and have different reasons to be there. You never really think about a family history about why you’re at this school. I wanted to make that more apparent.” “I think that’s one of the key ideas of this project — Exeter is really a hub of people coming from everywhere,” Ning adds. “Bringing this film and discussion of immigration was really important. We have that experience in a very direct way. Students are here from all kinds of backgrounds. That’s a huge parallel to what’s talked about in the film.” Ning is in her second year at Exeter, and The film is projected onto light during that time she says she hasn’t seen a scrim material held by students. lot of interaction between the school and the town. She and del Real, with school administration approval, saw this film screening as an opportureographed. Certain events happened in and around the nity to reach out. Academy Building’s marble staircase at the same time, “It’s such a big deal to screen this film,” Ning says. while others, such as the dramatic readings, occurred “It’s a high-profile piece of art because of JR and De Niro. when nothing else was going on. I thought, ‘We have to spread it and involve as many As children of immigrant families, del Real and Ning people as possible.’ Something like this would bring this understand what it can be like assimilating into a foreign community together.” E culture. “My parents were the first of my family to travel
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FALL SPORTS FOOTBALL RECORD: 3-5
Head Coach: Rob Morris Assistant Coaches: Patrick Bond, Rory Early, Dick Eustis ’57, Dave Hudson Captains: William Baker ’16, Alex Farley ’16, Jeff MacArthur ’16, JT Thompson ’16 MVP: JT Thompson
VOLLEYBALL RECORD: 17-1 NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONS
Head Coach: Bruce Shang Assistant Coach: Christine Bradley Captains: Michelle Bosche ’16, Katya Scocimara ’16 MVPs: Michelle Bosche, Katya Scocimara
BOYS CROSS-COUNTRY RECORD: 2-2 (IN DUAL RACES) 3RD PLACE AT INTERSCHOLS
Head Coach: Brandon Newbould Assistant Coaches: Bill Jordan, Nick Unger ’90 Captains: Tom Appleton ’16, Peter Luff ’16 MVP: Garrett Pitt ’17
GIRLS CROSS-COUNTRY RECORD: 3-1 (IN DUAL RACES) 2ND PLACE AT INTERSCHOLS
Head Coach: Gwyn Coogan ’83 Assistant Coaches: Dale Braile, Sheri Dion Captains: Anna Barnes ’16, Annie Dunigan ’16 MVP: Christine Hu ’17
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GIRLS SOCCER RECORD: 4-11-2
Head Coach: Kevin Bartkovich Assistant Coach: Lindsey Mitchell Captains: Bridget Higgins ’16, Jacie Lemos ’16 MVP: Jacie Lemos
BOYS SOCCER RECORD: 9-6-3
Head Coach: A.J. Cosgrove Assistant Coach: John Hutchins Captains: Trevor Cosgrove ’16, Devin Moore ’16 MVP: Devin Moore
GIRLS A TENNIS RECORD: 4-5
Head Coach: Jean Chase Farnum Captains: Caroline Lu ’15, Dana Tung ’15 MVP: Dana Tung
GIRLS CREW RECORD: 3-7
FIELD HOCKEY RECORD: 5-8-4
Head Coach: Liz Hurley Assistant Coaches: Brittany Hawkins, Melissa Pacific Captains: Allegra Grant ’16, Courtney Peyko ’16, Bronwyn Shields ’16 MVP: Courtney Peyko
Head Coach: Sally Morris Assistant Coach: Becky Moore Captains: Jeanne Olivier ’15, Zoë Sudduth ’15 MVP: Abby Scheetz ’15
WATER POLO RECORD: 8-7
Head Coach: Don Mills Assistant Coach: Andrew McTammany ’04 Captains: Will Belmont ’16, Ernesto Brown ’16, David Shepley ’16 MVPs: Ernesto Brown, David Shepley
VOLLEYBALL, FOOTBALL, BOYS SOCCER, AND FIELD HOCKEY IMAGES BY DAMIAN STROHMEYER; WATER POLO AND GIRLS SOCCER BY MIKE CATANO; CROSSC O U N T R Y B Y R A C H E L L U O ’ 1 7.
MAKING SURE HARKNESS IS AS MEANINGFUL TODAY AS IT WAS IN ITS EARLY YEARS. 34 • T H E
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CONNECTIONS
News and notes from the alumni community
A Closer Look at Harkness
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By Ron Kim P’18, Assistant Principal hat are the essential components of Harkness?
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CHERYL SENTER
In what ways does scholarship on adolescent learning and cognition support Harkness teaching? How do instructors teach the skills of Harkness learning? These are just some of the questions the Exeter faculty is exploring this year in collaboration with researchers at Harvard University, the University of New Hampshire and Boston University. It may seem curious for Exeter to engage in an examination of Harkness teaching and learning. Adolescents in the thousands from around the world apply annually, seeking our unique education; equal numbers of educators attend our summer teaching institutes and request visits to our classrooms to learn how we teach and how our students learn. What we hear from students and alumni reinforces our sense that Harkness is a wildly successful pedagogy. Supported in part by a gift from Tom Ehrlich ’52, former president of Indiana University and now affiliated with the Stanford Graduate School of Education, we are exploring Harkness by asking our teachers to do what we ask of our students — pursue deeper questions and develop a better understanding of a pedagogy they have already embraced. Like our students, the more we learned, the more questions we had, and the more we wanted to know. In the 1930s, Harkness teaching was a bold experiment. Ted Acton ’33, John Borst ’37 and Bill Dalrymple ’39 (see Class Notes, page 52) were among the original Harkness-era students who embraced a new and fundamentally different method of learning. After their graduations, they led lives of professional accomplishment and service to Exeter and to others. Sadly, these three gentlemen have recently passed away, signaling how very few of the students from that original era now remain. By taking a closer look at Harkness, Exeter is paying tribute to that once revolutionary gift, as well as making sure that how we teach means as much to today’s students as it did to the first Harkness pupils. E
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JASON KANG ’12
Outfoxing Ebola By Lori Ferguson
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he company’s name, Kinnos, is a short compound word with a simplicity that belies its potentially profound impact in the battle against infectious diseases and encapsulates the drive of its founders to create products that keep others safe, explains co-founder Jason Kang ’12. “It’s a mix of ‘kin,’ which connotes family, longevity and life, and ‘nos,’ which is short for diagnosis and a reminder that our first product, Highlight, is but one of many we can create,” he says. Kang’s eagerness to look to the future is inspiring, particularly given that the young inventor and his two co-founders — recently named to the 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Health Care — have not yet graduated from college. A senior in biomedical engineering at Columbia University, Kang and fellow students Katherine Jin and Kevin Tyan came up with their inaugural product in 2014, in response to the Columbia Ebola Design Challenge. “One of the biggest issues at the time was ineffective decontamination, which led to health care workers, first responders and doctors being infected at disproportionately high rates,” Kang explains. “We quickly realized that the biggest problem with bleach, the most commonly used disinfectant, was that it’s clear, making it impossible for users to guarantee that a surface has been completely covered.” Kang’s initial instinct: colorize. “My first thought was to design a hazmat suit that changed colors, thereby making it easier to confirm effective decontamination,” he recalls, “but then Kevin said, ‘Why not just colorize the disinfectant instead?’ ” As the trio continued to develop their ideas, they realized that disinfectant runoff and evaporation were issues as well. Similar to rain hitting an umbrella, bleach forms droplets and rolls off surfaces, leaving gaps in coverage. “Bleach also evaporates in two to three minutes, while the World Health Organization recommends a 10-minute exposure to the decontaminant,” Kang says, “and it releases chlorine gas upon evaporation, which has negatively impacted the health of many health care workers.” The team’s winning solution: a powdered additive that colorizes the bleach and modifies its liquid properties so that it fully coats surfaces and evaporates more slowly. The color fades over time to prevent staining and indicate to users when decontamination is complete. Their idea was
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Jason Kang ’12 in Liberia during field tests of his product.
simple, inexpensive and easy to incorporate into any protocol, as it requires no new equipment, training or materials. The trio began making Highlight in October 2014, with Columbia assisting them with publicity. It caught the eye of the New York City Fire Department’s chief medical officer, Dr. David Prezant, himself a Columbia grad, and in December 2014 the FDNY incorporated Highlight into its decontamination protocol. “At that point we realized that this was not just a project but a viable business,” Kang says. Kang and his colleagues continued to refine their product, teaming with Columbia’s Center for Infection and Immunity to test Highlight’s viability on different diseases and ensure that the additive enhanced the visual and physical properties of various antivirals without reducing their efficacy. “The Center for Infection and Immunity was incredibly helpful during our earlier stages of prototyping,” Kang notes. In February 2015 the trio garnered additional attention when they were selected as one of 14 winners of the USAID Fighting Ebola Grand Challenge, the only undergraduate team to win against more than 1,500 international applicants. “That victory was really big for us,” Kang says. “The win secured us over $500,000 in grant money from USAID and enabled us to meet many valuable new contacts.” Kinnos is now fielding inquiries from NGOs and the New York City Department of Health to Amtrak and a contractor for the U.S. military. Perhaps the greatest benefit of the win, however, was the opportunity it afforded Kang and his fellow inventors to travel to Liberia to field-test their product. “It was an extraordinary experience to see how hard these first responders are working and how helpful Highlight could be to them,” he says. “It was powerful validation to see end users benefit from the product we’ve created.” E
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E M I LY ( W E N D E L L ) F A G A N ’ 7 8
A Life of Adventure
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By Sarah Zobel n late summer, Emily Fagan ’78 and her
husband, Mark, woke up one morning in Ohio. Sipping their coffee, they spied the small town of Maysville, Kentucky, across the Ohio River and decided to take a closer look. They ended up staying for two weeks, during which time they were befriended by the town’s mayor and the owner of an Irish pub, both of whom gave them personalized local tours. “To me that’s the way — having some guy at a bar reach out and say, ‘Come with me tomorrow, and I’ll show you what the town’s all about,’” Fagan says of travel, adding, “the people were extraordinary — we must have made 20 good friends in the short time we were there.” It’s the approach the couple has taken since 2007, when they traded in their Arizona home and work as a personal trainer (Emily) and owner of a boutique bicycle shop (Mark) for year-round life in a 27-foot recreational vehicle, their possessions winnowed to fit in 10 plastic tubs that they store in a friend’s shed. That first RV was soon put aside in favor of a 36-footer, which was then parked for a few years while the Fagans tried life on a 44-foot sailboat, cruising around Mexico’s Pacific Coast. Since January 2014 they’ve been back full time in the RV, which is powered entirely by the sun and allows them to move spontaneously around North America. (They’ve driven approximately 108,000 miles to date with 650 stops.) “We don’t plan at all. That’s what I love about this lifestyle, and what makes us different from most people. We don’t generally know what we’re going to do until after breakfast,” Fagan says. That includes where they might spend the next night. When they’re out West, for instance, they head for one of the tracts owned or managed by the Bureau of Land Management, Interior Department or U.S. Forest Service; there, anyone is welcome to drive down a dirt road and find a good camping spot, as long as they stay no more than two weeks. “You could never buy the land that’s out there, the hundreds of acres of open, raw land with gorgeous views, and that’s where we end up a lot of the time,” she says. Much of the West is on their list of favorite locations, but even pockets of New England still surprise Fagan,
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a Cambridge, Massachusetts, native. “Every state has something special to offer — sometimes it’s the people, and sometimes it’s the landscape.” Despite the years on the road, she and Mark have yet to make it to all 50 states; they find themselves planning return trips to the areas they have visited, so their bucket list only grows longer with time. “Even though it’s been all these years, I really feel that we’ve barely scratched the surface,” Fagan says. The husband and wife team have long been avid road cyclists, and leaving a regular exercise routine behind has been one of the few challenges for Fagan. But they’ve embraced mountain biking, which has become another way to familiarize themselves with their environs. A one-time “cubicle rat” who co-founded an IT consulting company with her first husband, she has found personal fulfillment as a freelance writer and photographer for travel magazines, and by maintaining a popular blog (www.roadslesstraveled.us). “When you live a conventional lifestyle, everybody around you is too, so you don’t really question what you’re doing,” she says. “But when you do something that’s a little offbeat like this, you look at it pretty frequently and say, ‘Am I out of my mind?’ The surprising thing is that we love it so much. Every day when we get up we’re just so thrilled to be living this way, and we talk about it all day long.” E
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C O N N ECT I O N S
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C H A R L E S “ C H I Z ” S C H U LT Z ’ 5 0
A Storied Career in Film By Craig Morgan ’84
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harles “Chiz” Schultz ’50 views his current
teaching gigs as two-way streets. “It’s terrific for me because it keeps me up to date, and I have to stay up to date because my students are so up to date,” the accomplished producer and actor says, laughing. “It is somewhat exhausting on my end, however. The minute I start teaching, I’m fine, but at the end of the class I’m a dishrag.” Modesty aside, Schultz’s students at The New School in New York and Montclair State University in New Jersey are likely absorbing more knowledge from him than he is receiving. In a career spanning six decades, Schultz, 84, has produced a litany of memorable shows, documentaries and films. Shortly after graduating from Princeton in 1954, he produced “The Judy Garland Show” for CBS. In 1962, Schultz formed the original programming department for New York’s Channel 13. In 1964, he served as a program executive for CBS-TV, supervising specials and series in New York and Hollywood. Early in his career, Schultz developed an affinity for African-American subjects. “Some of my friends invited me up to Harlem to see plays and I was simply knocked out by the talent in these groups, whether it was writing, acting, directing or producing,” he says. “I was at CBS at the time and I kept saying we ought to have this actor or this director, but it didn’t happen. It was the ’60s so it was impossible. It was almost like a curtain had been drawn to stop them.” In 1968 Schultz joined Belafonte Enterprises, Inc., developing and producing several shows featuring Harry Belafonte, including the feature film The Angel Levine and the 1969 Off-Broadway tribute to Lorraine Hansberry, To Be Young, Gifted and Black. In 1972, Schultz formed his first production company, Chiz Schultz, Inc. His projects included the film Ganja & Hess, now in the permanent collection of the Museum of
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Modern Art in New York City. He was also the co-producer for Spike Lee’s 2014 remake, titled Da Sweet Blood of Jesus. He was executive producer of A Soldier’s Story which earned three Academy Awards nominations. Schultz produced A Raisin in the Sun, starring Danny Glover and Esther Rolle, which was named best drama at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 1989. He counts that film and the two-hour PBS documentary, “Paul Robeson: Here I Stand,” among the most meaningful projects of his career. Schultz found Hansberry inspiring “because she was the first black playwright to crash through with A Raisin in the Sun and honor the black family,” he says. “We had seen minstrel shows and black musicals but nobody had really gone inside and talked about poverty and racism in the U.S. while exploring the dignity of the black family. “With Robeson, it was just shocking how much damage he endured,” adds Schultz, who had to convince the actor’s son to let him do the documentary. “His father had been labeled a communist by the FBI and the House Un-American Activities Committee. They took his name out of every textbook in the U.S.; they took his passport away and threatened every Hollywood studio, Broadway theater and concert hall that considered allowing him to perform. He was literally wiped out of history.” Schultz is currently in postproduction on a documentary about Hansberry for PBS’s American Masters series. He’s also been acting in features, network episodes, short films, web series and commercials. “A lot of people think producing, directing and acting aren’t respectable fields and that’s a shame because it’s a wonderful dream to pursue,” Schultz says. “I’ve never made a lot of money, even when the films have done well, because most of the profits go back to investors or studios. That doesn’t really matter to me. The creative process drives me.” E
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Prep Programs
—continued from page 25
the impact of America’s growing anti-Muslim sentiment on the Academy community. Another feature in this issue, “Finding Voice, Taking Action,” on page 26, highlights a new experiential learning trip that occurred in November in Montgomery, Alabama, which focused on social justice issues like mass incarceration. No single initiative is a cure-all or a quick fix, but taken together they are part of the ongoing work needed to achieve a more inclusive environment. The hope is that, as individuals begin to initiate positive changes in small ways, they will have a ripple effect both within and beyond the boundaries of the Academy. Syed’s passion for justice has her making plans to start a new club at Exeter that would build on the work of groups like the Afro-Latino Exonians Society or Gay/ Straight Alliance but focus on “minorities as a whole.” She explains that many students have overlapping, or intersecting, identities and can face oppression in a variety of ways. On occasion, she has seen friends from different groups being disrespectful or dismissive of one another. “I want to educate my peers about institutionalized racism and help build empathy among all the groups so that [we] can better fight oppression in America.” In the midst of the afternoon crowd at Grill on a gray day in November, Syed pauses in mid-conversation and states brightly, “Whatever you are, be a good one.” Attributing the words to “Abe” Lincoln, she adds, “I always wanted to embody that.” E W I N T E R
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Moments of Discovery By Olivia Knauss, 2015-16 Lamont Gallery education and collections intern
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was seduced by the contents of that file. In mere weeks, Rivera’s painting became a “she” instead of an “it,” and Irene Estrella shortened to just Irene, as if she were a treasured friend I had known for years. Over the past few months, I have experienced many little moments of discovery that felt quite similar to that revelation in the basement. I remember the moment I saw a visual analysis lesson click for our students in an Exeter Adult Education class I co-taught with Lauren, as we huddled around a Nancy Grace Horton portrait; the moment Barbara Desmond’s English class crowded around a single iPhone at the base of three 5-foot-tall paintings by Kate Gridley ’74, to listen intently to the accompanying sound portraits; the moment I shared Irene’s story in the gallery alongside Brandon Liu ’17, an upper who shares a similar passion for Diego Rivera; the moment 12 teenage boys from Gould House came to “support” me, as they explained, during the first Lamont Gallery opening reception of the year; the moment I witnessed Religion Instructor Russell Weatherspoon challenge the students at the table to think about love and their perfect mate through the scope of Freud’s theory of personality development; the moment I ran past 80 Front Street for the first time, half expecting class of 1961 alumnus John Irving’s Owen Meany to come barreling out, taxidermied armadillo in tow. And all of those moments when my cohort of interns and new faculty were the last to leave Elm Street, discussing the best hot chocolate on campus and plotting voyages to Iceland. Slowly, I am mastering the infamous boarding school trifecta of teaching, coaching and dorm duty. I have had Harkness discussions with sleepyeyed preps, got my coaching feet wet with the JV boys swim team, and learned what dorm duty really means in the chaos (and entertainment) of Gould House. It’s hard to believe it all started with a perilous antelope carpool, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. E
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n day one, I found myself crawling down Water Street in my Kia Soul, emergency flashers on, two giant boxes hanging out of my trunk. The boxes were filled with carved wooden antelopes, a gift to the Academy’s Lamont Gallery from James Perrin ’46. To any passersby, it must have been a puzzling sight — one that made me chuckle to myself as I headed to Tan Lane, praying silently that these antelopes would not fall out, plunging toward the pavement. At this very same loading dock two months later, I found myself waiting in anticipation for a 5-foot-tall papier-mâché and Styrofoam gargoyle, which arrived in the back of a red pickup truck in the protective arms of its creator, Rob Richards, chair of the Theater and Dance Department. It’s in these small moments that I feel grateful for the strange, unexpected and wonderful things that I have been a part of in Lamont Gallery this year. The day after I braved the Perrin Collection transport, my mentor, Lamont Gallery Director and Curator Lauren O’Neal, plunked the hefty Diego Rivera file on my desk with a hearty “Have fun!” Fun? Months ago, it would have been difficult to fathom the fulfillment I felt in the Gould House basement as I sifted through the black-and-white negatives from the Academy archives, images that captured when Diego Rivera’s portrait Irene Estrella debuted in a 1954 Christmas show in the Mayer Art Center — long before the building contained sectioned-off studios or even female students. In college, my favorite (and most enigmatic) art history professor had often mused about the “seductive pleasures” of research. I was thrown by his word usage and, at times, browbeaten by the papers I wrote, analyzing works of art that I had only seen printed in Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, the bear of a textbook that I hauled around during my undergraduate career at Rhodes College. To my surprise, though, it did not take long before I
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