Graduation 2015

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www.theexonian.com

“The Oldest Preparatory School Newspaper in America”

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Vol. CXXXVI, Number 16

Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire

Academy Celebrates Seniors, Hassan

Steven Kim/The Exonian

A Flashy Farewell

PEA students, faculty and staff gather on the Academy lawn to honor retiring Principal Tom Hassan in a surprise flash mob on Friday, May 29.

Class of 2015 Looks to Newest Alumni: Daring, Compassionate Bright, Hopeful Futures

By CLAIRE JUTABHA and HANNAH PIETTE Staff Writers

By CLAIRE JUTABHA and HANNAH PIETTE Staff Writers

For the members of the class of 2015, their final spring term at Exeter passed in a flurry: the last climbs up the Academy Building’s marble steps, the final tugs at the Harkness table sliders before a test or the last carvings of names into their wooden surfaces. But as the seniors say goodbye, a wave of firsts also awaits them. Whether their plans for the future entail travel, gap years, internships or beginnings at colleges, the seniors will have experience from their time at the Academy to support them as they begin the next stage of their lives.

After four years at Exeter, many of the seniors are excited to take a break from work and start seeing the world outside of the confines of academics.

Senior Hannah Fuller is excited to take a “pause” with her friends and family in Oregon this summer before attending college. “I think it is important to celebrate what an accomplishment an Exeter diploma is and everything we all will continue to do with our lives,” Fuller said. “There are pressures for students to continue internships, large trips and other work after graduation, but I need to take the time to respect this transition in my life.”

This spring, amidst the folds of blue blazers, white dresses and laurel wreaths, the Class of 2015 will bid goodbye to Exeter for the last time. As they graduate from the Academy, the seniors will leave behind their classmates, friends and the place that has become their home. The senior class has had a lasting effect on both their fellow students, as well as the Exeter community as a whole.

Principal Tom Hassan spoke highly of the senior class and highlighted their positive qualities, including the ability to bring about qualitative and concrete change in the school that was so important to them.

“The Class of 2015 is a very thoughtful class.The seniors care about and do a great deal for each other,” Hassan said. He went on to detail the senior class’ ability to adapt to changing circumstances. “They have experienced an unusual year in terms of events outside the Exeter bubble having a profound effect on us here and on others outside our community. Throughout this year, they have looked to see how we all, including their own class, can make a true difference.”

But science instructor Allison Hobbie said that, as preps, the Class of 2015 was not adamant about focusing on social change or addressing systematic problems in the school. As an adviser

for four years for the Class of 2015 in Student Council (StuCo), she said she has watched them “mature socially in a very charismatic way.” She said it was difficult to pin down exactly what this special quality was, but stressed that their maturation has been physical, intellectual and social; she also added that they have always focused on inclusion and have worked to avoid the creation of any cliques.

“They’ve also matured physically and intellectually, of course, but that social inclusionary development is something I’ve really noticed,” Hobbie said.

Hobbie said that the class, “in general, does not take itself too seriously,” which has allowed them to maneuver difficult situations they have encountered during their time. “It’s a class that’s willing to see the brighter side and the fun in difficult situations, and that has made them stronger… they’ve found some strength by stepping back and finding joy in each other,” she said.

Hobbie detailed the Class of 2015’s special moments and shed light on the love, friendship and consideration that exists within the class. Hobbie felt that there was one particular instance that reflected these qualities. “[The seniors] made the decision during prep, lower and upper year to not charge extra for gear,” Hobbie said. “So as a class we didn’t have as much money, but

See SENIOR CLASS, A2

See FUTURE, A2

DC Case Total Nearly Doubles

By LILY HICKS, MELISSA LU and NOLAN PEACOCK Staff Writers

Over the course of the 2014-15 school year, the Phillips Exeter Academy Disciplinary Committee (DC) heard and ruled on a total of 65 discipline cases, 23 of which were major cases and 42 of which were regular level cases.

While the number of regular level cases was similar to last year’s, the number of major cases has almost doubled from the 2013-14 school year’s record of eight major DC cases.

The regular level cases resulted in either restrictions or restrictions with review, and the majority of the offenses were illegal visitations. In addition, there were several instances of lying, failure to follow faculty instructions, irregularities with regards to going out of town, use of tobacco products and inappropriate behavior. This year’s major cases resulted in six Requirements to Withdraw, eight probations and two restrictions with review. This school year, the charges for major cases were plagiarism, leaving Exeter without permission after reporting hours, cheating, stealing, harassment and bullying, recommendation for probation from the Attendance Committee and unsatisfactory conduct.

Dean of Residential Life Arthur Cosgrove said that case numbers were consistent with the past year’s, but the number of illegal visitation cases has dropped by over 50 percent. Just two years ago, the DC oversaw double the number of this year’s cases, a total of 106.

Senior and DC member Emily Lemmerman attributed the decrease in disciplinary cases from two years ago and the consistency

between this year’s DC case repertoire and last year’s to a “shift in the drug culture” at the Academy. Lemmerman said that two years ago, “there was a much more present, relatively open culture of mostly marijuana use.” Since then, she believes the culture of the school has turned around. Lemmerman also chalked up the drop in cases to an increase in the usage of the “ASAP” system. The ASAP program allows students to seek help for themselves or a peer without fear of disciplinary action.

Lemmerman said that she was “glad” that the community was shifting toward ASAP, as it provides a safe opportunity for students to reflect, learn and improve.

“ASAP doesn’t give you the punishment of probation, but still makes you check in and do the intellectual or emotional aspect of figuring out what you did or why there is a school rule about drinking or why you decided to drink at an institution that doesn’t want you to drink,” Lemmerman said. Although the number of drug-related cases was low this year, the number of plagiarism cases rose. DC members did not pinpoint a particular reason for the prevalence of plagiarism cases this year. History instructor Betty Luther-Hillman, having dealt with many papers during her tenure, explained students’ possible rationales in plagiarizing.

“Sometimes, plagiarism occurs because a student is trying to write a paper at the last

Inside The Exonian’s Graduation Issue REFLECTIONS Seniors, alumni and faculty discuss their experiences at Exeter. Learn how the Academy has affected each contributor.

See Section B.

See DC, A2

SPORTS

Rachel Luo/The Exonian

Students perform an original piece at the Spring Dance Concert, “A Celebration of Color.”

Faculty Pass Groundbreaking Dress Code

By ALAN LIU and HENRIETTA REILY Staff Writers

According to former Student Council (StuCo) president and senior Benj Cohen, the dress code, prior to June 1, was problematic in two ways: it perpetuated gender stereotypes by forcing men to dress to a higher standard than women and it also forced faculty members—all of whom were responsible for enforcing it—to decide whether a student was female or male to impose the rules accordingly. StuCo determined this to be stifling or awkward for

See DRESS CODE, A2

WEB

NEWS

Visit sections E, F and G to catch up with Big Red’s athletic performances.

Exonians embark on the next chapter of their lives. See the matriculation list on A4-A5.

Holden Hammontree, captain of cross country and track, is Male Athlete of the Year. E6.

Each year, prizes in all departments are awarded to exemplary Exonians. See this year’s recipients on A10-11.

Marley Jenkins, captain of field hockey, hockey and lacrosse, is Female Athlete of the Year. E8.

some students who did not fit into a gender binary system or might have had their genders misinterpreted.

In an attempt to resolve these issues, StuCo embarked on a painstaking but vital process to draft and pass a gender neutral dress code, that would not discriminate based on gender.

StuCo’s Policy Committee, headed by seniors Sachin Holdheim and Emily Lemmerman, was responsible for drafting two

LIFE Read about the Academy’s culture and community in Sections D and H.

E

Visit media.theexonian.com to view photographs from this year’s prom and graduation events.

Also visit theexonian.com to register online to receive weekly issues of The Exonian.

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THE EXONIAN

NEWS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Alumni to Work, Explore After PEA Senior Class Will Be Sorely Missed FUTURE, continued from A1 Senior Zoha Qamar greatly anticipates her travel plans during the weeks after graduation.

Accompanied by Senior Liddy Ambler, the two will travel to Paris, Munich and Budapest.

The seniors who will take gap years also stressed a need for a period of rejuvenation. Senior Elsa Chinburg’s decision to take a gap year came from a need to experience things she felt she would never have a chance to do in school. In the fall, Chinburg and senior Harry Tibbetts, who is also taking a gap year, will embark together on a “500 mile stroll,” hiking the New England Trail and Vermont’s Long Trail. Before attending the University of Edinburgh in the fall of 2016, Tibbetts will also spend time in Japan and hike the 2,650 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in the spring.

“I wanted to give myself time to think about my life and the way I wanted to continue it,” Tibbetts said. “Hiking the PCT is the kind of undertaking that I have always wanted to test myself with. This is the time of my life where I feel it would be the most valuable to me.”

After parting from Tibbetts, Chinburg will travel to Ireland to stay and work in the Ballytobin Camp Hill community, where Exeter sends students every winter term. The community is a therapeutic farm for children with multiple disabilities. Chinburg is excited for the community because of its stark difference from her past experiences. “I have no idea what to expect, and I love that,” she said.

Senior Rosie Hutton is also spending her gap year at the same Camp Hill community.

When the director of Camp Hill, Patrick Lydon, came to Exeter, Hutton approached him in hopes of making plans.

“A few months ago I was in a really rough place. I didn’t know where or if I was going to college, and I was terrified of graduating,” Hutton said. After talking to Lydon, “everything fell into place.” Hutton’s plans in Ireland revolve around activism and social change, especially in the way mentally disabled people are treated. “I think it would be hypocritical of me to think I can somehow change the world without any experience,” Hutton said. “I hope the people at Camp Hill will teach me how to be a better advocate and a better member of society.”

Also taking a gap year before beginning her time at Columbia University, senior Alice McCrum will spend her spring semester backpacking across Australia with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). In order to fund her trip, McCrum will spend the first four months of her gap year working at her old school in London as a teaching assistant for kids ages five to eleven.

“College has the same level of pressure and work as Exeter. I need a year off from schoolwork, tests and the fast pace of life,” McCrum said.

Because of senior Scott Hermenau’s passion for creating sound, his Kesler scholarshipfunded gap year will be spent traveling around the U.S. gathering field recordings and stitching them together into a sound piece.

“I’m going to see places I haven’t seen and hear things I’ve yet to hear,” Hermenau said.

Senior Augustus Gilchrist’s gap year will be spent participating in the National Security Language Initiative Program, entirely sponsored by the government. Gilchrist will stay a year in Moldova, taking intensive Russian classes and living with a Russian-speaking host family.

“I am hoping to become fluent in Russian, but also to absorb elements of another culture that I wouldn’t get from a short visit,” Gilchrist said. “I’m excited to get a chance to experience something like this before the renewed pressure of college begins.”

Before beginning her first year at Parsons this fall, senior Millie Dunstan will spend her summer working as an intern in the consular section of the U.S. embassy in Belgrade, Serbia.

Although Dunstan is more interested in fashion and business, because she has moved so much in her life, Dunstan is “excited to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes of an embassy and how the U.S. handles its relations with other countries.”

Although the future for the graduating class is exciting, many seniors stressed that the pressure of being an Exonian continues after receiving a diploma. “We are constantly told that we are the future leaders of our generation, so we are automatically expected to be successful.

That’s a huge pressure,” Dunstan said. “People feel like when they come back for reunions, they need to have accomplished something so their classmates will be impressed.”

Hermenau agreed that there is a level of expectation for success that Exonians feel as they graduate. “There is a quota of prestige, surprise or exclusivity that many people who ask seniors what their plans are salivate for,” Hermenau said. “Some people get disinterested or disappointed if the quota is not met.”

Although students may leave Exeter feeling a pressure to succeed, senior Joe Platte emphasized the importance in communicating gratitude to the people who made Exeter what it is.

“We have to thank the people who helped us keep our heads up and figure out who we wanted to be,” Platte said. ​

School Year Sees Rise in DC Cases DC, continued from A1 minute and they panic, and end up plagiarizing in a moment of weakness. Sometimes, though, plagiarism is an indication that a student is deeply struggling, either academically or emotionally,” Luther-Hillman said. Luther-Hillman also emphasized that the prevalence of plagiarism cases points to a larger campus issue. She attributed some cases of plagiarism to feelings of inadequacy.

“It’s emblematic of the pressures that students at Exeter face,” she said, “They are freaked out about their grades and the college process, and some feel that they want to do anything they can to get a ‘leg up.’” Luther-Hillman and several others concluded that the high-stress issue is “part of the broader culture,” not just Exeter. Nevertheless, this discussion is important no matter its complexities. Luther-Hillman said, “I hope that our new principal will be thinking about ways that our school can be a leader in trying to change this broader culture while maintaining the academic rigor that makes our school special.”

Although the Disciplinary Committee was consistent with years past, many Exonians hoped that the process would become more transparent. “The Disciplinary Committee is sort of tucked away in a corner and typically just talked about as a rumor. It creates almost an effect of a secret society, pulling the strings on important decisions,” prep Bridgette Han said. “Because the committee plays such a key role in the community, the committee should really try to explain the process more, of course not individuals’ intimate details, but just how the committee and cases work. It will create a greater trust in the community that we crucially need in the times of these decisions.”

Lemmerman agreed, saying that the DC’s lack of “transparency” is “one of the Academy’s biggest problems as an institution” and generates distrust among students toward the committee.

Lemmerman believed that explaining the DC process to students early in the year would prove helpful. “I think it would benefit the school if everyone knew exactly what the process was like, exactly what they’re going into,” Lemmerman said. “It would take away the black box aspect which gets people more nervous than they need to be. I think that it would allow for more trust in the DC and a better understanding, for example, of the why we have rules like plagiarism, yet we still allow students to stay who have committed these acts.”

Lemmerman suggested the Academy should go beyond explaining “the big six rules,” and divulge into what the committee considers in their decisions. While the committee looks at attendance records and grades, they care more about “what’s going on with you and how you are thinking about your case.”

Upper and DC member Yena Cho said that the current disciplinary process works very well and is not questionable at all, Cho believed that the DC process does not need to be changed, but just sharing the general thought-process of the committee would show the community, as it has shown the committee members, the process’ meticulousness and trustworthiness.

Many of the new members of the Disciplinary Committee ran campaigns involving transparency. With their careers as committee members started and with the support of old members, greater school-wide discussions on the DC process are expected by many. The new DC members also hoped to accurately represent their peers and be a part of the important discussions that go on during cases. Each hoped to contribute their voice in discussions in hopes of making the most just decisions possible. Lower and new DC member Hillary Aristotle said that, while the selection process was particularly difficult, she understood the reasons behind it. “Getting on DC was definitely one of the most nerve-racking experiences I have ever gone through. But in a way, I completely understood. The meticulous process is needed for such a serious position,” Aristotle said.

Aristotle said that she looks forward to serving on the committee. After sitting in on some cases, Aristotle noted that the committee dynamic is “very interesting” due to the mix of both faculty and students sitting around the table. Aristotle noted that all members of the committee are respectful and cordial to each other and engaged in a genuine Harkness discussion.

The new members of the Disciplinary Committee looked forward to serving and representing the student body on the committee next year. Aristotle continued to expound upon her motivation for running. “I ran to be on DC to get my voice out there, with the intention that with more opinions, the discussion reaches a greater depth,” Aristotle said. “It will be difficult to fill in the shoes of the seniors graduating this year, but I'm sure with Alan, Henrietta and Connie, we'll be up for it.”

SENIOR CLASS, continued from A1 they did that to make it more available to the whole class.”

Hobbie also praised the actions of this year’s class reps.

“Senior year reps have a really hard job— all these little extra details—and the group working this year is incredible,” Hobbie said. “They all work really well together, and they’re really good at making sure things get done.”

She added that this past year “has gone really smoothly” due to their efforts. Hobbie described her pleasure at seeing how close the senior class has remained throughout their entire time here.

“We had an open mic night at the beginning of the year, and it was great to see everyone still getting to know each other and be cohesive socially,” she said.

Seniors, too, noted the close connections they have developed over the years together.

Senior Katie Liptak said that “Exeter is my home and [this class] is my family” because of its “constant warmth, support and kindness” that the class has given her.

She added that the class and its support have allowed her to develop from “a prep who flushed red when she spoke, to a senior with a voice and sense of self.”

She chalked this up to the fact that her class “cares… about each other, Exeter, the type of people [they] want to be and the type of world in which [they] want to live.”

The community Liptak has seen develop made her “terrified” to leave the Academy, because it means leaving behind a class that has taught her lessons that she will keep the rest of her life, especially its “unrelenting kindness.”

Students themselves spoke highly of the diversity of their class, which they have grown comfortable and happy with.

Senior Class President Stephanie Chen said she was proud to be a part of the the Class of 2015 because its “expertise is spread out across a large variety of different interests [and backgrounds], and that’s what makes our grade special.”

Student Council President and senior Benjamin Cohen agreed with Chen and appreciates the well-rounded nature of the senior class.

“We are lucky this year to have a class with kids from every part of the world with all kinds of interests,” Cohen said. “I feel lucky to have been a part of this exceptional group of people.”

Cohen will greatly miss his fellow seniors and lamented the loss of “late night conversations with dorm mates...the hardy laughs...and the fascinating talks about school or sports or who knows what.”

However, he looks forward to reconnecting with his classmates later on down the road and hopes to maintain the strong friendships he has formed here.

“Our time here binds us together and that bond doesn’t weaken with time,” Cohen said.

“I look forward to coming back and being with my Exeter family.”

The members of the Class of 2015 have had an unmistakable impact not only on each other, but on the other members of the Exeter community.

From teammates to dorm mates, many students are sad to see their friends and mentors leave campus at the end of the term.

Lower Cameron Gruss spoke of his experience with the seniors, both in his dorm and on the tennis team.

“They’re always there for you whenever you reach out to them,” Gruss said. He explained his most memorable experience with the Class of 2015. In the midst of a particularly grueling tennis match, Gruss was tired, angry and frustrated.

“I was getting really down on myself, yelling and hitting my racquet,” he said. The two captains of the team approached Gruss, calmed him down and encouraged him to do his best.

This seemingly small act gave Gruss the courage and determination to go on to win his match and take home a victory for the team.

Gruss is reluctant to say goodbye to his friends in the Class of 2015.

“I’ll miss having people to look up to,” Gruss said. “It's frightening to think in two years I won't have anyone older then me to look up to.”

Lower Issay Matsumoto agreed with Gruss, but also hopes to pass on the experiences he has had with the seniors to the younger students that he encounters in the future.

“It's heartbreaking to see them go,” Matsumoto said. “But I am excited to pass on the gift that many of them gave me. Next year, I will be an upper, and that frightens me. But thanks to my team members, dorm mates, classmates, bandmates and friends in the class of 2015, I feel somewhat assured that I will make it.”

New Dress Code Says No to Neckties DRESS CODE, continued from A1 options for a gender neutral dress code. They were called “Option 1” and “Option 2,” with the former being more relaxed than the latter. The first option removed the necktie but would see only a small decrease in formality.

The second option also removed the necktie but required students to wear a sweater or blazer in its place. The two drafts were both based off a rationale written by the two committee co-heads at the time.

According to an article regarding StuCo that was published in The Exonian on Feb. 12, the rationale was based on gender equity. “The current dress code holds male and female students to different standards; it is far more relaxed for ‘girls’ than it is for ‘boys,’ whose dress code is both more formal and enforceable,” Cohen, Holdheim and Lemmerman wrote. “The standards set by the dress code perpetuate negative gender stereotypes—specifically, that girls are less professional than boys.”

The debate on campus centered around two topics—the necktie and its necessity.

For the removal of the necktie, Option 1 was especially progressive. It abolished the requirement of a tie for any student, which has become an important symbol of Exeter’s seriousness of purpose and tradition to students and alumni alike. To add to the debate, there was a constituent group of dissenters that did not think a gender neutral dress code was important or necessary on campus.

At a StuCo meeting on Feb. 24, both options were presented and subsequently voted on. Students voted 54-30 in favor of Option 1, selecting it as the final proposal to be presented to faculty with a StuCo endorsement. Ultimately, however, both drafts written were presented at Faculty Meeting on May 4. During their meeting, the faculty possessed the ability to implement any changes they wished to either proposal.

On that day, the faculty, who heard the proposal for the first time, debated its pros and cons. The teachers did not have time to conclude discussions formally and so did not reach a final consensus until one week later. On May 11, a vocal vote was held and Option 1 passed by a large majority.

The new regulations require all students to wear a dress shirt, sweater, turtleneck, dress or ethnic attire to required appointments. The dress code defines a dress shirt as a blouse, polo or collared shirt.

Hats, athletic wear, strapless tops or tops with straps fewer than two inches wide, t-shirts, clothing with hemlines above the fingertips and clothing in disrepair are all banned as attire worn to class under the new dress code.

This new dress code was put into effect on June 1, 2015 and will continue to serve as

the new guideline for both new and returning Exonians in the fall.

Although it has only been six days since the proposal’s initiation, many look forward to experiencing the full effects of the dress code as they become more noticeable at the beginning of the 2015-16 school year. Cohen is one of them.

“We think that this change will have a really powerful effect on the Exeter community,” Cohen said. “We don’t think it will just change the way that people dress, but also the way that students perceive each other. Getting everyone on a level playing field will have sort of a ripple effect within the community, in terms of gender equity.”

Lemmerman, a policy co-head for most of the 2014-15 school year, had similar thoughts. “I sincerely hope that this change makes Exeter a more welcoming place in a multitude of ways, particularly gender equality and the recognition of non-binary gender identities.”

“I also hope it invites discussion about what the change means for us symbolically pertaining to gender as well as in terms of class and how we consider professionalism,” she added. Many faculty and students on campus expressed their gratitude for the changes, both because standards for males or females were leveled and because those who do not identify as either gender were no longer in troubling positions.

“I think that [the dress code] makes a statement that we want to make all students as comfortable in their own skin as possible,” science instructor Jeffrey Ward said. “We are not trying to put the proverbial square peg into the round hole. In addition, it levels the playing field for both boys and girls.”

One genderqueer student, senior Jren Blackwell, supported the dress code change because it removed confusion for transgender students who did not know under what circumstances they had to wear a tie or dress.

Upper Julia Bornemann found yet another positive aspect of the new dress code.

“I loved that, while quite formal, the previous dress code allowed enormous room for creativity and expression through fashion choices, which the new dress code appears to maintain,” she said.

More broadly, Cohen connected the revised dress code to the political and personal views of many Exonians on campus.

“I think that this is a really important step towards matching the values of Exeter with the actions of the Exeter community,” Cohen said. “We have really liberal values here, and now we are taking a step towards acting in a liberal way, and being accepting towards all students.”

NEWS

THE EXONIAN

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SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Alison Dowski/The Exonian

Students hold signs to raise awareness for the missing girls in Nigeria.

MacFarlane Plans for Tenure as Principal School Renovations Reviewed, Planned

By HENRIETTA REILY Staff Writer

After the announcement of Principal Tom Hassan’s retirement in July and a globe-wide search for his replacement, Dr. Lisa MacFarlane was selected in February as the final and most qualified candidate. She will begin her role as principal Sept. 1, 2015 For the past few months, Exeter has organized receptions worldwide to bid Hassan farewell and welcome MacFarlane as she is ushered into her new leadership position. These events welcomed past, current and future students as well as parents, and since Hassan’s retirement, alumni and current students together have celebrated Hassan’s legacy. MacFarlane’s parents, Neil and Ora MacFarlane, attended the reception held in Los Angeles.

Her mother, Ora, recalled a humorous moment when Dr. MacFarlane received the news. “When her children

found out that Lisa was the new principal, they purchased Exeter gear for her and said, ‘Congratulations, you’ve finally been admitted to Exeter!’”

John Palfrey, principal of Phillips Academy Andover, sent an email congratulating MacFarlane. He also recognized the amusing situation between the two — Palfrey being a graduate of Exeter and MacFarlane being a graduate of Andover. “Lisa is supportive of both Exeter and Andover. Although there is a rivalry between the schools, they are very much alike,” he said.

The family is looking forward to MacFarlane’s coming years serving the Academy. “She’s preparing for the transition, and I’m very proud of her,” Ora MacFarlane said.

Many students are optimistic about the upcoming year of change across campus. Lower Christine Hu viewed the change as another opportunity to address many important and relevant

social issues, like race, sexual abuse and gender.

“I really hope that with the new principal, some of the old policies that the majority of students are unhappy with will see more discussion and reform,” she said. While not expectant of radical change, at least immediately, she said that pushing for reform sooner rather than later would win her more respect among students.

Others were excited that the chosen candidate was a female. Of the past 14 principals at the Academy, 13 have been male. Prep Alyssa Kuwana said that because of her gender, Dr. MacFarlane will have “new perspectives” to offer.

MacFarlane informed the PEA community that her ex-husband, currently a resident in Exeter, had been jailed for inappropriate sexual conduct around a minor. However, most search See PRINCIPAL, A6

Academy Bids Farewell, Wishes Hassan the Best

By PHILIP KUHN and ALAN LIU Staff Writers

In the past 26 years, Principal Tom Hassan has served in seven different roles at the Academy, involving himself and his family in the PEA community. An adviser, instructor and leader, he will be sorely missed by students and faculty as he passes the principalship to current UNH Provost Lisa MacFarlane this fall.

Hassan started his career at Exeter as a math instructor in 1989. Since then, in his 26 years at the Academy, he has served as a college counselor, the director of college counseling, director of admissions, dean of admissions, assistant principal, principal and principal instructor.

During his six-year principalship, Hassan has prioritized many changes that have supported the well-being of the student body. Two significant changes stand out; the reduction of the number of Saturday classes and the revamping of the daily schedule.

A fact unknown to many students: Hassan assumed the principalship during the greatest downturn in the global economy since the Great Depression. Nonetheless, he made the best of what he could, given the circumstances.

Dean of Faculty Ron Kim commented on Hassan’s “remarkable” achievements. “During that [economic] crisis, the extent to which he supported the people on campus and protected the priorities that the Academy holds most dear were significant moments of leadership,” Kim said. “He has since stabilized the Academy and placed it on a footing to continue to do great things.”

Through all of the roles he has served, Hassan has strived to preserve Exeter’s academic excellence. During his time he has overseen many academic advancements such as Exeter’s partnerships with The Noble Academy in Chicago and Stanford University.

These partnerships have helped create a wide variety of classes and off-campus opportunities. In fact, Exeter now offers a new course in its Upper School summer program that collaborates with Stanford in an examination of the process of creativity.

Hassan has also worked on many similar developments for the summer session.

In addition to Exeter’s strong academic culture, Hassan has also strengthened its “internal” culture by ensuring stronger connections among the adults on campus as well as the celebration of the community’s incredible diversity that he has helped grow over the past years.

“I have made sure that we are not just bringing ‘youth from every quarter’ but ensuring that both students and teachers are ‘in’ and ‘for' every quarter through greatly enhanced global outreach efforts,” Hassan said.

To further cultivate the Academy’s diversity, Hassan helped make Exeter more accessible to middle and low income families through adjustments to the financial aid program. He launched an initiative that now allows families earning $75,000 or less to send their children to Exeter for free.

Despite all of his time-consuming work, Hassan still managed to remain connected with both the faculty, staff and student body. Kim, who has worked very closely with Hassan for the past four years, commented on the various ways Hassan has helped inspire and lead the faculty during his everyday work. “He has

By JOONHO JO and LINDSEY JORDAN Staff Writers

Several Academy buildings underwent renovations during the 2014-15 school year and more are set to be restored in the upcoming months, including an annex to the Forrestal-Bowld Music Center and a brand new performing arts center.

The new Library Commons was finalized during the spring break of 2015 and opened Mar. 24 for student and faculty use. Decorated with neat red and yellow carpeting and brown couches, the new lounge area allows students to study, socialize, and relax. The room also includes a small café, which offers snacks and coffee. The Commons also provides a classroom, adorned with a 60-inch LCD monitor and a Harkness table, for classes that need a space to meet when using the library. The Commons will serve as a convenient place for student events due to the movable furniture and movie screen, which is to be installed soon, according to Academy Librarian Gail Scanlon.

Upper Hannah Cherenfant, who attended a reception held for the opening of the facility, said the room will aptly accommodate students who want to socialize in the library, saying “the new layout makes it seem a lot like a lounge or a classier, more study-oriented Agora.”

Other students agreed with Cherenfant, adding that the revamped ground floor will attract more students to the library. Some, however, such as lower Alejandro Arango, disagree. Arango believes that the Commons may become overcrowded, and thus thwart a constructive academic atmosphere. “Some people I’ve talked to are concerned the Library Commons will become like an extension of the Grill, which is loud and hard to get work done in,” he said. “Socializing, I’m sure, won’t be an issue.”

Despite this concern, both students and faculty agree that the library has taken a step forward, with the more modern and open concept design. Along with making the space more modern, the renovation worked to put in new woodwork and less costly, more environmentally See RENOVATIONS, A6

Ferguson Events Spark Reactions Across Campus

By NOLAN PEACOCK and HENRIETTA REILY Staff Writers

Courtesy of Communications

Tom Hassan will be succeeded by Lisa MacFarlane. given me tremendous opportunities to learn and to grow, and for that, I am grateful,” Kim said.

“When you work for a leader, you want to know that he or she is working really hard and that he or she is someone whose values are clear and unassailable and who lives those values,” Kim continued. “We have all been very fortunate to study, live and work in a place with a principal who embodies those critical characteristics.”

Hosting events like study breaks at his house, ice cream socials and “Pancakes with the Principal,” Hassan has seen his relationship with the student body as an important part of his job and has tried to stay close with many students since his arrival at the Academy.

“I have always been a math teacher and adviser—two roles that have given me strong connections with students which I so enjoy,” Hassan said.

Many students feel Hassan has done a great job finding time for students in his busy schedule. According to lower Niels Schrage, Hassan always initiates conversation with him when they run into each other at Exeter and even San Francisco.

“He is a super friendly guy,” Schrage said. “When I see him on the path, he will always stop and ask how my day is going in a very genuine manner. In my experience, he does a good job reaching out to students as the principal of the school.”

Hassan’s care for students extends to the classroom as well.

Principals at Exeter traditionally teach one class a year; during his principalship, Hassan has taught Math 130 every spring term.

Hassan took great pride in this job and was always attentive to his students’ needs.

“Mr. Hassan’s greatest strength is his patience and genuine interest in helping some of our more modest math students,” Chair of the Math Department Eric Bergofsky said. “Our program can

See HASSAN, A6

This year, racial tensions across the country reemerged and ran at levels not seen since the days of the Civil Rights Movement, after an unarmed black man in Ferguson, MO was shot by a white police officer. Beginning with the case of Michael Brown in late summer and continuing to the recent case of Freddie Gray, there has been a national focus on the growing number of unarmed black men being killed by law enforcement officers. In 2015 alone, more than 300 unarmed black men were gunned down by police.

Amidst discussion, protests and demonstrations, people from all walks and races across the country are calling for justice, and Exeter is no exception. Many members of the Academy community have made their voices heard and hope to bring about change and discussions of the institutionalized racism that many believe the school structurally possesses. Action on campus has taken form in a die-in, moments of silence, demonstrations, discussions and assemblies, all in an effort to increase awareness of the problem that people believe plagues not only Exeter, but also the nation.

Religion instructor and former Dean of Multicultural Affairs Russell Weatherspoon said that this school year stood out, and he has seen “a full range of emotion while all these things are going on, and that is a good thing.”

Weatherspoon said that Exeter is not isolated from the complex and problematic racial activity that is occurring within the nation. In his opinion, the Academy is thus not exempt from the need to address the issues, though he hoped that they could be discussed without many more “national events that sometimes bring with them violence and destruction.” However, Weatherspoon said that he understood that such anger and violence stemmed from frustration with the systemic oppression minority groups continue to face.

Brown’s death in the late summer months forced the nation to confront the serious issue of racism, one which many students feel has been out of the spotlight See FERGUSON, A6

A6

THE EXONIAN

NEWS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

MacFarlane Plans for Future Campus Buildings Face Renovations PRINCIPAL, continued from A3 committee members and believe that her qualifications rendered her husband’s actions irrelevant to her candidacy, and would not impact her ability to lead Exeter in the coming years.

Overall, the mood surrounding her selection has been overwhelmingly positive. The search committee and trustees said that while the candidate pool was impressive, the final decision was made enthusiastically and nearly unanimously. Nearly all who have had the opportunity to spend time with Dr. MacFarlane said that they were impressed by her work and personality.

“She stood out among a very talented and experienced group of candidates… because she deeply understands and cherishes Exeter; she exhibited a creative yet realistic view of the changes Exeter may make as its world changes; she is exceptionally poised and confident, yet absolutely warm and approachable,” outgoing President of the Trustees Tom Hutton said.

Hassan wholeheartedly agreed, reporting a smooth process with an ideal result. He explained that from knowing MacFarlane during her time affiliated with Exeter in the past, “I am certain that she’s going to be a perfect fit.” He also was reassuring that he will work with her in upcoming months to ensure the smoothest transition possible.

Beth Kilinc, administrative director for Education Abroad at the UNH Center for International Education, who has previously worked with Dr. MacFarlane on projects, said that she is “exceptionally insightful, thoughtful, engaging, caring and a visionary, strategic thinker.”

Kilinc also said that during her time at UNH, MacFarlane has had a “deep impact” across the campus in her many roles ranging from teaching, researching, and working administratively.

When asked about the reaction at UNH to MacFarlanes announcement of departure, she explained that while there was

“sadness that she will no longer be a leader at UNH,” most were “thrilled for her personally because we know how committed she is to [Exeter].”

History Department chair Bill Jordan, who knows MacFarlane from his experience as a grad student at UNH in the 90s, described her as “down-to-earth and approachable, yet also an accomplished scholar,” which he named a unique combination.

“It will be great to have someone at the helm who is an intellectual, who is comfortable exploring and discussing new ideas, but who is also a people person,” Jordan said. He added that he trusts her background, which he hope will enable her to be comfortable with debate and occasional necessary disagreement.

Since the announcement and closing of the principal search process, all reports have been positive. However, those who have not had a chance to meet or spend time with her remained somewhat unsure.

Upper Chris Lee said that while he was optimistic and trusted the process, “I don't think we’ve had enough time or information to fairly judge Dr. MacFarlane yet.”

Students that have had more time with her formulated more concrete opinions, all of which were positive.

Upper Cesar Zamudio, who toured MacFarlane on one of her visits to campus soon after she was hired, said that she seemed eager and enthused throughout the visit, and he left feeling confident of her capabilities.

Community members, in general, are excited to get to know MacFarlane and see how she performs upon her official arrival in the fall. Many felt unable to yet formulate an opinion, but were pleased with all that they’d heard so far.

Kuwana said that while she remained uncertain about “how the transition of principals will go, since she has had prior leadership experiences… she’ll be a great addition.”

Principal Hassan Retires After Twenty-Six Years HASSAN, continued from A3 be somewhat intimidating to these students, and Mr. Hassan has the soft touch and right personality to put these students at ease and help them achieve their best.”

According to lower Olivia Liponis, Hassan created a unique “Top Tens” system in which he assigned a ten problem hand-in a week before a test to help his students learn the material and prepare for tests. He gave individual feedback to each student’s hand-in, and as a result made studying for tests significantly easier—a difficult feat when it comes to math assessments.

At the same time, Hassan added a touch of liveliness to the classroom. “Principal Hassan was a great teacher—his class was fun and interesting,” Liponis said. “He always asked us how our day was going and what we thought of assembly and things like that.”

Hassan’s upbeat and friendly personality will be immensely missed next year. Hassan announced his retirement through an all-school email on July 1. He attached a letter he had written to president of trustees Tom Hutton as well as Hutton’s response. He hopes his retirement will let him focus on his family needs more. His wife, Maggie Hassan, now serves as governor of New Hampshire.

“But, as you all know, Maggie and I balance two large jobs with significant and unique family commitments,” Hassan wrote in his email. “I find myself drawn to a new chapter in increasing my support of Maggie’s work as New Hampshire governor. In addition, our son, Ben, will require our support and attention in new ways in the coming years.” The Hassans’ daughter, Meg, graduated from the Academy in 2010.

Throughout next year, Hassan

also plans to focus on his role as First Gentleman of New Hampshire and push his “Help Out New Hampshire” Initiative.

The initiative was launched last year; according to a press release by Gov. Hassan, it will “promote the spirit of volunteerism throughout the state.” Mr. Hassan has already visited and talked to volunteer groups across New Hampshire’s ten counties.

Gov. Hassan commented on her husband’s work at Exeter, of which both her and her husband have been very “proud.” As he begins to focus more on the initiative and his role as First Gentleman, she believes the people of New Hampshire “will benefit greatly from his service.”

Both Gov. Hassan and Principal Hassan will miss Exeter dearly and are grateful for all the wonderful opportunities the school has brought them.

“It has been an honor to be part of such a special place for the last 26 years, and Tom, our family and I are deeply grateful for the love and support that the Exeter community has shown us over the years,” she said. “Exeter is a great place to learn, work and live, and we look forward to maintaining our friendship with the Exeter family.

Likewise, Hassan will be greatly missed by the Exeter community but will always be remembered through the happy memories he created and great achievements he accomplished.

“Personally, I will really miss his ability to change a day from being bad to good,” Schrage said.

“He just always knew how you were feeling and how to lift up your spirits. He has shown such love and dedication to the school for such a long time. His departure will affect everyone in one way or another.”

RENOVATIONS, friendly lighting fixtures which served as a model for the rest of building. Scanlon said that these renovations were a starting point for the library to “test drive” what could be done to the rest of the building. Similar to the library renovations, the music building is also undergoing largescale improvements that look to affect the music program for years to come.

In May of 2015, the construction to the music building began and if all goes according to plan, it will be finished for the fall of 2016. The upgraded building will contain a performance/rehearsal space, which will be able to seat around 250-300 people. Additionally, the upgrades include a new technology center, which will be an extension of the current music library, a classroom with a Harkness table, a musicianship studio and several other large rehearsal studios. According to Peter Schultz, chair of the music department, this renovation will go a long way in “alleviating the space crunch [the music building is] currently experiencing.”

Not only do faculty recognize the tight space in the music building, but students have also experienced that many groups or clubs performing, rehearsing and meeting in the building have a tough time with room management. “I remember multiple instances where a group wouldn’t have a large enough place to practice and were all crammed into an extremely small room, which is certainly not ideal,” lower Matthew Hambacher said. “For clubs that meet in the Harkness room (mainly Chess Club), that will also be useful.” Whether it’s the Concert Band or the Symphony Orchestra, each concert or rehearsal in the church becomes a tight fit. Phillips Church, which is not meant to be a performance space, has been overcrowded by both performers and audiences for the past several years.

“We hope that our new addition will enable us to do the vast majority of our performances [in the music building], rather than in the church,” Schultz said. In addition to the space for performances, the new concert halls will allow competitive music students to record in better acoustics.

“I think the new performance halls will have the biggest impact on me,” lower Roger Shen said. “It'll be a lot better for making video recordings to send to competitions and eventually college applications.”

Along with the new performing and rehearsing spaces, the music building will for the first time ever have a Harkness classroom. “[The music department] hopes that in addition to being a wonderful place to teach classes, it will make a statement about the seriousness of music as both an intellectual and artistic pursuit,” Schultz said. The

continued from A3 theater department will also be getting a makeover, but unlike the music building, it will be building a brand new theater on Court Street.

The theater department has and is currently working with architects to design a new theater stationed on Court Street in place of the the tennis courts. A date is yet to be set for when the building will be out of the “design phase,” according to theater instructor Robert Richards. Richards has been working with architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien to create the most “effective, practical and inspiring,” facility that will benefit the theater and dance departments.

The renovation could still be in the design phase well into summer, Richards said. The renovation will begin to “break ground” as soon as the architects finish the total layout in blueprints.

Department members and the architects are still discussing each floor and have yet to cover room dimensions, wall colors, windows, elevators or other important details.

According to the Exeter Bulletin, the newly built theater will be a 56,000-square-foot center and include a large main stage, orchestra pit and a “lobby capable of hosting events.” The theater will accommodate teaching, rehearsals, technical design, storage and craft. Richards said the theater and dance departments were in need of a building that accommodated the program and those in the department are excited to have the new space. “Fisher Theater was built before there was a theater department, so to have it follow our vision is a tremendous acknowledgement for the arts at Exeter and our gratitude is just unlimited. This [building] will be a whole new approach and I’m sure there will be a transition phase [when we move into it], but we are beyond excitement,” Richards said.

Upper Keji Oladinni, who was in the mainstage musical last term, agreed that the new building will be a big step for the theater department, and said she thinks the whole department will be affected positively by the change. “I mean even though the theater has a lot of character and it’s really old, I think [a new center] will just legitimize the theater department even more.” Oladinni said. “While it is a really legitimate department and people respect it, the space is really messy and it’s old, and I think making it nicer in general will probably affect the quality of the shows because we’ll just have better resources and space.”

The library Commons, the music building expansion and the rebuilding of the theater are three major advancements that Exeter has undertaken this past school year.

“I hope the renovations, like the library commons, will be beneficial for the Academy,” lower Erik Carlson said.

Campus Discusses Racial Concerns FERGUSON, continued from A3 for years. This realization that the nation is not, in many ways, a post-racial one, was a shock to some. Lower Kelechi Nwankwoala remembers a time when he himself did not regularly consider the issues and “didn’t know what institutionalized racism was, what the difference between equity and equality [was].” Nwankwoala added that circumstances like his own are why he feels the diversity training suggested by many groups on campus needs to be implemented. He feels that the training could be very effective, even for those who are already learned on these issues. He and others have worked diligently to have their diversity training proposal heard and voted on in faculty meetings, but have not yet been allotted a meeting time.

Nwankwoala stressed the fact that everyone, no matter their background, has more to learn. “There’s no limit to how much you can learn about this,” Nwankwoala said.

He and others also explained that race is not by any means the sole issue of social justice the Academy and America needs to face. “[I]t isn’t just about race, but gender and sexuality too,” he added. Nwankwoala has been involved in several organizations on campus that have made efforts to bring about change. He participated in the Die-in and a march to bring light to the hundreds of missing schoolgirls in Nigeria that was organized by the Nigerian Culture Club. “I feel like students are going to have to generate the change we want to see on campus,” Nwankwoala said. “I’d hope that part of what is happening is that [the] faculty is beginning to focus on how race affects us. I hope people do not stay silent.”

English instructor Matt Miller said that he didn’t feel he had done enough to address these issues, and that he was surprised to see that the administration took no real stand on the matter. “It surprised me that we haven’t been talking about it more in classes and more administratively,” Miller said. “There’s so much we’re trying to do here, but this does feel like it should be a priority.”

Dean of Multicultural Affairs Rosanna Salcedo agreed with Miller and stated that as a community, “we’re not good at stopping what we’re doing to reflect on something that is happening elsewhere.” Salcedo explained that there was a severe lack of acknowledgement of the events in Ferguson due to the intense Exonian lifestyle.

“We’re generally absorbed with our respective jobs, that paper we’re writing, the test we need to study for,” Salcedo said. She nevertheless acknowledged that there were many individuals on campus who were making an effort to increase awareness of these issues. However, she also issued a call for the school to make public its stance on some of the major issues in our society. “The school should make explicit statements about what things are not acceptable in this community,” Salcedo said. “Racism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, religious and other types of intolerance based on any aspect of a person’s identity are not acceptable, and micro aggressions should be recognized and dealt with when they occur.”

Miller agreed with Salcedo, and said that diversity training would be of good use to both students and faculty.

“When there’s controversial language in the text we are reading, we need to be able to talk about that, whether it pertains to race or gender or class," Miller said.

Die-in organizer, previous ALES Vice President and senior Katie Casado explained the motivation behind the Die-in, and her hopes for the school going forward. “It was to show solidarity with other protesters in America, but also to show students that, although Exeter is a safe place theoretically and ideally, your classmates are worried that they will be those names in the news,” she said.

Casado added that while she has seen “so much student

activism,” of which she is proud, she hoped that their would be administrative authentication from either the deans or Principal Tom Hassan. “It would be really validating for the Principal to make a statement or encourage a statement or a conversation on campus,” she said.

Casado echoed Nwankwoala and Miller’s wish for more diversity education and awareness on campus.

“I think more support institutionally for students of color is necessary,” Casado said. “We need to be able to have open conversations about sexuality and gender. U.S. history teachers must talk for more than a day on slavery and the marginalization and racism this country has had such a big role in.” Casado added that these proposed changes would have a positive impact on both the school and the community that is absolutely necessary. She said that the diversity at the school is not at the level needed for a community that claims to bring together “youth from every quarter.” She added that “[i]f we become a school that actively brings social issues to light, more people would want to come here. There’s no point in talking about youth from every quarter when you mean 15 youth from the inner city and that’s the extent of your affirmative action.”

Upper Tierra McClain said that this year has signified a shift in the role of ALES as a club from one that “simply meets every week to talk” and one that is “really active.”

McClain said that because there is continued grief, frustration and confusion, it is absolutely necessary that the a sense of urgency remains in the club about current events, and it is vital that they “find mediums to express that frustration and grief.” She said that trying to push boundaries and press for change will continue to be necessary. “Even as we’re here, really important things are going on around the world and the country,” McClain said.

Discussion on campus, however, has been halted somewhat due to apprehensive students who do not wish to offend others. McClain explained the importance of discussion in facilitating change. “Discussions about race can be so difficult because it’s understandable that no one wants to be the bad guy or say the wrong thing,” McClain said. “But it’s so dangerous when nothing is said. That spark or courage to say anything is so important.”

While many of the events that aimed to bring light to racism in the community and the country more broadly have been regarded as successful, some members of the Academy community have turned them into opportunities for humor, disregarding the purpose and sincerity of such events. History instructor Erik Wade said that he hopes that students who joked about the demonstrations “have enough courage someday to have serious conversations about the issues of the day.”

Wade added that while he was pleased with the amount of racial awareness on campus this year, he is not convinced that the same fire will return next year.

“These responses have been a good start to what’s obviously an ongoing conversation about violence and inequality on a variety of levels in the US since its inception, and not simply limited to issues tied to race,” Wade said. “I’m optimistic about the vibe on campus, yet I’m curious to see if it sustains itself moving into next year.”

Salcedo shares Wade’s optimism and hopes that students remain cognizant of the commitment necessary to bring about concrete change.

“Social consciousness is not something you develop in one day,” Salcedo said. “It requires a life-long commitment to critical inquiry, self-reflection, and engagement with others—with difference. My hope is that individually, collectively and institutionally, we will want to continue to develop our consciousness.”

THE EXONIAN

NEWS

A7

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Academy Gives Thanks to Senior Class Representatives

By MELISSA LU Staff Writer

As the Class of 2015 departs, its members owe thanks to their officers—Senior Class President Stephanie Chen, Vice President Jad Seligman and Treasurer Paul Lei—who have worked tirelessly to make this year special for the senior class.

The senior class officers act as liaisons between the seniors, faculty and alumni, and also worked to promote class spirit through social events. The three each hold a five-year term, extending after graduation. During that time, the officers are responsible for keeping the class up to date on classmates’ activities after graduation and organizing the traditional five-year reunion.

This year’s senior class officers were especially successful in raising funds. At the beginning of the year, the class was $1600 in debt, but Lei, with the help of Chen and Seligman, managed to raise funds, ending the year with an extra $800. The success of fundraising strategies such as class gear, Exeter/Andover gear and bake sales enabled the officers to fund many events for the senior class.

Among the many senior class activities, there were two senior grill nights, multiple mixers, a faculty/seniors dodgeball game, a survivor game, a senior cookout, a special senior meditation book and a senior beach day. The officers also helped plan the senior/faculty dinner, senior night, prom and graduation.

Chen, Seligman and Lei also worked extensively on the class gift—the Principal Hassan Class of 2015 Prom Fund. The fund will provide students on financial aid the opportunity to attend prom, which is often costly. The gift will benefit the Exeter community long after the senior class has graduated.

In determining the class gift, the officers sought their peers’ advice. After holding several discussions and debating multiple options, the group decided the prom fund was the best choice.

The fund will help alleviate the burden of prom ticket costs for financial aid students who would otherwise be unable to attend prom, a cherished Academy tradition. This gift will not benefit the Class of 2015, but will benefit future classes. Seligman described the reasoning behind their non sibi class gift and their hopes to honor Principal Tom Hassan.

“The intent was, since our gift is supposed to honor Principal Hassan in his departure, to mirror his love of community and the Exeter community by helping to create one that is more inclusive and allows more students to enjoy a

tradition that may not be accessible to them otherwise,” Seligman said.

More than 88 percent of the Class of 2015 participated in the fundraising, placing them among the highest in participation in recent years.

The Class of 2015’s class gift reflects the nature of the class itself. The officers described their class as particularly “inclusive,” and similarly, the gift hopes to create an all-inclusive environment on prom night. Since prom night is one of the last moments the senior classes have together, the officers found it important that everyone in each class be together at the event.

“I think it’s fitting that we are trying to emphasize community with our gift, because I think our class has a really strong and distinct sense of community, as well as a bond that ties us together in a way that I’d argue is unique,” Seligman said.

Lei added that with their senior class gift that serves not their class, but rather future classes, the seniors hope to “leave a legacy imbued with a sense of non-sibi” and “to be remembered as a selfless class.”

Seniors are exuberant with the choice of their class gift, appreciating specifically the gift’s creativity. Senior Margaret Cohen said “I love the senior class gift. It’s kind of a clever way to help students in the future that was thought of ‘outside the box.’ I think it’s a great cause, and I’m so glad we as a class picked it.”

Many seniors appreciated how the senior class officers worked to make their class happy.

“They really knew how to create the kinds of events that people actually enjoy. I went to a couple of the senior night events. They all went super well, and I had a great time,” Cohen said.

Each of the officers played an important role in their success as a group. Senior class adviser and science instructor Alison Hobbie commended each for their individual contributions.

“Stephanie is a cheerful, dedicated leader, willing to take on any task and guide others to helping accomplish what needs to be done. Paul is the money-man, always thinking creatively about how we can increase our resources and use them to create the most successful events,” Hobbie said. “Jad is an enthusiastic organizer, eager to build interest in the class for participation in every activity, from dodgeball to class gift donation.”

Hobbie added that the “diversity of talents” among the officers complemented each other.

The amalgamation of their individual traits created an exceptional chemistry and bond

Jonathan Ye/The Exonian

The Class of 2015 Representatives: Paul Lei, Stephanie Chen and Jad Seligman. between the three that, in turn, enabled them to create a memorable last year for the seniors.

Senior class adviser Cheryl Rotondo described the three as a team that “would bounce ideas off each other at the meetings and follow up sometimes amongst themselves.” The officers were always working, often beyond their required time commitment, in hopes of perfecting each event. The three communicated extensively among themselves and with the advisers and the class.

Chen, Seligman and Lei felt honored to serve the Class of 2015. The officers all appreciated the opportunity to give back to the group that shaped their Exeter experience.

“I was honored to be elected as Senior Class President. It has been a pleasure working with Jad and Paul and our class advisors.​It has truly been a rewarding experience,” Chen said.

Now that the year has to come to an end, the torch will be passed on to the Class of 2016 senior class officers with Kevin Zhen as the new Senior Class President and Levon Brunson and Chudi Ikpeazu as the co-Vice Presidents.

Students and faculty alike have expressed confidence in the new class officers. Senior and Student Council (StuCo) Vice President Robert Connor, having worked alongside Zhen specifically on the StuCo Executive Board, commented that Zhen will make a strong and amicable leader for his class.

“Kevin’s down-to-earth appeal and warmth will serve him very well as Senior

Class President. I have no doubt that all of his speeches and events will unite his class and lead to a higher degree of camaraderie,” Connor said.

All three officers believe that they will work well together, each having previous leadership experience. Brunson previewed their plans for the upcoming year, explaining that they hope to positively impact the senior class as well as the general community.

“We have plans to get gear for the class much earlier in the year, properly organize assassin and have at least one major event per term and several smaller budget ones throughout such as gym nights, scavenger hunts and class socials,” Brunson said. “I’d also like to work with StuCo to make some concrete change on the mental health issue on campus and to plan events throughout the year that will help seniors get through the dreaded fall and winter terms.”

The Class of 2015 senior class officers led by example. Undoubtedly, their leadership will inspire following officers to work just as hard. As the senior role is passed down from the Class of 2015 to the Class of 2016, Exonians anticipate that the trend of strong leaders will continue.

While the Academy will miss the Class of 2015 dearly, the community also looks forward to the class’ continued impact on the community and watching the Class of 2016 develop as a senior class under the leadership of Zhen, Brunson and Ikpeazu.

Cum Laude Society Bhargav S. Arimilli Alessandro G. Caruccio Sol S. Chase Janet Chen Janice Chung* Henry M. Connolly Nicholas Y. Diao Ailis C. Dooner Nicole Don* Olivia A. Draper Ruby M. Epler Moises Escobar Jane J. Eun Erick Y. Friis Drew C. Goydan Nicholas H. Grounds Mirella Gruesser-Smith* Clara A. Hobbie Benjamin J. Hogoboom Sachin Holdheim* Amanda Hu

Kiyomasa M. Hu Jay W. Lee* Jing Cheng Lei* William T. Li Natasha Lim* Katharine Liptak David D. Liu Madeline Logan* Caroline M. Lu Ruby Malusa* Kelly McCarthy* Alice L. McCrum Meghan R. Michel Torpong Nitayanont Jeanne Olivier* Trang Q. Pham Rachel F. Sachs Gabriella Sanchez Christina S. Savvides Danna N. Shen Winston B. Smith

Zoë O. Sudduth Metincan Suran Lydia A. Sylla Saisha Talwar Peter T. Thompson Dana Tung* Andrew C. Turner Brandon K. Wang Elizabeth Wei* Kuo-An Wei Alex Weitzman Parker S. Wild Ellen Xiang* Andrew Z. Xu Grace Yin* Katherine E. Ying Sang Jun Yoo Ann Yao Zhang Catherine Zhu * denotes a student who was inducted early to the Cum Laude Society.

Exonians Recognized for Academic Excellence

By JOONHO JO Staff Writer

In Oct. 2014, Phillips Exeter Academy recognized the 15 early members of the Cum Laude Society, seniors Janice Chung, Nicole Don, Mirella Gruesser-Smith, Sachin Holdheim, Jay Lee, Paul Lei, Natasha Lim, Madeline Logan, Ruby Malusa, Kelly McCarthy, Jeanne Oliver, Dana Tung, Elizabeth Wei, Ellen Xiang and Grace Yin. The seniors were chosen for the selective group because their grade point averages ranked among the top five percent of the senior class.

These 15 students were the first members of the Class of 2015 to be inducted into the esteemed Cum Laude Society. On the last day of spring term, the next 15 percent of seniors with the highest grade point averages were inducted. The organization and layout of the two-step process is administered each year by a group of Exeter faculty, the Phillips Exeter Cum Laude Society chapter. Member of the Phillips Exeter Cum Laude Society chapter and classical languages instructor Paul Langford explained the chapter’s composition.

“Faculty are invited annually to participate in Cum Laude,” Langford said. “Last I knew, the criteria was to have been a member of Cum Laude or National Honor Society in high school, or of Phi Beta Kappa in college.”

In addition to selecting the new members,

an important task, the small group of faculty also plan the Cum Laude receptions that take place in the beginning and end of each year.

This year’s early Cum Laude reception dinner, which was hosted for the 15 seniors and 14 faculty friends of their choice, was highlighted by a speech from religion instructor Thomas Simpson. According to Simpson, the main goal of his speech was to let these seniors enjoy the current moment, and to “stay attuned to the joy of life and learning.”

The “joy of learning” has been something these fifteen seniors have displayed in their time at Exeter, whether that be for two, three or four years. For senior Grace Yin, this excitement regarding academics sometimes caused stress and sleeplessness, but in the end, she was honored and excited that those nights resulted in a membership in Exeter’s Cum Laude Society. “​​I felt pretty honored to be selected as an early Cum Laude society member, and I was (and still am) glad that my stress and sleeplessness during the past three years have paid off,” Yin said.

However, although it is satisfying to see that the busy days and sleepless nights pay off, some of the early Cum Laude Society members do not believe that grades alone define what

a member of the Cum Laude Society should represent, thus pointing out a fault in the Cum Laude system at Exeter.

“Early Cum is an honor, but should not completely define success at Exeter,” senior Elizabeth Wei said. “There are more valuable things to take away from high school than an 11.0.”

In addition, Yin noted that early Cum Laude may be an unfair judgment of a student’s academic successes. She explained that there are often students who have an easier time achieving a high grade due to the course level, the atmosphere of the class or even the instructor.

“I do not believe that GPA is a very fair measurement. GPAs are funny numbers that are oftentimes affected by factors outside of a student’s intellectual ability, assuming that’s what they’re meant to measure,” Yin said. “For example, there are always ‘easy A’ classes or classes that are notoriously difficult.”

Despite this, determining the members of the Society with criteria besides grades seems to remain an unreasonable and impossible task.

At such a large institution as Phillips Exeter, not every teacher teaches every student, and because of this, judging and selecting the members of the Cum Laude Society by character or

personality becomes an impossibility for the Cum Laude Society chapter.

“Although the Society’s bylaws allow for the consideration of character in selection of members, we have not included that criterion,” Langford explained. “My memory is that, whenever the possibility is raised, we feel that the faculty members do not know all the potential inductees well enough to make decisions based on character.”

Senior and early inductee of the Cum Laude Society Paul Lei shared Langford’s view. “I believe that Cum Laude is a great way to award students academically,” he said. “Although it doesn’t account for a lot of makes up a person, it’s a good way to recognize academic performance.”

As with most academic awards and honors, there may be faults in the early Cum Laude selection process at Phillips Exeter. However, according to Langford, it is a useful way to acknowledge students who have accomplished many things at the Academy in the years that they have been here.

“As imperfect as any sort of academic distinction may be,” he said, “Cum Laude provides a way of recognizing students who have done outstanding work in a range of disciplines, usually over multiple years at the Academy.”​

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A8

NEWS

THE EXONIAN

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

New Dept. Heads Will Begin Five-Year Tenure

By PHILIP KUHN and HANNAH PIETTE Staff Writers

As the five-year term for department chairs ends, the heads of the health, theater and dance, English and science departments will turn over to the selected successors this fall. Health Instructor Michelle Soucy, English Instructor Ellen Wolff, Theater and Dance Instructor Robert Richards and Science Instructor Alison Hobbie will assume the positions of department heads from the current heads: Health Chair Carol Cahalane, English Chair Lundy Smith, Theater and Dance Chair Sarah Ream and Science Department Chair John Blackwell.

Members of each department nominate fellow members who they believe would make a successful new chairman and meet with the dean of faculty to decide via a department vote. The term of each department chair typically lasts five years, although all have the option to end their term earlier. Each chair also continues to teach classes during the five-year period.

According to Cahalane, each chair serves a similar function.

Chairs work with the other members of their department to maintain program excellence, assess the work of the department and department members and look for opportunities to innovate and make improvements in work. Much of the department chair’s role is to represent and manage the will of the department and potentially implement changes the department wants to see.

In addition, the chairs also take on the extra roles of overseeing hiring, managing spending and providing acknowledgement and support for colleagues.

However, each department chair also has different details they have to focus on. In the science department, the department chair has the unique job of overseeing the technicians that work for the department. Hobbie explained that, while Blackwell is not specifically their boss, he is still in charge of them.

See DEPARTMENT, A9

2015-16 Student Council Executive Board Elected

By HENRIETTA REILY Staff Writer

Rachel Luo/The Exonian

Members of the Academy’s Dance Company perform during the Fall Dance Concert.

Lost Faculty, Friends Remembered

By LINDSEY JORDAN and NOLAN PEACOCK Staff Writers

This past year, three treasured members of the Exeter community—retired faculty members Norval W. Rindfleich, Charles A. Compton and Robert F. Brownville—passed away.

Rindfleich served the Exeter community for 22 years before his passing. He was born in Los Angeles, CA in April of 1930, but spent the majority of his early years living with his family in Minnesota. After beginning college at the University of Minnesota, Rindfleich served in the U.S. Coast Guard for three years, assisting the country’s troops in the Korean War conflict. After being stationed in Long Beach, CA, Rindfleich resumed his studies at Long Beach City College. Following his graduation, Rindfleich earned a BA and an MA in English from the University of Chicago, where he was selected as a Woodrow Wilson scholar.

Rindfleich came to the Academy in the fall of 1968 and taught English until his departure from the Academy in 1990. Rindfleich was a valuable and cherished member of the staff during his tenure and lent his expertise to numerous programs on campus. During his time here, he served as an adviser for the Washington Intern Program and the School Year Abroad program. He also earned distinction as a Lewis Perry Professor of the Humanities.

Rindfleich is survived by his children Mary, Julie, Kate and Joe, and his five grandchildren, as well as his brothers, Nolan and Greg.

In addition, Compton, longtime faculty member and science department chair, passed away this year.

Compton was born in 1927 to parents Karl and Margaret Compton. As a child, Compton attended the Shady Hill School in Cambridge, MA. Compton had his first experience at Exeter during his high school years, when he attended the Academy from 1942 to 1946. After his graduation, Compton elected to stay close to home and studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for four years.

Following his undergraduate studies, Compton

earned a Master’s Degree in Education from Harvard University. After a three-year teaching stint at The Mt. Hermon School, Compton returned to Exeter, where he remained as a faculty member until his retirement in 1991.

During his time at the Academy, Compton taught science classes and served as the science department chair. He also coached the track, wrestling and crew teams and advised the rocket club.

Compton also spent one year at Malvern College in England where he was instrumental in the development and implementation of the Nuffield method, a teaching philosophy for instructing science. This system was widely accepted across the country and is still in use today.

After his departure from the Academy, Compton and his family moved to Sebastian, FL and assumed an active role in the community. Compton invested much of his time in the growth and rehabilitation of the local UnitarSee FACULTY, A9

Steven Kim/The Exonian

The Duke’s Men of Yale perform for students.

On Apr. 18, 550 students came to vote for the final round of Executive Board elections of Student Council (StuCo) as the club prepares for the 2015-2016 school year. Upper Rebecca Ju, upper Jun Park, and lower Joel Lotzkar will serve as next year’s president, vice president, and secretary, respectively. One week prior, in a primary election, Lotzkar had been named secretary and one vice presidential candidate had been eliminated from the field.

Ju’s campaign emphasized a renewed focus on mental health and communications between various on-campus constituencies.

Students, voters and current Executive Board members alike were pleased with the winners; the resulting team is one that was most described as cohesive and likely to work well together. Senior and previous StuCo president Benj Cohen said that they “are three excellent leaders” coming from a “really excellent” group of original candidates.

“I am excited that the school picked [Ju, Park, and Lotzkar],” he added, and explained that he looks forward to seeing them assume their new leaderships positions and take on innovative projects in the fall.

This campaign round was especially unique because of an unexpected candidate, upper Sean Taylor. While Taylor did not initially collect the signatures necessary to run legitimately, he and friends developed a campaign mocking the elections process.

Taylor posed as a candidate reminiscent of a communist dictatorship in “propaganda” videos and in posters that were plastered around campus.

His video garnered thousands of views on Taylor’s Facebook timeline, but near the election date, StuCo adviser and health instructor Carol Cahalane sent an email to students explaining that write-in votes—which Taylor and his supporters recommended voters to make use of—would not be counted in the process.

While some were offended by Taylor’s pseudo campaign, he and his friends stressed that it was done for the purpose of humor alone. Upper Sam Kushell said that they wanted to “make [the student body] laugh… We have tried our best to be careful not to offend anybody during the course of the campaign. This was a comedic endeavor, meant merely to parody and satirize, not to be malicious in any way.”

Indeed, the majority of students were amused. His comic posters that called for more opaque conversations surrounding the workings of the school were well-received and few saw them as great detractions from the voting and elections process on the whole.

The process continued as planned and ran smoothly. Support for Ju as next year’s president is high among many. Many praised her listening skills and tendency to place the needs and desires of others before her own.

See STUCO, A9

340 Newly Admitted Students Anticipate Arrival to Campus

By NOLAN PEACOCK Staff Writer

With an acceptance rate of just above 19 percent, the Academy received 2,345 applications this year, offering admission to 446. Among the 446 admitted, 340 agreed to arrive on campus this September to begin their first year at the Academy.

Director of Admissions Michael Gary said that this year’s applicant pool paralleled those of previous years. Gary noted the diversity and talents of all applicants and also commended the admitted students for their “wonderful breadth and depth of academic and extracurricular talent.”

This year’s accepted students were composed of 215 boys and 231 girls, female students making up 52 percent and male students making up 48 percent of the total of 446 students accepted. Another notable aspect of the accepted students is that the incoming Exonians features a higher percentage of boarders than the incoming students of previous years, with ninety percent of students boarding at Exeter. This contrasts the current standings of only seventy-five percent of students boarding across all grades.

In terms of financial aid, the Admissions Office estimates that around 47 percent of admitted students will be on some form of financial aid, with the remaining students paying the full tuition. Exeter will award $7.9 million in financial aid to the incoming class of 2019.

The class of 2019 also includes many student from stunning assortment of geographic and geopolitical backgrounds. “Admitted applicants hail from 38 states and 27 countries,” Gary said.

Diversity is one of the main aspects of boarding school that attract students. “I really liked the idea of having a community of people who were from all over and not from just six small towns in New Hampshire. I wanted to have some new experiences,” incoming prep Ingrid Bergill, sister of Niklas Bergill ‘14, said.

However, according to the incoming students, what sets Exeter aside from other schools is its use of the Harkness pedagogy and the consequential emphasis on discussion-based learning. Incoming prep Reina Matsumoto, sister of lower Issay Matsumoto, said that she is looking forward to transition from a traditional lecturebased learning environment to the Harkness table.

“At the school I’ve been attending for almost ten years, we have based our class discussions off hand-raising. As young kids this was a structure we needed, but as we began to grow up, the teachers became more and more biased on certain individuals, causing some students to talk more than others. At Exeter, the Harkness system is in place leading to a more balanced and equal discussion-based classes,” she said.

Ogechi Nwankwoala, sister of Kelechi Nwankwoala ‘17, echoed Matsumoto’s

See STUDENTS, A9

THE EXONIAN

NEWS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

A9

Ju, Park and Lotzkar Elected Exeter Remembers Lost Faculty To Serve on Executive Board FACULTY, continued from A8

STUCO, continued from A8 “I am really excited about [Ju],” Cohen said. While he described her as a quiet leader, he suggested that that trait would serve her well. “She is well-spoken and hardworking… this past year I have been really impressed with all the work she has done with the Rec Committee.” He added that she is also understanding and empathetic, which he expected will help her tackle issues of mental health on campus.

Alice Ju ‘14, StuCo president during the 2013-14 school year and older sister of the newly elected president, placed deep trust in her skills as a leader. Alice Ju praised her sister’s naturally selfless nature; “I’ve seen her give up time or opportunities for herself too many times to recount now… I think Exeter elected someone who is an extremely hard worker and also someone who will apply that work ethic to helping others first,” she said.

Senior Emily Lemmerman, friend of Rebecca Ju and Policy Committee Co-Head, also commended Ju’s selflessness and complete willingness to listen to others without imposing her own agenda. “She will be a really good leader,” Lemmerman said, because she can facilitate and lead discussions by listening to what others want, a quality Lemmerman said is vital in student leadership.

Vice president-elect Park, who looked forward to working with Ju, said that Ju will not only work for easy fixes, but for the “bigger picture” changes she sees as necessary to address the stigma and process of mental health as students encounter it. “I’m definitely going to help her with that,” he said.

However, Park also added that he will be willing to assist with smaller changes, especially those related to the budget or planning events. By taking responsibility for the more minor tasks, Park hopes to clear the way for an efficient and effective tenure of the next Executive Board.

Cohen praised Park, too, not only as an assistant to Ju, but as a leader on his own. “[He] has some pretty awesome leadership skills.” Cohen said that his work on the newly formed assembly committee has shown qualities that display his abilities and promise.

Ju said that she felt lucky to already have a positive working relationship with her vice president. “I know [Park] well from working with him for three years in Mock Trial. I know him so well and I am really excited to be able to already have a great relationship with my VP,” she said.

The new board aims to first address mental health primarily; Ju said that she joined StuCo in the first place to get a chance “to change the school for the better,” and that remains her goal. She said she will stick closely with the plans outlined in her campaign platform to address the issue.

Ju also hoped to work on transparency. Though she acknowledged the fact that the term “began a sort of joke” because of its overuse during the elections, “it is still an important thing.” She outlined a plan to publish more StuCo newsletters, and “provide as many opportunities as possible for students to learn about the health center… have an anonymous feedback system for the counselors, and educate students more about how mental health works and what it is.”

Lemmerman said she is pleased with the team the new board assembles. “It is quite amazing that I really think they’re going to learn to work together,” she said, and explained that because each has both a cooperative and hardworking nature, they will remain close.

Ju praised the quality of each candidate that ran this year. Everyone was “so well qualified… and I was really impressed by the voting turnout too,” which she said attested to the strength of every one. Despite complications surrounding Taylor’s comedic campaign and unpreventable competition among candidates, the election went smoothly and the overwhelming reaction with regards to the newly elected executive board has been positive from the student body.

Four New Department Heads Chosen to Lead DEPARTMENT, continued from A8 For Smith, managing the little details of his department proved to be the most time consuming task. He described this aspect as “minding the store.”

“You’re constantly involved in little details that take up time,” he said. “It’s a time commitment more than anything else. Anything from emails, requests for visitors from other schools or buying supplies. There’s this myriad of things that I did expect but didn’t realize the volume would be so high.”

In order to alleviate the volume of day-to-day tasks the chair should not necessarily be responsible for, Smith decided to organize a job chart for the English department, where other members of the department can take on tasks.

During his time as chair, Smith said that he most greatly enjoyed the discussions about curriculum and ways to make the department stronger. He found the department head meetings to be “fascinating.” Because each department has such different perspectives, being apart of the department chair discussions gave Smith a greater sense of how the school works as a whole.

“I think sometimes we become so isolated in our own buildings that we don’t really know what the other departments are doing,” Smith said. “It is a wonderful job in giving you an overview of the school.”

After nominating other English instructors with experience for the role, Smith was confident the department would find an appropriate new chair.

He was satisfied with the selection of Wolff, who he described as “one of the best candidates [the department] could have hoped for.”

“She is incredibly bright,” he said. “She’s been such an important part of the department and part of the school over the last 15 years.”

Smith said that it is part of his role in combination with other former chairs to help Wolff find the shortcuts for things they hadn’t found until the last minute.

“You spend five years and by the end you really start to figure out the job,” Smith said. “Then it’s time to turn it over to somebody else who has to figure it out all over again. So I’m trying to ease that transition for Ms. Wolff.”

Wolff said that as well as looking forward to the new challenge of being a department chair, she is excited for the new senior-elective curriculum and the multitude of administrative details that will need sorting in response.

Like Wolff, Hobbie also expressed an eagerness to start her new role. As the new Science Department Chair, she is looking forward to helping her colleagues figure out how they excel in the classroom. Due to the ambiguous ways of using Harkness in science, she said there is more freedom as a teacher in deciding how to use the oval table to facilitate content in the science process. She looks forward to helping fill that potential.

Also, unique to the science department are the sub-disciplines such as Biology, Chemistry and Physics. In addition to the department meetings together, the sub-disciplines meet weekly. Hobbie will assume the role in managing the department broadly as well as in the specific sub-disciplines in order to keep the lines of communications open and encourage groups to work together.

Because the science department just received an external review, Hobbie is also eager to talk as a department about the report.

“I myself don’t have a large vision for the department that is very different from what it is right now. Instead, [the results from the external review] will be a great jumping off place to start thinking about where we might go,” Hobbie said.“It is important that we grow, change and learn from people from the outside.”

Overall, the current department heads seemed satisfied with the new selection of chairs.

Cahalane said that she is looking forward to seeing how the Health department will succeed under Soucy’s leadership. She lauded Soucy as a deeply committed and excellent educator who is supportive, well-organized and a great role model.

“She has a good sense of the needs of the students, faculty and staff. She thinks carefully about short and long range implications of choices and is a creative thinker,” Cahalane said. “I have no doubt she will be a terrific chair for our department.”

ian Universalist Church. Compton served as board chair and choir director at his church and occasionally delivered sermons of his own.

Compton is survived by his loving wife Leona and his three children, Lisa, Karl and Carol and one grandchild.

Finally, former Dean of Students, Admissions Director and science instructor Robert Brownell passed away this past July.

Brownell began his life in Smethport, PA on June 13, 1926. He attended Jamestown High School in New York, and following his graduation, he was drafted into the Navy.

After he served his post in the war, Brownell enrolled at Williams College in 1948. He earned a Master’s of Science from Duke University and a Master’s Degree of the Studies from the University of New Hampshire.

Following the conclusion of his studies, Brownell began teaching. He was employed by several New England prep schools including Tabor Academy and The Berkshire School until he finally chose to teach at Exeter. Brownell spent the majority of his career as a faculty member at PEA, where he taught chemistry and physics. Brownell worked alongside current PEA faculty member Richard Aaronian for many years. Aaronian spoke highly of Brownell, both inside and outside of the classroom.

“He was a consummate professional as he served a number of different roles at Exeter,” Aaronian said. “I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to teach with and know Mr. Brownell and his family.”

Aaronian added that Brownell brought an intense presence to the classroom and had a particular zest for science.

“Mr. Brownell was an energetic, creative, demanding yet understanding physics teacher who was liked and respected by his students and those feelings were reciprocal,” Aaronian said. “His views and opinions were well respected by his colleagues in the Science Department as well as his colleagues in other departments.”

In addition to his duties as a physics teacher, Brownell also occupied the posts of director of admissions and dean of students. During his tenure as the latter, Brownell was selected as the recipient of the Edward T. Simmons Faculty Chair, and following his retirement, was honored with the 1999 Founders Day Award.

Brownell also served the Exeter community as a dorm head and a varsity boys’ basketball coach.

Aaronian added that Brownell was particularly fond of the outdoors, and in particular, fishing. “He enjoyed the outdoors and was a talented fly fisherman enjoying many trips out west with family,” Aaronian said. “His fly rod was always with him.”

Community Welcomes Incoming Class of 2019 STUDENTS, continued from A8 sentiments, noting that she is excited to engage in deep discussions with her peers and her teachers. “I am so used to listening to a teacher talk for 40 minutes at my public middle school, so it will be nice to try something new,” Nwankwoala said.

In addition to the Harkness method, Nwankwoala was also attracted to Exeter because of the outstanding campus community. She said that from students to faculty to staff, the PEA community seemed like a strong one, and one that is ready to support its members at all costs.

“When I visited, I felt so welcomed,” Nwankwoala said of her experience during her revisit day. “I could really see myself there.”

However, Nwankwoala has no illusions about Exeter’s rigorous workload. It’s a challenge, many students believe, not fit for the faint of mind or the faint of heart.

“I have heard that Exeter is such a great place to be, but it is also an academically challenging school,” Nwankwoala said.

She hopes to be able to fulfill the expectations of her set by her teachers and peers.

Additionally, Nwankwoala hopes to become involved in some of Exeter’s many excellent athletic teams. “I am excited to hopefully play on JV or V soccer on campus,” Nwankwoala said. “I love playing soccer, and I am excited to bond with others through my love of the sport.”

Incoming lower Elly Lee, sister of upper Chris Lee, said that she is ready to accept the new challenge that Exeter brings along with being an active member in class. “I’ve decided to go to Exeter because I know that coming here will allow me to challenge myself and explore new things,” Lee said. “The Harkness table is a method of teaching and learning that I know I can learn from, and being able to talk during class is something I look forward to.”

Incoming prep Sam Michaels, brother of lower Sara Michaels and Jessica Michaels ‘14, looked forward to exploring Exeter’s wide variety of courses.

“I am excited for the diversity of classes to choose from,” Sam Michaels said. “At my old school, besides from electives, there wasn't much choice.” Michaels hoped to have more freedom with the classes that he takes and take advantage of the numerous fields of study that Exeter offers.

Michaels attributed Exeter’s academic rigor as one of the main reasons why he chose to attend the school. He, like Nwankwoala, looked forward to the many challenges that lie in his path.

“I’ve heard that Exeter is hard but very rewarding in the long run,” Michaels said.

In addition, Michaels looked forward to the novel experience of dorm life, as well as spending time in the library and music building.

Gary said that the class of 2019 will be a great addition to the student body. Gary added that “[Exeter’s] legacy of attracting and enrolling great, talented and different kids continues.”

A10

PRIZES

THE EXONIAN

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Prize Winners, 2014-2015 Art

The Francke Prize in Art, established in memory of Henry Gilbert Francke, Jr. of the Class of 1939, and awarded to Exeter students who, because of their imagination and skill, give promise of creating beauty in architecture:

Amanda Hu Warren Charleston Casey Osbourne

Millicent Dunstan Michael Kann

The Lt. John A. Larkin, Jr. Memorial Prize in Art for outstanding work in drawing and ceramics: Brooks Saltonstall Paige Harouse

The Paul P. Gelles Memorial Art Scholarship Prize for outstanding work in art:

The Ralph Bradley Prize for Excellence in Art: Sabrina Ortega

Computer Science

Computer Science Lower Classmen Awards are given to students at the Junior and/or Lower level who have demonstrated a propensity for and superior understanding of the computer science field: Michelle Ramiz Soren Rossi Stuart Rucker Hin Nok Suen Eric Tang

Computer Science Upper Classmen Awards are given to students at the Upper and/or Senior level who have demonstrated a propensity for and a

Classics

THE LATIN PRIZES Prizes for excellence in Latin are maintained from funds given in 1925 by Samuel W. Bandler in honor of John C. Kirtland; in 1932 by William H. Rand of the Class of 1885 in honor of Robert F. Pennell; and in 1927 by Mrs. William J. Gabel in memory of her son, William H. Gabel, of the Class of 1940.

First Prize: Gwendolyn Wallace Second Prize: Tony Ryou

A prize book accompanies each first prize.

First Prize: Jordan (Bliss) Perry Second Prize: Mandy Lu

In Beginning Latin

In Fifth Year Latin, Special Section

superior understanding of the computer science field:

First Prize: James Fortin Second Prize: Grace Pan

Francis Betz Erick Friis Aivant Goyal Calvin Luo Elizabeth Wei

In Second Year Latin

The Special Award in Computer Science is given to students who have demonstrated not only expertise in the field of computer science but have also given of themselves freely to further the goals of the Computer Science department: David Anthony Bau

In Third Year Latin, Special Section

First Prize: Kevin Sun Second Prize: Richard (Bori) Yahng

First Prize: Grace Duisberg Second Prize: Evan Stanton In Third Year Latin

Theater & Dance The J. Carmen ’92 and Natalie S. ’95 Stewart Prize in Dance recognizes the student who exemplifies the passionate spirit of Carmen and Natalie held for dance as a means of self-expression, a form of physical fitness, membership in a group in which all members are considered equal, and a vehicle for cultural awareness. The award this year is given to: Alexandria Beightol Jordan Bolden Liana Borges-Sotero Ashley Brown Lazaro Cesar Sacharja Cunningham Victoria Dakin Kimberly Dawes Nicholas Felli Hannah Fuller Sara Gregory

Braxton Harris Deresha Hayles Haeyeon Jang Yasmine Kaya Kailey McLaughlin Erin McSally Magnolia Pak Muyunji Tembo The Meir Z. Ribalow ’66 Theatre Prize is given in recognition of outstanding contributions to theater.

The following prizes consisting of books and name engraved on wall of Fisher Theater, are awarded to: Augustus Gilchrist Braxton Harris Scott Hermenau Benjamin Hogoboom Dorothy (Rosie) Hutton Austin Lowell Joshwald Martinez

Gabrielle Meckley Zoe Meyer Sabrina Movitz Jad Seligman Hannah Sessler Alexandria Shook Saisha Talwar Muyunji Tembo Ella Werthan R. W. Ellis “Anvil” Prizes for Storytelling are supported by a fund established in 1983, by Fred Grandy ’66 “to foster storytelling at the Academy.”

The results of the storytelling competition held Thursday, May 22 are as follows: First prize: Nicole Don Second Prize: Caroline Lu Third Prize: Camden Corso

Special Prizes

The Philip Curtis Goodwin ’25 Given in honor of Judge Charles Athletic Award is presented Wyzanski, this prize is awarded annually to the four year male “to a student whose ethical beliefs and female who best embodies the and practices have contributed qualities of Sportsmanship and significantly to the welfare of the Participation: Academy or community.”

William Edwards Connor Bloom Marley Jenkins

The Warren Burke Shepard ‘84 The Frank A. Weil ‘48 Prize for Award Exemplary Growth and Promise In the spring of 1980 a boy named Given by Mr. Frank A. Weil ’48, Warren Shepard was admitted to this prize recognizes students who Exeter's prep class for the following have shown through their efforts fall — the Class of 1984. At the and improvement a drive and time Warren was a student at the capacity for life long growth. This American Community School in prize seeks to emphasize that the Halandri, Greece, where his father value of an Exeter education is was stationed in the United States not measured only by a record foreign service. of specific achievements, but by Warren Shepard never realized his the growth and character that is dream of attending Exeter; in June developed through “the journey 1980 he died of fulminary hepatitis. taken.” [It should recognize not Knowing how much Warren had those who are always first, but looked forward to being a student at rather, students who demonstrated the Academy, his family and friends “steady improvement springing established at Exeter a prize to be from persistent growth.”]: given annually, in his name, to a student at Phillips Exeter Academy Monica Acosta ‘15 who tries hardest to realize the Sterling Weatherbie ‘15 Exeter opportunity, as the award's Burabari Kabari ‘16 namesake would have. In addition to the award presented today, a The Harvard Book Prize plaque that signifies the award and Given by the Harvard Club of its recipients hangs in the Office of Boston in memory of Lt. Colonel the Dean of Students. This year, the Joseph Ganahl, Exeter Class of award is presented to: 1922, to an outstanding Upper Middler, is awarded to: Emily Lemmerman Rex Tercek The Smith Book Award Given by Smith College to an Upper “in recognition of outstanding academic achievement and leadership,” is awarded to: Lily Friedberg The Wyzanski Prize

The James A. Snead ‘71 Memorial Prize This prize honors a distinguished alumnus, as it annually recognizes some of the qualities and areas of interest that were essential to him.

It is given to students who have written effectively on multicultural themes; who have contributed to the evolution of a non-racist culture in the community; or who

have exemplified a passion for the humanities that promises to be lifelong.

Sacharja Cunningham The Powell Prize Given by Frank T. Buchner '30, in memory of his grandfather, Omar Powell “for recognition of a student or group of students who has conceived and carried out some creative idea which has resulted in a new and useful addition or benefit to the Academy community through his or her entrepreneurship, persuasiveness, innovation or leadership,” the prize is given to: Zoha Qamar and Saisha Talwar, “Voices from the Middle East”

The Gavit Cup The Gavit Cup is presented annually at Prize Day to a member of the Upper Middle Class selected by members of the Class and the Principal in recognition of outstanding character as displayed in all phases of school life. Each year the recipient of the Gavit cup for the previous year assists in presenting the cup. This year the Cup is awarded to:

Kevin Zhen David T. Swift Award Established to honor David T. Swift, the award reads "In recognition of significant contributions as Dormitory Proctor, in helping to create a positive residential experience at Exeter." This year the award is presented to: Melanie Allan – Kirtland House Jordan Bolden – Dunbar Hall Nicholas Diao – Dow House Thomas Stockham – Knight House Brandon Wang – Abbot Hall

In Fourth Year Latin First Prize: Peter Bitman Second Prize: Victoria Dakin and Ardit Kukaj In Fourth Year Latin, Special Section

First Prize: Henry LaFond Second Prize: Katharine Liptak From the income of the George Herbert Pollock Memorial Fund, established in 1974 in memory of George Herbert Pollock, of the Class of 1953, for that student who has shown the greatest interest and improvement in Latin Literature.

A prize to: Alexandra Eckert THE GREEK PRIZES Each first prize is accompa-

nied by a book provided by the Prentiss Cummings Book Prize Fund, established in 1906 by Prentiss Cummings of the Class of 1860.

The Joline Prizes, established

by O.D. Joline, of the Class of 1885, for excellence in First Year Greek, are awarded as follows: First Prize: Henry LaFond Second Prize: Hannah Cherenfant

The Hatch/Phillips Award in Latin and Greek, established in 1980 by David Edgar Baver, of the Class of 1942, in honor of Norman L. Hatch, Morison Professor of Latin and Henry Phillips, Cilley Professor of Greek, is awarded each year to that graduating senior enrolled in courses in both Latin and Greek during his or her senior year who, in the judgment of the Department of Classical Languages, has shown outstanding dedication to and significant improvement in these areas of study at the Academy.

A prize to: Duncan Nyland

Mathematics The Mathematics Department prizes are sustained by the William Allen Francis Fund, the George A. Wentworth Fund, the Maurice R. Scharff Prize Fund and the Lindsay Crawford Prize Fund. The prizes are for outstanding contributions to the mathematics program, and the awards are made by vote of the Mathematics Faculty.

The Maurice R. Scharff Prizes in Advanced Mathematics: Yena Cho Meena Jagadeesan Chad Qian

Jeffrey Qiao Arianna Serafini Zhengyan Shi Angela Song Kevin Sun Alexander Wei The Lindsay Crawford Memorial Prize to the senior with the most outstanding career in mathematics this year: Madeline Logan Ruby Malusa Zhuo Qun Song Elizabeth Wei Kuo-An Wei Grace Yin

Science

Books that accompany the following prizes are funded by the Fisher Fund, the E.P. Holder Fund, the D.J. Killian Fund, and the Wentworth Fund.

The John and Irene MacKenty Astronomy Prize, awarded to graduating seniors who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of Astronomy at Exeter: Brendan Rosseau

The Fiske Memorial Prize, given in memory of Wintrop E. Fiske, an instructor in physics at the Academy from 1899 to 1938, is awarded for excellence in Physical Sciences:

Hersh Bhargava Ailis Dooner Lily Hayes Madeline Logan Caroline Lu Ruby Malusa The Fisher Prize, established by the Fisher Foundation, is awarded to recognize excellence in advanced courses in Biology, Chemistry and Physics:

Talla Babou Janet Chen Nicholas Diao Yuree Kim Kelly McCarthy Grace Yin

William Li Catherine O’Donnell Zhuo Qun Song Elizabeth Wei

The Corning Benton and Dr. Corning Benton Jr., Science Department Prize, is awarded to a student of two or more years in the Academy who, in the opinion of the Science Department Faculty, shows outstanding promise as a future scientist:

The David M. Bitman Prize, given in memory of David M. Bitman of the class of 1978, is awarded to students who show excellence in a wide range of science subjects:

Erick Friis Krishna Rajan Christina Savvides Andrew Turner Kuo-An Wei

Religion

The Religion department annually awards prizes for student achievement from three separate funds.

The first, at the level of Preps and Lowers. The second and third at the level of uppers and seniors.

The Arthur L. Merrick Memorial Fund Prize is awarded to the Prep or Lower having demonstrated excellence in the study of Religion.

Four equal prizes to: Antigone Clark Myles Haigney Sanjana Rana Kesi Wilson

The Abbie Manton Polleys Memorial Fund Prize is awarded to those students who have shown

significant achievement in the curricular offerings of the Religion Department.

First Place: Kristen Truesdale Second Place: Emily Lemmerman Jessie Yeung Ann Yao Zhang The Nathaniel Gordon Bible Fund Prize is awarded to students who have demonstrated excellence in the study of Religion.

First Place: Sol Chase Ailis Dooner Second Place: Ruby Fludzinsky Margaret Zhu

PRIZES

THE EXONIAN

Modern Languages

The Modern Language Prizes are sustained by the Annie C. Benton Memorial Fund, the Alumni Modern Language Prize Fund, the Gomez Prize, the Hugh Corby Fox Prize, the Fish French Prize Fund, the Frates Prize Fund, Independence Foundation Romance Prize and a gift in honor of Percy C. Rogers. These prizes, consisting of books, are awarded as follows: THE CHINESE PRIZES

Carissa Chen Maxwell Kirsch Timur Luke Michael Mancini

Wyatt Hammer

SPANISH PRIZES First Year Spanish Nora Epler Emmett Shell Johna Vandergraaf

Fifth Year Electives Luca Amorosa Nicholas Baughan Meena Jagadeesan Bokyoung Kim Claire Dauge-Roth David Shepley Caroline Sullivan THE GERMAN PRIZES

First Year Chinese George Bubrick Olivia Pritchard Harril Saunders

First Year German Athena Stenor Cora Payne

Second Year Chinese Eliza Khokhar Alyssa Kuwana Stephen Price Vinjai Vale

Accelerated German Jonathan Goldsmith Second Year German Sum Ying Wu

Third-Fourth Year Chinese Kendall Kuzminskas Sangyup Lee William Rau Katya Scocimara Eric Tang Tanya Wongvibulsin

Third-Fourth Year German Peter Luff Xiaoyu Ma Thomas Miller Fifth Year German Julia Bornemann

THE ITALIAN PRIZE Eric Jordan

Fifth Year Chinese Benjamin Hogoboom Hiroyuki Kuwana

THE JAPANESE PRIZES

Fifth Year Chinese Electives Anzi DeBenedetto Kimberly Dawes Katherine Huffman

THE FRENCH PRIZES

First Year Japanese Kristy Chang Second Year Japanese Jada Huang

First Year French Willa Canfield Marie Leighton McCall Megi Topalli

Fifth Year Japanese Michelle Ysrael THE RUSSIAN PRIZES

French Transition – 210 Anna Clark Benjamin Ralston

First Year Russian Katherine Dolan Conor Moriarty

Second-Third Year French Zea Eanet Joanna Papadakis Isaac Robinson Graham Rutledge Benjamin Swett Yuan Yao Third-Fourth Year Electives

Second Year Russian Lydia Wickard Third-Fourth Year Russian Lily Friedberg Fifth Year Russian

Spanish Transition 220 Abigail Clyde Autumn Herness Maria Lee Gregory Miller Second Year Spanish August Aalto Meghana Chalasani Julie Chung Jorge Comenares Steven DiLisio Audrey Hahn Catherine Huang Tanner McGowan Alexandra Papadakis Jackson Parell Michelle Ramiz Oreoluwa Solanke Isabella Weissman Third -Fourth Year Spanish Jake DellaPasqua Peter Duff Darius Kahan Serena Michaels Khymaya Perkins Joon Sang Kim Robyn Stewart Kiernan Spencer Tessa Vaccaro Fifth-Year Spanish Janet Chen Sachin Holdheim Ariel Kim Jeanne Olivier Samuel Tan Kevin Zhen

Special Prize for excellence in two or more foreign languages offered by the Modern Language Department: Nicole Don Olivia Draper Paige Harouse Magnolia Pak Danna Shen Katherine Ying Catherine Zhu

Music

The combined William G. Saltonstall, E.S. Wells Kerr Prize recognizes those seniors who have consistently contributed to the musical life of the Academy: David Berlin Margaret Anne Collins Nicholas Felli Scott Hermeneau Natasha Lim Gabrielle Meckley Duncan Nyland William Steere Malachi Weaver Ann Zhang

Philip Chang Victoria Dissmore June Han Jay Won Lee Austin Lowell Sabrina Movitz Samuel Oakley Lydia Sylla Jessie Yeung

The Prizes for the Study of History at the Introductory Level, For academic achievement to: Divya Bade Anna Clark Ria Das Emma Paltrow Lucas Schroeder Athena Stenor For attitude and approach at the Harkness table to: Aden Choate Katherine Dumoulin Grace Huang George Matheos The Prizes for the Study of History at the Intermediate Level, For academic achievement to: Xiaoyu Ma Jiro Mizuno Anne Yanofsky For attitude and approach at the Harkness table to: Connie Cai Charis Edwards Julia Friberg Audrey Hahn Xiaoyu Ma Lena Papadakis The Prizes for the Study of Economics,

A.A. Landers Prize recognizes those seniors who have made vital contributions to the large and small music groups on campus to: Seoyoung (Annie) Choi Mirella Gruesser-Smith Elizabeth Hoover Dorothy (Rosie) Hutton Sangyup Lee Rowan McDonald Sylvie Miller Jonathan Regenold Jad Seligman Andrew Xu

For academic achievement to: Kuo-An Wei Ellen Xiang For attitude and approach at the Harkness table to: Ailis Dooner James Quinn Zoë Sudduth

The Prizes for the Study of History at the Senior Level, For academic achievement to: Augustus Gilchrist Nicole Don Sachin Holdheim Alice McCrum Andre Oravitan Danna Shen Katherine Ying The Sherman Hoar Prizes for excellence in American History: Elizabeth Ambler Luca Amorosa Michelle Bosche Helena Guenther Meena Jagadeesan Rebecca Ju Ariel Kim Joon Sang Kim Hanan Lane Holly MacAlpine Samuel Millner Sabrina Ortega Olivia Reed Zhengyan Shi Angela Song

Samuel Tan Kristen Truesdale Alexander Wei The Blackmar Prize in American History, given in memory of General Wilmont W. Blackmar, Class of 1864, is awarded for the year's best work in American History: Yena Cho Julie Chung Owen Duke Hannah Elwell James Foye Lily Friedberg Peter Luff Arianna Serafini Caroline Sullivan The Frederick Whitman Prize is given by The Phillips Foundation in honor of Frederick Whitman, a teacher at the Academy, to that individual studying American History who, through application, grades, and interest contributes the most enthusiasm for the subject among students at Exeter: Philip Chang Alice McCrum Dana Yu Margaret Zhu The Negley Prizes in American History for the year's best essays will be presented in the fall term.

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Other Prizes

The Turner Exonian Prize, given by Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Turner, parents and friends, is given annually to students who do the best writing and/or reporting for The Exonian during the school year.

Katharine Liptak

The Gordon Editorial Award, given by Dr. and Mrs. Gene Gordon, is awarded annually to an Exeter student who displays through editorial journalism in publication emanating from the Academy, a passionate dedication to personal freedom, particularly freedom of conscience and its expression.

Zoha Qamar Danna Shen The Merrill Prize-Speaking Contest winners are: The Monologue Competition Third prize: Lazaro Cesar for “Change” Second prize: Eliran Oz for “The Glass Menagerie” First prize: Sanjana Rana for “Totally like whatever, you know?”

The Duologue Competition Third prize: Ruby Fludzinski and Quinn Hickey for “Waiting for Lefty” Second prize: Sabrina Movitz and Benjamin Hogoboom for “The Last Time We Saw Her” First prize: Lazaro Cesar and Nicholas Madamidola for “Dreams are Illegal” The Debating Prizes: The Charles Theodore Russell Bates Debating Prize Gillian Chu Aivant Goyal Grace Huang Bokyoung Kim Vinayak Kurup Daniel Li Wei Xiao Zhang Nada Zohayr

The Academy Debating Fund Prize Connie Cai Dirk Komarnitsky Arjun Rajan Matthew Robbins

Peter Luff Samuel Millner Michael Shao Margaret Zhu

The Glazier Speaking Prize Carissa Chen Eric Tang The John O. Heald Debating Prize Connor Bloom Christina Rossitto The Gifford Pinchot Prize, given by Gifford Pinchot, class of 1884. This prize is given annually to a student who, like Gifford Pinchot, demonstrates dedication to the conservation of the nation's natural resources.

Do Hyun (Brian) Byun, for his work in field biology and environmental commitment on campus.

Connor Randall Bloom, for his environmental commitment on campus.

The Hunter V. Farnham Prize, established by the Farnham Family to honor Mr. Farnham’s love of Africa, developed in his many trips for the Agency for International Development, for students who intend to continue the study of Africa.

Nicholas Baughan The Scharff Prize is awarded to sons and daughters of alumni who also won prizes while they were at the Academy in the same or closely related disciplines.

Augustus Gilchrist, who has won a prize in English, whose father, Edgar Gilchrist, also won a prize in English in 1970.

Anna Clark, who has won a prize in History, whose father, Thomas Clark, also won a prize in History in 1980.

Alice McCrum, who has won prizes in History, whose mother, Sarah Lyall, also won a prize in History in 1980.

Matthew Robbins, who has won a prize in Debate, whose mother, Joyce Chang, also won a prize in Debate in 1983.

Conor Moriarty, who has won a prize in Russian, whose father, Brooks Moriarty, won a prize in Spanish in 1984.

Class of 1882 Debating Prizes

Edward C. Echols Jazz Prize: Katherine Huffman

History

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Yena Cho Nicole Don

George Matheos, who has won a prize in History, whose father, Peter Matheos, also won a prize in History in 1987.

English The English Prizes consist of the prizes established in 1896 by Dr. Abner L. Merrill of the Class of 1838, for excellence in English Composition and established in 1925 by Samuel Cony Manley of the Class of 1885 and established in 1949 by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas S. Lamont, together with friends, in memory of their son, Thomas W. Lamont, II, of the Class of 1942 and in 2007 by Jane and Basil K. Vasiliou of the Class of 1967.

Each year students chose to submit their work in competition for these awards.

First Year English First Prize: Alice Little Second Prize: Anna Clark Third Prize: Grace Huang Honorable Mention: Charles Smith The Vasiliou ’67 Writing Prize in Second Year English First Prize: Meghan Chou Second Prize: Eric Tang The Vasiliou ’67 Writing Prize in Third Year English First Prize: Helena Guenther Second Prize: Kevin Zhen Third Prize: Pranay Vemulamada Third Year English - Reporter at Large First Prize—two equal prizes to: Joseph Bartkovich and Anne Ning Third Prize: Helena Guenther Fourth Year English First prize: Madeline Logan Second Prize: William Li Third Prize: Katie Casado The Bensinger Shakespeare Prize for best essay on a Shakespearean topic: First Prize: Andrew Xu Second Prize: Ariel Kim Third Prize: Augustus Gilchrist Honorable Mention: Yena Cho Honorable Mention: Ann Yao Zhang The Thomas W. Lamont II Prize in English Composition for the best extemporaneous essay in Senior English: First Prize: Ann Yao Zhang Second Prize: Braxton Harris The Lewis Sibley Poetry Prize for the most promising collection of original poems: First Prize: Carissa Chen Second Prize: Lillian Brown Third Prize: Rachel Baxter

A12

Sunday, June 7, 2015

ExonianPhoto Prepping for Prom

Photographers: Julia Jackson, Steven Kim, Luz Lim, Rachel Luo

THE EXONIAN

B1

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Reflections The Lessons are in the Walking Catherine Zhu

The great American writer and Exeter alumnus Gore Vidal ‘43 once said that each time he returned to campus—even many years later—he would begin physically and violently shaking. It may seem like a dramatic statement, but as graduation approaches, I’ve come to realize that there are few alumni for whom the thought of Exeter does not evoke a visceral emotional reaction. Perhaps there is no singular word or even collection of words that can fully describe the Exeter experience. Being an Exonian is defined by being humbled and being in awe, by confusion and curiosity, by the joy of community and by paralyzing isolation. It is defined by fear, and self-doubt, and the exhilaration of self-discovery—all of the emotions that come with growing up and growing into your own in the world.

Perhaps the best word to describe Exeter is variety.

There is something miraculous in the way people from all over the world come here to study together and to learn from one another. Exeter is filled with people who are not only hardworking and individualistic and passionately alive, but are often also incredibly perceptive and caring.

Exeter is home to activists and scientists, artists and athletes, people who come to Exeter from continents away and people who fought harder than I could ever imagine just to make it here. People for whom changing the world is not a matter of if but when and how. While social fragmentation exists as it does anywhere else, Exeter is a very open place, and there is something miraculous in the opportunity to be young together and to learn from our differences without fear of judgment, without the divisions so common in society and in so many institutions of higher learning.

When I remember my years at Exeter, I will always think back to its people and everything they taught me: how to listen and be thoughtful, how to be open to others’ opinions but still have your own voice, how to find strength and truth in a broken world. I will think of all the places that I have come to love. The small English classroom where I first found my voice prep fall and the bleachers where I sat during E/a, watching the field disappear underneath a sea of red and understanding, for the first time, what community meant. Prep winter days spent in a senior’s room, curled up next to a radiator, doing homework and sharing old stories.

Senior spring nights spent lying on the quad underneath the stars, feeling our own smallness and the vastness of the future unfolding. The time we shared, we laughed, we felt.

I know that no matter how hard I try to hold onto them, eventually my friends and I will scatter around the world, and these memories, too, will grow smaller and smaller, disappearing into the stream of time. But I also know that Exeter has given me lessons—lessons that I can never forget, because they are in my blood.

There is something so disorienting about Exeter when it first begins. Suddenly, the old world vanishes, and we find ourselves in a new one without a compass or map. Many of us came to Exeter as top students at our old schools, secure in ourselves and our understanding of the world and enamored by a fantasy vision of what high school would be like. But when we come to Exeter, this illusion is stripped away, and we begin to feel self-doubt. We begin to feel out of place, like we are lost, like we are wandering. Yet it is in this wandering that we begin to learn Exeter’s most valuable lessons.

Steven Kim/The Exonian

See ZHU, B4

fugue Rowan McDonald

Luz Lim/The Exonian

Fighting the Incompleteness Zoha Qamar

It was classic Exeter shock syndrome, but in every way to all the worst degrees. I couldn’t bring myself to speak at the Harkness table; I had no idea what to make of equations in intro physics; And I struggled to open up to others and make real friends.

I joined the wrong clubs and tried out for the wrong teams, and suddenly I felt like someone stuck in some nowhere doing nothing right. Exeter had so perfectly punctured me in all the right places because I ended up feeling so helplessly broken. Prep fall shattered me. The truest cliché out there.

I’d spent the preceding fourteen years like most kids—in a childhood that simply existed in front of me and therefore the one I ended up living. Culturally and religiously I was handed my identity, and I thought that Southern California diversity and trips to this or that country were automatic qualifiers that I understood diversity and people. I lived in a reality bound by my family—my family’s social circle and a small sheltered private school that operated within false suburban confines. I was a successful student, never the absolute best in school, but always well-rounded enough. My life wasn’t perfect, but it was routine, and challenges and out-of-the-ordinary events were eventually cushioned and absorbed by the monotony.

And that’s why being shattered was so utterly foreign and thus infinitely more crumbling. I had no genuine interests, hobbies, friends, identity or sense of self. And all I wanted was the most effective, immediate solution to mitigate the disaster that I witnessed in front of me. I wanted to feel happy and satisfied with who I was. I wanted to feel safe and complete.

But there is no immediate solution for anything.

See QAMAR, B6

“But are you learning there?” This question premiered in the spring 2013 over one of my phone calls home. I called distraught over my first calculus test.

From my tone, Mama reckoned that I was RTW or at something was disastrously wrong. I hadn’t failed my test, but I’d exceeded my threshold of comfort. How could I carry on with a D? Would any college want me? Mama was highly disturbed by the premise of my logic and she was surprised by how I weighed myself against my grades. When I applied, Exeter was not part of a scheme to obtain admission to a selective college.

That wouldn’t have been worth leaving home. I left to make the best of the four years before college, for better classes, for keener peers.

The summer after eighth grade at my pre-Exeter physical, Dr. Ruta, my pediatrician, warned me about Exeter. I’m not sure exactly what he knew but he likened it to med-school. “Rowan you have to beware of these institutions. You’ll be running the gauntlet. Make sure you get enough sleep and take care of yourself.”

He told me that I might be better off at home, that this sort of experience might not be worth the externalities regardless of the rewards.

By and large my Exeter has been lovely. I have intimate friends, I’ve bonded with remarkable faculty, and I’ve discovered so much both around the Harkness table and late at night in Webster. However, entrenched within the ethos of the academy remains this gauntlet whose only conclusion is college. This mentality thrives in daily conversation. It starts off sympathetic, “you look tired, are you ok?” Then there’s a self-dismissive comment, “yeah, I’m just tired,” followed by an explanation, “I only slept four hours last night.” In place of sympathy, they’re offered context. “Oh, I’m so sorry, but at least you got four hours. Me, I only got two. You know, 332 season.” Then a third person – frantically finishing their math hand-in—looks up with drooping eyes, and comments on their all-nighter. “I got no sleep.

None!” First there’s the 331, then there’s the 332, then the 333 and then senior fall followed by the rest of senior year.

The culture of suffering spreads malaise through campus. In order to participate in maybe thirty percent of off-hand interactions you need some narrative of suffering, some litany of woes to prepare for your hourly catechisms. We sacrifice the present for what is to come.

Several times a term Mama hangs up the phone wistfully hoping I will forget about the race to college and salvage some contentment. On a regular basis, I succumb to the legends of grades and accomplishments and leadership positions. I attach myself to the popularized ‘grade-you-need-for college’ and the ‘required-extracurriculars’ and the ‘well-roundedness.’

Stress mounts until Mama calls once more asking, “But are you learning there?” Yet, this has only been part of my Exeter.

My Exeter has also been one of heady feasting and

rich adventure. Seldom is middle-town America novel.

However, on-foot, my experience has been singular.

Not owning a car has inspired a very specific proximal relation to Exeter.

Every Saturday night, I cook dinner in the Webster basement. Regardless hurricane or hail or sleet or rain, I scavenge the town for food. For a few of hours, I make my friends sous-chef and set the table. We eat, we play and we laugh. Sometimes there’s theater, in the winter we read meditations. We call it ‘piano bench dinners’ because there are never enough chairs, and we always need the piano bench at the table. These dinners are my warm ritual.

Outside the brick bubble lies clapboarded normalcy. Because I cook every weekend I now know that there are exactly fifteen different ‘grocery stores’ within walking distance. There’s Gerry’s, the Bread Thrift Shop, Two gas stations, Fresh Fish Daily, Walgreens, Rite Aid, the Dollar Store, Grill, On The Vine, Hannahfords, Cornucopia, Billingsgate Deli, the deli next to Pad Thai and the farmers’ market. As unfamiliar people eat curly fries at the bar through the window of Supreme’s, I am reminded of a gentler life. There are many ways through the woods; college is not tantamount to rapture for everyone. No matter the direction, it is difficult to leave the Academy completely; across the train track or past the graveyard or down Swasey parkway, the bells are audible more than a mile in every direction. Because of the evening walks that have taken me across town, I have learned where to take roads and where to cut through thickets. I have found that I can wake up, dress and run to the train station in less than five minutes. And most importantly, I have learned to keep seeking fresh scenery.

To those I’m leaving behind, I invite you to thwart the fraternity of suffering. Find a new field. Explore both sides of town. Forge a fresh path through the forest. Cook your friends supper. 

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Inside Reflections Shattering Preconceptions Cornelia

About the People

True Diversity Katie Casado

William Li

95 minutes of freedom well spent.

Challenging and changing the flaws of Exeter.

Looking to connect with introverts at Harkness and beyond.

Dear Exeter,

Chapters 14-18 of My Life

Don’t Forget to Live

The diversity and intellectual rigor of the Exeter community.

Take a moment to capture the fleeting moment.

Lilly Brown

Smith Luz Lim/The Exonian

Thanking Exeter, a mere stepping stone, school and home, for bringing the reality and metaphysical questions to light.

June Han

The necessity to step outside the Exeter bubble and discuss.

Francis Lee

An Introvert’s Qualities

Henry Connolly

Rachel Luo/The Exonian

B2

THE EXONIAN

REFLECTIONS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Happy to Be a Webstonian

“You should come down more,” he said.

He lived on one of the lower floors, so he did not see me that often.

I chuckled and responded with a “Yeah...”

I didn’t want to admit it then, but during most of my lower year, the fourth floor of Webster Hall served as my asylum. I often sat at my desk to finish my homework or watched movies. This may have been good for preparing for the intensive classes I took, but it came at a cost: I procrastinated acclimating myself to the dorm culture. I didn’t know about lavish snacks and casual conversations in Mr. Secondi’s apartment on Saturday nights. I didn’t know about dorm

grill. I didn’t know about the “eight minute abs” sessions.

As my upper year started, I had settled into my dorm-room on the second floor, one filled with many upperclassmen. Perhaps it was my living in the “center” of dorm-life that I became better friends with many of my dorm-mates, especially the seniors in Webster North. I walked around the different floors more often, ate almost exclusively at the Webster table, and finished my assignments during late night “study parties” in my friend’s room. Towards the end of upper year, I found myself in the common room late at night, making ramen and watching the seniors do pull ups on the decrepit (yet surprisingly sturdy) basement pipes. I was happy to be a Webstonian.

It’s funny to think that someone so worried about making friends has some of his best friends from Exeter. The boarding school experience helped me reach out to others and find people with whom I can talk about any of my problems. I hope that I’ll keep in touch with my friends from Webster, for, they remind me of this: I don’t need brownies anymore. 

no time to concern ourselves with nostalgia.

As a matter of fact, I don't believe anybody has ever claimed that Exeter is a warm nest.

But I hope, and I expect, that when you find yourselves involved in skirmishes on the frontiers of barbarism, which are not very far away, you'll strike some shrewd blows in favor of civilization. Some day, you'll come back to show us your trophies, and your scars, and we'll be glad to see you.” The last sentence gets me every time I read this quotation: we’ll come back to show Exeter not only our trophies, but also more importantly, our scars, and this school and its community will welcome us with open arms. With that, farewell until our reunion in five years.

To uppers: You’ve completed what is commonly branded the most difficult year of Exeter; see, you survived. Hopefully all of you have learned more than you complained this year, and I’m guessing now college is at the forefront of your mind. As someone who was in your shoes not too long ago, I know it’s natural to stress, but I just want to remind you that everything is going to turn out well. Some of you will matriculate into your top choices, and I extend the sincerest congratulations to you; and for those of you who will not, don’t worry, you’re not alone, and in the long run, you will find that wherever you go will be the best fit for you. That advice doesn’t come from me, but from the countless alums who helped me through the application process.

And no matter what, remember that overstressing will not help in the slightest bit, but it will certainly harm you, so have fun with senior year.

To lowers and preps: Although you have a couple of years left until you graduate, the next few years will pass by a lot more quickly than the first ones have, especially because you’ve found your niche of friends, hobbies and study habits; not to say you still have plenty of time to be open to novelties that may come to you. You have a lot of possibilities before you; you can do anything and everything (as long as the EBook approves), and it’s okay to screw up once in a while. I’m not saying you can’t do that later during your time here, but your actions carry a lot more weight with age. Most importantly, do what you enjoy. For me, I loved working in The Exonian newsroom with my closest friends, and even academically, I wrote my 332 and 333 on the African-American opera “Porgy and Bess” and the Supreme Court case New York Times v. Sullivan, respectively, revolving around my interests in music and journalism. Enjoy your freedom, and make the most with what you have at Exeter; you have a lot of quickly disappearing time on your hands, so use it well.

To my Cilley brothers, past and present:

We are a community in which boys become men. We have earned ourselves an honorable reputation over the years as a dorm, so please keep that up. Cilley Hall was my second home and family; I fully believe that this dorm has molded me into the best I could be, and as an only child, this community showed me what it is like to have brothers.

There are so many people in this dorm I should thank, but you know who you are, so I’ll leave it at that. It’s been real, boys, and I doubt that I’ll ever encounter a group of guys as motivated and kindhearted as you.

To my friends of The Exonian, past and present, but especially the legendary 136: People joke that we sell our souls to The Exonian. But I know, and I’m sure they all know, that this is our passion. If we didn’t like writing and editing articles, laying out papers, or spending 10 hours in the office every Wednesday, we wouldn’t be crazy enough to do it. This club is where I learned to function as a true group member and to help lead a team. Thank you to everyone who made my countless hours in the newsroom worth every single bit, and thank you all for being a part of two very memorable years. To borrow from 136’s last writes, “The most important thing we have learned is to truly and wholly care about something. We spent our Wednesday afternoons in the newsroom working on something we feel passionate about, and the payoff was worth even the vulnerability that caring exposed us to hundreds of times over.

The Exonian taught us how to care unapologetically, and for that we are forever grateful.”

Lastly but not least, to Phillips Church and Rev: Thank you for guiding my spiritual life throughout my four years here, and I am grateful to have been able to lean on God and the Church no matter how hard Exeter life got.

I always knew that the Christian community had my back, and that assurance comforted me in times of distress. What separates this church from other churches is the Ritual of Fellowship, personally my favorite part of the whole service; there were often weeks when Rev’s hugs got me through. By the time this paper gets published and distributed, I will have attended my last service at Phillips Church that morning; although it is pretty sad to think that, I find solace in the fact that Phillips Church has strengthened my faith and also in the fact that its community will always welcome me with open arms, quite literally, whenever I come back, whether it be five, fifteen, or fifty years.

And with all that, I’m out. Exeter, it’s been an unforgettable and truly life-changing four years, and I thank you for that. Good-bye for now, but it’s not farewell. I’ll be back soon with all my trophies and scars, and I know I’ll be welcomed. 

Kiyomasa Kuwana Coming to Exeter as a new lower, I felt that I would not form many friendships immediately. In my mind, all returning lowers had established friend groups, so I would not fit in easily; who would include the new kid into a friend group? So my father, Eiichiro Kuwana ’82, gave me two tubs of homemade brownies to distribute around the dorm; I now had a reason to introduce myself to others in the dorm. Yet, due to unexpected developments in my family, I left Exeter for five days. I handed the tubs to Ja-Way, my floor proctor, who distributed the snacks to others in the dorm. An early opportunity for me to meet my dorm-mates had passed.

Fast forward a few months to a midwinter afternoon. I stood in front of my locker in the gym, one of many in the narrow, dim lit aisle. I wiped off the last drops of chlorine when my dorm mate, Kelvin Borges, walked over to his locker a few doors down.

We exchanged the usual “Hi’s” and briefly talked about our individual practices. A few moments later, the conversation shifted to dorm life.

Tom Appleton/The Exonian

Thank You Jay Lee As Graduation Day gets closer, and weeks turn into days, and days turn into hours on the countdown clock, I find myself reflecting on the best moments of my four years at Exeter: that night when Charlie and I stayed up until sunrise on a Thursday morning to talk about his meditation. The night before our 331s were due, when Benj and I stayed up until 4 a.m. finishing our essays and then proceeded to play “Marble Blast,” a childhood computer game, for another hour. Exactly a year ago when The Exonian’s 136th Board stayed up all night to finish laying out our Graduation Issue for the Class of 2014. And this is when I realize that the single fuel that has kept me going through all the crazy ups and downs, has been the people at this school.

A cliché becomes such for a reason; many of us feel the same way, and yet cliché gets thrown at us derogatorily. Yet, we all understand what I am talking about. There cannot be a person sitting around this campus reading this reflection who can claim that we Exonians have not enriched our experience. Exonians are people you don’t meet anywhere else: they push themselves to learn and do more, truly care for the friends they love—and more than anything—are not afraid to grow and change.

Looking back on the starry-eyed prep I used to be, I can say without a single doubt that I leave this alma mater, this “nourishing mother,” a more driven learner, a more caring peer and a more mature human being. And without my Cilley brothers and editors of The Exonian and writers, not to mention my classmates and teachers from History 100 prep fall to French 999 senior spring, that change may not have been possible. Hence, in the remaining part of this article, I would like to write a few thank you and farewell letters to the people who made Exeter more of a home than hell for me.

To my fellow seniors: All I can say is congratulations for all you have done and good luck in all you will do. To borrow the words of William Ernest Gillespie who spoke at the Commencement Address for the Class of 1967, “It is nearly time for you to be off. You have a lot to do. This is

Luz Lim/The Exonian

Luz Lim/The Exonian

Life Preparations Jeanne Olivier

When I first visited Exeter, my tour guide told me something that I only fully understood after having a few terms under my belt. He told me (and my parents) that Exeter was a boarding school and not a prep school. As a nervous applicant, overly preoccupied with impressing the tour guide with poignant questions, I let this comment slip and regarded it as a simple vernacular variation.

After three years of deciding whether to stay in the common room to talk to dormmates or to go to my room to study for a test that would help me get into college or write a résumé for an internship, I finally understand what my tour guide meant. Too often I have been so preoccupied by what will happen after Exeter that I forgot to enjoy my time here.

I was looking at my passage through Exeter as a gateway to a brighter future instead of appreciating it as an experience in itself.

Exeter is valuable because of the skills we acquire and the people we meet around the table, in the dorms and on the fields (or the water) every day.

Granted, an Exeter diploma can open doors in the future, but those opportunities will only be as rich as the time we have spent learning and bonding with others while on campus. In the wise words of Albert Einstein, “Life is a preparation for the future; and the best preparation for the future is to live as if there were none.”

In my reminiscing, I also remembered the first thing my father told me when he dropped me off in the parking lot of McConnell Hall: “Always stay positive.” Though many of us will look back on our time at Exeter with a generally optimistic lense, we cannot deny that on a day-to-day basis Exonians tend to complain a lot.

How many times have I said: “The assembly speaker sucked,” “D-Hall is gross today,” “my teacher is crazy,” “New England weather is the worst; I can’t wait for spring term,” “Now that it’s spring, it’s too hot in the dorm.” Human nature prevents us from eradicating all form of complaint because, let’s be honest, life would be less fun without the occasional gossip or the bonding over how little sleep we get and how much work we have.

But I believe that in light of discussions about goodness and the pursuit of making Exeter a more nurturing environment, we ought to look at details of the Exeter experience more positively and reduce the daily complaint count.How hard would it be to turn a “the hotline was inedible,” into a “but I made a really awesome salad.”

Those may seem like small details, but they will shed a contagious bright light on our experience. Looking at the bright side, all Exonians now have a sharply developed critical mind! I realize that in writing this I am complaining about people complaining too much, which is a bit ironic, but I guess I have not yet learned to fully follow my father’s advice. I’m keeping it for the last minute, Exonian style! 

Enter, Montana Montana St.Pierre This place. While I collate the candidate statements of students seeking a stake in class representation for the final time, I laugh at their promised ideals. It may as well be one candidacy in triplicate: better class gear, more trips, fun, transparency, mental health support, etc. I cannot discern the sibi from the non; who cares about Exeter and who cares about college?

This place. This place, this institution, this community, this home, I realize, is powerful enough to help itself by making the individual advance himself or herself.

This place holds all of the cards. This place shapes the adolescent’s mind. This place is why ineffably juxtaposing disdain and reverence consumes me. This place.

Enter Montana, educated in a converted barn devoid of grades and people, ready to be sculpted, with the perception of the hallowed halls of Rory Gilmore’s Chilton.

I knew not how to have friends or

how to study for a test. I felt satisfied with a B or B+ grade or being quiet. In a place with no AP or honors course or class rank, nobody warns that at times competition is the only way to succeed academically or socially. One’s math level or failing grade of an A- always found room in a conversation. If it did not, the gap filled with gossip.

So early on is a prep molded to have one looming goal of college and to conform to one prep posse.

This was my case, and my anxiety proliferated. After prep fall, every day became the same struggle to make it through class.

Friends were determined by classes, and it never felt like people existed on campus to have a conversation with that the Exeter Bubble did not constrain. Each day was passable, knowing tomorrow would be worse. For three years all aspects of life became superficial and tiring. Of course there was laughter and joy; however, it now seems false. For far too long I lived ignorantly and ungratefully. Then revelation arrived in the big envelope.

Tom Appleton/The Exonian

After acceptance to college, the toil, misery and vice all seem quid pro quo.

Nevertheless, the entire mindset formed, whether existing in the I.D. or super-ego,

crumbles when the end goal is met. What is life after all of the work for college? For me, it is a time of thoughtful passion and appreciation and boundless happiness. I enjoy Harkness now and recognize the education we receive around the table, not of solely mind, but soul. It is hard to see that everything Exeter provides in the midst of upper winter, but Exeter secretly instills all of us with an innate sense of goodness.

Senior spring is a lie in the sense that there is no work to do; I have more work than any other term. The difference is that the work is enjoyable. I am excited as a new prep. All of the people around me are enjoyable and interesting. Nobody wants to drone on about schoolwork or their achievements. Exeter is a place I desire. A place surrounded by four years of obscured friendship. Now, as all the seniors amble twenty feet across stage to culminate their four years, they will be faced with the most powerful longing to remain with their families at Exeter instead of counting the days until they are free. 

REFLECTIONS

THE EXONIAN

B3

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Chapters 14-18 of My Life Francis Lee It has been an incredible four years at Exeter. This Principal’s Day, I, for the first time in months, sat outside on the bench on top of the hill behind Soule Hall that has come to be called “Soule Beach.” I recalled the last day of classes of my prep year—the feeling of success after finishing the final exam for the year. We, Soule preps, gathered on the beach—many of us weren’t fully dressed, there was loud techno sound that most of us called music (I was the exception), and there was laughter.

Someone came up with the idea that we commemorate the completion of our first year with a picture of all of us. The picture has since become a tradition for the Class of 2015 in Soule.

Soule has been an integral part of my Exeter experience. Many wonder how I, the suit-wearing, Bach-loving, monarchist managed to stick with Soule for all these years. I imagine all of us, by now, are aware of Soule’s interesting, to say the least, reputation. I imagine one of us still has that flag. My class has seen a dramatic transformation in Soule culture during our time. We’ve gone from the pot dorm to a less vagabond and more civilized (in the words of Mr. Sea, the former dorm head) dorm. But one thing hasn’t changed: the Soule preps, now finally graduating, have managed to maintain and further accentuate our intriguing, distinguishing characteristics. My roommate, Holden Hammontree, was the crazy boy of the class in our prep year and still is just as crazy. I don’t suppose he would mind me saying that.

Despite our apparent differences, the Soule boys and I got along quite well.

I’m still as much of a suit-wearing, Bachloving monarchist that I was my prep year, but now, thanks to the boys, I’ve learned to tolerate techno. I’m sure they will be pleased to find “Barbara Streisand” by Duck Sauce in my iTunes playlist. Truth be told, without the boys, I’m not so sure I would have made it this far.

I’ve had some turbulent times at Exeter.

I arrived at Exeter looking 30 and now, with the help of Microsoft’s How-Old. net, I realize I’m leaving looking 49. I’m not so certain about the numbers, but the fact that I’ve aged dramatically remains unchanged. Medical troubles have frequently landed me in the emergency room

of Exeter Hospital, the staff of which I’ve come to know quite well during these years.

I get a free lollipop every time I visit, and I suppose that’s because I go there so often.

My health gradually deteriorated beginning lower year, and by upper year I was in such a wretched shape that I was hospitalized and sent home at the end of Upper spring.

Objectively speaking, it’s a miracle that I made it back for my senior fall. My health hasn’t dramatically increased since my leave, but it hasn’t completely given out yet—something I’m incredibly grateful for. Troubling health begets some troublesome mentality. I’ve always believed that Exeter leaves no room for any attention to one’s emotions or mental state, a statement I still believe. But, looking back, I can see that I’ve had some less-than-bright times emotionally. I can say, however, with great pride, that the boys of Soule have played an appreciable part in allowing me to deal with everything that life had to throw at me during those difficult moments.

Out of the many things about Exeter I’ll probably miss, I can surely say that I will miss just that the most: the people.

On this, most Exonians, past and present, agree with me. Harkness is great, and I’ve enjoyed it a lot, but none of that would be possible with the extraordinary group of bright minds, both student and faculty, which make up the Exeter community. Over the years, without and within the classroom, I’ve developed many precious relationships with faculty and my peers. Such a bonding, I reckon, is unique to an institution like this.

I doubt that I’ll ever be able to find myself in a group as talented and intelligent as the one I’ve found myself in here. For that, I lament greatly that the number of days until graduation gradually decreases.

If there have been successes and treasurable moments at Exeter, there have been frustrating and difficult times. Many on campus have criticized the general atmosphere as unaccepting of opinions considered right-of-center or that the Academy and its members are open to all ideas except those that are less than progressive. Such accusations are incredibly unfortunate, but I’ve found them to have some truthful basis. It is no secret that I’m a conservative monarchist with views that may seem highly anachronistic to many. Many would charitably describe my political and social views as slightly more progressive than an

Luz Lim/The Exonian

Dear Exeter, June Han

Luz Lim/The Exonian

Edwardian aristocrat, though I highly beg to differ. Nonetheless, I am a man of conservative opinions. That I cannot argue against.

As such, I have been, at times, deeply frustrated by the fact that without eloquence and ability to defend my positions in a manner ten times stronger than my less conservative peers, my views and thoughts have, more often than not, been brushed aside and quickly stifled. Many of my peers, past and present, share in this frustration and have equally lamented at such a blemish on an otherwise perfect academic haven.

However, despite my occasional frustrations, I do not wish to close this particular chapter of my life with too much attention to it, as Exeter has meant more than just that. Everyone grows both physically and mentally during his or her time at Exeter. I certainly was no exception to this. Having grown up in an overwhelmingly homogenous society, I have learned to appreciate others’ individualities more than I did before. Exeter was the first place I ever attended church with non-Asians. Exeter was the first place I ever truly celebrated global diversity and coming from an international school background, that’s saying something. Exeter was the first place I ever felt the rush of adrenaline as intellectual conversations around the Harkness table became more and more intense. Exeter was the first place I ever felt intellectually challenged, having been exposed to all sorts of sharp remarks. For these and much more, I am grateful to have paused at Exeter and will I will truly miss it. 

Contextualizing Yourself Jad Seligman

Alison Dowski/The Exonian

There’s a lot of talk on campus and a lot of public discussion, especially this year, as to what Exeter really values. There are the standards: non sibi, knowledge with goodness and all the other catchphrases.

There are a few that are mentioned fairly regularly, but they are usually contested: diversity and collaboration. And there are a few that people generally understand as intrinsic to Exeter. Hard work. Passion. Success. Those are the values that I’ve come to identify with PEA the closest over my four years. So I’ve tried for years to bring those ideals to the work I did here, be it in the theater, the music building, the dorm or the Harkness table. More than once at Exeter, I’ve encountered the feeling of losing myself in my work, of dedicating my feelings and assigning my self-worth to my success in one area and of limiting my focus to one task that I would attack with every fiber of my being. More than once, Exeter has rewarded me for that. I attribute the fact that, for my upper and senior years, my GPA was about a full point higher than prep and lower year because I learned to work hard.

I have not had a 100 percent success rate just because I work hard. No one can do that, and, if I’m wrong and there is someone who can, then they are certainly a more talented person than I. My failures at Exeter, as well as my successes, have shown me the danger of losing yourself in something—of missing the forest for the trees, to misuse a cliche. The most important thing I learned at Exeter was how to contextualize.

It’s really tempting to lose yourself in something, be it your work, your friends, a relationship or a club. There’s so much to gain from it; you could argue that you aren’t truly passionate about something if you can’t be single-minded about it. If you love something so much that you lose sight of everything else, it’s a reasonable guess to say that you’ll do well at that, and that you’ll care about it. And if you lose yourself in some kind of work or art or sport,

then you can’t think about bad things, especially the bad things that Exonians avoid, that teenagers think about. You don’t have to think about how tired you are, or how much you miss home or why everyone else in your class seems to understand the book you’re reading in English but you. All you have to think about is getting better, feeling yourself getting better and seeing everyone around you notice how much better you are at singing, at writing, at hockey, at dancing. All the responsibility melts away and leaves behind one thing on which to focus.

A singular focus can never be enough.

When you’re invested fully into one thing, you are taking an enormous gamble. Because if and when you devote yourself to something that you fail at, you will rock yourself to your core. You will invalidate every last modicum of independent selfesteem, any sense of validation that you possess. Failing something you truly care about is like a black hole; once you pass a certain point, you lose the ability to see anything other than the looming, nebulous disappointment, and it crushes you in on yourself.

When I was a prep, an older kid explained to me what the Discipline Committee is and how it functions. I knew immediately that I had to be on it. My chance would come a few months later at the start of my lower year. I camped out in Elm and Wetherell to get signatures, spent hours designing and hanging posters and studied the E Book like a religious text. It drove me forward for almost two whole terms; I felt powerful and motivated when I thought of the election. And when I was one of the eight who got elected and moved on to the second round, I felt like a mythological hero. I crackled with lightning as the rest of the things I cared about fell to the side of my mind. And then, after months of preparation and prayer and perseverance, I bombed the interview. I was nervous and dropped the ball when I got asked the hard questions, ones I should have expected. For weeks after the one night where Mr. Cosgrove dropped by my room a little past check-in to tell me that I would not be a member of the DC, I was overcome by waves of rage that drove my fist into a wall until I couldn’t feel anything but my sore knuckles, or by days where it felt like all the color had been drained out my clothes and the springtime sun felt oppressive. I was no longer powerful, and I was no longer motivated.

The level of singular devotion that I had to anything I cared about made it feel apocalyptic whenever I failed. Ms. Phillips, at a recent assembly, said, “There’s power in the patterns.” She’s right; that is the basis of science, math, logic and academia. But you can’t see the patterns when you focus on only one aspect. With obsession comes the loss of the understanding that time moves on. I look to a Persian proverb when I need humility or comfort: This too shall pass.

I spent three and a half years of my Exeter career in a very happy relationship that ended a few weeks into my senior spring. I had tied my sense of self so intricately into that relationship and into my girlfriend that, when the ties were cut, I was paralyzed by a sense of loneliness and disorientation that I had not truly felt since I was a scared, homesick prep in my first term at Exeter. After a couple days, I made the realization that I had to understand myself as an individual, rather than simply a boyfriend, or as one half of a relationship.

I had to find the sense of self that had been obscured by love and by work. I realized I had to be able to take the step back and understand that I was not the center of anything and that the world would go on when/if I was sad and I learned that if I followed it, it would deliver me away from misery. I learned that I could pull myself back from the event horizon.

Being able to contextualize yourself is immensely important, even crucial.

Exeter had taught me for four years that, to solve a math problem, I needed to step back and see it as a whole. To understand a piece of literature or a historical document, I needed to understand how it tied into the larger themes. And, after four years, after 12 terms, it taught me that, as much as I needed to fit into friendships and clubs and cultures, I needed to make them fit around me, too. And I learned to let my grief and my anger and my sadness roll off my back; I can’t avoid them, but when I do understand that I am strong regardless of the things to which I devote myself, I’ll also understand that my pain cannot be anything more than temporary. Now, I can honestly say that I am not defined by my goals or my friends but by myself. Like everything that came before it and everything that will come after it, such as lost loves and boarding schools, my pain will pass, and, for that, it will be a special memory that Exeter has given me in a truly unique way. It will be beautiful. 

There is a patch of grass that one of my closest friends showed me under an entire ceiling of stars one night. The town of Exeter was quiet, save for a few cars roaming the streets and the background din of crickets and of hidden birds. We laid on the cool grass, hands crossed behind resting heads and listened to the quiet for a while.

These kinds of precious, soft moments have lit up some of my darkest times at Exeter. For a long while, I struggled to keep my bearings as I worked through the academic and personal burdens I found myself encountering. I often resented myself for feeling so easily overwhelmed.

Yet, within the expanse of the Exeter bubble, I confronted fundamental questions that I would have never faced otherwise. Is mental health an issue that is relevant to me?

Who am I as an Asian American? What am I working towards? And of course, the classic 1 a.m. prompt: why am I here?

Exeter is a place of growth; I feel as if I’ve grown meters, towering over my prep fall self, who was the girl who stumbled onto campus one rainy afternoon. Attempting to answer these questions was surprisingly burdensome, but I've had the privilege of meeting and having the most supportive and insightful friends who constantly amazed me with their kindness and love.

To everyone who let me rest my head on their shoulder: thank you. You have done wonders for me.

But in this little space I have for reflection, I want to write specifically about Exeter.

You know full-well how, in many ways, Exeter is a privilege. The name and education are gold. But listen: be grateful, but don’t be blind. I invite you to take a look under the carpet because an old and well-established prep school is going to have its problems.

And as a friend once asked me, “Why settle?”

Exeter has so much potential despite being one of the oldest secondary schools in America. In this day and age, we are inherently part of the growing movement of our generation. Complex issues regarding race, gender, mental health and socioeconomics are cropping up, and make no mistake: you are part of it all, regardless of who you are.

You are part of the diversity Exeter prides itself in having, but how well handled is this hand-picked diversity and everything that comes along with it?

Listen closely, and you’ll hear stories of unrecognized students who are the first in their families to have the hope of attending college, yes, financially-aided, but otherwise left to their own devices. Perhaps you’ll hear about the grossly understaffed health center coupled with the lack of recognition and treatment of mental illnesses. Or you’ll probably find the conversations of racism and social injustices that are often limited in audience and participants. Maybe you’ll even encounter the often swept-under-therug cases regarding sexual abuse and rape or the insensitivity of faculty members in the setting of diverse classrooms and dorms.

Exeter is not the only institution that has these complex issues, but from what I’ve seen, Exeter is a relatively safe haven compared to other places. Here, we’re literally taught to use our voices. You can be heard individually, especially with the support (or criticism) of your peers. With so many opportunities to express ourselves, it sometimes surprises me how quiet the majority of the student body is, even when few do venture to speak.

With these ink-printed words, I obviously cannot force you to become active or conscious. But on this campus, dialogues cannot ever be truly open or fully representative if you choose not to get involved. Consider what you bring to the table. Seek out those whose experiences may not coincide with yours because it’s from unfamiliar stories that you’ll learn the most. Step outside of the Exeter bubble and discuss. You don’t need to become a leader of activism to understand what constitutes a problem. And never, ever dismiss someone else's struggles. For whatever reason. You'll lose the power of collaboration and hope of connection that way.

I close with a question someone recently asked me about whether I regretted coming to Exeter. The answer? No. But here’s the P.S. I directly address to the school I’ve called home for the past four years: I love you Exeter, but you need to change. 

B4

THE EXONIAN

REFLECTIONS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

The Lessons are in the Walking Exeter taught me about the pain of perfectionism.

It taught me about the pressure of competition and of endless expectation. Exeter is where I first came to understand feeling like you are never intelligent enough, or happy enough, or successful enough or simply enough.

Exeter taught me the pain of late-night papers and of failure, the pain of chasing colleges and comparison, the sinking feeling that others are somehow smarter, more accomplished, more ahead. It taught me about the numbness of depression and the grief of watching friends leave, give themselves away to things I still don’t understand. It taught me the pain of paralyzing loneliness and of putting on a mask—feeling like the real me was hidden away, somewhere no one could reach, not even myself. It taught me openness and compassion, because people here are a lot like the brick buildings that populate this campus—rarely one-dimensional, or as strong as they appear to be on the outside.

Exeter taught me about the absurdity of the world we live in. It taught me about the strangeness of a place where there is a library of over a quarter million books and some of the most dedicated faculty in the world, but we are often unable to see it, a place where intense stress and self-doubt exist with the highest highs of privilege and success. Exeter taught me about the craziness of a world where on one hand there is our insulated bubble and on the other hand there are neighborhoods filled with violence and young activists tearing through the streets, where there are peers who go home to houses with manicured lawns and white picket fences and peers who have no home to go back to. It taught me about Shakespeare and Euclidian Geometry, about Existentialism and the incredible beauty of cultures different from my own, but it also taught me about more unanswerable questions. Questions like the situation in the Middle East, or feminism, or divestment, or education policy, or race in America—and their sheer magnitude and

“Exeter stands for something, and although I’ve guessed, I’m still not exactly sure what it is. Sometimes I think that I will spend my whole life, my whole life searching, my whole life wandering.” seeming impossibility. It gave me the tools I needed to analyze these topics to death, to be cynical.

But, somewhere along the way, Exeter also taught me about the freedom that embracing imperfection and failure can bring. Somewhere along the way, it taught me that perfectionism will leave you cold, that it makes true learning impossible, because you are always trying to seem smarter, wiser, more accomplished than you are. It taught me that your true self can only emerge

ZHU, continued from B1 when you give up your false one, that only when you admit your own smallness and inadequacy can you truly begin to grow. Exeter taught me that self-improvement is never quick, or easy, but it is possible if we believe it to be, but it also taught me not let the pressure to be perfect take away our best selves. It taught me about awakening—the beauty that comes when you first begin to listen to your inner voice, when you begin to come to the quiet realization that true happiness comes when you find the courage to express your individuality. It taught me that a life lived successfully is not a life lived in comparison with others or with the definition of conventional success, but a life lived true to yourself and in consciousness of every moment.

Exeter made me into a cynic, but it also taught me the power of having a voice and a vision. It taught me to question everything around the Harkness table, to not listen to the textbook or even what a teacher says, but to think for myself and to look beneath the surface to find truth. It taught me that I am the one who decides what to think, or who to be, not the book or society or the people around me. It taught me the thrill of being heard, of speaking thoughtfully and with confidence, even if you are not sure what you are saying is right, even if others can say it better. At the same time, it taught me that the power of listening is often far greater than the power of speaking. Exeter taught me about the power a single individual can bring to the table. It taught me that change in this crazy world we live in is difficult, but it is possible if we think independently, if we use our voices, if we learn from and collaborate with one another, if we remember to always keep our eyes on the next horizon.

But, perhaps most importantly, Exeter taught me the comfort of community. It taught me that just as there are times of loneliness and uncertainty in life, there are also times of profound connection. A teacher who helped us see our better selves when we couldn’t see it ourselves. The stranger who seemed to understand us without words. Those late night conversations we can never seem to forget, when 12 a.m. turns to 2 a.m. and sometimes even to 4 a.m., and the sky turns from black to pink, when homework remains unfinished and we are no longer able to tell the difference between laughing and crying. The friend from halfway across the country who somehow felt like someone we’d known our whole lives. The friends who helped us to understand more of the world and of ourselves, who changed us for better and for worse, the friends who came and left, the friends who stayed all the way. Exeter taught me that the joy of true human connection is not always a given, but that we must always search it out and cherish its every moment.

Still, the truth is, even as I write about all Exeter has given me, the self-doubt I had the first day I stepped on campus is still very much with me, and there are brief moments sometimes when I look in the mirror and am not sure if anything has changed. As Sean Cameron ’01 once wrote, “You cry on the day you arrive at Exeter and the day you graduate from Exeter and hope that the

essence of those tears is different so that somehow you can be comforted to know that four years have not gone to waste.” These are words I once read prep year, but somehow never grasped fully until now. But, if anything, Exeter has taught me that this uncertainty, this searching, this self-doubt, will always be a part of life. So much of life, like Harkness, is in the trying, in the what do I

“I hope that, by the time I finally read these words, I will be willing to take the lessons Exeter has given me and finally go out on my own and into the world. Willing, in time, to let it go.” know, what do I not know, what I may never know. The best we can do is to keep on pushing forward, to keep on looking for bits of knowledge and hidden wisdom not only in books but in our own experiences and the people we meet, always seeking out ways to better ourselves, to better the world. Exeter stands for something, and although I’ve guessed, I’m still not exactly sure what it is. Sometimes I think that I will spend my whole life, my whole life searching, my whole life wandering.

Right now, I’m sitting on the third floor of the library, watching people walk back and forth on the paths.

It’s strange to think that I walked these same paths for four years, without ever truly realizing that the time would come when I would no longer walk them. And as I’m writing this, a soundtrack is playing in my head, the soundtrack of my Exeter memories. The soundtrack is different for everyone, but for me, I see the duty room lit up and everyone laughing, the whir of the newsroom on late nights, the stories about life told in the Russian classroom, many of which are lost on me now but the essence of which I still remember. It’s strange, because when I was in the middle of my Exeter years all I ever wanted was to leave, but now that it’s over, all I can think about is how much I will miss it. I’m wondering how I will feel when I finally see these words in print, when I’m packing my bags and saying my last goodbyes, when it finally becomes real to me that it’s time to leave for good. I’m wondering whether I will feel nostalgic for the moments and for the friends I’m leaving behind, or sad for the ones I never got to have. I am wondering whether I will feel happy with the person Exeter has shaped me into, or regretful for the one I never got to show, the one I never got to become. I am wondering whether I will feel excited or simply scared for what the future holds. But in the words of Tony Kushner, in this world, there is “a kind of painful progress. Longing for what we’ve left behind, and dreaming ahead.” I hope that, by the time I finally read these words, I will be willing to take the lessons Exeter has given me and finally go out on my own and into the world. Willing, in time, to let it go. 

THE EXONIAN

REFLECTIONS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

B5

An Introvert’s Qualities Will Li

Luz Lim/The Exonian

The problem with time is its elasticity. We look back on the years and wonder how we got here, how we ever survived those late nights or long winter days and how the weeks seemed to drag as the terms flew by. Almost four years ago, on a rainy September morning, I drove up I-95 in my family’s black SUV, the trunk piled high with furniture and clothing. As we traveled north, crossing the border between Massachusetts and New Hampshire, I closed my eyes and tried to imprint that moment into my brain, to hold on to that instant, to that day for the rest of eternity.

I have always been quite the sentimentalist, saving every possible memento in hopes that I may one day reclaim a lost memory. My dorm room in Wentworth Hall is covered in them, pictures and old ticket stubs, crumpled posters and pamphlets. In the doorway, you can find a dozen pairs of worn running shoes hanging from a metal pipe, each a reminder of the hundreds of miles of asphalt and dirt. They say the journey is more important than the destination, that it is how you get there that matters, and I wish I had done one of those time lapse videos, the ones where they take a picture every single day, piecing together a lifetime in the span of three minutes.

I wish I could go back to that fall, to follow that small fourteen-year-old boy as he goes from class to class, to watch and to listen. Looking back, I want to put everything into perspective, to quantify my growth into a finite value.

To me, that fourteen-year-old boy is almost unrecognizable.

He slouches awkwardly and stares down at his feet when walking. He can’t speak in class and will not branch out to others. It is such a strange experience. I am so different now; we are all so different now. Yet, I am struck by what has remained the same, the constants.

I am and will forever be an introvert, an INFJ. I don’t like big crowds or public speaking, and I generally have a few very close friends. Sometimes, I spend Saturday evenings alone, watching movies or working in the art studio. I am someone who is content in his own solitude.

But introversion doesn’t seem to mix well with Harkness. I can remember my Exeter interview way back when, sitting in the Admissions Office and giving short, terse answers.

Driving home, I remember thinking that I was not “Exeter material,” that my inability to communicate well would

Letting Go Emily Lemmerman Oddly, one of the most difficult things about Exeter has been breaking up with it. I thought that senior spring would be glowy and happy-go-lucky: three months of laughing, tanning and not doing homework. It is, sometimes.

Still, there is something nagging about going for a run and bridge jumping during C format rather than scrambling to finish E format’s homework. It feels dishonest. Dishonest, I mean, as a way to represent my Exeter experience, where senior spring has become a curatorial challenge of making every moment have meaning. On the other hand, senior spring is supposed to be fun. I struggled to figure out what I ought to be doing. And so an unmistakable sense of anxiety hung over the first weeks of senior spring as I’ve considered what to do on my “last snowy day at Exeter” [senior spring, anyone?] or the last Principal’s Day or any string of lasts that I could conjure up. The fun never felt authentic and the work never worth doing and the sleep just a waste of time.

Luz Lim/The Exonian

I began to have a sneaking suspicion that I was ruining my own senior spring by trying to make it fit some narrative. And maybe that I had always been trying to make my Exeter fit some narrative. I have obsessed over my time here, asking myself in every moment how to engineer the next.

As I’ve let that go, I recognize now that the best parts of Exeter have been the unexpected, both in serendipity and adversity. I had certain ideas about Exeter my prep year: that I would stay friends with the people I knew then, that I would, one day, ascend to the StuCo presidency, that I would

certainly guarantee a rejection letter.

Coming to Exeter, I was terrified. I sat in class, anxietyridden, hopelessly trying to contribute to the discussion.

Luckily, after a couple of months, I was able to gain a foothold, to gradually feel more comfortable within the classroom, and I will forever be grateful for the ways in which Harkness forced me to extend beyond my boundaries.

But many times, introverts can get lost in the shuffle, our voices drowned out by others. I wrote one of my college essays on introversion, on my own personal development in the face of my quiet nature. Yet, when I presented a draft to my college counselor, she suggested that I avoid using the word “introvert.”

“Most of the time, colleges take it negatively,” she told me. But I’ve always wondered why that is. Why can’t a leader be shy or reserved? Why can’t a leader be known not as a vocal activist, but primarily as a good listener? I’m not trying to downplay the profound impact that Exeter and Harkness has had on me, but I also wouldn’t be who I am without my more introverted qualities. I wouldn’t be known as friendly or empathetic or intelligent without having known how to listen, how to ask the right questions, how to be there for others. I wouldn’t have been able to take on leadership positions without having known how to work as a team, how to take a backseat role, how to support others. Introverted doesn’t mean anti-social or awkward. It doesn’t mean we should be overlooked. It just means that sometimes, when it’s dark and the stars twinkle brightly, the silence gives us more room to think. It just means that we’re comfortable in our own skin. So go find an introvert.

Take them for a walk down Swasey with Stillwell’s in hand.

We have so much to share if only you would just listen.  go to a certain college, be a coxswain and be a successful debater. But I’ve gradually loosened my grip on the threads of fate over my four years, and my time here has been better for it. Do what you want to do now, and don’t worry about what happens. If you wanted to do it at some point, you can always explain it to yourself later. Wander as it seems right, and life will be more interesting. Complacency about the way things are “supposed to be” will take over if you let it.

Four years out, my best friendships have been tested and others have come out of the woodwork. I am neither StuCo president nor debate co-head. I am also way too tall to be a coxswain. But I’ve grown a lot, mostly from the moments where I have wandered (or when life’s path has wavered uncontrollably). So I wish I had given myself slightly more wiggle room: firstly because the unimaginable always happens, and I definitely could have saved myself the hand-wringing, but second, because not having a map leaves you to explore for yourself.

When I opened a pamphlet about picking my classes for next year, the top of the page read “Do not make a four year plan” in big, red letters. For a second, I was confused.

But there I found maybe the most tangible thing that has changed between prep year and now. I won’t be making a four year plan this summer. 

B6

REFLECTIONS

THE EXONIAN

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Redefining My Hometown: Exeter Joe Platte

Tom Appleton/The Exonian

As a kid, my dad and I would sit outside on the back porch in the fall and spring. Occasionally, as the waning sun dipped below the white pines across the street that bordered the edge of the Squamscott River, we would hear voices echoing from the water. The voices would be at several levels of intensity, from an almost hysterical scream to calm instructions, and occasionally my childish curiosity would call me to find the source of the noise. I would walk through the trees and over a salt marsh that bordered the river on both banks because simply walking onto my neighbor’s dock would have deprived me of my sense of adventure. When I came to the edge of the river and pushed aside the cattails, I would find brightly colored and narrow boats of nine boys or girls dashing across the water with a larger motorboat in tow. Due to the relative straightness of the section of river that I lived on, the boats would generally be at full racing speed, two abreast and the rowers in perfect unified motion.

Those were some of the glimpses of Phillips Exeter that I had as a kid.

The ends of a water polo game when I showed up early for swim practice, the kids eating next to me and my family in a restaurant, the lacrosse games I would see from afar as I practiced in middle school or a stream of kids crossing Front Street that were keeping me from being on time to football practice. Other than that, Exeter was a larger-than-life school that sat in the center of my hometown, but still a school with which I never interacted. This was true until a group of Exonians accepted me as a valuable peer into their team of classmates volunteering for the New Hampshire Democratic Party.

I would go to the campaign office after school almost every day to do what I could to help out and with increasing frequency, the Exeter alum who ran the office would ask me to come along and help him run a phone bank with the Democratic Club. At first I sat by myself, making my calls, but then the kids started asking me what my name was, where I was from, and most confusingly to me, if I was a prep because they had never seen me before. I told them why I was there; I explained that I wasn’t a student at Exeter, but an eighth grader from the local middle school. Instead of being put off by my age, the kids invited me to sit at the table with them and asked if I wanted a slice of pizza. I started attending the meetings whenever I could and began spending more and more time in the phone room of Gilman House surrounded by people who treated me as one of their own. On Election Day I even went out on Dem Club 5’s on what I learned was a bus called a “red dragon” and ran around a dark neighborhood in Newmarket for two hours. It was those experiences with people like Shannon Brien ’11, Alex Cronhiem ’11 and Nate Moulton ’14 that taught me that I needed to be a part of this school.

When I would watch the rowers as a child, they seemed almost magical, with the light of the sun growing softer in the evening and the way their seemingly effortless and rhythmic movements drove them through the water. The whole idea of Exeter, which these rowers represented to me, didn’t seem to be one that would ever be a part of my life despite its role in my community. The town of Exeter has always been my hometown since it is where I grew up for the entirety of my life, but now it is my hometown because of an institution that taught me that every person has value no matter who they are, whether that person is an Exonian around a Harkness table, a kid standing on a salt marsh, watching some rowers, or a—as one of my friends called me—“townie eighth grader who kicks our butt at phone calls.” 

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Finding Fulfillment At Exeter QAMAR, continued from B1 There is no formula for fulfillment. No calculation for completeness. And as a lost prep, I began to accept I couldn’t just manufacture quick fixes to problems and tried genuinely wrapping my head around the concept that nothing is ever guaranteed.

As time went on, I started poking at random things that seemed to offer me potential gateways to bits of fulfillment and happiness. Writing op-eds for The Exonian looked like a petty passtime to most, but it personally gave me a chance to work my mind in a manner that called for regular, much-needed reflection. It also strengthened my comfort with words and fostered my interest in my personal identity, which I had long placed on the backburner. Being a Pakistani-Muslim girl away at boarding school wasn’t the most common demographic, and that’s because certain constraints and connotations exist in my culture, and I wasn’t ever willing to tackle those stereotypes or setbacks before.

Eventually, writing my meditation senior winter was the most anchoring experience of grasping my feelings of my culture.

I got really into chemistry upper year, and that passion only grew. Unit analysis problems, as nerdy as it sounds, make me feel very in control and at peace when all my calculations so neatly work out. And I am sparked with fulfillment when I see I’m getting just the right precipitate in a qualitative ion lab.

Sitting by the tracks at Gerry’s with bags and bags of Swedish fish. Mixing bisquick with milk stolen from D-Hall to grill midnight pancakes. Mattress surfing down Langdell’s back staircase through the wee hours of the night. Defending my opeds in meetings with deans. Checking out books from the library to read just to read.

Wandering phoneless through the woods in the dark. Talking over plates of chicken curry at Penang for four hours. Drafting speeches and bullet points for event panels.

Pacing Swasey with Stillwell’s in hand.

Reacting chemicals from make up and cleaning supplies alone at 2 a.m. in my room. Signing for $600 worth of pizza with the history department credit card for my senior projects forums. These little pieces of completeness may indeed seem fleeting, but they have kept me going at Exeter. They may seem small, but they have amounted to me claiming my voice, asserting my academic aspirations and connecting me to the people and world around me. They are unapologetically genuine.

Yet realizations have come at a cost, too. There currently exists a pretty bleak reality for women in science. Understanding culture has led to grave concerns surrounding ideas from global education to

the treatment of women whether on campus or back at home or in rural villages. More often than not, swallowing what goes on in our world only makes me feel sad and a little more incomplete at how powerless it is possible to be. Sometimes, the world just sucks.

What Exeter has taught me is that no matter how much I strive to attain it, there is no such thing as full completeness—at least not for me. There are instances and memories where I feel happiness and satisfaction in moments, even phases, but nothing brings lasting completeness. The universe, it seems, tends naturally toward hollow incompleteness—the kind of incompleteness so consuming that you begin to stop even feeling it. The kind that makes you numb and keeps you passive. Submissive. And eventually compliant to the forces around you. These past four years have shown me that life is both a constant battle to not let that incompleteness consume you and also a struggle to remain vigilant and filling the voids that are simultaneously being emptied. Completeness, ultimately, is all relative, and there are always factors out there willing, perhaps just waiting, to dig another hole in you.

Exeter broke me entirely before there was any semblance I could be put back together, even if incompletely. And it was in that total undoing that I found that ignoring my world and its problems, whether subconscious or not, was a selfish mechanism for self-preservation—a way to avoid processing what is wrong, bad, corrupted, because acknowledging the wrong, bad, corrupted is acknowledging the incompleteness. And that is sad. But not acknowledging it is what eventually makes you vulnerable to growing numbly hollow and drowning in that very incompleteness.

Exeter never failed to remind me that I always have to just make it until tomorrow, but that tomorrow will always be tomorrow. There is, again, no end result, no end deadline or guarantee for completeness or for anything, really. Tomorrow’s tomorrow will send a new set of challenges my way. I want to be in control of my incompleteness, if at least just always aware of it. At Exeter, I have come to peace with the choice that I would rather actively witness the world and be sad than live in passive happiness, numb and hollow.

That you can never, by definition, fully escape from this world’s perpetual inclination toward hollow incompleteness is at best sad, but just maybe there is something great, fulfilling and completing in the ability to recognize and accept the incompleteness and something beautiful in continuing to fight it. 

Don’t Forget To Live Henry Connolly

Rachel Luo/The Exonian

Exeter—like track, like standardized testing, like laundry, like homework, like breathing—is an infinite series of miniscule movements, strung together to create something bigger and, hopefully, better. This unquestioned faith in the “bigger picture” is an essential part of the Exeter experience; indeed, it may just be the Exeter experience.

As we seniors find time lounging on the quad to reflect on our years here, it’s easiest to think first about specifics. We may ponder our math career, remember the countless tests we bombed and the few we aced. We might recall an interesting thesis we argued for a paper in 333 or laugh to ourselves about a hastily thrown together English narrative. We’ll probably remember frantically cramming for language exams and science quizzes. All these things seemed life-ending at the time, but now seem trivial under the warm glare of the sun, the cool shade of the pine tree and the bright reflection of the fresh, spring grass.

However, at other times, larger fragments of our experience might come back to us.

While walking to the dining hall, or during a quiet moment in the dorm: usually solitary, we are suddenly struck by how we’ve changed over the years. It might be that our opinion

about a controversial issue was molded by a particularly compelling text, or that our passion for chemistry flared up, burned bright for a while, dimmed and finally sputtered to its molecular death over the course of the year.

We are imbued with the power to see ourselves as we changed. We can see our personality twisting like a curtain; we grasp the constant ebb and flow of our social groups, the cyclic nature of interactions.

Then, in a split moment of realization, our Exeter experience in its entirety comes crashing down on us, drowning us in a frothy torrent of emotion, introspection and remembrance.

Its grand, practically unfathomable magnitude washes over our eyes and fills the entire room.

There’s a lingering sense that even that which we can’t see at the time—our dorm rooms, the gym, our favorite classroom—has also been painted over with newness. We stand stunned, hand on a railing, fork at the mouth, foot on the step, wherever it may be, and it seems like the whole world has changed in a second.

All of this, however, is entirely retrospective: it’s damn hard to recognize anything in the present. We never realize that we are “dx”s moving along the x-axis, that we are alive for moments at a time, that there is distance from one breath to the next. Instead we usually see movements as passages, intermediaries between two existences.

I feel like I’ve spent most of my Exeter experience living in 20-minute bursts. For 20 minutes at a time I have a task, a goal, something to accomplish. Once that is completed I move on to the next twenty-minute segment.

Although this might be an effective way of powering through work, it certainly leaves no room to think, reflect or live.

As we leave this place, it may be hard to shake this habit of time sequestration. I sure know that it’s been difficult for me. I’d like to encourage everyone to pause once in a while, abandon the constant construction of their magnificent bigger picture and search for the fleeting moment, the space in-between two existences; live a little. 

THE EXONIAN

Shattering Preconceptions Cornelia Smith

Luz Lim/The Exonian

There is a mirror that rests atop my dresser, and it is flanked by two of the best things to have ever happened to this world: Beyoncé Knowles-Carter on the left and Michelle Obama on the right. “Good morning!” I always want to say, as if we are roommates and my cheery salutation is a friendly wake-up call. But, alas, faces on Vogue covers do not reciprocate, and I am left with myself, puffy-eyed, questionably awake and unamused by the airbrushed beauty staring back at me.

This mirror has been through a lot. It has seen me up close and personal, with every blemish and errant eyebrow hair and tangled bedhead. It has seen me smiling, wiping away tears, groaning, coughing, making an ‘O’ with my mouth as I applied mascara, and there was also that one time when I tried to give myself a pep talk before checking my early decision (this I do not recommend unless you enjoy deluding yourself). But mostly, I stare at myself in silence, and wait for some sort of acceptance of my present state.

It is with this same silence, momentary acceptance and fleeting presence that I reflect on Exeter. Part of me just wants to nod and say, “Yes, I was here for four years, but now I am leaving, good-bye.” That is the simple answer and the easiest response to a place that has left an indelible impact on my life, but because I did go to Exeter, I know that I can’t just take the easy way out. I cannot disregard the past, the people I’ve met and lost, the places discovered, the long nights and early mornings, going abroad to England and everything in between. I owe so much to this place. Yet, as I reflect on Exeter, the first question that comes to mind is always, “what has Exeter done for me?” It took me a while to parse through my thoughts and realize I neglected to think of the converse: what have I done for Exeter?

Probably not a whole lot. But I am struggling to decide between two things, whether or not my impact on Exeter

REFLECTIONS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

True Diversity Katie Casado One of the most rewarding parts of my Exeter experience has been my connection to the Afro-Latino Exonian Society (ALES). I’ve been an active member since my prep year and joined the board in my prep spring. At first, I joined because I saw it as a chance to surround myself with kids at Exeter who looked like me. It was a comfort to know that other kids were the only Black or Latino in their classes and that they also struggled with places to go for haircuts in town.

But even beyond that, ALES taught me a lot about how I view myself as a Latina, as a woman and as someone who still is privileged. Specifically, I began to think about Exeter as an institution and how it treats people of color (POC).

I was lucky enough to be part of an ALES board that chose to be active. When cries against racial discrimination and the devaluing of Black and Brown rang across cities in America, there was silence at Exeter. Nobody was talking about Baltimore, or Ferguson or what that meant for the country as a whole, yet students from every quarter would have to return to quarters where their realities were much harder than the ones they faced on this campus. We wanted Exeter to address these problems and to offer at least validation to their students: we hear you, we see you, we support you. The ALES board decided to plan a die-in to show solidarity with other protesters around the country. It was only four minutes on the quad after an assembly, but those four minutes were crucial. I won’t say it made me understand the position of Mike Brown or countless other POC who face physical violence to such a degree. But I learned that togetherness means something. At an institution that values connectedness and the experience of others, how could I not stand with those who yearned to be heard? Lying on the quad, I made a statement to myself, and I made a statement to my community that I was here to address a problem that affects us all.

Still, at Exeter, there is a pervasive sense of exceptionalism that inhibits a productive and honest conversation about oppression on this campus. Students joke about living in an “Exeter Bubble,” which exists, to a certain extent. It’s easy to forget about hardships around the world and country when you think your math test or chem lab or 333 is more important. The other side of the Bubble that exceptionalism manifests here is the mentality that “those kinds of things don’t happen at Exeter; Exonians don’t have to face those kinds of struggles.” The reality is that oppression does not

care that you have an Exeter I.D. on you. A connection to Exeter will not stop men from feeling entitled to my body and catcalling me on the street. It will not ease the fear that men and women of color have when walking down the streets of their neighborhoods back home and in town. The first thing I learned at ALES is that Exeter is an institution like any other in America, and that we, as the youth of this country, are reflections of larger institutions. Once we stop patting ourselves on the backs for being the best and the brightest, we can get down to work on reconstructing Exeter and making it a more equal and honest place.

Exeter’s founding philosophies make progressiveness our tradition. Non Sibi and charging students to have knowledge with goodness would ensure an institution that continuously looks to improve itself. The very school that has inspired my introspectiveness has also given me, and all Exonians, the tools to question our culture and enact change within it. What does it mean to want youth from every quarter? Here, and in many private schools in the country, “diversity” has become synonymous with race. True diversity does not mean having two people of color per grade.

Why isn’t Exeter accessible to students with disabilities?

Why doesn’t the faculty reflect the student population in terms of race, gender and age? And what would it even mean to have true diversity on campus? Advocating for “youth from every quarter” does nothing when those youths go unsupported and their diversity unacknowledged. We need our faculty to be equipped to handle conversations, in the classroom and in the dorms, about the systems of oppression that exist in the world, in America and at Exeter. We need our curriculum to reflect the voices of the students at the table, and the honesty of some of the shared history behind those voices. Throughout my time here, I’ve learned that I do love Exeter. But loving something is not the same as thinking that it is perfect. Loving something is having the courage to see its flaws and the passion to challenge and change them. 

Lilly Brown

my thoughts and realize I neglected to think of the converse: what have I matters, and if not, am I selfish? I want to believe that what I do makes a difference, but in doing so I also come across as vain. I think for sanity’s sake I will settle myself with the fact that we are all inherently self-serving, and maybe this transient experience is just that: transient. Temporary. A stepping stone to permanence and this idea of “mattering.”

Maybe this place, this school and home away from home, is just a bridge between who I was and who I will become.

Maybe the present is just a figment of my imagination Maybe. But the present is important. And if there is anything that can be gleamed from this rambling, it is that reflecting on Exeter is a difficult task because it is a neverending process. Exeter will spill into the crevices of your thoughts whether you like it or not, making you question the very meaning of life and forcing you to think metaphysically about your own existence. Talk to yourself more; take walks; keep a journal; revel in silence. I cannot thank Exeter enough for shattering the image that I had of myself before I came here, for showing me what really matters and for making me appreciate the infinite depths of one’s own mind. 

Steven Kim/The Exonian

About the People

“It took me a while to parse through

done for Exeter?”

B7

Luz Lim/The Exonian

I came to Exeter with what I believed to be an accurate perception of time: how to save it, how to avoid wasting it, how to be the most efficient in my four years of study.

Within my first week of prep fall, I learned that “time management” is something that Exeter generally prides itself on. Each of my teachers, as well as coaches, spent a good portion of our first few meetings stressing the importance of how you handle your time. Most of the upperclassmen also took some time out of their busy schedules to share their personal “secrets of success” with me, ending the majority of their speeches with a warning against wasting my time.

As a senior, in one week I’m supposed to spend about 220 minutes in class, 300 on homework, 120 at sports, 480 sleeping, and 90 eating. There are 1,440 minutes in a day, allowing the average student 230 minutes to do with as they please. Of these 230 minutes, 60 are spent at the club you’re too invested in, and an additional 75 will go to orchestra, choir or other miscellaneous commitments. This leaves us with 95 minutes, just over an hour and a half, of true freedom. Maybe you spend 60 minutes at a music concert or a board meeting once a week, but for the most part, the time is yours.

In the beginning, I was under the impression that these 95 minutes should go to studying, peer tutoring, or a club that I didn’t really have time for. While these minutes could very well be spent like that, it took me about a year to realize that this was not a necessity. In fact, I didn’t need to have any specific plan or strategy.

So, how should I use these minutes?

When asked about time well spent at Exeter, the first thing that comes to mind is not the hours I spent studying to earn an A- on my math test, or the miles logged at the gym or even the weeks spent slaving over the radio station. Instead, I think about listening Mr. Hearon’s backyard banjo jam sessions in the fall and spring, when it’s nice enough to open up the windows; waking up earlier than usual to the thump of Precision practicing in the common room, and then going downstairs to watch; trekking through the snow to Las Olas in the middle of January with a squad of brave Dunbar girls; sitting in dorm faculty’s apartment as they graciously scrubbed my arms with antiseptic the night before Abbot Tea to remove the 40 temporary tattoos on my body.

It is inevitable that you will at one point look back on your time at Exeter in uncertainty and ask yourself if it is really worth it. We all search for some concrete sign, a physical manifestation of our worth and more often than not come up empty. The stellar transcript, prestigious leadership positions and high SAT scores aren’t the things that make me smile, but when someone truly questions why I’ve stayed, I have a different kind of answer. I tell them about the girls in my dorm that I quite literally consider family, my teammates (in every sense of the word), the teachers who helped me get my act together and find a subject that I’m truly passionate about.

I tell them about the people. 

Friendship is the Foundation Hannah Fuller

Tom Appleton/The Exonian

This is the beginning of my tenth draft for this reflection.

Trying to find focus and conciseness that is fit to be published in The Exonian, but also captures my time here at the Academy is something that I over-confidently thought would just flow out. Oh, how I was wrong. Turns out that as someone who has completely given into the Exonian mindset, trying to find some way to talk about my time here just gives me feelings of panic and it's taking a lot of me to not just throw this Academyprovided iPad across the room and give up.

Sometimes, when listening to assembly speakers, they lose my attention when they repeat yet again that the friendships that you make here at Exeter are the most valuable things you get out of the experience. I think this had a tendency to come to me as a surprise because honestly, I have had a pretty stellar time at Exeter. I'm not talking about my grades or my “performance,” but in writing this reflection I could have written about a variety of things: the dance program, my ESSO trip to Ireland, the science department for breaking me and then making me or making change through DemClub. But now I

can see that none of these activities come anywhere close to encompassing my “experience” here. They reflect a career of opportunities that the Academy has generously presented to me, things that might look nice stacked atop one another on a résumé, but this is a time to try to define what made this time truly unique—what deserves of category of its own.

The first time I met my best friend at Exeter, we were wearing bright pink tights and tight buns at our dance auditions in the Davis Dance Studio. We both thought the other one was better than us. So in typical 14-year-old girl fashion, we didn’t speak a word to each other.

I met her again later that day when we were both moving into Lamont Hall. Her dad walked into my room, “My daughter lives down the hall, she’s really shy!” I caught my second glimpse of her as she quickly dragged him back out into the hallway.

Tori Dakin takes long, quiet strides across campus while writing lines of Latin in soft curved handwriting and singing in sweet tones that fill up Phillips Church on a Tuesday night like no other. I am pretty much the opposite—my short strides are clunky, my notes in science class take migrations across the page of their own accord and I stick to dance because I’m scared to take the risks that come with singing in front of people. Through a combination of Stillwell’s ice cream, HIS333 tears, and hours of Netflix accompanied by shared bags of chips and salsa on her floor, I have found a friend that can steal the words out of my mouth, and mock me for the quirks The alumni are right; they tend to be, don’t they? The friendships you make here will change your life. I think I used to listen to their advice suspiciously, because the idea of Exeter friendships has almost become a cliché. But there

is immeasurable truth behind their words, and I think that most people will not realize until the time to really appreciate them is over. While I have made other invaluable friendships during my time, I’m focusing on one special one because she has worked as a lifeline through my time (I also could fill the whole graduation issue, but I don’t think they’ll let me do that).

Tori and I have said multiple times in the late hours of the evening that we would not have made it through our four years without the other, and while from the outside we might sound over dramatic, I believe it. Exonians have a beautiful tendency for self-sabotage and overextension which often makes our own worst enemy. This school is also an incredibly demanding and pressure-inducing place, and, really, anyone who tries to paint it as a picture of intellectual support and comfort is working with some really thick paint. I believe that there is no way that anyone here could accomplish what they have without the people around them. Tori and I put limits on each other, but also push each other to be the best we can be, all in the name of keeping ourselves healthy. Although the connections we make alone, like the one I have with Tori is the highlight of my time here, I couldn’t have had any of the ups-and-downs without her being there as well. So really this reflection is a thank you to the unnamed people who have surrounded me during my time here, and especially to her. I can wear the ring with the Exeter seal on my finger, with pride, because of what I have done around the Harkness table, but with happiness because of what has occurred outside of the classroom.

Tori, I am so grateful for the person that you are, and the fact that you also said yes to your acceptance letter when you were 14. And don’t worry, nothing, even 875 miles, can stop us next year. 

B8

THE EXONIAN

REFLECTIONS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Reflections

Luz Lim/The Exonian

So, So Exhausted Sabrina Ortega

I remember mostly snow cast in fossil footprints below my window when I looked out at three in the morning. Insomnia, hunger, cold. Shaking radiators, icy water, rotting leaves, blank blue-linoleum hallways. My prep year, I left school a week early. I had cried on the phone in the Dunbar back hallway.

Sobbed to my mother. Asked her to please bring me home. I was so exhausted. Lower year I left school before midterms in the fall. I didn’t cry that time. I went to the health center, and I told them I needed to leave. I was so exhausted. Upper year, I cried a lot. I screamed on my bed. I had anxiety attacks. I dropped out of track in the winter and 333 in the spring. I was so exhausted. Senior year, I have shaken with anxiety. I don’t really cry that much. I feel dried out. Getting into college was not an excitement—it was a relief. I dragged myself through the last weeks of the term waiting to get home so I could get help. I am so, so exhausted.

I would like to say now that I don’t blame Exeter for my problems. I would have been a disaster whether I went to Exeter or stayed home—either I was going to fall apart when I went away to high school or it was going to happen when I went away to college. As grueling as the last four years have been, I’m at least glad that my breakdown happened before I had to pay my

own medical bills. I’m mentally ill, and that’s just what being mentally ill is about: it’s always going to come up; it’s always waiting for the right application of pressure. I guess Exeter just hit me right in the crazy.

There was value in finding who I was when I hit rock bottom. I remember the day lower year when I finally realized I needed to go on med leave. I don’t think I’ve ever been as peaceful as when I finally gave up trying to fight. I was sitting on the third-floor landing in Dunbar. Rain dripped from my hair and from my shoes after the run I’d just completed at cross country practice. I had to sit down because I almost blacked out. That’s when I decided that I was done with misery, I was done with anger, I was done with fighting and I was done with Exeter. I count that among one of the greatest moments of my life. Surrender is the greatest peace I have experienced. I was on a plane back to Arizona three days later.

Now, after four years of strutting on rock bottom like it’s the runway at Paris Fashion Week, I have that sometimes success is getting out of bed in the morning. I don’t have time for expectations of an Ivy League education, an 11, A’s on my math tests, New England Cross Country Championship titles and a perfect body. I skipped probably 15 morning classes during fall term because I was too depressed to get myself out of bed. Being mentally ill does a good job of teaching you what is extraneous.

Unfortunately, at Exeter, stripping life down to the essentials of survival is nearly impossible or will at least be met by the most dedicated opposition by a culture that says needing help, picking the easy option and giving up is weak.

When I stripped down my whole life—expectations from others, expectations from myself—I found happiness. It’s stupid, I know, but what you learn being an anxious, depressed, traumatized kid with an eating disorder is that you can’t take happiness for granted because it doesn’t come around that often.

Happiness is the most essential thing. I’m not saying just quit your job and travel Europe or whatever “because happiness is more important than money” or anything stupid like that. I need money; I need to pay for college. I’m saying that success isn’t fixed, and it isn’t what we’re taught to think it is in New England Ivy League academia. I would be a lot crazier than I am right now if I hadn’t realized that. I quit swimming, I quit

track, I quit cross country, I quit trying to be a math and science student when that obviously wasn’t working. I quit trying to be perfect, I quit trying to make people like me, I quit skipping dessert. It was terrifying, and I felt like a failure. Sometimes I still feel like a failure when people crack jokes about how you can’t make money as an English major, or I hear about someone’s SAT scores compared to mine, or I remember I’m not the athlete I used to be. But what it comes down to is that I’m not dead.

Happiness isn’t some unimportant thing; for me, it’s literally about survival. Either I’m miserable, I shut down completely and I quite literally try to kill myself or I take the low grades and the opting and I smile sometimes. This is what allows me to not hate myself for being a failure by someone else’s standards.

This is what allows me to keep myself from burning out. Once I built my own definition of success, I stopped letting people call me a loser. I put myself in control. Also, to be honest, I’m now medicated, which is great. I’m still pretty sad a lot, but the psychotropic helps. Medication isn’t weak, and neither is therapy, though it was by my old definition of success—getting any kind of help was failure for me. Now, however, seeking help is a victory. I wouldn’t be alive without it.

For me survival has been about selfishness. I’m not saying you should go out and, like, eat your family or something. What I’m saying is that I am a writer, but if I had started to write for someone else—for anyone other than myself or about anything but who I am, how I feel and what I want—I wouldn’t still be writing. If I had started putting my writing through other people’s standards, I would have given it up because the pressure and fear would have soured it—just like pressure ruined competitive swimming and running and, to a certain extent, school itself. I have realized that there’s a difference between winning because I want to win and winning because I’m afraid of weakness, failure or embarrassment. I could never motivate myself with fear because fear corrodes enthusiasm over time.

Eventually, motivating myself with fear made me hate what I had once loved.

I do not blame Exeter for my problems, but I am overjoyed to leave. Next year I will be going to school somewhere with sunshine, far away from the Ivy League. I have lost too many years to sadness. I am so, so exhausted. 

Balancing the Conflicting Moments at Exeter Scott Hermenau

Luz Lim/The Exonian

On the Importance of Difficulty and Stress Liddy Ambler

There are a lot of bad things here. The happiness you feel when you discover the conversion rate between caffeine and an hour of sleep. Never feeling like you have time to really understand everything there is to grasp from a class. The murky lavender sky when you’ve finished your work but you know if you go to bed now it’ll be worse than just staying up.

But these things have value. I knew I’d met a best friend when we pulled our first all-nighter prep fall to finish a bio lab. Emily and I knew it was silly to be up so late—truthfully, if we’d planned better, we wouldn’t have needed to—but we reveled in our evasion of dorm fac and in finding another prep who cared so much about Protozoa. That long night of camaraderie is one of my favorite memories of this place, neither because of the finished lab report, nor because of the invaluable new friendship I found. That night is so dearly memorable to me because it allowed me to feel that I was doing something right—that I was an Exonian.

Exeter hasn’t been the happiest four (three, if you’re being factual) years of my life. In some ways I ran across the Atlantic from it. In Italy, la dolce vita proved that high school is about a lot more than grades, extracurriculars and the ever-present CCO, and that Exeter truly is a strange way to spend this time of our lives. So why is everyone who leaves here so grateful? You learn a lot. Even with all the hype, Harkness really is a gift. There are special people here. Yes, yes, yes. But I expect I will be grateful to Exeter for a different reason: because it was so inexplicably hard.

Things don’t have to be happy to be good.

Leaving Exeter, I feel prepared to face what comes my way, drawing beyond the knowledge and skills I’ve garnered, or even the ability to skillfully ramble my way through a Harkness discussion without doing the homework. I draw on the awareness of how much I, and all of us, can do when push comes to shove, and on knowing that at the end of the day, no matter how stressed I was, the work got done.

This place isn’t for everyone. But you’re here, and you should work hard. Not just to learn, but to learn what working yourself feels like and to feel what surviving it feels like.

There has been a lot of discussion on mental health this year on campus. This is good. Exeter has a responsibility to the wellbeing of students and for many it has been letting that obligation go. When I say Exeter isn’t for everyone, I don’t mean them. Exeter must change its health services, but it must not get confused and sacrifice its rigor.

I’m one of many worried that Exeter is becoming “soft.”

The seniors this year have seen the abolishment of most Saturday classes, prep fall grades and, most recently, ties in the dress code. Some measures like these (particularly a gender-neutral dress code) have solid reasoning, but they are part of a trend that threatens the rigor we all hate and that I hope many of us hold dear.

They say you’re an Exonian once you’ve successfully completed one term here. I say you’re an Exonian when you can show up bleary-eyed to class, homework half-done and still make a killer point. And maybe that’s no good and maybe we need to take another look at the health of our community, but the solution isn’t to make Exeter any easier. Then inevitable difficulties of this place wouldn't be worth it at all. 

Exeter, like any place, has been a mixed bag.

I clearly remember my first day of classes. After my 8 a.m., I spoke with a department director and asked him who I should speak to regarding a passion of mine. He looked at me from top to bottom to see a boy in tight red skinny jeans with a flailing mob of hair on his head, and corrected me, telling me that I was wrong about my own interests and that I was really interested in something else. I also recall later that year when the then-chair of the same department threatened me with a discipline case for not removing my shoes when he told me to.

On the other side of things I’ve had the incredible fortune to meet and work with many wise, independent and remarkable people here. Ms. Barsi, an inspiring art teacher who has still encouraged me in my projects despite not teaching here anymore; my advisor Mr. McConnell, who has always given sound advice, been on my team and taught me how to think about history; Dr. Sakata, who is the adviser to Democracy Of Sound (an experimental sound collective) and my composition teacher, providing at least one DOSe of (in)sanity every week; Ms. Morse, who helped me in many ways and is someone who made it possible for me to stay at this school; my dorm faculty, dormmates and too many teachers and friends to mention.

Phillips Exeter has an intriguing relationship with the town of Exeter. In one of my first term classes I remember my teacher, amidst constant trumpeting about “the best of the best” and “special, gifted people,” using the slur “townie” in an example. She used it to reference every person living in Exeter who does not attend this high school.

I commented on how I don’t believe in that word, that it is a manifestation of insecurity and rude elitism and that I don’t understand why people use it. At this point she asked for a day student in the class to try and speak to her point, which might have been that it is simply a word used to refer to a mass of people who would otherwise be unidentifiable.

He said he agreed with my points. The fact that someone would think that an inhabitant of Exeter, someone who had probably been called a “townie” dozens of times before, would agree that it is a useful term that illustrates how the trancelike dogma of vernacular can so easily convince people that irrational ideas are simple facts. I recall a late night to early morning debate with two of my proctors about the usefulness of the word “townie.” I still don’t understand how the derogatory use of a slur can be argued for on the basis of academics or convenience.

So much insecurity. The grotesque and gleeful smiles of my peers as they tell others that their grades are “not their worth,” the superiority complexes and the circulation of “best” lists where Exeter holds the number one spot.

And joy; eureka moments in and out of class, learning how to throw a frisbee or a football on the quad, the often slow wandering path of discovery and simple enjoyment of company and solace.

One of the most fascinating aspects of my high school is its relationship with tradition. Tradition could be con-

Rachel Luo/The Exonian

sidered the trunk on a tree of institutional history. People and ideas branch out and grow, get chopped off, sprout and change, but all of the branches reach back to the trunk of tradition. The problem with tradition is its relation to the positive trajectory we like to think we’re on. Compared to the past, people consider themselves to have come a long way; as a whole, we are now less violent, racist, sexist, stupid and ignorant. So the problem with time, tradition and trend is that the further back the clobbering arm of tradition reaches, the closer it is to the classist, rich, discriminatory origin of many things. How can tradition be embraced, but also distanced? This awkward relationship with tradition manifested itself when my dorm was having a discussion about dress code, specifically the tie requirement. I was bringing up the issue of class in relation to the necktie, how it connects the ideas of success and money, and how while a uniform could be considered an equalizer among students, the necktie itself makes some students uncomfortable, and clothing in general points to the student’s class.

Some visitors argued in one breath that the tie was a way to dress for success and that it looks professional, while in the next, said that no successful or innovative people wear ties anymore and that they are only seen by people working at McDonald’s. How can someone hug a tradition with one arm while pushing it away with the other?

When I came to Exeter, I thought I was going to succeed in Latin, learn to play the cello and continue playing the guitar at least an hour a day. Instead, I discovered electronic music, got into synths, got a little fat, almost failed Latin, learned a lot (but didn’t study enough), met all sorts of people and made some music. While I have constantly argued with myself about my time here and its merit, I have had a great one, learning things about culture, time, money and academic subjects. Perhaps most importantly, I learned how to live with other people, balance teaching moments with learning ones and the unmeasurable value of humility. 

To read more reflections by the members of the Class of 2015, visit The Exonian’s website: theexonian.com

THE EXONIAN

NEWS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Year in Review: 2014-2015

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Fall, Winter and Spring

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Alison Dowski/The Exonian

Rachel Luo/The Exonian

Left: Exonians enjoy a brisk fall day. Middle: A visiting performer dances the Bharatanatyam. Right: Illuminosity, a fire dancing club, performs at Pep Rally.

Fall

By HANNAH PIETTE Staff Writer

Campus Reacts to Tragedy On July 31 2014, Principal Tom Hassan informed the Exeter community about the death of Preeya Sheth, beloved member of the class of 2016. Sheth was an active and exuberant Exonian who impacted numerous members of the community with her remarkable drive and intelligence. The Academy acknowledged the importance of supporting the community during this time and provided outlets for students to grieve and commemorate as they returned to campus for the fall term. A memorial service was held in Phillips Church on Sep. 14, where students and faculty gathered and

spoke of Sheth and her impact on their lives. Additionally, faculty and counselors aimed to provide support for students as they grieved. Because Sheth’s death was a suicide, PEA consulted with Dr. Stephanie Pinder-Amaker, Director of the Mental Health Program at McLean Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, who advised the Academy on how to best heal the community. Student leaders were also important sources of support; proctors and student listeners received guidance from faculty on how to address depression and the loss of a member of the community.

Search for Exeter’s Fifteenth Principal Begins

On July 1, 2014, Principal Tom Hassan declared his intention to retire at the end of the 2014-15 school year. In order to find PEA’s 15th principal, the Academy's trustees established the Principal Search Committee a week after Hassan’s announcement, composed of four faculty members and nine trustees and staff. Before deciding who to appoint, the committee embarked on a lengthy process to evaluate and interview their chosen candidates. In compiling a list of candidates, the committee took a number of measures in order to find the best principal for Exeter. Faculty, staff, students, parents and alumni participated in open forums to discuss the qualities valued in a principal, so that the committee could gain input and advice in their search. With an open email address that community members could use to share their thoughts, individu-

Courtesy of PEA Communications

Principal Tom Hassan will retire at the end of the 2014-2015 school year.

als who could not participate in the forums could still express their opinion. In gaining feedback from every facet of the Exeter community, the results were not entirely unified. There were many factors advocated for, including those of commitment, enthusiasm, charisma, high visibility, promotion of Exeter’s core values, value of intellect and receptivity. The committee hired an executive search consulting firm, Spencer Stuart, to help with the process. Spencer Stuart assembled a candidate pool containing nominated individuals and individuals they believed matched with the input received. The committee evaluated the members and narrowed the pool down to a shorter list that the principal would be chosen from.

Although community members could provide opinions on what they wanted in a principal, the list of finalists remained confidential.

Exeter Explores “Goodness” Through Open Forum Conversations

Alison Dowski/The Exonian

Senior Sabrina Ortega-Riek speaks at the open forum assembly.

During the fall term, goodness and its involvement on campus were discussed through several media. The discussion began with an assembly in October led by religion instructor Russell Weatherspoon, who spoke about the importance of combining goodness with knowledge at Exeter.

Following his assembly, Student Council (StuCo) held an assembly centered around goodness in the style of an open council; any student could stand up and share his or her thoughts about goodness at Exeter.

At these assemblies and around campus, many students criticized Exeter’s competitive culture and the tendency for students to act individually instead of with others as a community.

This negative competition was seen to be in direct opposition to Exeter’s values of non-sibi and goodness. In order to further the discussion, the entirety of the faculty met for a Harkness style meeting to ask the question, “What is goodness?”

During this meeting, the faculty analyzed the presence—or lack—of goodness throughout many aspects of Exeter life, and debated the varying views of goodness, while looking for concrete solutions and steps that could be taken for improvement.

Although there were diverse opinions on the definition of goodness, throughout the discussions it was evident that both faculty and students believed in the community’s need for unification.

Intimidation Addressed Elm Street Renovations Revealed

Several students reported feeling intimidated by the administration in the wake of conversations held about views or opinions they had publicly expressed. Whether they were published in an article in The Exonian, or vocalized in an open forum, students and faculty alike were spoken to by administrators about their opinions. And although the administrators viewed these meetings as a productive opportunity to clear apparent misconceptions or misfacts that the students may have included in their statements, students have felt otherwise. The discussions were instead viewed as intimidating confrontations. The intent of the meetings was not to intimidate, but because of the power that the administration has over students, that was often the reaction. The fear that the administration would respond in that nature to opinions resulted in self-censorship from students and faculty who may have potentially controversial opinions. An article published in The Exonian addressing the issue of intimidation and self-censorship triggered a debate on campus. Classes, Student Council and the Publications Committee addressed censorship on campus and the implications of the article published in The Exonian.

Jena Yun/The Exonian

The newly built hearth in Elm Street Dining Hall.

After a summer away, students arrived back at Exeter in the fall to find a newly renovated Elm Street dining hall awaiting their arrival. The dining services felt that, compared to the modernized dining facilities in other academic institutions, Exeter’s were outdated, and should be revamped. The new dining hall was almost unrecognizable with its modern flooring, new lighting in the eating area, reconfigured dish room, newly designed service stations and brick pizza oven. The “scatter system” configuration of the new-and-improved Elm Street was designed to reduce the traffic during rush hours so that all of the students, faculty and staff could eat without a substantial wait. Some Elm street regulars enjoy the new pizza oven and the dazzling modern architecture, while others believe the renovation was unnecessary and that the money could have instead been used to improve the food. To many, the traffic in the dining hall seems to have increased, defeating the purpose of the renovations. But overall, students and faculty believe that Elm Street’s renovations resulted in an enhanced dining space for the Academy community.

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NEWS

THE EXONIAN

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Campus Responds to Nationwide Police Brutality During Exeter’s Thanksgiving break, America was left in uproar after Officer Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was not indicted by a grand jury in November 2014. On the same day, another grand jury denied the indictment of the white police officer who killed Eric Garner, a black man, using a chokehold. After several publicized instances of police brutality, many Americans began to protest against racial discrimination. Principal Tom Hassan sent an email acknowledging the importance of continuing

discussion about racial discrimination. As Exonians returned to campus for the winter term, racism and police brutality were at the forefront of many students’ minds. Dean of Multicultural Affairs Rosanna Salcedo led an assembly centered around racial discrimination, following a Die-In organized by Afro Latino Exonian Society (ALES). Around 100 students gathered in the academic quad, laying in silence on the icy ground for four and a half minutes to represent the four and half hours Michael Brown’s body was left on the sidewalk in Ferguson, Missouri. Additionally, members of the com-

munity expressed their personal views of the events at a forum in the church. At MLK day, the conversation continued along with capital punishment lawyer Bryan Stevenson’s inspiring speech about mass incarceration in the U.S. After MLK Day, students and faculty hoped that discussions regarding racial inequality and injustice will continue on campus, even if it is often difficult to talk about it comfortably. Racism is a daily reality for many students on campus, and although the discussions on campus were a start, many are in fear that the attention will die down as other issues arise.

PEA Welcomes New Principal Vice President of the Trustees Eunice Panetta ‘84 announced current University of New Hampshire Provost Lisa MacFarlane as Exeter’s 15th principal during assembly on Jan. 30. The Principal Search Committee, formed in July after Hassan’s announcement to retire, worked diligently to find the most qualified new principal. While working with the search firm Spencer Stewart, considering opinions from faculty, staff, parents, alumni and students and keeping the values and needs of the school in mind, the committee narrowed the candidate pool down to two finalists. The finalists were interviewed in person to assess the potential in their qualities. After deliberation between the trustees, MacFarlane was chosen to take on the job. MacFarlane, an Andover graduate, previously worked as an English teaching intern at Exeter and both of her daughters graduated from Exeter.

MacFarlane will assume her position as principal in the fall of the 2015-2016 school year. During the winter term, MacFarlane visited campus to meet the members of the Academy community. Although the transition from Hassan to MacFarlane will come with some challenges, the search committee believes MacFarlane’s impressive qualifications and previous experiences will aid her in successfully leading the school.

Blizzards Hit Campus Winter term at Exeter is often characterized by its massive amounts of ice and snow, sending students into constant prayers for spring term. This winter was especially fitting of these characteristics as students braved the multiple blizzards that swept through the Northeast. The National Weather Service sent a warning preparing the East of the mammoth blizzard Juno, which would leave New England immobilized from Tuesday, Jan. 27 until the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 28. In reaction to this warning and in order to protect the school from Juno’s safety hazards, Principal Tom Hassan decided to declare Tuesday the 27th Principal’s Day, cancelling all classes and required appointments, except music lessons. lthough students were relieved to be free of facing the bitter winds and feets of snow for their classes, some students were upset that Principal’s Day was used on a day where they would have to stay inside. Hassan later made up for it with a 2nd Principal’s Day on Apr. 30. Principal’s Day typically falls on a warm day in the spring, when students have an opportunity to spend their free day enjoying the outdoors. Other members of the community were surprised that Exeter, a school which very rarely cancels classes, had finally given in to a snow day.

But for essential employees, this snow day did not apply. They were required to brave the blizzard and road conditions to shovel the snow, clear the roads around campus, provide hot food and maintain the campus. Many students and faculty helped the staff in shoveling the snow to show their gratitude. Juno was not the last blizzard and more storms reached Exeter’s grounds, resulting in other difficulties and cancellations, such as the cancellation of Exeter’s annual Jazz brunch.

Winter

Luz Lim/The Exonian

Rachel Luo/The Exonian

By HANNAH PIETTE Staff Writer

Caroline Del Real/The Exonian

Top left: Students enjoy a recent snowfall. Top right: International Tea attracts many. Bottom: Snow igloo.

First Climate Action Day Hosted

Connor Bloom/The Exonian

Seniors Mark Oet and Prin Harinsuta play in the snow.

Dress Code Discussed To promote a more gender neutral campus, StuCo pursued a revision to the dress code. After a meeting in September discussing the flaws in the dress code, it became clear that students were concerned about the lack of gender neutrality in the current code. The current dress code holds male and female students to different standards, where “girls” can dress more freely with less formality, promoting gender stereotypes, such that boys are more professional than girls. The current dress code additionally causes stress for students who are not comfortable declaring their gender as either “boy,” or “girl,” especially in instances where faculty must decide the gender of a student while enforcing the rule of neckties. The policy committee formed two dress code options which allowed for gender neutrality between both binary genders, as well as non-binary genders. The first option, less formal than the second, passed in StuCo. In this code, all students must wear either a dress shirt, sweater, turtleneck, dress or ethnic attire.

The tie would no longer be required, but ties, jackets and scarves would always be acceptable. After the new dress code passed, StuCo proposed the code to faculty as a consideration. Although faculty may not decide to change the dress code at all, StuCo hopes that they will keep the students’ proposal in mind as they alter the code for next year, in an effort to move towards a more equitable campus.

This winter term Exeter held Climate Action Day for the first time, where the regular class schedules were replaced by workshops and seminars centered around sustainability and the environment. Climate Action Day was planned in order to bring light to climate change, an issue that has become increasingly evident and undeniably significant. The Climate Action Day Committee hoped to educate students and faculty on the climate change movement, while inspiring the community to take action. The day began with a required keynote address from Bill McKibben, founder of 350. org. In a motivational speech that received a standing ovation, McKibben stressed the importance of political and social change tied with morality, while educating the community about his campaign and the impact that young students can have. After McKibben’s speech, students moved to two self-selected workshops. The wide range of 20 possible workshops provided for

more intimate conversations in smaller groups. Speakers came from all over the country to discuss various specific issues involving climate change. The most popular seminar was led by MIT Professor Donald Sadoway (pictured below), who spoke to the audience about his revolutionary energy-efficient battery.

Because the day was the first of its kind, the day will not necessarily be repeated in future years. In order to continue the conversation and feed off of Climate Action Day’s provided momentum, environmental clubs planned future events. Following Climate Action Day, Exeter won the Reduction Rivalry, a competition against other schools to reduce the energy usage of the school. With the installation of the Zero Waste Initiative, Exeter has pledged to cut down on the waste in dining halls. In the wake of Climate Action Day, it is hoped that Exonians will continue to keep the planet in mind and join the global fight against climate change.

M.I.T. professor Donald Sadoway presents during Exeter's first Climate Action Day.

Steven Kim/The Exonian

THE EXONIAN

Gender-Neutral Dress Code Passed by Faculty

After a year of discussions surrounding the topic of a gender neutral dress code and hours of work from PEA’s Student Council (StuCo), the faculty approved the StuCo’s modified dress code proposal. StuCo presented its proposal to the faculty on May 4, and one week later it passed by a majority vote. Under the amended dress code, students may wear a dress shirt, sweater, turtleneck, dress or ethnic attire. A dress shirt is defined as a blouse, polo or collared shirt. All hemlines must be at least fingertip length, all clothing must be clean and in good repair (not torn, frayed or cut off) and students may not wear hats, athletic wear (i.e. leggings worn as pants, mesh shorts, sweatshirts, t-shirts), strapless tops or tops with straps fewer than two inches wide, or apparel that reveals the midriff, buttocks or chest. The changes are a big step in the push for gender equity on campus, as they insure a dress code which does not force a student to openly express their gender with the clothes that they wear. It aims to eradicate the previous sharp binary distinctions in the dress code, especially with the tie requirement.

Upper Gillian Chu forms clay.

Luz Lim/The Exonian

New StuCo Executive Board and Reps Elected With the cyclical nature of student government came a spring term characterized by elections and students eager for their required signatures.

This year, Exonians voted uppers Rebecca Ju and Jun Park and lower Joel Lotzkar as president, vice president and secretary, respectively, for the 201516 academic year. In addition to StuCo’s Executive Board, class representatives were voted into power.

Students elected upper Kevin Zhen as next year’s senior class president and uppers Levon Brunson and Chukwudi Ikpeazu as the co-vice presidents. Lowers Sarah Brown, Julia Friberg and Issay Matsumoto were voted as upper representatives and preps Jackson Parell, Charlotte Polk and Taylor Walshe were voted as lower representatives. As President, Ju said she is already forming plans for what she wants to address in the coming year. On the forefront of her plan is the needed improvement for ways in which Exeter treats mental health. She plans to focus on educating the health center on issues of transparency and mental health while implementing an anonymous feedback system for the health center and counselors. Ju wanted to see more panels, forums and assemblies relating to the topic along with a weekly StuCo newsletter to inform on the Council’s progresses.

Along with her Executive team’s aligning goals and the help from the entirety of StuCo, the 2015-16 year is hoped to be ripe with student-initiated change.

NEWS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Students make smores during the last EAR concert of the year.

Students and teachers perform during (in)FEST(us) hosted by Democracy of Sound.

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Steven Kim/The Exonian

Rachel Luo/The Exonian

Spring

By HANNAH PIETTE Staff Writer

Academy Welcomes 340 New Exonians As the class of 2015 bids farewell, a new crop of of students are on their way to become Exonians as the 2015-16 academic school year approaches. Out of the 2,347 applicants, Exeter accepted 446 prospective students and 340 have chosen to enroll in an unexpectedly large yield of 76 percent. The incoming students are comprised of 201 preps, 84 new lowers, 17 new uppers and 38 new seniors and post-graduates.

Exeter will award $7.9 million in financial aid to the incoming class of 2019. The incoming class features a larger percentage of boarders than in recent years, with 90 percent of students boarding at Exeter. The

admitted students exemplify Exeter’s value of international diversity, hailing from 38 states and 27 countries. With the high yield of students come potential positives and negatives. Dorms will have to accommodate a larger influx of students, resulting in potential emergency doubles and triples. But, because the 2013-14 yield was similarly high, the Academy has the recent experience to ensure a smooth transition. Although the cramped dorms may seem cumbersome, many saw the high yield as a positive statement which highlighted the increasing allure of Exeter in relation to other prestigious institutions.

Students and Faculty Bid Farewell as Class Of 2015 Graduates Their diplomas clasped in hand, many of the 301 members of the Class of 2015 will light their cigars today, June 7, with nostalgic triumph as their high school years come to a close. In the final meeting before their five year reunion, Exeter’s 234th Commencement will be an emotional rite of passage for the seniors before officially leaving campus. Within the backdrop of the Academy’s green lawn, students and their families will witness the traditional graduation ceremony. The commemoration will include speeches from the Senior Class President Stephanie Chen and Principal Tom Hassan as well as a performance from the Academy’s graduation quartet. In a sense, Hassan graduates with the seniors as well, as he will speak for the last time as principal and hand each senior a diploma, accompanied by a longawaited handshake.The Academy wishes the seniors a goodbye and a good luck as they become alumni and enter the newest chapter of their lives. Whether they are off for travel, internships, gap years or a brief period of relaxation before rolling back into the academic grind at college, the senior’s futures are wide and unknown but will prove to be remarkable in their accumulated potential.

Rachel Luo/The Exonian

Uppers Mykel Miller and Michaela Nickerson light sparklers during Lamont Tea.

ESSO Relay For Life a Success, Raises Over $5,400 The student body walked in silence in the gym, dimly lit only by the candles within white paper bags, which contained messages in honor of those affected by cancer. During the Luminaria service, audience members listened to students share their stories and experiences regarding cancer and cracked glow sticks to recognize community members impacted by cancer. This was a part of the annual Relay for Life event, sponsored by ESSO and

Student Activities, held on Saturday, Apr. 11. Relay For Life is a worldwide event started in 1985 that includes a fundraising walk, as well as activities and booths that entertain the individuals attending the event and raise awareness for cancer.

Clubs and dorms worked together to organize creative booths that ranged from a kissing booth to a barbecue. Exeter raised over $5,400 from contributions from students, faculty, employees and

families. This year’s student leaders of the Relay For Life committee were senior Will Li and upper Ashley Baxter. The duo managed to run a committee and plan the event in addition to organizing the 45 booths. To publicize the event, Li and Baxter collaborated in a project called “Why I Relay.”

The project was in the form of a video that consisted of various members of our community sharing reasons what Relay For Life means to them.

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NEWS

THE EXONIAN

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Senior Meditations Touch The Exeter Community

By HANNAH PIETTE Staff Writer

Rachel Luo/The Exonian

Every year, seniors spend their winter term reflecting upon past experiences in the ultimate personal narrative: the meditation. Over the spring break, a committee gathers to select a diverse sampling of senior meditations to be shared with the community during Wednesday’s meditation block in Phillips Church.

This year, seniors Will Li, Dana Tung, Molly Bolan, Monica Acosta, Hannah Graham, Lily Brown, Morgan Burrell, Katherine Ying, Alice McCrum, Zoha Qamar and Max Le will read their meditations before friends, faculty, and in some cases, visiting family.

In the absence of a specific prompt, the senior meditations are an opportunity for seniors to direct their writing and explore their identity in what amounts to a long personal narrative presented to their class. The endeavor encourages students to delve into their personal story with literary freedom, learning not only about themselves, but also about their peers in the process.

The Meditation Selection Committee that decides which meditations are to be read in Philips Church is composed of ten members, all from the English and Religion departments. After negotiating and discussing the choices that each member nominated as their top meditation, the committee narrowed the approximate 80 submitted meditations down to 11. The committee considers a variety of factors, in the hopes of offering the community a diversity of voices and stories, when deciding which meditations will be read in the church.

School Minister and committee member Robert Thompson said that while they look for beautifully written pieces, a beautifully written piece may not be a story that needs to be heard in the church setting. Because of the spoken presentation medium, the meditations also must be captivating auditorily. “We have to anticipate how it is going to read. Something that looks good on paper may not listen well,” Thompson said.

English instructor and Meditation Program Director Todd Hearon said that aside from looking for compelling stories, the committee also looks for a range of themes and voices. “We try our best to allow the chosen 11 to represent something of the wide range of the meditations we receive. We are trying each year to set a varied season,” Hearon said.

For each of the chosen 11 seniors, the meditation process struck different chords. One of the 11 students chosen, Ying said, “Meditations are unique in their individuality of purpose. What it meant for me to write a meditation and what I hoped to achieve in doing so is distinct from my neighbor.”

For Ying, the meditation was a way to free facets of herself into a concrete form of writing. “I thought of [my meditation] as the distilling and releasing of self. It was the reconciliation of the parts of me I am least and most proud of in a contained, yet public, context,” Ying said.

Li, who was the first to present a meditation, also saw his meditation as a See MEDITATIONS, C5

Senior Morgan Burrell presents his meditation in the Phillips Church.

One-Year Interns Enjoy, Learn from First Year at Exeter

By CLAIRE JUTABHA and HANNAH PIETTE Staff Writers

Accompanying the multitude of fresh-faced students new to Exeter in September were faculty interns ready to begin their year-long tenure at the Academy. The nine interns, Claire Abisalih, Samantha Cassidy, Jameson Gresens, Elizabeth Hurley, Claire Jensen, Timothy Mitropoulos, Tamar Nisbett, Jabari Trotter and Anisha Vinod, spent the year gaining experience in their various fields, whether in academic, athletic or administrative positions.

Elena Gosalvez-Blanco, who coordinated the interns, described internships as “trying something out and learning about the options so you can find yourself and make decisions about what to do with your life.”

The academic teaching interns spent their time sitting in on classes in their respective departments, learning from their mentors and teaching formats of their own.

This year’s astronomy intern, Anisha Vinod, decided to spend her year on campus because of her interest in Exeter’s unique pedagogy. She said that the fact that science is taught through discourse highlighted the Academy for her.

“It’s important to learn how to think in science, and it’s not often that you find places that teach science in a form that isn’t lecture,” Vinod said.

After graduating from Boston University, Vinod had taught at two schools in low-income neighborhoods in Boston, with entirely different environments, before coming to Exeter.

Vinod said that one of the most impactful things she has learned from Harkness-style teaching while teaching her own formats at Exeter is the METIC culture, where she can really respond to the way that students think.

“It is wonderful to give them an opportunity to express how they think, how they learn and to get that feedback and change my own way of teaching based off of that,” Vinod said. Next year, Vinod will teach math in Taipei, Taiwan.

Another academic teaching intern, Samantha Cassidy, was not sure that she wanted to pursue teaching classics as her career. By coming to Exeter and getting a taste for what her career as a teacher would look like, she solidified her intentions for a teaching career. Next year, Cassidy will begin a two year program to receive her Masters of Art in Teaching (MAT) in Latin and Classical Humanities at UMASS Amherst.

Because Cassidy was entirely new to Harkness and did not have any official teaching experience, sitting in on the classes of her official mentor, classics instructor Mat-

See INTERNS, C5

PEA Students Look To Summer Plans

By HANNAH PIETTE Staff Writer

This summer, in accordance with Exeter’s Global Initiatives program, students will embark on a multitude of trips and internships provided by the Academy. With a wide variety of opportunities, the summer programs encompass language immersion, archaeology, social service and leadership, as well as distinguished internships specified to professional careers.

The trips and internships are organized by Eimer Page, the Director of PEA’s Global Initiatives Program, and are readily-accessible ways for students to participate in Exeter’s global program outside of the academic year. Many students do not have the opportunity to take advantage of the term abroad programs because of year-long sports or course commitments. The summer programs provide a broader range of students the ability to enrich their Exeter experiences off campus.

The internships include a high-level physics internship at the Riken Laboratory in Japan, positions at the Academy of American Poets in New York, the Conservation Law Foundation in New Hampshire and Massachusetts and a sports media internship at Turner Broadcasting, requiring a high-level of computer programming ability. Students selected from the Biology Research (read: fruit flies) course will also spend time at the Stanford Biology Lab. The internships are offered to uppers before their senior year at Exeter in an effort to distinguish students in the college process, Page said. In their internships, students can showcase their ability in a specific area.

Page said that it is a “program of distinction for students who are at the top end of their particular field.”

The Global Initiatives program receives many offers from Exeter’s alumni network and people connected with Exeter for various levels of student involvement in their professional careers, but not all are offered in the summer internships. Because of the selective level of distinguishment that the program keeps in mind while crafting a collection of opportunities, Page makes decisions on which offers to accept in conjuction with the Academy’s college counselors. This level of distinguishment extends itself to the students accepted for the internships, who undergo a selective application See SUMMER, C5

Contributions from Ida Piyale

Seniors Nicky Don, Alice McCrum, Peter Thompson and Danna Shen received this year’s Negley Award.

Four Seniors Receive Negley Award

By JENNY HUNT Staff Writer

This September, four seniors were honored with the coveted Negley Award, a prize recognizing the year’s best History 333 research papers. Nicky Don, Alice McCrum, Danna Shen and Peter Thompson wrote exceptional essays on topics ranging from the Secret War in Laos to The Young Ladies’ Academy of Philadelphia in the 1780s and 90s, as well as the stories of feminist Dr. Mary Edwards Walker and 1950s civil rights activist Paul Robeson.

The Negley Selection Committee, comprised of five of the Academy’s history instructors, read the submissions independently before meeting at the end of the summer to determine the finalists.

The committee is charged with the enormous task of sifting through the many submitted papers and selecting the strongest writing and most original content.

Both the size of the submission pool and the talent was unprecedented.

Michael Golay, Negley Selection Committee member and history instructor, praised the group of candidates,

adding that the winning papers “stood apart for originality and execution.”

He found it appealing that, for these four students, “there wasn’t a whole lot of trail already blazed.”

The use of unconventional sources caught the committee’s attention. “There were a lot of things we haven’t seen before this year in terms of historical research, ” committee member and history instructor Clinton Williams said.

McCrum examined a play to uncover information about Paul Robeson, a civil rights activist and entertainer in the 1950s. Robeson was “very controversial when he lived, and when he died, there was a playwright who wrote a play synthesizing his life, and the play brought up issues that were never resolved during his lifetime,” McCrum said. “I found an obituary of the playwright, and it was really everything I’d been looking for. It was totally unprecedented in terms of 333 topics. There was conflict, a story to tell and really interesting characters,”

See NEGLEY, C5

THE EXONIAN

NEWS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

C5

Interns Make Most of Year History Papers Honored for Ingenuity, Execution INTERNS, continued from C4 thew Hartnett, was beneficial in seeing how the Latin teachers implement harkness throughout their classrooms.Cassidy learned different methods of going over the material and making it more interactive as well as realizing the importance of having students talk to each other instead of to only her.

Cassidy also said that the most surprising thing that she has learned about teaching was how different each class is from one another. “The dynamic of the class is going to be different depending on who’s in it.

Each time I teach it’s going to be a new experience. I’ve learned to tailor each class more to the students that are actually in it,” Cassidy said.

As well as academic interns, several interns spent time in the administrative area of Exeter. Tamar Nisbett, who graduated from Exeter in the class of 2010, interned in the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

Nisbett’s interest in social justice and her involvement with multicultural education at college pushed her to pursue the internship with the OMA. During her year she has worked as an administrative assistant for the OMA while helping International Student Coordinator Jen Smith and Dean of Multicultural Affairs Rosanna Salcedo with their work.

Nisbett also helped organize the Student of Color Conference hosted at Exeter this year, in which she worked closely with Exonians to host workshops for more than 400 students visiting from schools in New England. In addition, she created a manual for the office so that new employees will have an idea of where to go for help, which was beneficial for OMA, which has frequent position turnovers.

“Once you feel comfortable in the job and you know what to do, then you have to leave and somebody new comes. This is why I think the manual is so important,” Nisbett said.

Next year, Nisbett will work at Google. Although it will be different from what she has been focused on at Exeter, she said that the communicative and office skills she has acquired are transferrable to wherever she works in the future.

Whether it was inside or outside of the classroom, during their time at Exeter, the interns had the opportunity to interact daily with Exonians. Nisbett said that it was great to work with students who are so eloquent and motivated. Because Nisbett lived in Wentworth, she was also able to make connections outside of the office.

Meditations Touch Many MEDITATIONS, continued from C4 cathartic process. Throughout his time at Exeter, Li had been contemplating about what to write his meditation. After a slow culmination of smaller conversations about his mother and his relationship with her, Li realized during his upper winter that he had never gotten to know his mother, who passed away.

Li said he used his meditation as a way to start a conversation with his father about his mother, as well as a way to release his emotions. “It was a way for me to put that feeling and that experience onto paper,” Li said.

For Tung, the meditation gave her the chance to look closer into her own life and reflect on what was truly meaningful to her. “It was indeed a challenging process, but after talking to my parents and grandparents, I learned to trace down the details and moments that sparked and altogether stood for something valuable to me,” Tung said.

Qamar found that writing her meditation and sorting through her feelings was therapeutic. Because the meditation was the only graded writing assignment of Qamar’s winter term, she really had the time to dive into the piece. “I had a lot of thoughts, ideas, feelings and memories regarding what my meditation was about. For me to be able to let them all out, not just for my meditation, but for myself, was really nice,” Qamar said.

Qamar said that as a senior at Exeter, there is much to process and reflect upon, whether or not you began prep year or later on. Meditations are an outlet in that process of reflection. “People have a lot of ideas and concepts that they wrestle with that they never really are able to put into words, or never feel the need to put into words,” Qamar said. “Writing a meditation doesn’t solve everything, but it helps you reflect on things that you may not normally reflect on.”

For Acosta, writing her meditation was a difficult process because she was so worried about getting it right.

“Attempting to capture the essence of a particular moment was such a tedious and time-consuming task. There were certain moments when I was sure I was done writing a paragraph, and then I would reread it and realize that it didn’t accurately express what I was trying to convey,” Acosta said.

For Bolan, the meditation helped her get through a difficult period of her life. “I think it was a really wonderful thing to sit down and reflect on all the good memories I’m lucky enough to have while I was dealing with some not-so-good times,” Bolan said.

Meditations also hold significance in their impact on the community as a whole. Thompson sees the weekly meditations as “profoundly religious,” and that they are spiritual experiences in the way that Exeter defines religion, as a connecting or coming together. The community members who attend the meditations have an opportunity to be connected to the giver of the meditation, while the writers are able to connect with themselves.

Ying also commented on the sense of community that a meditation allows, specifically in an individual English class.

“There’s a profound sense that your community of listeners is seeking clarity as much through the writing of their own meditations as they are through the experiencing of yours. Altogether, through that exchange of initiative, plenty of communal appreciation and insight evolves,” Ying said.

Brown, another selected reader, also agreed that the meditations are a way of connecting, as well as a reminder of humanity. “In a place like [Exeter], where everyone gets so caught up in their individual lives, it’s a cool experience to take thirty minutes out of your day and join together on the same wavelength,” Brown said.

Bolan also agreed that her presentation of her meditation highlighted the goodness in Exeter’s community. “After I presented my meditation, I received so many kind words via facebook, email, text and along the paths. It made me realize how grateful I am to be living and studying in such a thoughtful community,” Bolan said. She also said that sharing her meditation was a way for her to connect with her mother, who drove down to Exeter on the day she presented it in the church. “She calls me every few days to let me know she's still thinking about it,” Bolan said.

Li said that he was grateful to have heard other people’s stories. After learning through their meditations that some of his best friends have had suicidal thoughts, Li felt that his understanding was stronger.

“It defines a part of them or a part of their past, and it’s something that I want to honor about them and want to remember when I interact with them,” Li said. Although Li was nervous and had not expected such a packed audience, the experience of presenting his meditation was an important highlight in his Exeter career. “It’s extremely humbling that a lot of people came out and supported me. I was really happy that I got the chance to share that story with everyone, because it’s a part of my identity that a lot of people don’t know or don’t know very deeply,” Li said.

Similarly to Li, Acosta was nervous to present her meditation. Because of her sensitive topic of immigration from Mexico into the U.S., she was worried she would she could receive a potentially negative response. But her reaction was immensely supportive and afterward, she felt as though she had been relieved of a “huge weight.”

“Writing and presenting my meditation was honestly one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had at Exeter and I’m thankful to people like my friends, adviser and especially my English teacher for giving me the opportunity to do so,” Acosta said.​

NEGLEY, continued from C4 McCrum explained.

Like McCrum, Don also took an innovative approach. She chronicled the life of Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, a suffragist and dress reformer in a time of Victorian gender codes. In beginning her research, Don discovered a dearth of information about Walker in comparison to peers such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The lack of available material on Walker piqued Don’s interest, and led her to look to alternative materials for her research. “Rather than finding biographies, I was looking mostly into news archives, which made it more exciting, in my opinion,” Don said.

Enthusiasm for the topic was another key ingredient in the winners’ success. “I think a Negley signifies passion,” Thompson said, “because if you’re passionate about what you’re writing about and you believe that the message you’re trying to send is one you want others to know about and remember, that will be reflected in your writing.”

Thompson’s interest in his topic stemmed from a personal connection to the subject. He felt compelled to shed light on the history of the Secret War in Laos by his mother’s experience as a refugee during that conflict. The Secret War “happened in Laos during the Vietnam War, during which the CIA was sending in secret planes to bomb Laos and using natives to try and get communism out of the country,” Thompson said.

Shen agrees that the topic must be something that genuinely interests the writer in order to produce good work. “If you get bored halfway through, then you won’t end up with a paper you like and the last three weeks of your writing will be kind of miserable,” she said.

Shen stressed the importance of not letting the thought of a Negley interfere with the process. “Regardless of whether you end up winning a Negley or not, you cannot go into it thinking that you want to win a Negley, or that you won’t and it doesn’t

matter,” Shen said. The most important thought on your mind should be finding “a topic you’re absolutely in love with.”

Shen was intrigued with the topic of gender roles throughout American history. She knew as early as fall term that it would be the subject of her 333 in the spring. “I wrote about gender roles for all of my research papers throughout the year, and I wanted to write about the post-revolutionary period, where there was an enormous rise in education for girls,” Shen said. She focused specifically on the Young Ladies’ Academy of Philadelphia, a school for girls from the 1780’s to the early 19th century.

Although the outcome was four award-winning papers, no student suggests that it was smooth sailing from the start. Drafts leapt from seven pages to 21 in mere weeks, and topics took unexpected Uturns. For Shen, the most difficult part of the process was “understanding that the messiness and chaos was okay and finding a way to wade through.” The students’ commitment to the stories they were telling gave them the motivation to endure the bumps to create prize-winning work they felt proud to hand in.

The four winning papers have been published and now serve as exemplary essays for uppers who will face the 333 next year, and as a reference source for anyone with interest both in and outside the Exeter community.

The award winners felt that, although the 333 was incredibly daunting, they could handle the pressure due to excellent preparation from the preqrequisite courses. “The 331 and 332 taught me how to dig for material on topics that had relatively little written about them, and I found that skill extraordinarily helpful for my 333,” Shen said.

Some people say that the hardest part of writing a long essay is getting started on it — even choosing the topic can overwhelm some — but for others letting go of their hard work presents a different challenge.

Exonians to Take on Summer Internships SUMMER, continued from C4 process in order to attend.

In addition to the internships, the summer trips provided this year include two social service ESSO trips to both Costa Rica and Ireland. In Costa Rica, students will focus on environmental sustainability while participating in activities in a local village and learning about ecotourism.

In Ireland, students will work in a special needs community to help with an inclusive arts festival, creating a theater and dance showcase in a parade float.

Students are also going to the Student Global Leadership Institute in Hawaii, where three students from each of the global participating schools are immersed in the culture while developing leadership schools. The students will return to Exeter with a project which they will work on locally on campus and will continue to communicate with the other students from around the world.

There are also two different language immersion trips to Japan, one where students are sent to the Toin school and another led by Japanese teacher Kayoko Tazawa.

There are three archaeology trips funded by the classics department. Led by classics instructor Megan Campbell, a group of students currently taking French will travel to France to strengthen their French skills as well as to explore classical archaeology. There are also two archaeology trips based in Italy, one in Rome and one in Orvieto.

The trips are open to students regardless of financial need. Particularly with the internships, Page said they want to insure students do not need to rely on a network of family connections to benefit from an internship. “Any student who is at the appropriate level can have the opportunity to go and experience these internships and learn about a professional career,” Page said. Because

of these open experiences, Page said that students often return with a greater sense that opportunity is possible and available to them. A “fairly modest” stipend is provided for students to offset travel and accommodation costs.

Students participating in the wide range of opportunities shared an excitement to extend their interests off campus. Joel Lotzkar, who will be going on the ESSO Costa Rica trip, decided to go on the trip to learn more about ecological conservation and sustainable living and was interested in representing Exeter’s motto of non sibi in helping the local communities he will visit.

“This trip will add diversity to my Exeter experience and provide a different perspective to the biology I learned in my prep year,” Lotzkar said.

Leila Connolly, who will be participating in the ESSO trip to Ireland, said she is excited to “help out in a community while also sharing my passion for dance …. I hope that it gives me a more worldly sense of community and allows me to contribute what I learn there to my daily life here at Exeter.”

Nick Madamidola, who will travel to Hawaii for the Student Global Leadership Institute, hopes to bring his summer experience back to campus and apply it to life at Exeter. “This year’s theme is equity and it fits so well with being on the Martin Luther King Day Committee. I’m hoping to bring the things I learn from Hawaii to the Committee to strengthen the program,” Madamidola said.

Many of the Exonians who are participating in the summer trips have been, or will be, participants in other Global Initiatives opportunities, such as the spring break or term abroad programs.

“For some students, travel becomes a defining part of their Exeter experience. They take every opportunity that is available to them, and I think it enriches their time here,” Page said.​

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THE EXONIAN

NEWS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Exeter Bids Farewell to Retiring Faculty Members

By PHILIP KUHN and MELISSA LU Staff Writers

Mr. Mallinson

Mr. Desrochers

Mathematics instructor Philip Mallinson retires this June after 21 years of service to the Academy and 45 years of teaching math. He was known on campus for his thoughtful insights, inventive ways of teaching math and love for nature.

Mallinson first discovered his passion for teaching during an outdoors program in England called Outward Bound.

As a skilled kayaker, rock climber and hiker, Mallinson enjoyed sharing his talents with other people by guiding them through fun outdoor adventures. In fact, Outward Bound became the reason Mallinson moved to the United States. He was intrigued by Outward Bound’s various programs around Colorado and decided to transfer to one of them However, after a few years of guiding at Outward Bound, one of Mallinson’s close friends suggested that he should apply for a teaching job as a math instructor. After teaching the subject at various academies, Mallinson accepted a one-year opening at Exeter in 1994. One year led to the next and then all too quickly, Mallinson found himself at his 21st and last year at the Academy.

Mallinson’s devotion toward math can be described as infectious. He knew since he was young that his calling laid in math. Interestingly, Mallinson, following the footsteps of his older brother, was placed into the modern language specialization program in high school. Unable to switch out, Mallinson took it upon himself to pursue his passion of math by reading countless books and self-teaching himself almost everything he knew up to graduate school.

Mallinson’s relentless search for knowledge and his subsequent enjoyment for teaching math shines through to most students who have had him, and his passion inspired students to work even harder themselves. Upper Sam Tan further explained this aspect of Mallinson’s personality.

“Throughout the term you could sense how passionate Mr. Mallinson was about what he was teaching,” he said. “He seemingly had endless knowledge about the subject of geometry, and it was clear that he wanted to share this passion with us.”

Upper Lily Friedberg agreed with Tan. “He gets really excited about things related to school. It is really refreshing to see a teacher who is so passionate and excited about all the problems that he teaches,” she said.

When Mallinson began teaching, he quickly discovered he had a very unique and engaging method for math. While many instructors focus on equations and theorems, Mallinson has always been attracted by the “tactility” aspect of math, specifically in geometry. He believes its through visual and hands-on experiences that students learn best.

Friedberg described Mallinson’s classroom as a “toy shop.” Various mathematical figures, puzzles and games are sprawled out across his harkness table, ready for use by himself or any of his students in order to explain problems.

In fact, one of the reasons why Mallinson fell in love with Exeter’s math department was the Harkness system. It was the perfect fit for his interactive teaching style and as Exeter adapted more and more toward this system of teaching, he really began to appreciate the value of collaborative learning.

To further complement his strong passion and creativity, Mallinson always adds a touch of humor to teaching. According to Friedberg, math class to her can sometimes feel like work, but with Mallinson it feels like a fun game. His jokes and creative methods of teaching provided her with a new view on math and has further aroused her interest in the subject.

In fact, Mallinson’s creative touch on life extends far past the classroom. Since his childhood he has always been drawn

Assistant Librarian and Academy Archivist Edouard Desrochers retired this June after 40 years of service to the Academy. Desrochers will be missed for his keen sense of humor, boundless knowledge of the Academy’s history and undying passion for and emphasis on the value of school archives. Desrochers has played a large and inspiring role in the progress of archiving.

His impact has reached far beyond the Academy campus, reaching the entire New England area. According to the library staff, it will be difficult to find another archivist as connected to the Academy and to the profession of archiving as Desrochers has been. Exeter was not just work for Desrochers, but a home. Desrochers’ two daughters attended the Academy, and his wife also worked here several years ago in the Health Center. As Head Librarian Gary Scanlon said, “I guess you could say he’s fully immersed in Exeter.”

Desrochers made many contributions to the Exeter community during his years here. Initially, Desrochers often helped guide students along in their research and often found unique materials for them to study. Anyone who ever talked or worked with Desrochers immediately noticed his passion for and joy in archiving.

Lower Lindsey Jordan worked for Desrochers as a student helper in the archives. Jordan described that even when she first met Desrochers, she felt welcomed

by Desrochers’ warm demeanor and inspired by his fervent passion for the archives, and because of these qualities, Desrochers “has made it easy for [Jordan] to love working in the archives.” Jordan praised Desrochers unfailing determination to go “above and beyond” for students.

“Mr. Desrochers can go on and on about a project he is working on for the archives, or a project he is helping someone else with, and he is always genuinely interested in how other people want to use Exeter’s archives and goes above and beyond what [is neccessary] to help them find what they are looking for and more,” Jordan said.

Desrochers was trusted among both faculty and students as “a very reliable source.” Whether for a small favor or help on a history paper, many members of the Exeter community reached out to or were directed to Desrochers.

Desrochers also hosted many of the Library’s exhibits. Desrochers’ latest and final exhibit was a special retrospective tribute to retiring Principal Tom Hassan that featured Hassan’s many contributions to the Exeter community during his career.

Many praised Desrochers for the passion and vigor he brought to work every day. Despite his already vast insight on the Academy, Desrochers was always hungry to learn more about the place he called “home.”

Scanlon admired Desrochers’ knowledge of the history of the Academy buildings, especially the Class of 1945 Library. “[I] continue to be amazed at the wealth of knowledge he has about the Academy. All you have to do is mention a name of a alumni/ae and he can tell you many stories about the pranks they pulled as a student or what they have done to give back to the Academy since their graduation,” Scanlon said.

At Exeter, according to Jordan, Desrochers made the Academy’s archives “the best and most organized

See MALLINSON, C7

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Math instructor Philip Mallinson.

See DESROCHERS, C7

Luz Lim/The Exonian

Academy Archivist Edouard Desrochers.

Mrs. Crawford

After over 35 years of service at the Academy, librarian Andra Crawford will retire as the school year draws close to a school. Known for her compassion, strong mentorship skills and passion for bird watching, Crawford will be deeply missed by the Exeter community as she departs from the Academy.

Crawford first discovered the Academy after marrying the now retired math instructor David Arnold in 1976 and moving into Dow House with him. A few years later, she started a parttime job in the library. Since then, she has become a consistently active member of the community as well as a fulltime librarian.

“It’s fun,” she replied, when asked what has kept her at the Academy for so long. “I enjoy what I do, and it’s fun to work with young people who are bright and interested in the world around them. I’m going to miss this place.”

In the library, Crawford serves as the Special Collections and Catalogue librarian. A big part of her role is organizing the database, making sure the different DVDs, CDs, books and even website references are kept easily accessible through Biblion, the library’s data base.

The opportunity to handle a wide variety of books has been a key part of Ms. Crawford’s time at Exeter. According to her, the Academy holds some “extremely rare and valuable” items in the library. With strong interests in literature, she enjoys giving students the chance to experience such great works of art and reading them herself. “Some of the things that are in this library you wouldn’t find in most colleges,” she said. “One of the most amazing is the Second Folio of Shakespeare’s works, which was printed in 1632. We also have a copy of the 1685 Fourth Folio. There are only a couple hundred copies of each of these around the world today.”

It is her devotion to books and history that allows Crawford to serve as such a knowledgeable mentor for her peer librarians.

Library Associate Shelley Bronk, who has worked with her for 17 years, described her ability to lead and teach others.

“She has taught me a lot about archives and cataloging since I have worked for her in my capacity as an assistant in the library,” Bronk said. “Most of my training when I started working here came from Mr. Desrochers and Ms. Crawford, and I continue to use those skills today.”

Upper Will Rau agreed with Bronk. He has received help from Crawford during multiple visits to the library. Each time he has been impressed by her genuine care for helping students and extensive knowledge. “Every time I go to her she greets me in a very caring and genuine way,” he said. “It’s clear she has a strong love for her job. It will be hard to find another librarian as considerate and informed as her.”

Even outside of Exeter, Crawford demonstrates a strong passion for various activities.

Both her and her husband pride themselves as avid birdwatchers. The two have embarked on various birding trips both in and outside of Exeter, including some with science instructor Richard Aaronian, who described the experience of birding with Crawford. “I can best describe her as one who has a keen eye and ear when birding,” he said. “She pays attention to details such as how a bird is behaving and/or its habitat. She is a thoughtful, reflective and unassuming person and those traits are manifested on birding trips as well.”

Yet after living a very active life during her time at Exeter, Crawford finally decided it was the right age to join her husband in retirement. As she starts the next stage of her life, she is excited to have more time for her family and friends and for traveling with her husband. But as she leaves, her presence will certainly be missed by the Exeter community.” Sometimes it’s the small acts of kindness that define a person and have the most powerful affect on others,” Rau said. “I have certainly had many moments like that with Ms. Crawford, and I know myself and others will be very sad to see her leave.”

Librarian Andra Crawford.

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Renowned Writers Visit Campus, Present Works to Exonians

By LINDSEY JORDAN and ALICE LITTLE Staff Writers

Each year, the Bennett Fellow and Lamont poets bring their literary trades and ideas to Exeter in new ways. The Bennett Fellow spends their time working on personal writing projects and Jill Osier, this year’s fellow, is no exception: Osier said that she has used her time at Exeter to work on both large and small projects, from collecting poetry for future chapbooks to revision of minute details in longer pieces. Meanwhile, the Lamont poets, Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Simon Armitage, read their poetry in the Assembly Hall in presentations open to the public. Nezhukumatathil read from one of her chapbooks, Lucky Fish, while Armitage presented lines from his translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

The Bennett Fellow is heralded as a writer, in this case a poet, who shows great promise in his or her respective literary field. Osier has worked throughout her year here to complete her first full-length book of poetry. In her experience, working at Exeter has helped to bring back memories of the seasons and smells of her homestate of Iowa, which is more similar to Exeter than her current home of Fairbanks, Alaska. She said she found inspiration “connected to just about everything that you come across in your daily life,” in her normal routines and in the people she encountered.

“I’m usually inspired quite a bit by landscape and the weather, and it was a fantastic winter,” she said.

In her time at the Academy, Osier has visited with many members of the English department, including reading poetry with instructor William Perdomo and visiting the classes of teachers Erica Plouffe Lazure and Ralph Sneeden. In addition to associating with teachers, Osier has also done a couple of interviews with Exonians for school papers and offered readings at both the Academy Library and at Assembly. Osier said that she has tried to embrace this opportunity to become involved in the Exeter local community and the Academy community.

This desire for immersion in the town’s culture, as well as the school’s academic culture, is embodied by her reading at Water Street Bookstore downtown.

According to English instructor Todd Hearon, who is the chair of the committee in charge of choosing the Bennett Fellow for each year, the fellow is not expected to do anything except work on their writing and meet in some way with Exeter students, either individually or in classes. The fellowship, which provides the fellow with food, housing, medical insurance and a, “pretty handsome stipend,” is “very generous” and one of the “best out there,” Hearon said. The fellow, usually a writer of

fiction or poetry, is expected to complete (or nearly complete) a major project of theirs by the end of their year at Exeter.

Hearon said that the committee, which is always looking for an up-and-coming writer with quality work, “was really bowled over by her poetry, and we’ve seen it prior in magazines over the last few years: she really is one of these emerging voices. And we thought, she is just poised to do great things.”

Poet Patrick Donnelly shared these sentiments, who judged Osier’s chapbook, Should Our Undoing Come Down Upon Us White, as the winner of the 2013 Frost Place Chapbook Contest Winner. “Because the poems, each a small, superb vignette with a different angle of light or insight, comprise a true and transformational sequence, after Osier has performed her winter pageant for us, we are not the same people as when we began,” he said. Osier read some poems from this chapbook at her assembly reading.

For the most part, Osier has been focusing throughout the year to create new, individual poems, revising drafted poems from the last few years, creating some small collections of her work and finishing her book-length collection, which she said has been 15 years in the making. Osier has already finished two chapbooks—a small book or pamphlet of poetry—which have been highly acclaimed.

“I’m pretty excited about [the chapbooks],” Osier said. “I was working at the small-level, and then the big-scale, where you need vision and scope and then just the minute little line-byline revision-type stuff, too, in individual poems.”

Hearon said Osier was able to “to do some great work while she has been here,” and said he hoped she will come out of the fellowship with something close to a full manuscript.

Hearon, who is also chair of the committee in charge of the Lamont Poet series, said the two poets chosen this year were very popular and well received among the Exeter community, during their readings and in the classes they sat in on.

Poets chosen for the Lamont Poet series range in experience from those at the beginning of their career to highly established poets. The Lamont poet committee looks for variety in “voices, styles and kinds of poets,” Hearon said.

“Over the time I’ve been here and been on the committee we’ve had virtually every poet that you would desire have come to campus,” he said. “And in fact the Lamont poet series in its 40 years or so has brought in most of the luminaries in American and international poetry.”

Poets who are asked to be a part of the series are usually

happy to come to the school and understand what a privilege it is to be a part of the series. The poets are often curious about Exeter as well, Hearon said, and want to see what the school and its “legendary students” are like. While no one has ever denied the invitation to be part of the series, they have come in contact with poets who were too expensive, Hearon said.

Nezhukumatathil and Armitage’s poetry “couldn’t [have been] farther apart with their sensibilities and styles,” and both were popular among the students in different ways, Hearon said.

Nezhukumatathil gave a “rockstar reading” and the line for her to sign books was “miles long,” while Armitage was “dry and wry in a British way,” which, Hearon said, students appreciated because it was different than what they are accustomed to.

Nezhukumatathil, who came to Exeter in the fall, was on the Lamont Poets’ committee for a while, and the committee thought her poetry would “work well with the preps.”

Prep Anna Clark said Nezhukumatathil was “funnier than I expected her to be” and her poems were relatable, especially when Nezhukumatathil read them aloud during her reading.

“I was able to connect them back more to my life than when I read them in class. In class, they seemed a lot more mysterious but when she started reading them out loud, I felt like it was something that I had experienced as well,” Clark said.

Armitage came to Exeter in the winter term for his reading.

The Lamont Poet series usually features a poet in the fall and spring terms, but Armitage, who lives in the UK, was going to be in the United States during the winter for a different reading, so an exception was made to accommodate him.

Clark also attended Armitage’s reading and thought that, like Nezhukumatathil, Armitage was funny and entertaining.

“I really liked him, and I enjoyed his performance a lot. I went after assembly to listen at nighttime to his poems, and I was very captivated. I was really struck by his last poem about a husband and a wife living together, and how they separated themselves from each other. I thought he captured the relationship really perfectly.”

Next year’s Lamont Poets, Vijay Seshadri and Phillis Levin, are both established and accomplished in the world of poetry and are acclaimed teachers. Seshadri, a Brooklyn New York based pulitzer prize winning poet and essayist, will be coming to Exeter in the fall. Levin will come to Exeter in the Spring as a part of the tour for her fifth book. Next year’s Bennett Fellow is Peter Anderson, a fiction writer, from Crestone, Colo.

THE EXONIAN

NEWS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

C7

Farewell to Mallinson Archivist, Friend to Depart After 40 Years MALLINSON, continued from C6 to the outdoors. While some of his biggest pastimes are casual hikes, he also enjoys taking his outside activities a step further with ventures like white water rafting and rock climbing.

At Exeter, Mallinson has been a longtime advisor of the Outing Club. He uses his extensive knowledge of nature and light-hearted personality to encourage students to sacrifice a bit of Netflix time to go relax outside. Friedberg described a time in the Outing Club where she felt inspired to follow his piece of advice.

“His main priority was that we had fun with it while still taking in the beauty of the outdoors,” she said. “There was water on the tennis courts one night, and they completely froze over. Mr. Mallinson let us take out all of the ice hockey equipment and play hockey on the tennis courts. He was even playing along with us and running around with the hockey puck really enthusiastically.”

Mallinson’s passions for the outdoors and math fall nothing short of making it into his retirement plans. He plans to use much of his extra time outdoors, doing a wide range of activities, especially hiking in the fall. Since his home is just off of campus, Mallinson has also made himself available for tutoring and perhaps teaching courses throughout the year.

Mallinson will not always be in the Exeter area, though.

With his extra time and freedom, he wants to explore Europe and visit family in England.

When he is not traveling, teaching or hiking, Mallinson will be indoors, reading. This constant pursuit for knowledge is one of the things Mallinson’s colleagues will miss most.

Math instructor Joseph Wolfson said, “He can talk about anything you want to talk about. He knows a great deal about mathematics of course, but also about history and music.”

Math instructor and Department Chair Eric Bergofsky added that he will miss Mallinson’s humour and emphasized how great of a colleague he has been to the entire math department. “Anyone who has been around Mr. Mallinson has learned a lesson about just how to be a good colleague, how to take things seriously, but not take yourself too seriously,” Bergofsky said. “He certainly has set a great example for all of us, and we will miss his constant presence in our department.”

Likewise, Mallinson will miss his colleagues. He said, “I will miss our odd encounters on the path, or bumping into them in the mailroom, or sitting together with them during lunch time. My colleagues in the math department are really an amazing group.”

Mallinson is equally saddened to leave his students, and he will especially miss his relationships with students outside the classroom. Through tutoring and teaching a few courses now and then, Mallinson hopes to keep up these relationships and still have the opportunity to build new ones.

Although Mallinson leaves the Academy at the end of the 2014-2015 school year, his impact on the Academy, his students and his colleagues is everlasting. His enthusiasm and passion for math and life have inspired his students and colleagues alike. Although many are upset to see Mallinson go, the Exeter community wishes Mallinson a restful and exciting retirement, filled with as much passion and happiness as his time at the Academy and many look forward to seeing him on and around campus during the coming years.

DESROCHERS, continued from C6 they can be.” He thought daily of how to improve the archives and how to make them as helpful and accessible to the Exeter community as possible. To Desrochers, archiving meant preserving priceless history.

Unsurprisingly, over the past several decades, Desrochers made it his mission not only to help the Exeter community in whatever way he could, but also to educate others across the nation on the importance of school archiving by sharing his years of experience.

When Desrochers first became involved in the Academy’s archives, in 1977, in the New England area, there was only himself and one other archivist at Deerfield Academy. He begun his agenda immediately. According to Desrochers, around 1980, he began teaching a 4 ½-day workshop called “Archives in Schools” at the TAFT Education Center at the Taft School in Watertown, CT. Since then, he has hosted this workshop twelve times, each time with over 100 students in attendance from all over the country and even a few internationally. Desrochers has given a one-day workshop for the American Library Association twice, the School Library Asociation within ALA twice and spoke at conferences of the National Association of Independent School Librarians, twice in the 1980s.

Desrochers has served on and chaired many committees for New England Achivists, an organization of composed of hundreds of archivists in the New England area. He has served two terms as secretary and one as vice-president, president and immediate past-president (a three-year commitment on the Executive Board).

In his work, Desrochers has inspired numerous people to pursue a career and passion in archiving. For his widespread promotion and support of school archives, New England Archivists awarded him the Distinguished Service Award. Among the Independent School Librarians Association of New England, Desrocher was unofficially known as the Dean of School Archives.

Now, after many years of active work in archiving and the progression of the profession, Desrochers will finally be able to retire and settle down with his family. Desrochers has had a fruitful career, and while he was equally sad to depart the Academy, Desrochers felt the time was just right for him to move on to the next chapter of his life, knowing that in this one, he has left his impact.

“I will miss the collegiality of this community and the daily contact with bright, creative, and sometimes ‘spirited’ adolescents. I have been blessed with a long and very rewarding career, in a vibrant and supportive community. Who could ask for more?” Desrochers said.

Many factors played into Desrochers’ final decision to retire. After a personal medical event last June, Desrochers realized “how quickly one’s life can change.” In addition, his two daughters’ families will both be living in the New England area. In retiring, Desrochers looks forward to spending some quality years with his wife and his daughter’s families.

In addition, according to Desrochers, the archives in

the library will be undergoing some major renovations in the next few years to gain “much needed space.” Desrochers saw this as an important change and, knowing he would not be staying long enough to ease the transition himself, Desrochers believed this would be the ideal time to retire—giving the new archivist “enough time to get to know the collection, the school and the needs of the program before working with architects to design the spaces and program that the school will need into the future.”

During the coming years, Desrochers intends on exploring exactly what interests him to occupy his newly freed time. Desrochers hopes to spend more time landscape gardening, traveling and digging deeper into a number of interests that he has not had time to pursue due to his busy career. Unsurprisingly, Desrochers plans to stay involved with archiving, even in retirement.

“I will likely stay connected with fellow archivists at peer institutions because I will always be interested in how the field of school archives will evolve. I hope to continue to offer my week-long workshop on archives in schools, because there are still a lot of schools who have not yet realized the importance of their official records,” Desrochers said.

Desrochers said that he is leaving the Academy with a “tremendous appreciation for everything that goes on here, not only in the classrooms,” but everywhere on campus and everyone who has contributed to maintaining the Academy. Desrochers is grateful for the lasting relationships he has made over the years with co-workers and especially with former advisees and other students.

In retiring, Desrochers will never quite leave the campus. He intends on maintaining connections with former advisees and students, visiting and using the library and attending some of the different public programs hosted by the school, especially at the new music building addition and the new performing arts spaces.

Desrochers’ favorite part of his job has been “responding to the plethora of fascinating internal and external questions received by the archives.” To Desrochers, “there is nothing more satisfying than finding that one image or piece of information that is exactly what a researcher needs.” Desrochers, having been the secretary of faculty meetings and the chair of the prize committee for 25 years among many other activities, left with the satisfaction of having done substantial work for the Academy.

Although many are saddened by Desrochers’ final departure from the Academy, they are also happy for him and wish him all the best with a well-deserved, restful and family-filled retirement.

“I’m very happy for him to be retiring, but I’m also very sad to see him go. Mr. Desrochers is also just one of those people who is so interesting to talk to, and I think members of the community who know him and work with him appreciate how friendly, outgoing and caring he is,” Jordan said. “His presence in the library and on campus will be missed by many when he leaves.”

Special Events Allow Exonians to Have Days Off MLK Day

Climate Action Day

Strategic Planning

By LILY HICKS and ALAN LIU

By JOONHO JO and ALYSSA KUWANA

By ALAN LIU

The Academy participated in its first ever Climate Action Day this past school year, replacing a half day of classes on Feb. 11 with workshops and speeches to learn more about the changing climate and the ways in which Exonians, both as students and members of society, can respond to such challenges.

Students were required to participate in two of the 22 workshops offered, in addition to attending the keynote address by activist and founder of 350. org, Bill McKibben, entitled “The Climate Fight: This Generation’s Greatest Battle.”

Despite its brevity, the day required a great amount of organization in terms of workshops and their speakers. According to Environmental Action Committee co-head and senior Connor Bloom, the process began in the spring of 2014 when science instructor Elizabeth Stevens agreed to the idea of a day devoted to the knowledge of climate change.

“We realized, especially in light of the lack of Community Action Day, there was an empty spot in the calendar. And it wasn’t really environmentally focused, it was more like community,” Bloom said.

“But we were like ‘you know what? We can fit in an Environmental Day. Let’s go. We can definitely pack enough material into this day. There’s definitely enough there, so why not?’”

After the proposal was confirmed, Stevens reached out to other faculty and students, ranging from history instructors to E-proctors to science instructors to ESSO facilitators to music instructors who were all excited to assist in the planning of this day.

These participants, titled the Climate Action Day planning group, were the source of the 22 speakers who visited Exeter, as every one of them was contacted through personal connections.

While Climate Action Day brought in a diverse group of speakers and topics, Stevens said that the day may have gone smoother if there were fewer speakers and more focused topics.

“In the future, it would be better to have less workshops that are all high quality, rather than having so many,” Stevens said. “We wanted to have a lot just so that people would find something that they were interested in. We wanted to reach as many students as possible by trying to approach climate change from different areas.”

In addition to having fewer workshops, Stevens felt that holding workshops directly affecting the environment, such as planting trees or picking up litter, would be even more beneficial for the Exeter community’s awareness of climate change.

“In the future, it would be good to have things where kids are out doing things like maybe going to elementary schools to do education, or plant trees, or go to a demonstration, or something like that,” she said.

Students felt that another side of Climate Action Day that could have been improved was providing the answer to the question, “What do we do now?”

After being informed and educated by the workshops and speakers, students reported that they didn’t really understand what they could do to help after learning about the issues.

Bloom said, “a lot of people found the keynote incredibly moving and some of the workshops as well. And there was a sense of ‘What do we do in this moment and time?’ Which is something that we had not really anticipated."

Bloom continued, noting the myriad of potential for the future. Bloom said, “We weren’t quite sure of where to go with that. So I think that’s something that can be definitely be improved on.”

The 2014-15 school year saw a year-long investigation of the Academy by the Strategic Planning Committee, whose overlying goal was to explore student and faculty life around campus and ultimately ascertain priorities for the issues the school needs to address in the future. On June 6, a final report from the committee was released to faculty.

The committee consists of three faculty, three administrators, three trustees and three ex officio members. It was formed shortly before July 2014, the time when Principal Tom Hassan made public his decision to retire at the end of the following school year.

According to committee member and religion instructor Kathleen Brownback, the administration immediately asked the committee to turn its attention to “underlying questions regarding the teaching and learning of our students, both inside and outside the classroom, rather than to concrete planning initiatives.” Its first step, then, was to send a survey to the faculty during the summer on a series of pedagogical and community life questions.

The shift in focus after Hassan’s retirement provided the committee members an unusual opportunity to explore the foundation of Exeter’s purpose and work. To the survey, 116 faculty members—about 90 percent of returning faculty— wrote thoughtful and comprehensive replies.

One recurring theme in the survey responses was the need for the faculty to spend more time sharing its teaching philosophy and to spend more in-­depth time with colleagues across departments. In late August of 2014, a faculty workshop divided the faculty into small groups, all of which met to talk about academic excellence, community life and global outreach.

Following this meeting, the faculty met in a series of workshops during the fall and winter terms to further enhance discussion on the topics that had emerged from the surveys and faculty gatherings. The three topics were revised to seven areas of focus, called “Strategic Priorities:” Optimal Cognition and Harkness; Connectedness, Diversity and Equity; Creativity and Risk-­Taking; Passion and Specialization; World Contexts; Time, Pace, and Reflection; Sustainability.

On the student side, many assemblies and discussions were a direct result of the Strategic Planning Committee’s work. In addition, students were given two class-free Wednesdays during the fall term and one during the winter term.

Hassan sent an email to the student body on Sep. 15, calling for students to question the concept of “goodness,” and inviting them to send written comments to the committee. “There was a time when this question [of what we mean by ‘goodness’] could be answered by referring to a clear set of social values, but this is no longer entirely true,” he wrote. “Yet many of us use the word frequently and agree that we should teach and aspire to it in tandem with knowledge.”

On Sunday, Mar. 29, Student Council (StuCo) mandated dorm-wide strategic planning discussions; of 29 dorms and houses, 16 had held meetings. A StuCo representative was sent to each dorm or house to record thoughts and later share them with the rest of the council on Tuesday. Popular topics included the expansion of mental health services, the growth of arts availability and performing arts resources and the opening of Wetherell Dining hall on the weekend.

To add to its meetings and dorm discussions, StuCo also held three open-forum assemblies over the course of the school year. The first hovered around the topic of “goodness,” and the second asked students what they would most like to improve about the school. The third, perhaps the most specific, posed two questions to the student body: “How can we make Exeter a healthier place without reducing rigor?” and “What makes Exeter a great school academically, and what could make it a better learning environment?”

Before the third assembly took place, an all-school email was sent on the behalf of StuCo and detailed the importance of the assembly, and more broadly the overarching goal of the Strategic Planning Committee. “Strategic planning is a broad strokes planning process for Exeter's future,” the email said.

“This is a rare event in the Academy's history, one that will affect students' experiences for years, perhaps decades, to come.”

Staff Writers

On Friday Jan. 16, students and faculty converged for the Academy’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which included numerous workshops led by prominent voices in social justice, making it a day of education outside Exonians’ usual realm.

Songwriter and activist John Forté ‘93 was featured as the keynote speaker with his talk, “A Cautionary Tale of Redemption,” while Bryan Stevenson held both a morning and afternoon session titled, “American Injustice: Mercy, Humanity and Making a Difference.”

An all-school email sent in early January described Forté as a “brilliant young prodigy and dedicated student.” After graduating from the Academy, Forté attended New York University until deciding to delve into a music-related career. In 2000, Forté was charged with possession of cocaine and later, his sentence became one of 11 commutations granted by President George W. Bush. Since his release, Forté has done charity work as well as more production in the music industry.

Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit organization that provides legal representation to unjustly-treated prisoners. He has won various awards, including the Gruber Foundation Justice Prize, and he has also presented a TED talk with over two million views on the TED website. Stevenson has devoted his life to improving and advancing the United States’ legal system. During his talk, he discussed specific cases and detailed the motivation behind his work.

In addition to Stevenson’s talk, students also were given the option to attend five other workshops, including a presentation of English instructor Todd Hearon’s play “Crows in Eden,” a panelled discussion about racial issues called “Can We Talk?” and the Exonian Encounter workshop “If You Really Knew Me.” To end the day, the MLK Day Committee hosted its annual staging of MLK-theme student readings and performances in the Assembly Hall. The committee had sent out applications to the student body two months prior to gauge interest from the student body.

Overall, feedback from students and faculty was greatly positive and reflected a large improvement from last year’s MLK day. Member of the MLK Day planning committee, lower Julia Friberg, thought that this year’s MLK Day was a major success and left students having valuable conversations. “I heard so many conversations about race and justice that were sparked by Bryan Stevenson and John Forté,” she said. “My favorite part of MLK day was seeing students starting to talk about issues that had previously made them uncomfortable. It is so valuable as a community to speak freely about racism and justice.”

While committee member and health instructor Michelle Soucy agreed that the conversations following MLK Day were valuable, she hopes to see them continue throughout the year and focus more broadly on the spectrum of social justice. “[The current issues are] certainly not topics that should be forgotten, with police brutality and reactions from communities in a violent way. I think we’re trying to figure out how we talk about these issues everyday, not just on MLK Day,” she said.

“We have a vision of incorporating this into a lot of different curriculums on campus.”

Before MLK Day, the committee met every Tuesday for an hour in religion instructor Thomas Simpson’s room. According to Soucy, the group of faculty and students talked about current social justice issues and used those ideas to plan a related, cohesive program for the day.

Many found the committee’s adaption of the program to current issues very successful; committee member and upper Nick Madamidola was one of them. “This past year was a particularly special year, just because of what happened and what is going on in the country regarding racial issues, as we’ve seen with Michael Brown and Eric Garner,” he said. “In the beginning of the year, these events unfolded and so we tailored the day towards racial justice.”

Lower Kelvin Green had similar thoughts. “The central theme of this year’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of mass incarceration of blacks in America was a relatively new concept to me at that time,” he said. “But as I continue to delve into this reality, I can look back and be fortunate for this Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration.”

Staff Writers

Staff Writer

C8

Sunday, June 7, 2015

ExonianPhoto Exeter: A Year in Photos

Photographers: Caroline DelReal, Jena Yun, Rachel Luo and Steven Kim

LIFE

THE EXONIAN

D1

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Exeter Life

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Senior Scott Hermenau plays the role of Azdak, the judge, in the Senior Acting Ensemble.

Term Activities In Review Fall–Winter–Spring

By JOONHO JO and NOLAN PEACOCK Staff Writers

From gingerbread houses to Abbot Casino, the 2014-15 school year was chock-full of opportunities for stressed Exonians to escape the clutches of schoolwork and relax.

While some fared better than others, below is a list of some of the best events from this year.

Dunbar Back in Black: Every year, Back in Black serves as a catalyst for making new friends; as new and returning student alike join together on the dance floor, new friendships are formed. However, this year, Back in Black received mixed reviews following a newly instituted “no grinding” policy. Also, the addition of a capped attendance with a line to enter sent this event hurtling toward disappointment.

Speed Dating: This event gave students a chance to go on ten dates on one night, a valuable experience

for time-crunched Exonians. Speed Dating is highly recommended for any and all students who are seeking love. Students sat at an array of tables, and over the course of an hour had the chance to meet ten prospective paramores, with whom they had a few minutes to converse with before moving on. This quick-paced event is a must-go for energetic students.

Gingerbread House Making: Exonians had great things to say about this event; however, the addition of do-it-yourself houses complicated the building process for some of the less architecturally-inclined students. Despite the building issues, students enjoyed each other’s company and formed relationships through working together. “Gingerbread house making isn't as easy as it looks, and so I had to rely on

A LOOK INTO EXETER LIFE FOUR YEAR REVIEW...D2-3 SIBLINGS ON CAMPUS...D4-5 CLUB OF THE YEAR: MODEL UN...D6 SENIOR PROJECTS...D7 POP CULTURE...D7 MUST-WATCH MOVIES...D9 FEATURED CLUBS...D10 TRENDWATCH OF THE YEAR...D10 SCHOLAR OF THE YEAR: ALEX SONG...H6 SCHOLAR OF THE YEAR: RUBY MALUSA...H6 ARTIST OF THE YEAR: MILLIE DUNSTAN...H7 ARTIST OF THE YEAR: SCOTT HERMENAU...H7 SENIOR OF THE YEAR: BENJ COHEN...H8 SENIOR OF THE YEAR: JEANNE OLIVIER...H8 SENIOR MEDITATIONS...H9 THIS YEAR IN MUSIC...H9 THAI SCHOLAR: TOR NITAYANONT...H10 THAI SCHOLAR: JAMES PRUEGSANUSAK...H10 SOMEONE YOU SHOULD KNOW: ELIZABETH STEVENS..H11 SENIORS STUDY ABROAD...H11

and work together closely with one of my friends,” lower Jada Huang said. “Because of this, I feel like this event really served as a great way to bond with others.” Overall, though, amidst icing smears and candy fights, Exonians came out in droves to make their own houses, and then eat the remaining supplies.

GLO: Like Back in Black, this dance was also a disappointment due to the strict “no-grinding” policy.

Combined with the low attendance and the substitution of glow-in-thedark markers for paint, this dance joined Back in Black as one of the low points of the year. Despite this, however, a few Exonians managed to have a good time at the dance and were appreciative of the Academy for putting it on.

Dodgeball Tournament: A highlight every year, the dodgeball tour-

nament this year received rave reviews from many students. Teams of eight to 10 students competed against each other in an effort to be crowned the winner, and students who attended just to watch were treated to a dazzling display of athleticism and ferocity. Student Council’s efforts paid off with this event, as many students felt that it was a great way to spend a Friday night, and was capped of with free pizza.

Abbot Casino: This formal evening invites Exonians to dress their best and gamble to their hearts’ content. While many choose to forego the gambling and instead just take pictures, most attendees gave the event positive feedback. This event gave those students who wish Exeter had more formal events a chance See TERM ACTIVITIES, D6

Successful Year for ART444

By THOMAS CHOU and VALERIE JACKMAN Staff Writers

While walking through Mayer Art Center, one might have seen the huge, multi-colored jelly bean mosaic hanging on the wall. Created by senior Nicha Sophonpanich, this piece was just one of many produced during ART444. ART444 is a course offered to students who have completed both a 200-level and 300-level arts class during their time at Exeter. The class is usually comprised of seniors, although there is the occasional upper or even lower.

This year, the course was offered all three terms and had high enrollment rates throughout the year. Unlike the rest of the art classes, however, ART444 differs in that there is absolutely no set curriculum; students are allowed to design their own course of study during each term and are allowed to expand on techniques or styles they have tried in the past or even try something completely new.

Tara Misenheimer, an art instructor and one of the faculty advisors for ART444, described the course as “hugely unique in that the faculty have designed it to function like a college level thesis course in studio studies. I like to call it an advanced seminar, as the class is comprised of students who are photographers, ceramicists, painters, fashion designers, printmakers—but the common thread is that they are all artists working on a thematic body of work that is self-directed and independent in flavor to be showcased in the ART444 End of Term Exhibit in

the Mayer Art Center.”

Lower Ally Grounds agreed with Misenheimer, saying “This class is different from other art classes because it gives students the chance to do an individual, self-directed project. There are no assignments or requirements, so you are able do whatever you want. This class also took me a lot more time, mostly because of the size of my project.” During Grounds’ term of ART444, she decided to experiment with pop art.

“My individual project is an eight by six foot Grace Kelly pop art oil painting. I was inspired by my favorite artist, Richard Phillips, and the idea of incorporating an iconic face with a more modern pop art aspect,” she said.

Throughout the term, Grounds used the time allotted for the class to explore and expand her project.

“I have loved this class so far because it has given me a chance to do a project that I wouldn’t normally have the time for. It has especially helped me build my portfolio.”

Like Grounds, senior Hannah Fuller decided to utilize her term of ART444 by not only creating pieces that pertained to art, but pieces that also tied into a larger, interdisciplinary project. “My project involved making terrariums and drawing on the surface with paint pens. Through the combination of plant growth and my drawings, I created 3D art with environmental messages about consumption, water quality and the environmental

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THE EXONIAN

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Four Years

By PHILIP KUHN and HANNAH PIETTE Staff Writers

PREP YEAR SPAZ

Sweaty locker floors and grid-like imprints from slow paced games of dodgeball became the highlight for the lucky 14-yearolds who took part in this special program.

Known as the Junior Physical Education Program by Coach Don Mills and “Prep Spaz” by everyone else, Exeter’s most popular sports program was a great opportunity

for preps to learn about dickies, trek through early-morning blizzards, relax in ice-cold water and, for a few lucky ones, boast a coveted spot on “varsity Spaz.” While their boathouse jackets are still being designed, the course opened up many new doors for the students. Some even claim it was their ticket into the (in)famous “prep posse.”

SATURDAY CLASSES

After a prep fall full of “late” nights and groggy 8 a.m. classes, this unfortunate group of preplings finally found new solace in the winter term with a decreased number of Saturday classes.

Sports recruits now had a few more Courtesy of Facebook

hours of their weekends spent outside of cramped buses and upperclassmen had the chance to catch up on much-needed sleep. The cut came with a reduction of jokes about Student Council, as well as the phrase “Andover has it.”

FIRST RELATIONSHIPS With the inevitable formation of ‘Prep Posse’, came the similarly inevitable relationship developments. In Evening Prayer, preps delved into what would prove to be a four year cycle of successes and rejections.

For many preps, romantic relationships were a new availability. Being in the close proximity of their crushes allowed relationships to form more quickly. Couples bonded during biology class trips to the pond or during

the early morning paddles of the Prep Crew program. Small talk grew deeper during legal visitations, where conversations dove into dorm stereotype debates or attempts in mastering the Exeter lingo in the romantic, fluorescent Agora light. The preps walked in an assembly line of pairs down Swasey parkway, Stillwell’s ice creams clasped in their clammy hands, nervous for their first kiss on the banks of the Squamscott.

WINTER THAW

Courtesy of Facebook

Winter Thaw (the closest thing to a snow-day most Exonians would ever experience) provided a great break from the reality of low midterms and watching sunsets through the window of G-format

biology class. This three-day weekend was the golden opportunity for hours of oreo-stacking and board games and was well-known as the cure for winter blues, at least temporarily.

UPPER YEAR 333 After years of waiting and mental preparation, upper spring fell upon the class of 2015. The usual festivities and hours of basking in the sunshine that spring term had provided in past years was replaced by a long term of research and late nights as they completed their 333s. The 333 is the spring term American history paper, where students spend about

a month researching and writing about a chosen topic. After hours spent hunched over dusty books and watching the library carrels close in on them, the uppers turned in their papers with triumph. The infamous upper year had come to a close and the class of 2015 crawled out of the ashes with a raised fist, ready for a final year at Exeter before graduation.

COLLEGE PROCESS When the uppers entered their winter term, they were assigned their college counselors. This was only the beginning of the lengthy and stressful college process sprung on Exonians during their upper year. Although the college application process wouldn’t begin until their senior year, the uppers were knee deep in standardized testing.

Students labored over the SATs, ACTs and AP exams as the pressure of their futures weighed over them. As they watched the class above them graduate, the class of 2015 worked hard to follow in their footsteps and reach the finish line. They trudged through upper year with a vision of golden acceptance letters glowing at the end of the tunnel.

PASS/FAIL As the incoming preps enjoyed the newfound luxury of a pass/fail fall term, the uppers grumbled to themselves as they reminisced on their own prep fall, when the shock of Exeter life had tanked

their GPA’s. Preps lived their lives in fear of the uppers as they scoffed at the freshmen’s nonexistent struggles with an anger that stemmed from a jealousy burning deeply in their hardening hearts.

Courtesy of Facebook

Courtesy of Facebook

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LIFE

THE EXONIAN

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SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

In Review 2011-2015

LOWER YEAR E/a On this special day, school spirit ran high as students smeared stripes of paint across their cheeks and flooded into dozens of red dragons.

Cheesy chants filled the heads of Exonians for the whole day as buzzers rang and helmets clashed. “WE

ARE E-X, E-T, E-R.” Exonians had never felt so proud to shout this phrase as the football team cemented a five-year winning streak and transformed the field of the Smurfs into a whirlwind of red bandanas and vibrating vuvuzelas.

24 HOUR INTERNET As the lowers tried to binge watch as much Netflix as possible before the dreaded upper year, they were glad to receive the long lost gift of internet past 11 p.m. Late night

streaming of Gossip Girl became a trend as well as a heightened ability to procrastinate for history papers and English narratives, thanks to the hard work of Student Council.

FACULTY FOLLIES Mr. Aaronian “Gangnam-Styling” in his pink flamingo hat and Mr. Hassan scootering while draped in a fur coat were just two small snapshots of this classes’ first faculty fol-

Courtesy of Facebook

lies. On stage skits and famous pop parodies provided a nice break from the drawn out speeches of normal assemblies, and gave students their first chance to regret dicking assembly.

NEW LOWERS As if learning 1000 new faces hadn’t been enough, the class of 2015 spent their summers eagerly looked forward to the new Exonians who would be joining their class. Once the new faces began popping up on lion links, Facebook group chats

were made once again to welcome the newcomers and to save them with tips the rest of the class learned the hard way. Yet after a few weeks of school, and plenty of icebreaker games, these “newbies” began to fit right in and learn the Exeter lingo.

Courtesy of Facebook

SENIOR YEAR NEW PRINCIPAL After an announcement from Principal Tom Hassan about his impending retirement, the new seniors entered their last year at Exeter knowing they would be the final class to receive diplomas from Hassan. After watching the class of 2015 grow over their

years at Exeter, Hassan will graduate with the seniors and they will move on together, both generations ending their time at Exeter simultaneously. In the light of Hassan’s retirement, Lisa MacFarlane will take the reigns, leading the school into a new era.

There is no better way to say goodbye to Exeter than a joyous night of dancing and corsage sporting. The much-anticipated prom was an essential night for seniors to bask in their high school succession and savor their last moments as a class before freedom. The necessary prom pictures glorified the

victorious night full of floor-length dresses and black tuxedos. A night full of nostalgia, festivity and meticulously curled hair made for an exceptional finale to the highs and lows of their Exeter experiences.

The seniors have finally left the nest and their futures await them out in the great unknown.

After writing so many personal narratives throughout their years at Exeter, the seniors took on the ultimate narrative: the senior meditation. Seniors spent their winter term reflecting on the intricate relationships and boundless connections that their individual lives hold and weaving together moments with a literary spark.

These pieces were read in English classes and some were shared in the church dur-

ing the meditation block. These blocks were chances for Exonians to slow down and think amidst the bustle that is Exeter life, as well as an opportunity to share stories that might have otherwise gone unheard. While writing and sharing their meditations, the seniors grew as writers, learned about themselves and reached a greater understanding of the people they had spent their high school years with.

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Courtesy of Facebook

Courtesy of Facebook

PROM

MEDITATIONS

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LIFE

THE EXONIAN

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Siblings

“Whenever I don’t pick up my parents’ phone calls, he ends up knocking on my door to make sure I’m still alive...”

– Bharat “It’s always nice to have someone to check my P.O. box.”

– Bhargav “She uses me as a personal alarm clock.”

– Evan

“She complains to me, but we love each other!

Kinda.”

Bhargav Arimilli ‘15 and Bharat Arimilli ‘15.

Evan Xiang ‘17 and Ellen Xiang ‘15.

“It’s been good to see that he does a far better job tending to pucks than to his schoolwork.”

– Wyatt

Sydney Yoon/The Exonian

Steven Kim/The Exonian

– Ellen

“Being at Exeter hasn’t actually changed our relationship much. I schedule breakfasts with Jon and he sleeps through them.”

– Janet Luz Lim/The Exonian

Tom Appleton/The Exonian

Janet Chen ‘15 and Jonathan Chen ‘18.

Wyatt Himmer ‘15 and Morgan Himmer ‘17.

“Having ‘Charson’ on campus has blessed my Exeter experience.”

– Marcus

“Everybody thinks Charlotte is the oldest.”

–

Mason

“Having a family member on campus is really helpful for me personally because I know that if I need anyone Tommy is right here for me.”

– Sylvie

“It’s annoying, but nice when she decides to be less annoying.”

Luz Lim/The Exonian

Mason Polk ‘15, Charlotte Polk ‘18 and Marcus Polk ‘15.

Luz Lim/The Exonian

– Tommy

Sylvie Miller ‘15 and Tommy Miller ‘15.

“It’s nice to have someone as close as your brothers in the same place as you.”

– Sam

“Coming in as a new upper was a difficult transition that I had to make on my own. Fortunately, Sergio has an older brother at Exeter to help him make that transition during his first year at the Academy.”

Luz Lim/The Exonian

Aidan Oakley ‘17, Sam Oakley ‘15 and Liam Oakley ‘17.

– Moises

Luz Lim/The Exonian

Moises Escobar ‘15 and Sergio Escobar ‘17.

LIFE

THE EXONIAN

on Campus

D5

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

By JACKSON PARELL Staff Writer

“For me, Andrew is a reminder of home, whether I want one or not. Also, he’s the only kid on campus I’m allowed to fight.”

– Michael “We can basically come back to a family reunion.”

– Kiyo Rachel Luo/The Exonian

Luz Lim/The Exonian

Kiyo Kuwana ‘15, Alyssa Kuwana ‘18 and Hiro Kuwana ‘16.

Michael Tuchler ‘15 and Andrew Tuchler ‘16.

“I’ve taken over my brother’s friends to the point where they like me better than him.”

— Ally “The awkward moment when your sister took the same classes as you but got better grades.”

Nick Grounds ‘15 and Ally Grounds ‘17.

Rachel Luo/The Exonian

Tim Wongvibulsin ‘15 and Tanya Wongvibulsin ‘17.

– Tim

Rachel Luo/The Exonian

Rachel Luo/The Exonian

Evelynn Ouellette ‘17, Reed Ouellette ‘18 and Charlotte Ouellette ‘15.

“Having siblings at Exeter is having the most brutally honest and most effective editors, confidants and friends. Whether it’s 3 a.m. or 3 p.m., we always have each others’ backs.”

Henry Connolly ‘15 and Leila Connolly ‘17.

Rachel Luo/The Exonian

“Having a sibling at Exeter is great because my parents send Leila care packages more often and I can mooch off her food.”

– Charlotte

– Henry

Tom Appleton/The Exonian

Marley Jenkins ‘15 and Jack Jenkins ‘17.

“I love driving into school with Jack except for when I have a triple sleep in and he has 8 a.m. class.”

– Marley

Luz Lim/The Exonian

Elsa Chinburg ‘15 and Peter Chinburg ‘17.

“I got the good genes.”

– Elsa

Connor Bloom ‘15 and Hannah Bloom ‘17.

Luz Lim/The Exonian

“We made this agreement on the first day: “I won’t tell Mom what you do if you don’t tell Mom what I do.”

– Connor

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SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Club of the Year

MODEL UN

By JENNY HUNT and NOLAN PEACOCK Staff Writers

From diplomacy to democracy, Exeter’s Model United Nations (MUN) helps students learn more about global issues around them and work to improve their public speaking skills. The club has garnered praise and accolades from the Exeter community and beyond.

Exeter’s MUN was recently ranked as one of the 150 Best High School MUN clubs in North America and has been recognized as one of the Top 25 in the Northeast for the past two years. This cemented the club’s already sterling reputation, but it was no easy task.

In past years, the club has had difficulty with logistics and enrollment and consequently suffered at competitions. This year, a lot of work and time was put into restructuring the club.

“We’ve come a long way this year,” upper and Associate Chair Sam Millner said. He attributes much of the year’s success to the improvements made by the club’s leaders. “Our club, last year, wasn’t exceptionally organized, and so this year’s board has been giving it an overhaul,” Millner said.

MUN’s co-presidents, seniors Danna Shen and Augustus Gilchrist, have dedicated hours to planning and organizing Exeter’s annual home conference. On Oct. 26, 2014, Exeter’s PEAMUN hosted a staggering amount of visitors—over 400 delegates were in attendance.

Milner praised Gilchrist and Shen for their dedication to the PEAMUN conference. “All of the senior board worked really hard to make PEAMUN an incredibly professional and impressive event. I know that Danna in particular, put in a lot of time and effort to make it happen.”

Senior Sachin Holdheim served as the Secretary General at the conference and received praise from his fellow club members for his dedication and poise in the role. “[Holdheim] corresponded with innumerable schools in the area and got them to attend,” Milner said.

The subsequent conferences sustained the success enjoyed at PEAMUN. In January 2015, the

Exeter team was recognized for their excellence at the ILMUNC conference held at the University of Pennsylvania. Representing Venezuela, the Exeter team was faced with a difficult task due to current affairs occurring at the time, but they prevailed nonetheless.

“This conference continued a streak of success that began last spring at Boston College, where several Exonians returned with ‘Best Delegate’ and ‘Outstanding Delegate’ awards,” upper and Associate Chair Will Rau said.

Rau commended the Executive Board’s efforts in taking risks to place the new members in the conferences since Exeter’s MUN team highly values the participation of new members. “We now have novice meetings every week and take other active measures to make MUN a club that anyone can join and have fun in, if they’re willing to apply themselves,” Millner said.

Though MUN is one of the most rigorous clubs on campus, its members see the high level of intensity as a benefit, as it helps them in developing critical skills. The long hours spent at conferences require a large degree of improvisation and creating ideas under time pressure, skills that most people avoid. “The best part about going to a conference is that nothing is scripted: it’s just you, your research and your agenda,” Millner said.

Rau and senior Olivia Draper, a fellow MUN member, agreed that MUN has been instrumental in developing their public speaking skills. The abilities they gain from MUN extend to their daily lives as well, and, according to Draper, has even improved her participation at the Harkness table. This allows students who participate in MUN to reap benefits that go beyond the context of the competition.

Club members have something to look forward to next year, as the club heads are exploring the possibilities of participating in more conferences such as the Harvard MUN and Columbia MUN, for the 2015-2016 school year.

Success in MUN comes down to diplomacy, a

Students Reflect on Art 444 ART, continued from D1 movement itself,” Fuller said.

Due to the flexible nature of the class, Fuller noted that she pulled inspiration for her work from an internship this past summer. “This class was all about what we wanted to do.

I spent this past summer as a plant sciences intern doing moss research, and I really wanted to bring plants into my art,” Fuller said. “I also really wanted do something in a class that had a message and was real net beyond just the Exeter bubble.

It was incredible to have the freedom and independence that we don’t always find in the curriculum of other courses.”

Sophonpanich noted that after being inspired by a piece she had seen before, she decided to take the class and experiment with an unconventional medium she knew she would not have been able to experiment with if she had chosen a different art class. “I wanted to create an artwork beyond the conventional artistic medium in order to show that creativity and innovation are all around us.”

She said that she used the opportunity to “take something most people think of as mundane and use it in novel ways.

Although jelly beans are just ordinary snacks, they can be perceived and used to produce contemporary artwork. Kina Grannis’ jelly bean animation and Peter Rocha’s jellybean artworks inspired me to create a jelly bean mosaic self-portrait,” she said. “I used a total of 30 pounds of jellybean of 27 flavors.”

Although students have complete freedom to design their course of study throughout the term, each student was advised by either Misenheimer or Carla Collins, both art instructors, to make sure that they were on track to complete their project by the end of the term. “The class was an amazing chance for me to find the time to express myself through art. I was able to put my crazy idea into reality and develop my own skills as an artist under the guidance of Ms. Misenheimer,” Sophonpanich said.

Misenheimer agreed, saying “It is not an assignment by the teacher, but the years of training in other courses [that] equips [a student] with the skill to leap into a long-term large piece that is stylistically theirs, [like with the 444s]. I loved Nicha’s jelly bean portrait from fall 2014. I admire the level of ambition and fearlessness in scale, as well as the fact that Nicha took the reigns on her artwork, the unconventional materials and the imagery.”

In addition, many students appreciatived that ART444 was unlike any of the other art courses they had taken at Exeter so far. “It was interesting to have complete creative freedom, but also have the guidance of a teacher, and I was allowed to experiments with unique mediums and try my hand at something that I’ve wanted to do for a while now. ART444 completely removed the limits of other art classes here at Exeter and allowed for complete creative freedom,” senior Calvin Luo said. “The class was definitely worth it. I would recommend it to anyone creative on campus who has ever felt limited by courses here,” Fuller agreed.

Despite the hard work and time this course required, students felt that the class was well worth it. “Anyone who loves art, and is interested in a certain medium that they want to further explore on their own should take this class. It’s as hard as you make it, and you get out of it what you want,” Grounds said.

Fuller concurred, saying “I think other students should consider taking it because it is more like the real world than any other course in the art department and perhaps at Exeter.

There are no prompts and for the most part you really have to pace yourself. The freedom is both a challenge and a perk and managing that is a really important skill that everyone gains.”

skill that seems natural to most Exonians, according to Draper. “We [Exonians] understand what it means to work together and to build off the ideas of others—two skills that are extremely crucial to being a good delegate at a MUN conference,” Draper said.

MUN is one of those activities that educates and improves individuals. Delegates gain the interpersonal skills they need in order to successfully interact with other people in a formalized setting, while learning about international affairs, history and important global issues. Students gain ‘exterior’ skills while cultivating the ‘interior qualities’ of their intellect and worldview.

Gilchrist believed that MUN has taught him how important words can be. “MUN has taught me the value of dialogue,” Gilchrist said. “Whether discussing transportation costs in a board meeting or nuclear non-proliferation at a conference, a collaborative and open-minded approach has always proved necessary.”

English instructor and club adviser Ah-Young Song expressed her appreciation for the students at Exeter who engage in MUN. “As someone with an interest in global affairs and news about international diplomacy, I feel fortunate to be an MUN adviser, especially to such dedicated delegates,” Song said. “Our students write position papers, partake in mock debates, host their own conference and pass on-site resolutions relating to sociopolitical, economic, health, security and humanitarian topics.”

Each and every member has a unique sense of passion for MUN that is fueled by a natural interest in learning and engaging in the world outside of Exeter’s campus. As a senior reflecting on her time in the club, co-head Shen was grateful to MUN for giving her a better understanding of “how complicated world issues are” as well as “a much greater sense of how people around the world live, how history affects their lives and how important it is to care about people whose lives you cannot ever fully understand.”

2014-15 Term Activities in Review TERM ACTIVITIES, continued from D1 to break out their best tuxes and dresses. Upper Levon Brunson described it as “one of the classiest events on campus.” With the addition of a smooth jazz soundtrack, this year’s Abbot Casino was one for the books.

Relay for Life: This huge event brought many Exonians together in Love Gym to play games, have fun and fight cancer. With all profits going to benefit the American Cancer Association, this year’s Relay was incredibly successful. In the wake of the unfortunate theft of the money raised at last year’s Relay, this year’s event raised over $5,400 and helped bring more awareness to one of the worst diseases in today’s world. In addition, the Luminaria service that accompanies the event was a huge success, showcasing performers and readers alike. Culminating in a moment of silence and a glow stick-lit walk around the Luminaria bags, Relay for Life served as both an enjoyable and cathartic event for many members of the Exeter community. To some, like prep Maria Lee, it was one of the most important events the school held this year. “So many people are affected by cancer, either directly or indirectly, and I think raising money and awareness for a possible cure is really great,” Lee said.

Holi: Colors fly about as the sun dapples the trees on a beautiful spring Sunday. The always

popular Holi was again a success this year. Students flocked to the quad to participate in the festivities and dine on samosas and sherbert.

Students sprayed, dumped and threw colored water and powder at one another, and all were happy to come away from the event with a newly dyed shirt.

Spring Fling: This event hosted seven performers, six of whom were members of the Academy community. The last, rapper Mari Williams, brought down the house as the closing act and attracted a massive crowd on the steps of Phillips Hall. The other performers were nothing to scoff at, either, and together they all put on a wonderful show for all who chose to attend.

In particular lower Brandon Liu was impressed with the band When Particles Collide and DJ Uplifted. “Spring Fling was a blast. Ms. Alcott's band was really good, and I'm psyched for DJ Uplifted to come back for Block Party.” In addition, students played games, ate food, or simply relaxed on the quad.

Overall, this year has seen numerous great events. While some events saw changes or modifications that were not completely favorable, the majority of events went off without a hitch and were well received by the Exeter community. With any luck, next year’s events will have the same degree of success.

LIFE

THE EXONIAN

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

D7

SENIOR PROJECTS ByPHILIP KUHN and JOONHO JO Staff Writers

In the winter and spring terms of their final year at Exeter, 24 seniors researched and designed individual studies called senior projects, each guided by a faculty adviser. This year, topics ranged from orchestral conducting to the “Story of Han-Bok” as these students were offered an opportunity to pursue their passions in their last terms at the Academy.

Senior projects, which give students a chance to step out of the syllabi of courses at Exeter, were recommended by many of those who completed one this year, such as seniors Saisha Talwar and Zoha Qamar, who “fervently recommend to every student [senior projects] if they’re passionate about a topic.”

Here are four examples of this past year’s senior projects.

Voices From the Middle East a project by Zoha Qamar and Saisha Talwar Seniors Saisha Talwar and Zoha Qamar focused their senior project on modern issues in the Middle East. In an effort to bring awareness about these issues to the Exeter community, they categorized the project into three seminars, namely, the “Israeli-Palestinian peace prospect,” “The Modern Muslim Woman” and a visit from author and scholar Reza Aslan.

Believing Middle-Eastern issues are often ignored on campus, the two aimed to “foster dialogue about these issues” according to Talwar. After an impressive turnout in their “Voices from Gaza” forum in the fall, Qamar and Talwar decided to continue their work in the spring through a senior project.

The two managed to invite distinguished guests to Exeter such as Aslan, a well known Iranian-American professor of creative writing. Qamar had worked for his online news company “AslanMedia” last summer.

In addition to Aslan, Qamar said that they emailed many others, in hopes

that a few would reply. Ultimately, they succeeded, holding three well-attended forums, with well-over a hundred students and faculty attending each one.

“There was a lot of emailing involved in general for setting times and finding people willing to come,” she said. “We talked to around a hundred people just hoping five would get back to us.”

The three seminars proved to be effective in its goal: bringing awareness and discussion to campus. While Talwar does not expect the community to understand each detail of the arguments, simply raising the topic and bringing these real issues to campus was their primary purpose.

“These are really complex issues that we’re aiming to dissect,” she said.

“While we are such a diverse community, we don’t expect the community to understand all of it. Rather, our goal was just to bring awareness to the campus to help fill in the lack of discussions.”

Spanish Modernism and the Influence of French Symbolism and Parnassianism a project by Jeanne Olivier Senior Jeanne Olivier contrasted the poetry of the French and the Spanish of the 18th century for her senior project, analyzing and writing about the similarities and differences of the poetry of the two languages.

Before Exeter, Olivier attended a French school, and thus speaks fluent French. At Exeter, she has studied Spanish at a high course level. She wanted to focus her senior project on the combination of the two languages.

“I wanted to do something related to my native language, but I didn’t think the courses here offered anything at a high enough level,” she said. That prompted me to do my own project.”

Olivier’s project contained four stages: the research, the reading, the paper and the presentation. At the start of winter term, she began her research, first about the time period and then about poets of Spanish and French literature.

She discovered around forty poems in each language. After this stage, she began to “analyze roughly a dozen poems each week,” discussing these with her

faculty adviser modern languages instructor, Viviana Santos.

Finally, Olivier began a thesis paper that explored the “similarities and differences” of the two types of poetry.

In the final week of the winter term she presented her project to high level French and Spanish students and faculty.

“The goal was really to show that the two languages can work together, to show that you can bring many languages in one analysis and obviously to showcase my native language,” she said.

Olivier considered her project a huge success. She credits and thanks much of her work to opportunity of completing a senior project, which she believes is a great way to pursue personal interests.

“I think [senior projects] are really great if they’re taken seriously and well organized,” she said. “I have worked even harder on my senior project than in other classes because it was a topic that I loved.”

Thailand and China: History and Culture on Canvas a project by Dana Tung and Nicha Sophonpanich Seniors Dana Tung and Nicha Sophonpanich researched the differences and similarities of Thai and Chinese architecture and cultural practices in their senior project, presenting their results in a two-canvas painting.

Their painting was split up into two sections, with China represented on one canvas and Thailand on the other. The edges of the painting were devoted to the ancient traditions and landscape of the two countries. The painting then became modern towards the center, where it focused on the recent cultural overlaps of the two countries.

According to Sophonpanich, they were inspired by conversations about the history and similarities of practices in their home countries. Having lacked the chance to research their homelands at Exeter, the two decided the project could be a great opportunity to take advantage of the Academy’s resources to learn about their origins, while at the same time creating the opportunity to share their culture with the local community.

While Tung and Sophonpanich were hooked by the research opportunities, they were also just looking for a fun, relaxed class for their senior spring.

They wanted something informative and interesting that also provided a break from Exeter’s excess amounts of work.

This is Our School 2 a project by Brandon Wang

Senior Brandon Wang organized a documentary on free speech and its various implications on campus, in Exeter’s classrooms, clubs, publications and in a variety of venues. His goal was to answer many questions beyond the surface level considerations that a lot of students have.

He first came up with this idea for the project after watching a couple of situations play out in the beginning of the year where students felt that they were being censored by the administration.

After establishing this as the foundation of his project, he further broadened the topic to consider not just the specific implications of censorship, but also self censorship on the parts of students and what affects different cultures have on it.

With a passion for video editing, Wang was excited to finally have the opportunity to make a documentary and to

2014-2015 Pop Culture Recap

By VALERIE JACKMAN and MELISSA LU Staff Writers

This year’s pop culture events and trends were so crazy that they even broke right through the Academy’s fortified bubble. Let’s recap. Which pop culture trends got you this year?

In July of 2014, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was created to raise awareness and funds for Lou Gehrig’s disease, which blew up on social media. The challenge dared people to either dump a bucket of ice water on themselves or donate $100 to the ALS Association. Many chose to do both. Celebrities even took to the challenge, like actor Charlie Sheen’s who donated $10,000. By the end of the summer, the ALS Association received over $115 million dollars in donations.

How to Get Away with Murder premiered on ABC on Sep 25, 2014. The show reeled in more than 14.2 million viewers just on the pilot. The show stars Viola Davis as Annalise Keating, the intelligent and sassy law professor and criminal defense attorney at Middleton University who guides five specially selected interns in their investigations of twisted murder cases. The second season of the terribly addicting show is highly anticipated by fans.

On Nov 7, 2014, Interstellar and The Theory of Everything, two of the perhaps most successful movies of the year, premiered on the same day, creating quite an enigma for moviegoers over which movie to see first.

Interstellar was an epic science-fiction film, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain and Michael Caine. The film revolves around the story of a crew of astronauts who travel through a wormhole in search of a new home for humanity. Interstellar, atypical of Nolan films, was very successful at the box office, grossing over $672 million worldwide. The film received many accolades from critics in terms of sound effects and actor/ actress performances. At the 87th Academy Awards, the film won the Best Visual Effects award and was nominated for several others.

The Theory of Everything, directed by James Marsh, brought light to a side of scientist Stephen Hawking (played by Eddie Redmayne) never told before: Hawking’s love story with Jane Wilde Hawking (played by Felicity Jones). The film received four Golden Globe Award nominations and won two of them: the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for Redmayne and Best Original Score for Jóhann Jóhannsson.

“While we were interested in further exploring both of our cultures, we didn’t want to just conduct research,” she said.

“Instead we decided that we could create some type of art piece that held the perfect mix of creativity and information.”

However, while the project proved fun, the two did not take their responsibilities lightly. Throughout the term they kept an incredible focus on detail, conducting extensive research on the different time periods represented in their canvas. They even put lots of thought into the minor details such as the different shades of color used.

“We wanted [to] choose color tones that would best connect these objects and time all together,” Sophonpanich said. “For example, the ancient time periods at each end of the canvas can be painted in warm colors in contrast with the cool colors of the center modern time period.”

Finally, their project concluded with an hour long presentation where they displayed the canvas to the community and highlighted its significance. According to Tung, while the project turned out to be a lot of work, they were extremely satisfied with the result.

“I really enjoy doing it, and I think it is a great way for me to spend time looking into my country and painting with my friend,” she said.

Redmayne swept the awards this year with his stellar portrayal of Hawking.

On Nov 21, 2014, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1 hit the box offices, climbing to the number one spot during just its opening weekend with a $273.8 million worldwide gross. This marked the movie as the biggest opening of 2014. The Hunger Games film series is also the only franchise to have three films earn over $100 million in a weekend.

On Feb 1, 2015, the Patriots won the AFC Championship game against the Colts, which led the Patriots to their 2015 Super Bowl win. The Patriots were accused of deflating footballs, the ongoing saga termed “Deflategate.” Investigations led to a four-game suspension of quarterback Tom Brady, which led to quite an uproar from Patriots fans.

Mar 4, 2015 marked the date of release of “Nasty Freestyle” by American rapper T-Wayne that would onset the whip dance obsession across America. Is the whip taking over the twerk?

On Apr 24, 2015, Bruce Jenner officially announced his (currently preferring the pronoun “he”) gender transformation. He stated, “I’m a woman” in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ reporter Diane Sawyer. Jenner was once hailed as the greatest athlete in the world for his Olympic gold win in the decathlon in the 1976 games in Montreal. Later, he became a reality television personality on Keeping up the Kardashians. Now, the former Olympian has finally been able to reveal a deep secret that has caused him turmoil and unhappiness for decades. All respect goes out to Jenner.

On May 14, 2015, the CW aired the season six finale of The Vampire Diaries. The episode acted as a goodbye tribute to actress Nina Dobrev, the series lead as Elena Gilbert. Dobrev decided to leave the show to pursue other projects. Dobrev officially announced her departure April 6, 2015 and fans were extremely disappointed. Regardless, the series will continue into its seventh season without Dobrev. But what is a series without its queen? The CW is going to have to cook up something really good to make up for Dobrev’s absence or else the fans will be leaving with Dobrev.

What a year, Hollywood. As always, next year has some pop culture treasures in store for us as well. Surprise us, Hollywood.

express his thoughts and interests in the topic of censorship. While the workload was larger than he anticipated, he said that the “reward” followed this same pattern.

“The community cares so much about this thing,” he said. “It has been particularly satisfying for me to experience.”

Wang continued to explain all of the different ways his project helped him connect with the community as well as to learn more about it.

“I have had the opportunity to connect with people I didn't think I would be able to connect with, a lot of faculty members that I didn't think I would be speaking with, and it has led me to see the variety of opinions and beliefs that we have on campus,” he said. “Overall, I would describe it as a huge success.”

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CINEMA SHARKS FIVE MUST–WATCH FILMS

By SANG PARK and NOLAN PEACOCK Staff Writers

To say that 2014 was a stellar year for movies would be an understatement. This past year saw one of the strongest displays of cinema in recent history. From action to comedy, drama to horror, the sheer number of great films released this year was enough to toss us out of our velvet-lined movie theater seats. However, we here at The Exonian, we realize that not everyone can spend their days staring wide-eyed at a movie screen. So for your convenience, your trusty movie critics have taken it upon themselves to compile a list of the best movies in each genre. So sit back, relax and enjoy the read.

DRAMA Birdman (2014)

Courtesy of Google Images

Birdman is a masterfully crafted movie. The film not only features superb acting from Michael Keaton and a thrilling jazz score, but also a meticulous and fresh directing by Iñárritu. Following the life of Riggan Thompson (Keaton), a washed up Hollywood actor, Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance details Riggan’s seemingly ineffective attempt at reviving his once great acting career.

Riggan’s acting career coincidentally parallels that of Thompson’s, for Thompson too was once

a prominent actor appearing in two Batman films.

Keaton successfully painted Riggan as a vulnerable actor aspiring to revamp his career, while drawing laughter from every viewer with his absurdity.

Iñárritu’s directing choices shine throughout the film. Everywhere from the unexpected camera angles to the vivacious jazz score, the film accurately captures the story of a defeated actor. Despite the serious underlying tone of the story, Keaton’s acting almost brings a satirical light to the movie.

Birdman is a film you have to see.

ACTION

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) While this flick technically didn’t hit theaters until early 2015, we’re gonna throw it in with the rest because it is worth mentioning. Kingsman tells the story of an international secret agent force based in Britain that takes only the best and the brightest candidates. When Eggsy, a delinquent teen and son of a former agent, is picked for the selection process, his life turns upside down, and he must work to foil to plans of malicious villain Richmond Valentine, played by Samuel L. Jackson. This film is

gloriously self-aware, action packed, and funny enough to make you forget that it’s an action movie.

This movie’s best quality is undoubtedly it’s fight scenes. Well choreographed and beautifully filmed, no other film will make you appreciate good ole hand to hand violence like this one.

In addition, Colin Firth, Michael Caine, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Strong and newcomer Taron Egerton all make this film worth the outrageous cost of a movie ticket.

Courtesy of Google Images

COMEDY 22 Jump Street (2014) A wise man once said, “Nothing good lasts forever.” However, that wise man is a blatant liar. The ever-so-different dynamic duo, Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, have put their Korean Jesus in the past and come back strong as ever in 22 Jump Street.

In this sequel, Jenko (Tatum) and Schmidt (Hill) once again take on the roles as undercover agents looking to sabotage a drug operation except this time as college students. The sequel features fraternity parties, college football and obviously the most important aspect of college, a Mexican spring break extravaganza. Much of what the movie-goers loved

so much about 21 Jump Street is back in 22 Jump Street. However, as we all know, college is a completely different animal.

Jenko and Schmidt’s accurate reflection of the daily struggles between college best friends often had me forcing myself not to cry in front the whole theater. Yet, the metal-beam melting action had me often jumping out of my seat. Despite being a well rounded movie, 22 Jump Street’s strength is its comedy. It is its easy-to-follow comedy, layered with the complexities of each character. This laugh inducing flick is a must watch on lonely Saturday nights in Exeter.

Courtesy of Google Images

INDIE The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) Coming out of the Oscars with nine nominations and four wins, The Grand Budapest Hotel is unquestionably a great film.

Veteran indie director and hipster icon Wes Anderson directed this charming and witty flick about a hotel manager and his valet and their adventures surrounding a certain valuable painting.

This film, while great in its own right, leans heavily on the outstanding performance by lead actor Ralph Fiennes in the role of Gustave M. hotel concierge and womanizer extraordinaire. In addition to Fi-

ennes, cinema rookie Tony Revolori plays Zero Moustafa, the obedient and intelligent “lobby boy.” Anderson’s masterful work as director shines in every shot of this gorgeous film. It is almost as if the viewfinder of a camera is his canvas.

The Grand Budapest Hotel has won Academy Awards for its soundtrack, makeup, costume design, and production design, and all were duly won. Simply put, this film is enchanting, and we guarantee that it will have the viewer on their feet when the credits roll.

Courtesy of Google Images

The list goes on. 2014 inundated us with great movies and memories. It is a tragedy to not be able to cover all the great movies released in the past year. However, that is also a blessing. We have been given so many options. Now, set your microwaves to two minutes, ready your popcorns, sit back, relax and enjoy these works of art.

Yours in film forever,

Nol and Sangarang

To The 136 Life Editors By 137 Life Editors Contributing Writers

Millie, Monica and Michael– Thank you for your contributions to The Exonian and for setting a great example for us to look up to.

Congratulations!

Jeff, Joyce and Will

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FEATURED CLUBS

By ALAN LIU and R.C. McSHANE Staff Writers

Two hours on the Academy quad is not nearly enough time to explore the various options on Club Night. The multifarious clubs cover nearly every aspect a student could hope for—from radio broadcasting to breakdancing, debating to cooking, political campaigning to fire dancing. Here are a handful of the many clubs that deserve a special mention.

Ethics Forum Ethics Forum fosters discussion about ethics, on topics originating both on and off campus. It provides a safe venue where people of all perspectives can feel comfortable voicing their opinions.

Lower and co-head Carissa Chen explained the importance of ethical awareness, and why she decided to start the club. “In his speech, Bryan Stevenson asked us to increase our proximity to issues we cared about. Being trapped in the ‘Exeter bubble’, it’s often hard to do so. But I believe that discussion and awareness are the first steps to doing so,” she said.

“What I hope in the future is to bring more people on campus who will give a voice, a language to experiences and people who have previously been deprived of it,” Chen continued.

“So perhaps, one speaker at a time, we can try and make the ‘Exeter bubble’ a little more permeable, a little bigger and poke a couple holes in it.”

Ethics Forum also competes at Na-

tional High School Ethics Bowl competitions. The club prepares and reads over multiple and wide-ranging ethical dilemmas, topics ranging from forced parenthood to the Heart Attack Grill.

The competitions progress in a parliamentary debate-like fashion. However, unique to Ethics Bowl, the two competing teams do not necessarily have to agree on a topic. They can argue the same side; in this case, whichever team pushes the point more throughly, wins.

This year, after defeating a dozen teams at the regional level, the Academy’s top team progressed to the national level at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There, between Apr. 1011, the Academy’s team placed second among twenty-one teams from across the United States and one team from Canada.

“I like the competition format,” lower and club member Arjun Rajan said. “It forces you to think about both sides and consider the merits to each side.”

Peer Tutoring

Peer tutoring (PT) hosts an environment where students can relax, share ideas and learn from each other.

PT takes place on school nights, from Sunday to Thursday, on third floor of the Academy Building.

Senior and co-head Max Le started going to PT as a prep to learn how to better share his ideas at the Harkness table. “By constantly explaining things to people, I gradually got better at expressing my ideas, or at least I feel more confident in speaking up,” he said.

“I personally think PT embodies the two most important aspects of the Exeter education: goodness and knowl-

edge,” Le continued. “Goodness for that PT encourages students to sign up and use their abilities to help other students. Knowledge for that both the tutor and tutee usually learn something for themselves.”

“The unstructured nature of peer tutoring allows both for learning to occur in preconceived optimal scenarios and for experimental learning styles based on the creativity of tutor and tutee,” senior Alex Song, a regular tutor, said.

Le encouraged all students to attend peer tutoring, offering a little extra incentive. “Mrs. Parris usually makes us delicious treats for the night.”

The 2014-2015 school year saw the introduction of the Academy’s first Climate Action Day, a morning where students listened to keynote speaker Bill McKibben and attended two workshops of their choice. That said, it’s safe to say that it was a big year for the Environmental Action Committee.

EAC met every Tuesday to discuss ongoing environmental issues, plan events, draft proposals and create posters to hang around campus. In the weeks leading up to Climate Action Day, it spread publicity around campus. Many members of EAC were responsible for guiding speakers through the school and providing introductions onstage.

Through EAC, co-head and senior Krissy Truesdale found a way to develop her passion for the environment. “The club has changed the entire trajectory of my life,” Truesdale said.

“We went to a tar sands rally in Port-

land, Maine and for the first time I felt what it meant to be a part of a movement. I felt like I was making a difference.

“My goal with EAC is of course to strive for a more sustainable campus, but to me, it doesn’t matter as much if we have [Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design] classrooms or perfect recycling if the students who leave this campus leave apathetic to the world around them. My goal is to inspire students the way I was and for them to realize that who they are and everything they do is of utmost importance.”

Senior Kelly McCarthy joined the committee after returning from a term at the Island School, originally sharing the same motivation as Truesdale. “I really love hanging out and working with like-minded people,” she said.

“It’s inspiring to be around everyone else’s passion for the environment.”

Democracy of Sound

Democracy of Sound’s (DoS) year was loud, chaotic and harmonic all at the same time with the assembly and events it has hosted around campus.

DoS is open to anyone who strives to bring music to the Academy in ways radically different to what students typically experience. “[DoS’] biggest accomplishment was to conduct so many events this year on such a variety of scales, while simultaneously collaborating with a range of other clubs and individuals for each event and project," senior and cohead Emily Lemmerman said.

Each of DoS’s events takes place at a different location. Due to the variety of performance spaces, each of the projects has its own distinct flair. “We are eager to identify and then work with the particular contingencies and problems so as to creatively solve them collectively: every club meeting and event is a dance of critique, problematizing and play,” music instructor and club adviser Jon Sakata said.

One of DoS’s more ambitious events was its assembly. “The assembly was an experiment proposing the Assembly Hall as a scaled-up brainspace/brain-event (each person and the community as larger collective acting and reacting…aka, firing like neurons…to the stimuli received in the famed semi-hemispheric shaped cavity,” Sakata said.

This Apr., DoS hosted in(FEST) us, an event held between the Academy center and the Mayer Art Center. It featured a mix of student performers, faculty-formed bands and presentations of poems taped up against the side of the two buildings.

“Originally [the in(FEST)us area] was just grass, but when the gallery was built it became this sort of transition space between the art center and the Academy building,” Sakata said. “[DoS] thought it would be really neat to take this space that is supposed to be transitional and actually make it a bridge or a canyon.”

Diversity Council (DivCo) was behind the Jan. 13 assembly held on the topic of microaggressions—unintended acts of discrimination hidden in jokes, banter or even compliments. Dean of Multicultural Affairs Rosanna Salcedo spoke first, followed by council members who used skits to provide examples of microaggressions.

In previous years, DivCo held campus-wide forums surrounding the topic of race. The club died down last year, but was recently revived by Salcedo in light of increasing debate surrounding the Ferguson case. The goal of DivCo is to

spread awareness on issues that pertain to minority students—not just with race, but also sexual orientation, gender, religion and socio-economic background.

Lower Charis Edwards joined DivCo because she wanted to help change the student body’s behavior toward discrimination.

“I really value the conversations I have with the other members and I am hopeful that issues surrounding discrimination and diversity remain on people’s minds, because that how things will change,” Edwards said. “First through the individual and then as a community.”

Diversity Council

Environmental Action Committee

trendwatch of the year

By JULIA BORNEMANN and LEXI BUTLER Contributing Writers

Hey, trendsetters— Happy commencement! It’s finally the end of the year, which means we’re all on the cusp of a well deserved break. It also means that, unfortunately, it’s time to say goodbye to an amazing class of seniors who we have all grown to love. The class of 2015 has been an awesome group of people who have, in one way or another, enriched our lives and for whom we are forever grateful. Here’s to four incredible years at college—you guys deserve it!

The seniors’ many talents range from the classic Exonian ideals of intellect to impressive athleticism, but also include a wonderful collection of people who consistently dress to the nines. Here’s your time to shine! Starting off with a classic is Francis Lee—this gentleman has been dressing beautifully every day, and whether it’s mid February or the heat of late May, Francis has graced us all with beautifully tailored suits and elegant accessories. Though the humor section may joke about them, we truly think that his suits make campus just that much better. You go Francis! Similarly elegant is Drew Goydan. Drew has blessed us with classy ensembles, whether it be in head to toe J.Crew or dresses from an obscure boutique in Cambridge, she pulls off the Nantucket Mom look like no other. A fellow Langdell gal who was born chic is Saisha Talwar. She rocks simple outfits, but always manages to add a personal flair to each look, whether through polished

accessories or an unexpected detail.

On another note, Marcus and Mason Polk have really added to the relaxed vibes around campus, especially with their swaggy choices for trousers. The looser fit paired with quirky patterns and tops created a series of wonderful silhouettes and shapes. In addition, a special shout out to their socks is in order. Tagging on the family train are Nick and Conrad Diao, who, while dressing differently, both look effortlessly stylish. Nick keeps his everyday ensembles chic with simple and dark colours, spicing things up with tie bars and stitched ties. Conrad has his signature short shorts, which he surprisingly pulls off every time. Both keep things elegant through harmonious color choices and well-fitted pieces.

Another clique who looks chic all day every day is the varsity crew fam; Jeanne Olivier, Benj Cohen and Christina Rossitto. The ladies look sophisticated every day, without fail. Whether through Jeanne’s bold dresses or Christina’s gorgeous yet simple pieces, the duo rocked their styles without exception. StuCo Prez Benj also always looked spiffy in interesting shirts and shorts, regardless of how preposterously cold it got outside.

We could always count on Colby Chaffin to look sharp and well put together. His array of colorful button downs and classy coats always matched. His preppy yet trendy style was always on point. Katie Liptak also always looked phenomenal this year, channeling much needed boho vibes into the Exeter bubble. Her relaxed looks of long skirts, flowy materials and unexpected details certainly added character to every day. On the other end of the spectrum was Chris Lutete who looked dapper in his colourful wardrobe. From his sherbert suit to his vibrant socks, Chris wore glorious statement pieces without fear and impressed daily. We’d also be lost without mentioning the trend of hawaiian shirts on campus, championed by the one and only Nick Grounds. His seemingly endless collection added colour and smiles to every day,

Christina Rossitto/The Exonian

even the dreary slushy ones.

We’d like to give a special shoutout to two always well-dressed and sassy ladies, Helen Edwards and Millie Dunstan. These two former Trendwatch writers definitely upheld the name and were never afraid to stand out. Millie’s dark but classic style perfectly complemented Helen’s playful ensembles. From bold lip colors to intriguing silhouettes, Millie and Helen always kept up with the latest trends. Millie’s massive hair chop was a great move; the short length really accentuated her high cheek bones. We loved seeing Helen’s style slightly alter from a grunge aesthetic toward a preppier, brighter look.

On the whole, the class of 2015 has been not only incredibly aesthetically pleasing, but also lovely classmates, teammates and friends. Thank you guys for being rad always, and congratulations to all of you! xoxo, Julia and Lexi

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Fall Sports Football E/a Score

Season Records

2-6 13-12 L

Boys’ Cross Country 4-0 E/a Score 37-29 W

Boys’ Soccer E/a Score

13-4-3 1-1 T

Girls’ Volleyball 19-1 E/a Score 3-2 W

5-11-1 4-1 L

Girls’ Cross Country 3-1 E/a Score 42-17

Girls’ Soccer E/a Score

2-15-1 3-1 L

Boys’ Water Polo 12-6 E/a Score 8-5 W

Field Hockey E/a Score

Volleyball Brings Home a New England Championship

Alison Dowski/The Exonian

Senior Brooke Detwiler sets up upper Peace Kabari for a spike in a midseason match.

By NOLAN PEACOCK Staff Writer

The ball hits the ground, and hundreds of people rush onto the court as the girls’ volleyball team is crowned as the 2014 New England Champions. The championship victory capped off a stellar season for the girls who finished the fall with an amazing record of nineteen wins and one loss. The girls played and worked hard, and it paid off in the end.

The season started off just like any other, weeks before the first classes, at the pre-season training camp (Prep Camp) where the girls spent a week practicing and bonding.

This preseason bonding facilitated the creation of a lasting and potent chemistry between the girls, which allowed them to outplay their competitors. “This team was special before we even started, and all the coaches

thought that this was the year,” coach Bruce Shang said of the team this year.

Once the start of season arrived, the girls got off to a strong start with two victories in their first two games. However, the team suffered a tough loss when they conceded their first game to Choate in late September. Despite the blow, the girls bounced back in spectacular fashion and did not lose a game for the rest of the season.

After the regular season concluded, the girls dove directly into the playoffs, in which the team performed incredibly well. The team did not concede a single set throughout the entire course of the tournament.

All efforts came to a head, though, during the championship game. The girls played admirably, and, equipped with some of the best players in the league, the squad claimed the victory and made Exeter proud.

However, this remarkable season was not without

challenges. The girls faced some drawbacks that threatened their season.

“The floor [of the] gym was being fixed and so we had to practice off campus for two and a half weeks.

The first time that we played on our home court was during our first home game. Practices were short because of all the travel and it was tough to build team chemistry,” Shang said.

Other drawbacks were injuries and position changes. Post-grad Erika Steeves and prep Chloe Scocimara were both sidelined by concussions while upper Taylor Jean-Jacques had to switch positions.

The girls also had a few issues with morale during their games. “I think that we could have had a more encouraging environment on the team,” upper and captain-elect Katya Scocimara said.

See VOLLEYBALL, E2

Boys’ XC Wins Boys’ Soccer Finishes with 13 Wins 4th Championship

By JACKSON PARELL Staff Writer

By JOONHO JO Staff Writer

There was one goal for the boys’ cross country team in the 2014 season: to claim its fourth straight undefeated season and fourth consecutive New England’s championship.

The team, led by senior captains William Li, Quincy Tichenor and Holden Hammontree, swept through the season, defeating each competitor. The closest matches came against Andover, which gave Big Red’s dominant squad good fights. However, the Smurfs never caught up to Exeter’s cross country team in any of their three meetings: the NMH Invitational, the match at Exeter and, of course, the highly anticipated Interschols at Hotchkiss. With Andover out of the way, Big Red raced through their schedule, to their fourth straight undefeated season.

The successes of the season did not come without dedication, however. Big Red worked its tail off in each and every practice, which were led by head coach Brandon Newbould and assistant coaches Nick Unger and Bill Jordan.

In addition to the coaches, the three captains also led by example and pushed the team to work its hardest the entire season.

The team gives a large amount of credit to those coaches and captains, saying that their leadership and focus were significant reasons why the team achieved such great success.

“A lot of [the success] was due to the senior leadership and our coaches,” post-graduate Ryan Betz said. “When I came into the program this year, I could tell everyone meant business when it came to completing the fourth undefeated season.”

This leadership influenced the culture of the team. According to senior Max Larnerd, the leadership resulted in an See BOYS’ CROSS COUNTRY, E3

Male Athlete of the Year Senior Holden Hammontree was the captain of three teams, all of which had successful seasons.

Read more on E6.

Tom Appleton/The Exonian

Boys’ varsity soccer pulled off another fantastic season, ending it ranked as the eighth best boarding school team in the nation. The chemistry and leadership on the team allowed them to push through their challenges and hold an 11 game winning streak, something only a few other Exeter soccer teams have accomplished. For all their hard work throughout the season, they ended up with a final record of 13 wins, 3 ties and 4 losses. Now, only losing about six or so starting players after graduation, they are looking forward to another successful season next fall.

“We enter every season with excitement and optimism and last season was no different,” coach AJ Cosgrove said. The team had many strong returning starters, including senior captains Sterling Weatherbie and Ted Hart, something the team believed would give them an advantage. The existing chemistry between the returning players was key on their path to success this season.

Senior Josh Desmond said, “In the 2013-2014 season, we had a lot of new player, but I’d say the very opposite was true this year. We had so many kids returning, and it really felt like the team was already bonding well before the season even started. I think our comfort with each other both on and off the field played a large role in our success this season.”

Their spirits were high as they entered their first game after having two great preseason scrimmages.

In those first two games, however, they gave up nine goals, starting their season with a record of 0-2. “Some of the players believe it was those two losses that lead to their eventual success. Lower Quintin Distefano said, “The biggest game was our first. A 5-0 loss to Milton. It woke us up. From then on we went on a tear, eventually reaching an unbeaten streak of 11 games.”

Inside Sports

Female Athlete of the Year Senior Marley Jenkins is a twelve letter varisty athlete and captained all three of her teams.

Read more on E8.

Tom Appleton/The Exonian

Jonathan Ye/The Exonian

Senior Ted Hart launches a shot on goal.

After their second defeat at Loomis Chaffee, they faced a defining decision in their season: to give up on it or to push themselves to win. Luckily, they kept their spirits up and during the next game at St. Paul’s they secured a win with a final score of 4-0. This win gave them the confidence that they needed to pull off their winning streak.

During the following 11 games, they developed as a team and faced their opponents. Their game against NMH tested their commitment and perseverance. Early in the first half, NMH scored a goal and afterward started to dominate possession of the ball. However, Exeter shifted its mindset and conviction to score another two goals before the first quarter of the second half. “Later See BOYS’ SOCCER, E2

This Section: Coach of the Year Coach David Hudson guided wrestling to a New England title and top ten finish at Prep Nationals.

Read more on E10.

Tom Appleton/The Exonian

Girls’ Volleyball BXC Boys’ Soccer Football Field Hockey Girls’ Soccer Water Polo GXC

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Senior Brooke Detwiler and upper Zaidee Laughlin prepare for a return volley.

Girls’ Volleyball Ends Up on Top, Finishes with a 19-1 Season continued from VOLLEYBALL, E1 “Volleyball is a team sport, and so to win games everyone needs to execute their role, whether it's on the court or on the bench.”

Scocimara also expressed her wish for Exeter to improve its school spirit, which she believes will help many teams perform better. She particularly enjoyed the Exeter/Andover game for this reason.

“The E/a game was an unbelievable experience that I'll never forget. I wouldn't say it was our best game, but just the atmosphere and the energy that was in the room was exhilarating, and there was no better feeling than beating Andover.”

On the subject of the championship game, Scocimara felt that the team played

extremely well.

“That was probably one of the best games we played all season. That was the game where I felt that everyone was confident in each other and where we all were ready to give our all to win the thing we'd wanted all year. There couldn't have been a better ending to our season.”

In addition to a stunning record, the girls squad also had some great improvement this year, and some of the less experienced players refined their skills in preparation for next year.

“There was a lot improvement among all the players this year,” captain and senior Brooke Detwiler said. “New upper Katya Scocimara had an incredible

season and was a wonderful addition to the team. Three year upper Michelle Bosche was truly the rock of the team and was a consistent force for us.”

Detwiler herself also played well throughout the season and garnered praise from both her teammates and coaches.

“Brooke Detwiler, our co-captain, was definitely the best setter in the league,” Shang said.

Scocimara also described Detwiler’s unwavering work ethic and her incredible devotion to the team.

“Detwiler, in my opinion, wins the award for hardest working player,” she said.

“Not only is she an amazing setter, but she hustled for every single ball, doing everything she could to keep the ball in play.

“No other player on our team has that work ethic to not let a single ball drop. And she was doing all this with an injured knee. Every day after practice I would see her with two enormous ice

continued from BOYS’ SOCCER, E1 in the game was a scary moment when Sterl went down with an injury. It forced us to make a decision—either give in to the adversity or tough it out, and I think those moments where we had to fight without our leader and most important player made us form a toughness that really gave us our identity throughout the season,” senior Liam McKersie said.

A lot of the games came down to just one crucial shot or block, and in these moments, the team had to find that extra strength to win.

Desmond said, “Andover was a comeback tie (that goal took them out of the play-offs). Beaver Country Day

I think we won in the last 10 seconds of the game. KUA was another clutch game.

We really did come together even when we were down and [made] some crucial plays to win ourselves a playoff seed.”

Many players on the team believe that a lot of their success and teamwork can be attributed to captains Weatherbie and Hart.

Distefano said, “I have to give it to Ted and Sterl. Ted popped in the goals for us and Sterl simply put in the work.

Always gave 110 percent.” The two players were key in building a strong team that could compete against other boarding schools on a national level.

bags on her knees. But despite the pain, she would set the ball near perfect every single time,” Scocimara said.

The team is losing several key players as they graduate from Exeter, but the girls have high hopes for next fall and hope that the existing squad can train hard enough to maintain their title.

“I still think that the team can achieve just as amazing results as last year, if not better,” Scocimara said.

“And there looks to be a lot of possible potential in some of the girls who could be coming here next year. So, despite losing some amazing players, teammates and friends, I’m excited to come back next year just as strong and defend our championship title.”

Scocimara will lead the team as cocaptain next year, along with Bosche.

“Next year there is a strong core team returning, and I'm so excited to see what they do,” Detwiler said. “I think that Michelle and Katya will be great captains and could easily lead the team to another successful season.”

Jena Yun/The Exonian

Lower Collin Shapiro fends off a defender as he dribbles down the field.

Soccer Capitalizes on Seniors’ Strong Leadership Skills

Sydney Yoon/The Exonian

Lower Tarek Khartabil said, “I have never had captains as dedicated and supportive as Sterling and Ted. Our captains helped welcome some new players into the squad. They were leaders on and off of the field and when we needed to score or defend, they communicated with us and made sure that we put the ball into the back of the net or stopped it from going into our goal.”

Along with the captains, many other players were crucial to the overall performance of the team. One of the key qualities of this team was that it had depth and a well-balanced bench. “If I had to name ‘star’ players, I would say Sterling Weatherbie, Ted Hart, Max Gross, Devin Moore and Liam Mckersie. However, it’s also hard to ignore the contributions from Liam Bradley, Matt Asante, Trevor Cosgrove, Tamer Sullivan, Henry Behrens and Quintin Distefano,” coach Cosgrove said.

Even though the team is losing some of the dominant starters including Hart,

Weatherbie, Desmond, McKersie, Nick Baughan and Liam Bradley, the rest of the team is confident that they will be able to secure another winning season next fall.

Nearly half of the starting players will be on the team next year and there are some new players coming in that should improve the team as well. Desmond said, “I expect big things from the team next year. I really hope they start taking things seriously right as summer starts, because it's important that the team starts feeling comfortable with each other early. I hope to see a win over Andover next year, too.”

Because of the team’s leadership, perseverance and drive, Big Red soccer brought its game to the next level. At the beginning of the season the team was not even on the top 10 private school teams list, but by giving each game their all, they rose to become one of the best in the nation.

McKersie said, “I would say I have never been on a team that was this tough and just found ways to win.”

SPORTS

THE EXONIAN

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

E3

Connor Bloom/The Exonian

The varsity cross country boys kick off a race versus Deerfield.

The Streak Lives continued from BOYS’ CROSS COUNTRY, E1

“awesome team dynamic.” “No one wanted to be the one to let everyone down, so when it came to racing, everyone’s mind was set on first place,” he said.

And this team culture was yet another reason for the fourth straight undefeated season and a New England title.

When winning a championship and completing an undefeated season, runners have to step up their games, whether they’re newcomers or returners. According to upper Soren Blomquist-Eggerling, the newcomers added to the team’s skill level. For varsity, Betz and new lower Cam Corso were significant assets, especially in a tight match during Interschols.

“Betz did a great job the whole year. Also, Cam ‘Gamer’ Corso, another newcomer, had a kick at the end of Interschols that swung the outcome of the race,” Blomquist-Eggerling said.

Lower Issay Matsumoto also applauded Corso’s addition to the team, saying that without him, the interschols title may have gone to another team. “New lower Cam Corso was a brilliant tactician on the course. With his athleticism,

he provided the team with the depth necessary to be the winningest team in the league,” he said.

In addition, returners improved as well, notably Tichenor, who had already been an incredible runner last year. Tichenor enhanced his running drastically and achieving an unthinkable, 15:57 minute 5k to place 2nd at the NEPSTA Division 1 Interschols race and lead Big Red to the championship. “[Tichenor] was already a great runner last year, but this season he became a PEA [cross country] legend.

To do what he did at interschols was remarkable and deserves all the accolades and awards he was given this year,” Betz said.

Other members of the team also complimented Tichenor’s season and said that without him, the team might not have captured its fourth straight title.

“Quincy Tichenor was our fastest stick this season, consistently our top scorer,” Matsumoto said. “En route to finishing second at interschols, he smashed the course record by [an] incredible margin.”

However, a single runner can never win whole matches. Big Red cross country has proven that a team effort is absolutely necessary to win. In one of the most anticipated and competitive matches of the season, a one-on-one battle with Andover, the gritty team effort of Exeter pulled off a narrow victory, a three point difference,

to maintain the undefeated year.

“Exeter-Andover was incredible,” Matsumoto said.

“We won by the tightest margin in the past three years— three points. Before, it was kind of a given that this team could smack them around a bit, but this was truly a battle for every inch.”

Like the E/a match, Interschols was also a nail biter.

And again, it required a strong team effort—not one individual effort—to claim the championship.

“A lot of the time, cross country can seem like an individual sport because everyone is supposedly running their own race, but this win was entirely a team effort,” Li said.

In all of the tough practices, in each close match and in the tight races, the Exeter boys’ cross country team stuck and fought together. This tight bond between the athletes was unbreakable, and that was evident in the undefeated season and the Interschols victory. Even the newcomers, like Betz, felt immediately inserted into the “cult” (as he described it) of PEA boys’ cross country.

“From the first day meeting everyone, every soul sucking wide left, every grueling Scammans workout, all culminating in winning Interschols, it was such a blast to be a part of it. PEA [cross country] is truly unlike any other team on campus. The perfect ending to the perfect team,” he said. “Ache Te Vitu.”​

E4

THE EXONIAN

SPORTS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Fockey Suffers Early in The Season, Recovers For Three-Game Win Streak

By JI WON SUNG Staff Writer

Big Red girls’ field hockey had a tough start to the 2014 season, but picked up the pace in the latter half of the season and recovered from its 0-7 start with three shutout victories against Pingree, Northfield Mount Hermon and Tilton.

The team failed to score during its tough first seven games, but many on the team recall the first goal of the season in the eighth game as the best moment of the season.

“My favorite moment was definitely when we scored our first goal of the season,” lower Abby Yu said.

“That moment was made even better when we scored two more goals and won the game.”

Prep Johna Vandergraf picked the team’s first victory as her favorite moment on the team.

“In our eighth game of the season we scored our first goal, which was then called back as no goal. But we ended up winning 3-0 against Pingree. It was crazy how happy we were in that split second,” Vandergraf said.

Many other members of the team share these memories as their favorites from the season.

A first victory, one which included the team’s first goal, boosted up the girls’ energy and confidence. This was especially necessary after experiencing a number of tough losses that began to effect the team mentally. As the atmostphere at practice became more and more tense, the goal could not have come at a more oportune time.

“It was a culmination of weeks and weeks of frustration because before then, we were always really close to scoring.

Unfortunately, close isn’t good enough,” Yu said.

This year’s team was very new and diverse. There were a lot of new players, as only 8 out of the 18 members on the team were returning players from the previous year. There was a lot of “experimenting,” as Yu would put it, during the beginning of the season with positioning. Many girls had to learn new

skills as some had to change positions and playing styles.

“It took some practice before we found our niches,” Yu said.

Upper Bronwyn shields noted that as a team, it was difficult at the beginning of the season to adjust to different players with different styles and develop a strong team chemistry among such diverse athletes.

“We had some very strong players last year who we relied on a lot. This year was different because we couldn’t just pass the ball to the same people we had been,” Shields said.

However, overcoming these difficulties brought the team’s performance to a whole new level.

“We had to learn more moves and make our stick skills better so all around everyone improved skill wise,” Shields said.

As the season went by, players on the team became more of a family rather than just “teammates,” as most teams turn out to be. Especially for team sports that require a high sense of teamwork, high team spirit is essential.

“Everyone on the team really got to know each other well. That’s one of the things I’m proudest of this season.

I enjoy hanging out with and talking to any girl on that team. We weren’t afraid to help each other out or even just talk to each other. We’re all friends, close friends,” Shields said.

This is one of the team’s best characteristics and one that Shields hopes will continue into next year.

“I also want field hockey to keeps its inclusive characteristics going because I think that field hockey, especially because it’s in the fall, is a great way for new students to meet and connect with returners,” Shields added.

This was due to special activities throughout the season that helped teammates connect with each other.

“The best moment of the season was our Halloween practice where everyone dresses in ridiculous costumes, even our

Luz Lim/The Exonian

Upper Courtney Peyko attacks a Deerfield player. coaches!” Vandergraf said, when reflecting on her first field hockey season.

Adding onto the cheerful, warm atmosphere that the team developed, the team remained calm and rational during the beginning of the season despite the circumstances.

“We never had team drama or trouble. I think something we struggled with at the beginning of the season was

a losing streak, but we pulled ourselves out of it and worked together to win,” Shields said.

Lower Kate Haering also credited each of her teammates for coming together when they really needed it, showing an incredible level of teamwork and dedication.

“We had trouble getting our first win, but we overcame that problem by

See FOCKEY, E8

Football Experiences Down Season, Future Still Bright for Team

By JACK BAKER Contributing Writer

Exeter football turned in a disappointing 2014 season. They finished with a record of 2-­6 . Although the team’s record paints them in a negative light, it doesn’t accurately represent the amount of talent and potential Big Red had. Things just didn’t seem to click this season.

“This year just wasn’t our year,” upper Alex Farley said. “All great football programs go through down years, this was just one of them for us. The year before I came to Exeter (the year before our team went to the league championship), the team went 3­-5.”

Exeter was very strong in many areas of the game.

“Two and six doesn’t really reflect how good our team actually was. There were a lot of games that if one or two plays went our way, we could have easily been at least 4-­4. On the field, our defense stopped the run well due to a lot of experience, and talent in the [defensive] line and linebackers, and our offensive line did a good job of protecting our quarterback,” Farley said.

Losses boiled down to things not going the team’s way offensively and inadequate prevention of deep passes from members of the squad’s secondary.

The hardest part of the season was the team’s 0-4 start, which included several very one-sided games.

“We had a very disappointing start to our season,” upper Billy Baker said, “We had a lot of confidence after a long preseason. We knew we were a talented team.”

The most painful part of the first half of the season was the 14-13 loss at the hands of Loomis Chaffee School. “We played really tough against Loomis and that was a very winnable game for us, but we made a few too many mistakes.

If we had won that game, it could have given us more confidence going into harder games like Suffield and Avon,” Baker said.

Injuries definitely took a toll on this year’s team. Several starters missed

significant time over the course of the season, including: upper JT Thompson, postgraduate Tim Reitzenstein, upper Alex Farley, postgraduate Christian Dumont, senior James Quinn, postgraduate Peter Graves, postgraduate Cecil Williams, senior Kelvin Borges and upper Michael Mancini. Many others played through minor injuries throughout the year.

The team’s promise showed in the games against Cushing and Deerfield.

Against Cushing, the team battled hard, prevented the deep ball on defense and converted crucial offensive plays. The boys’ persistence and heart carried them to a 28­-27 point win. “At the end of the game it was kind of an offensive shootout, but we managed to outscore them,” Farley said.

“In the Deerfield game our offense really began to click,” Farley continued.

“We were more successful in the passing and short run game and our quarterback and best wide receiver hooked up for a few key receptions that resulted in touchdowns.”

Big Red went on to beat Deerfield 25­-20 at home. These games reflected Exeter’s hunger and desire to beat out its opponent.

Against both Andover and Loomis Chaffee, Exeter only lost by one point.

“The team that made less small mistakes won the game,” postgraduate Alex Hamilton said about the Andover game.

As mentioned, Big Red suffered a painful loss to Big Blue this year. While the loss stung, the players like to remember the atmosphere at their biggest game of the year. “It’s something you look forward to all year, through the hot August practices and sore legs of preseason, it’s what we work for. The crowd was awesome. I was really happy with the support we got from the students at every home game as well. The support is awesome, knowing that people are behind you even after a tough loss means the world. The E/a atmosphere is unlike any other, and it will remain a huge part of my Exeter

Rachel Luo/The Exonian

Postgraduate Tim Reitzenstein punts the ball down the field. experience,” upper Jeff MacArthur said.

In practice and on the field, an idea of unity and togetherness was stressed.

“A big saying of ours was ‘Are we together?’ We kept this idea of togetherness with us even when things weren’t going our way, and we weren’t winning. It made winning all the better,” Hamilton said.

On Sundays the team would come together to watch and analyze tape from the previous games. “In these sessions we would identify what we were doing right and wrong,” Hamilton said. These tape sessions brought the team together and helped them sort out issues they had

been having.

Farley also commented on the team’s unity.

“As a team, we definitely bonded off the field. We were close knit, liked each other [and] we were a family.”

Other players of the team agreed that the team’s unity played a crucial role in their victories during the season.

Upper Joey Rothstein, in particular, echoed Farley’s sentiments.

“Even though some things didn’t go our way, I wouldn’t change any one of those guys for anyone else. I didn’t get a championship, but I got a lot of good, genuine and loyal friends. And I would

See FOOTBALL, E6

THE EXONIAN

SPORTS

E5

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Outside the Bubble: Three Defining Moments for Sports in the 2014-15 Year Compiled by the Editors

NFL Domestic Violence When you think drama, you probably think about TV networks or celebrity gossip. One of the last things that crosses your mind is sports, especially football. This year, however, it was a much different story. The NFL’s reputation was marred by scandals for the entirety of the 2014-15 season.

Last July, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was charged with the crucial task of shaping NFL precedent in infractions related to player-committed domestic violence. Pressure for policy overhaul mounted after former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was arrested for beating his then-fiancee (now wife) in the elevator of an Atlantic City casino. Goodell, however, failed to set a model worth emulating.

Though paltry legal ramifications resulted from the assault, the NFL nonetheless was well-positioned to sanction internal penalties against Rice with potentially far-reaching career implications. Instead, after months of deliberation, Goodell averted public comment and hit Rice with a marshmallow: a meager two game suspension. Other players who had been caught using marijuana suffered the same petty suspension, meaning that

the NFL considers marijuana usage to be as serious as beating ones wife.

Furthermore, the Baltimore Ravnes—the team for which rice plays—said that they would address the criminal accusations, but only after their Sunday trip to Cleveland to play against the Browns.

Goodell faced sharp public censure for his leniency and vehemently denied having access to the security tape of Rice’s assault that TMZ subsequently released. Upon the video’s public issue, the NFL suspended Rice indefinitely, which did little to reestablish Goodell’s credibility. Upon later investigation, it was revealed that the NFL, and Goodell, had already receive a detailed description of the video and chose to ignore it.

The NFL suffered another publicity blow last September when Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson was indicted on charges of child negligence stemming from his use of a rod to physically beat his son. Reminiscent of the Rice case, the Vikings and NFL failed to penalize Peterson until details of the case publicly emerged, upon which the Vikings suspended him for the remainder of the season.

Ray Rice sits uncomfortably at a press conference.

Courtesy of Google Images

MadBum’s Playoff Gems

Courtesy of Google Images

Buster Posey (left) and Madison Bumgarner (right) celebrate a World Series win.

Last fall, the San Francisco Giants won their third World Series this decade, a landmark accomplishment that hinged heavily on the contributions of pitcher Madison Bumgarner.

After an All-Star regular season campaign with a 18-10 record, 2.98 ERA and 219 strikeouts in 217.1 innings, Bumgarner finished fourth in the NL Cy Young award vote.

Needless to say, expectations were high for "MadBum" heading into the postseason.

The Giants’ first game in the postseason lineup was a battle against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Steel City.

Bumgarner pitched a complete game shutout. He struck out twice as many batters (10) as managed to reach base (5); the victory propelled the team to the divisional round where it then faced the Washington Nationals, the top regular season team in entire National League after winning 96 games.

In his isolated loss of the 2014 postseason, MadBum allowed two Nationals players to cross home plate over the seven innings he threw. Despite the loss, the Giants advanced to the National League Champion Series

(NLCS) where they faced defending National League (NL) champion, the St. Louis Cardinals.

Bumgarner threw two gems in the Series. He secured a game one victory with seven and two-thirds shutout innings and struck out seven Cardinals. In game five, he surrendered only three runs in the Series, clinching another win for the Giants, who progressed to face the American League (AL) champion, the Kansas City Royals.

Pitching in the first 2014 World Series game on a full four days rest, Bumgarner picked up the dub and struck out as many batters (5) as reached first base (5). In game five, Bumgarner fired a complete game shutout against Kansas City.

But his most notable postseason p e r f o r m a n c e a rg u a b l y c a m e d u ring game seven with a five inning save that cemented a World Series win. Bumgamer brought the hardware home for the Giants and, along with his infamous beer chugging, Bumgamer ’s pitching brilliance is surely headed straight for playoff record books.

The Decision: Part II The most significant news in the NBA this year surprisingly happened outside the regular season. LeBron James’ abrupt offseason decision to rejoin the Cleveland Cavaliers, his first professional team, surprised many in the nation and prevailed across newspaper headlines.

The Cavaliers picked him first overall in the 2003 draft, and after leading the Cavaliers to five postseason and one finals appearance during his original seven-year tenure, James diverted his talents to the crystal waters of South Beach—the Miami Heat.

The transfer alienated James from many faithful Cleveland fans, some of whom went to the extremes of burning his jerseys and tearing down billboards with his picture. Ardent public outcry did little to unsettle James, whose considerable success with the Heat, which included two title wins, further estranged him from disillusioned hometown fans.

Still, when James announced his return to the Cavaliers in a Sports Illustrated article entitled I’m Coming Home, Cleveland welcomed him back with arms wide open. The open letter described a personal attachment to

Northeastern Ohio and a strong desire to lead Cleveland to its first championship in any sport in 66 years.

Upon returning home, James manipulated Cleveland’s first round picks, persuading the Cavaliers into trading first round picks Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett and veteran Thaddeus Young to the Minnesota Timberwolves for star power forward Kevin Love. He also convinced the Cavs to sign former teammates Mike Miller and James Jones.

So far, James has earnestly tried to bring home a championship banner to the Quicken Loans Arena. James finished third in the MVP voting after a season in which he averaged 25.3 points, 7.4 assists and 6.0 rebounds per game. While the Cavs struggled early on, they came into form mid-season and earned second seed on the Eastern Conference.

The Cavs swept the seventh seeded Boston Celtics 4-0 in the first round of the NBA playoffs, and clutched a more closely contested 4-2 victory against the third seeded Chicago Bulls.

The Cavs now hope to beat the first seeded Atlanta in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Courtesy of Google Images

LeBron James throws down a vicious dunk against the Pelicans.

E6

THE EXONIAN

SPORTS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Male Athlete of the Year: Holden Hammontree

By PHILIP KUHN Staff Writer

Not many Exonians can boast that they went undefeated for four years in a sport, that they were a tri-varsity captain their senior year and that they ran a 4:48 mile as just a lower. In fact, four year senior Holden Hammontree is likely the only one who can boast of these facts and possesses charisma, humor and dilligence, as well as say he left a mark and legacy at Exeter as he graduates this year.

Hammontree’s career in running began in seventh grade. His middle school did not have a cross country team, so his mom instead signed him up for a high school team on which he competed for two years. While adjusting to a team of older, unfamiliar faces was tough at first, he soon discovered his passion for running after a “monstrous” season in 8th grade.

However, after graduating from middle school, things only got tougher. At his old school, the culture felt laid back. At Exeter, Hammontree found the opposite. His teammates were eager to train hard and breed championships and the workouts were long and tough. Yet Hammontree’s competitive attitude allowed him to embrace this new culture as he sought to improve. He now runs cross-country, winter track and spring track each year.

“Everyone was nuts about putting in work here,” he said. “I loved that and honestly took it a little bit too far my prep year. But it was just new training, and I embraced it wholeheartedly.”

Hammontree’s strong work ethic continued throughout his four years of Exeter running. According to senior and teammate Kenny Berger, Hammontree has a “winning mentality” that carries past games and practices and seeps into all areas of his life. Berger described this mentality, as well as how Hammontree fosters it.

“Everything he does is for the team,” Berger said. “He wants to win. He sleeps like an athlete.

He eats like an athlete. He practices like an athlete.

But his constant preparation pays off in the games where he always excels.”

Senior Will Li agreed with Berger. According to Li, every summer the team keeps training logs to track their work and shares them with their teammates. Holden’s log is always long, etched with high numbers of mileage and intense workouts. Li has seen this drive in Hammontree during the four years they have run together and has been inspired by it to push himself harder.

Similarly to Hammontree’s work ethic, his great pride and confidence each year have served as a moral booster for his teams. Sports have always been a “pride element” in his life as well as a “confidence booster,” especially when he was younger.

While they sometimes can get “crazy hard,” Hammontree contributes a large part of his character to the different sports he has played.

It was at Exeter that sports had the biggest impact on Hammontree’s life. During his first cross country season, Hammontree struggled with his body. He put himself through continuous workouts, and consequently “over-trained.” During the Exeter-Andover match at the end of the season, he experienced a dip in his performances, followed by a cut from interschols.

This put Hammontree down for a while, but through the encouragement of teammates and older mentors he pushed through and ran a varsity-level time at JV interschols. According to him, there were multiple students both on and off the field who “took him under their wing.” He wanted to thank these students for teaching him how to come back fighting as well as how to lead a group.

“There are so many natural leaders around campus, and I have definitely taken a piece or two from each one of them,” Hammontree said. “This place solidified my confidence in both my running skills and my ability to lead.”

Li described Hammontree’s continuous support and care for the different running teams as one of the biggest reasons for their recent success. According to Li, he “dreams really big.”

Hammontree’s high expectations, as well as his continued success, encouraged team members to work hard and believe in themselves, resulting in a stronger team.

Indeed, many of Hammontree’s teammates define him as a strong leader and friend. He not only

knows how to teach his teammates ways to cut their mile time, he also prioritizes their happiness on the team and works hard to foster a close environment for his squads.

“Our cross country team is like a fraternity, a brotherhood of guys,” upper Soren BlomquistEggerling said.

“Holden is the guy who is always getting us all onto certain jokes and setting the tenor for the group. People look up to him for that reason.”

Upper Tom Appleton agreed with BlomquistEggerling. He described Hammontree’s personality as a perfect balance between “being goofy and acting as a serious captain.”

“He has this great blend of humour and leadership qualities,” Appleton said. “As a teammate, I have never really seen him get angry at someone or be down in the dumps. He is always positive and always there for anything you really need.”

For Hammontree, his three running teams have always provided a strong group of friends who he can fall back on during stressful times. Cross country, winter track and spring track all share the same core group of people. He described the group and what makes them such a unique crowd.

“We are a jokester team,” he said. “Not only do we run faster than groups have in the past, we just have a better time. Some describe our relationship as if we were in a dorm, but I like to think that it’s been taken a little bit to the next level.”

This year, Hammontree has been especially impressed by the chemistry of the teams, especially in track. According to him, track meets are different because they include seventeen vastly different events. He described the bus trips like having a football, soccer, and baseball team all on one bus.

While some years this extensive diversity has kept a separation between parts of the team, this year the team has become a strong group, making them much more fun to compete with.

According to Hammontree’s teammates, he is an essential part of this team chemistry, especially

Tom Appleton/The Exonian

when it comes to including the new kids. Postgraduate Francis Betz was worried he would be looked at differently than the rest of the seniors, but Betz quickly found himself a home on the cross country team, and Hammontree was on the of the main guys that made sure he felt like he truly fit in.

“I couldn’t imagine anyone on the team not liking Holden,” Betz said.

“He was always someone trying to make everyone else feel good. He is always thinking about other people,” he added.

Even as a senior this year, Hammontree was still looking ahead to the future of the team in an effort to be a good friend, as well as to foster a successful mentality in all of the future running stars.

“He is always looking ahead to the future,” Appleton said.

“Even though he is graduating, in terms of new guys on the team, I felt he was just as accepting and encouraging as prior years.”

Students around campus will be sad to see him leaving Exeter now. Li wanted to thank Hammontree for all of the memories he has provided him, and for being such an “integral part of [his] Exeter experience.”

“I would like to thank him as a person and as a friend for being that guy who makes me laugh and will kiss me on the cheek out of no where,” Li said.

Li continued. “I am going to miss him next fall when we leave Exeter.”

Hammontree was also sad to say goodbye to all of the teammates and coaches that have made up such an important part of his life for the past four years. Without them, his Exeter experience would have been completely different.

“I am really going to miss my teams,” Hammontree said. “The kids, they are just hilarious. I really can’t imagine that there are too many more fun guys out there. I am so glad I got to spend time with all, and even though most of them will only be a phone call away, it won’t be quite the same.”

Young Squad Experiences Growing continued from FOOTBALL, E4

Rachel Luo/The Exonian

Postgraduate Keaton Dunsford throws a tight spiral.

take that over a winning season anyday,” Rothstein said.

Looking forward to next season, the team has a lot to prove.

“The team’s future looks really promising. This coming year, my senior year, we will be returning to campus in August with a lot of great talent. After this year, all the returners will come back hungry and humble and ready to make an impact on the league,” Farley said, looking ahead to next season.

Farley expected that this strong, positive attitude will rub off on all of the new guys coming in for next season.

“A lot of the returning seniors, including myself, have been through the entire Exeter program: from JV, to minimal playing time, to starting. We have something to prove,” Farley said.

“We, as a team, need to show we can’t be defined by one down year. We need to prove that we’re still one of the best football programs in New England.

From what I can tell, we will have a great shot at proving our worth as a team, and more,” Farley added.

He emphasized that the team should not dwell on this one off year, but rather look at it as a learning

experience. This one off season does not represent the amount of talent and desire the team had.

Next season the captains of the team will be rising seniors Jeff MacArthur, Alex Farley, JT Thompson and Billy Baker.

“The rising seniors are a bunch of [great] dudes.

They have the talent and the intangibles,” postgraduate Peter Graves. Next year’s captain Baker is excited about the upcoming season.

“We have a great group of returning players, and I think, with the addition of the postgraduates, we can do very well next year,” Baker said.

Next year’s team is clearly up for the challenge, as senior and co-captain Brendan Rosseau said, “I feel confident about the team’s outlook for next year.

I feel that we’ve left our team in very capable hands.”

Rosseau continued. “The guys that are coming back next year are a determined group. A lot of guys have been working hard over the offseason so far.

I’ll be very interested to see how the team turns out next year.”

Big Red football has a lot to prove next season as it looks to reestablish itself as a powerhouse in the conference, but with a big group of returners, they seem to have what it takes.

SPORTS

THE EXONIAN

E7

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

G irls ’ S occer C rippled by I njuries , M issing A S coring T ouch T hroughout the S eason

By JAMIE CASSIDY Contributing Writer

Girls’ varsity soccer struggled this past fall due to the league’s current strength, which the league demonstrates game after game. The team failed to achieve the winning season for which it hoped, and many were disappointed with the season’s outcome of 2-15-1. Nonetheless, this team will be a stand out threat next season when taking on New England prep schools. The team only graduated four seniors in the 2014 season. The departures of starting goalkeeper Abby Scheetz and midfielder Maddie Duncan will be the most substantial losses, but the team has strong replacements in lowers Veronica Galimberti and Hannah Gustafson, respectively. Despite these losses, most of the team’s key contributors, including all three upper captains, will return next year seeking redemption.

Such motivation will hopefully drive the girls to achieve a winning record and possibly a championship. Lower Margaret Coogan said, “I think the team will really need to come together and focus at prep camp in order to improve for the upcoming year. It's important for us to strive for redemption from last season. We already have that reason to go into the season wanting wins.”

Upper and captain Jacie Lemos believes that the team will be much more competitive next year. She is also confident that Exeter will beat Andover due to the team’s ability to improve and its adaptability, especially after the struggles it faced this season.

Coogan continued, “Jacie Lemos and Charlotte Dillon were two of our captains who were key contributors. I don’t think there were any moments when they weren’t working hard on or off the field.

Their determination continued to inspire me to be a better player every day.”

Upper and captain Michaela Streep, who was sidelined for the season with a concussion, said of the team’s work ethic, “Every day everyone showed up and put in 110 percent, which is always admirable, but what made it so amazing was that despite our poor record, they kept working just as hard.

Nobody threw their hands up and gave up. That’s rare to see when a team isn’t having its best season.”

Lemos believes that, “With all the injuries and losses and struggles we went through, many teams would have fallen apart, but we were strong and we grew as a team and as individuals. That says a lot about us and our motivation.”

If Coogan’s, Streep’s and Lemos’s statements hold true, Exeter looks to field a potent, improving and mentally tough squad moving forward. The team is determined to succeed and the girls are optimistic about next year, especially when considering the experience gained this season and the potential for improvement still to come during prep camp this summer.

Nonetheless, the team has goals to work on before next season. Gustafson believes that the team can improve on communicating in games, and Coogan thinks that team chemistry can always be better. There is no doubt that this group consists of many strong-willed girls that do not take no for an answer. This team has every reason to do well next year as it is compiled of talented, motivated athletes who will have had plenty of experience playing with each other.

Tom AppletonThe Exonian

Lower Aden Choate boots the ball downfield.

The girls suffered a slow start to the season, losing to strong teams such as Brooks and Choate.

The upsetting start for the team was largely due to injuries that started to seem like a regular occurrence. Gustafson, an important piece to the girls’ squad, was out for the first half of the season because of a fractured back. However, when the team was healthy, the group’s potential was truly on display, and they put on some promising performances.

When looking back on the season, Coogan recounted Kimball Union as one of the highlights.

“One of the most memorable moments was when we beat KUA at their place. Hannah Gustafson was a really key player during that game. She had been injured for the majority of the season before that game, and it was really nice to have her back on the field. Playing with her during the games that she was able to play in was extremely memorable; we have really great chemistry.”

Although this big win and Gustafson’s return to the game seemed to be a stepping stone that would break the teams’ losing streak, the hopes for a strong second half were lost as star captain Jacie Lemos tore her ACL approaching the end of the season. Potential wins turned to close losses such as the loss against Brewster Academy by one goal following KUA. Gustafson believes that illness was a common struggle to overcome due to the cold conditions in the season. Coogan agreed, saying, “Those [injuries] were tough, but I think they made our team stronger as a whole. We need to work on staying healthy in the upcoming season.” One can only hope that health will be on the girls’ side for next season, as

it can certainly influence the outcomes of the team’s performance.

When looking at how the team will be able to perform at its best for next season, Gustafson stated, “We didn’t really prepare for games differently.

However, I think we should have done this given that we know most of the people on each team and how they play.”

Given this knowledge from an experienced group, the team may be able to enhance its performance based on more in-depth studies of other teams and how they play. Gustafson also believes that the girls can work harder in practice and the improvement of basic knowledge of the game will improve their season next fall.

In addition, Coogan said the team can improve by “work[ing] on chemistry on the field and putting balls in the net. In other words, we don’t have too much trouble moving the ball around the field; it's just putting it in the net.”

Soxie has a lot of good things going for them headed into next season. The team will have an older group of athletes, most key players are returning and this past season has made them stronger and truly tested the team as players continued to grow instead of falling apart. Now the team just needs to focus on stronger preparation for games and capitalizing on offensive opportunities.

Exeter has the potential for a much better season next year. Although girls’ soccer will undoubtedly miss their graduated seniors, the excitement of a potentially bright future will continue to motivate the team when training over the summer for a possible redemption of this difficult season.

Rachel Luo/The Exonian

Jena Yun/The Exonian

Prep Jennifer Zecena steals the ball from an opponent.

Lower Margaret Coogan strikes a corner kick into the box.

Senior Abby Scheetz dropkicks the ball.

Jena Yun/The Exonian

Luz Lim/The Exonian

Lower Hannah Gustafson gets ready to pass the ball to a teammate.

E8

THE EXONIAN

SPORTS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Female Athlete of the Year: Marley Jenkins

By MELISSA LU Staff Writer

If you’re watching a girls’ varsity field hockey, ice hockey or lacrosse game, you can always pick out senior Marley Jenkins as she gracefully maneuvers on the ice and pockets a goal in the blink of an eye, or as she outsprints and jukes all the opposing team’s defenders for a quick pass to a teammate, who shoots and scores a goal Jenkins could’ve finished herself.

Jenkins has been a tri-varsity athlete since her prep year. She has been the captain of the lacrosse team both her upper and senior year. While lacrosse is Jenkins’ main sport, her prolific athleticism is always on display as she also excelled in her other two sports and acted as captain for both teams during her senior year.

Over the past year, Jenkins has smoothly transitioned into the leadership role for her three teams. The key to Jenkins’ success, according to many, is the elegance and composure with which she leads her teams to victory with. She is the heartbeat of her teams, as she sets the pulse and motivates others with her consistent drive and passion. As upper Allegra Grant said, “[Jenkins] is a great leader who leads by example.”

Jenkins was voted the most valuable player (MVP) of lacrosse her upper year, the MVP of field hockey senior fall, and shared MVP with Grant in ice hockey senior winter. A big part of her successes in all her sports teams has been her sheer dynamic physical ability to play the sports. With her quick and skilled movements, Jenkins often easily controls the plays and games and leaves opponents no choice but to scramble to catch up. As younger brother and lower Jack Jenkins said, “She sets the pace of the game, especially in lacrosse, and always dictates the tempo.”

Another part of Jenkins’ success has been her astute intelligence on the field and ice. Jenkins plays smart with her eyes wide open, her brain constantly on the run. She sees the openings and capitalizes on them.

Girls’ varsity ice hockey coach Melissa Pacific said that while ice hockey is not Jenkins’ main sport, Jenkins’ far from slacks on the job, making up for the few physical skills she lacks with her sharp intelligence. Pacific explained that the “physical play” of the game ice hockey, contrary to common belief, is only a small part of the sport, and because of that, Jenkins’ high “hockey IQ” and ability to lead has made her a stronger overall player than many of those whose physical and technical stick skills outmatch hers.

To others, Jenkins is successful as a leader because she is not only an incredible force on the field and ice herself, but also one who can see the bigger picture—the team. Jenkins is both encouraging and selfless and inspires all of her teammatess to work harder and play tougher. “She is a very dominating presence on the field but is far from being a ball hog. Her first priority is teamwork and team play, which is why I think she is so successful,” Jack Jenkins said.

Pacific agreed with Jack, adding that Marley is a leader that “always puts her teams above herself.” Pacific also praised Jenkins’ composure and pure desire for the team to succeed. Whether it be on the ice or on the bench, where one can find Jenkins cheering from the sideline, Jenkins is always a great sport, and her positivity is what makes Jenkins such an amazing player and leader in Pacific’s eyes.

English instructor and lacrosse coach Christina Breen also spoke highly of Jenkins’ role on the lacrosse team.

Breen praised Jenkins’ character and leadership qualities.

“She knows how to be there for younger players and to show them the meaning of sport and competition and sportsmanship," she said.

“She knows her role and she never complains or becomes upset if her ‘number’ isn’t called. She is able to see the whole picture, something that many athletes at this age have a hard time seeing and understanding. This is what enables her to be an outstanding captain,” Pacific said.

On the ice hockey team, Jenkins has played defense for three years, during which according to Pacific, Jenkins has become the “backbone of the blue-line.” This year, however, the team needed some of their defense to play forward. Pacific recalled that Jenkins, to no surprise, was the first to volunteer.

Jenkins is always ready to take one for the team. On offense, Jenkins remained a powerful proponent of the team, impressing all with a combined total of 21 points with senior and three-year defensive partner, Az Nalbandian, who had also moved to the frontline from defense.

As a result, in Pacific’s opinion, Jenkins’ maturity and humility are her greatest strengths. “[She has the] ability to put everything in perspective, even in the most unimaginable times. Ask the coaching staff or any of her current teammates, they will tell you that she is inspirational,” she said.

Jenkins’ wise perspective and humility is illustrated in her very own words, as she herself stresses that a big part of being a leader is being a teammate, an equal, who should readily receive criticism like all the other players. As a prep, Jenkins recalled “idolizing” her senior captains. She assumed they knew everything and couldn’t make mistakes and she wanted to be that kind of leader for the younger players this year.

As a leader, Jenkins said, “you have to be able to set a good

Tom Appleton/The Exonian

example and be ready to take charge, but just as importantly be ready to receive support and advice from your teammates.”

Jenkins always remains true to her words. Breen said “She’s incredibly easy to coach because she is open to feedback, does not feel that she has already learned everything there is to learn about lacrosse and genuinely wants to improve.”

But, perhaps, greater than any of her other traits as an athlete, Jenkins’ passion and genuine love for sports has made her such a successful athlete. Since she was young, Jenkins was always on the move. She couldn’t stand being “cooped up” and, naturally, she was a competitive person in all aspects of life. Her parents were also both very athletic and always encouraged Jenkins to try out any sport she wanted. As a result, Jenkins quickly found her calling.

Throughout her childhood, Jenkins played a number of sports including ice hockey, field hockey and lacrosse as well as baseball, basketball, soccer, cross country and track. Jenkins never let an obstacle against her age or gender stop her from playing the sports she loved. Jenkins started playing lacrosse on the fifth grade team as a second grader and field hockey for the middle school team as a fifth grader. Jenkins’ was inspired in these two sports by her mother, who played both of those sports in college and would often accompany Jenkins in the backyard for a pass or coaching. With the encouragement of her father, Jenkins began skating when she was four and began playing ice hockey at the age of six on the boys hockey team.

Jenkins has loved every minute of playing since the first time she stepped on the field and ice. “It never feels like work to go to practice or to lift weights in the gym, which is why I am so motivated to practice and get better,” she said. “I’m always motivated to work harder and get better because I am competitive with myself and I genuinely enjoy the work I put into athletics.”

Jenkins added that sports aren’t just another two blocks in one’s schedule, but a passion as well as a unique and fun activity where people make life-long bonds and learn about not just the sport, but also about themselves and life. “Sports give me something to look forward to every day, and they give me something I can constantly be working to improve on. The friends I’ve made and lessons I’ve learned on the field and rink can’t be recreated anywhere else.”

Being a part of the athletic environment of Exeter’s sports teams, Jenkins has learned numerous lessons. These lessons have improved Jenkins as an athlete as well as a person. Sports have helped shape Jenkins into the athlete and person she is today: one with conviction, passion and heart.

According to Jenkins, before coming to Exeter, the only times she practiced her sports were when she was at practice or

just playing around aimlessly at her house. Coming to Exeter, however, Jenkins said.

“My eyes were opened to the world of athletics where people put in countless hours outside of practice time to get better, faster and stronger. Over the years at Exeter, I’ve been motivated by my peers and coaches to work harder outside of practice to improve overall as an athlete, which has been an invaluable lesson to learn.”

In addition, from playing sports throughout her entire life, Jenkins said that she has learned how to balance her time between athletics, schoolwork and daily life. Athletics have taught her a discipline that she uses in her daily life, and that is, “how to make time for what is important without giving [herself] excuses” such as waking up early to get a workout in or going to play wall ball every day. This discipline has also reflected in Jenkins’ academics. Jenkins never excuses herself from her work, no matter how tiring or busy the day was. She always finds time to complete her workload.

Furthermore, playing three team sports, Jenkins has learned how to work well with others and how to resolve issues. Jenkins stressed the importance of teammates working together seamlessly and selflessly. To Jenkins, this sentiment parralels real life: to succeed, a group must learn to compromise and to appreciate and respect each other.

Exeter will truly miss Jenkins when she departs this June.

Over the past four years, all of her sports teams have depended on her. For Pacific, Jenkins is a special athlete, the kind that only comes around once a decade maybe. Jenkins is “one that will go down in the history books” in Pacific’s heart.

Breen too will miss Jenkins on the lacrosse field.

“I don’t want to think about coaching this team without Marley. Her smile, her drive, her grit, her willingness to stay late and come early, her willingness to help a teammate in need, her incredible character are all going to be missed,” Breen said.

For years to come, Jenkins will be remembered at the Academy and used as an example for future Exonian athletes.

In the fall, Jenkins will be starting the next chapter of her life at Harvard University, where she has been committed to for lacrosse since the summer of lower year. Undoubtedly, Jenkins will have an immediate impact on Harvard’s sports team. As Pacific said, the Academy wishes Jenkins, “Best of luck, kiddo.”

“I’ve absolutely loved my time here at Exeter and my favorite parts have been my sports teams,” Jenkins said.

“Many of my best friends are both my teammates and coaches.

Exeter athletics have shaped me as an athlete and as a person, and I will never forget the lessons I’ve learned and people I’ve met here.”

Field Hockey Picks Up as Term Progresses, Hopes a Better Season continued from FOCKEY, E4

Luz Lim/The Exonian

Upper Courtney Peyko fights off a Deerfield player.

working together as a team rather than playing as individuals,” Haering said.

Vandergraf also spoke highly of the way the lowerclassmen and the upperclassmen cooperated during the course of the year.

She noted that it was difficult at first for the new members and old members to get along, but going through a lot together has made them bond tightly as a team.

“The team was very hardworking and supportive, every time we did fitness on the field the older girls would cheer on everyone, and by the end of the season even the younger girls were cheering during events,” she said.

During the season, the team went through harsh training and conditioning for constant improvement.

“After the first few games our coaches began focusing on competitive scoring drills in our practices,” Vandergraf added.

The team members all hoped that next season will be better than this one. It will be tough, for the team is losing some of its key players such as captains Marley Jenkins and Carly Perreault as well as seniors Kimberly Dawes, Morgan McKiernan, Erin McSally and Annie Messuri. This will force the team to prepare mentally for next season so that they can make a smooth transition.

“I hope we'll be better prepared when the season starts, having learned from our rough start last season,” Haering said.

Shields also anticipated next season, which will be her last season on the team, but also has mixed feelings about it.

“I want field hockey to come quickly but at the same time I don't. It’ll be my last time picking up my stick for Phillips Exeter and that makes me sad. Next season I want everyone to grow, as a person and player, and I hope the team knows that,” Shields said.

SPORTS

THE EXONIAN

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

E9

W ater P olo T hrives W ith Y oung T eam after Losing Key Seniors, Places Third at Interschols

By CHRISTINE HU Staff Writer

Despite graduating seven seniors from last year’s roster, boys’ water polo enjoyed another successful season this past fall. Big Red finished with a 12-6 record for the second year in a row and took third place at the NEPSAC Water Polo Championships. Although they didn’t manage to match their runner-up finish at last year’s New England Championships, the season was by no means a disappointment. Led by seniors and co-captains Conrad Diao and Brooks Saltonstall, the relatively young team finished the year with a slew of impressive wins, winning seven of their games by a margin of more than 10 goals.

Coach Don Mills explained the boys’ mindset going into the season, pinpointing two primary goals of the team. “There were two main points of focus going into the season. First was to come together as a group.

Second was to play relentless defense at all times,” Mills said. The boys seem to have accomplished these two main objectives, largely due to solid leadership from the two captains and hard work from all members of the team.

Achieving this success was no easy task, however. The boys knew it was going be difficult to fill the gaps left by the previous year’s seniors, of which there were seven. “It was going to be much harder this year than it was the previous year. Losing that many seniors meant losing a large part of the team,” upper Ernesto Brown said. The substantial graduating class posed a challenge, especially for a sport like water polo, where having a solid team chemistry is crucial to performing well.

One key player that graduated last year was Nick DuPont ‘14, the previous season’s co-captain and MVP. For current seniors like Saltonstall, the pressure was on to continue the team’s tradition of excellence.

“It was hard for me to lead this team initially. I felt as though I wasn’t good enough for the guys at all, especially when I expected myself to fill the shoes of Nick DuPont,” Saltonstall said.

However, the boys managed to rise above their doubts to win their first three games against Suffield, Hotchkiss and Andover. The team cruised to overwhelming victories in these season openers, demolishing Hotchkiss by 15 goals and crushing Andover 16-5 only four days later. Brown acknowledged the boost in morale that followed the opening victories.

“We started winning a lot of games, and we didn’t really stop, which was a huge confidence boost for the team,” he said.

These landslide wins were just the beginning for Big Red as they were only the first of many blowout games to come later in the season. There was the 20-6 victory over Williston Northampton School, which was the final game in a day-long tournament at Deerfield Academy. There were the two games played against St. John’s Prep, where the boys won 20-5 and 20-1. To top it all off, the boys pulled off two enormous wins at home, with a 18-6 victory over Choate and a 17-3 win over Loomis Chaffee.

Senior Erick Friis credited the impressive wins to the team’s smart play. “The A Team really stepped up their game in the last minute or two of the blow-out games. Our shots, strategy, passes and defense made the difference between big wins, bigger wins or smaller wins. In particular, [lower] Joel Lotzkar’s plays had a significant impact,” he said.

Stevem Kim/The Exonian

Senior Prin Harinsuta leaps to get a shot off over a defender.

Senior Morgan Burrell echoed this sentiment, recalling a key play that contributed to one of the big wins. “Andrew [Eigner] and I had [some] pretty sweet pass[es] to each other at the end of the Choate game,” he said.

Also contributing to the successful season was a positive shift in the team’s atmosphere from the previous year. The boys were able to come together as a team to work toward a common goal. “There was no sense of division between players. I felt like we all interacted with each other well and everyone was approachable,” upper David Shepley said. Their camaraderie was evident in their winning record.

Although the team experienced a lot of success, they made sure to stay humble and focused throughout the season. “Our captain Brooks kept our egos in check by telling us to not be complacent and to look forward to the next game like it was going to be the hardest game we have ever played,” Brown said. Thanks to this present-minded attitude, the team was able to consistently win games and bounce back from losses.

While the boys gave credit to Saltonstall for keeping the team focused, Saltonstall said that the team was what motivated him to be a great leader. “A lot of guys stepped up this year and improved their skills. I got my drive this year from the team. I wanted to be able

to lead the guys, and in order to do that, I had to get better myself,” he said. Fittingly, Saltonstall was crowned this year’s MVP. Ultimately, the mutual respect between the team and the captains helped Big Red match their previous season’s record and finish on the podium at the New England Water Polo Championships.

This, in combination with an unbreakable willingness to work hard, led the team to a successful season. “This year’s team had the qualities of positive attitudes and a certain level of toughness.

They always pushed themselves to be better,” Mills said. The team proved that they had the depth and determination to continue their success, even after graduating a third of their team.

It looks like the boys will have to accomplish the same feat next season, as another seven seniors will be moving on this year. With a strong group of uppers, lowers and preps that will work hard to fill in the gaps, their prospects look favorable.

“We have a great combination coming back for next year. There is a solid group of rising seniors along with a talented group of rising lowers,” Mills said. The boys will look to extend their success to the coming seasons and continue Exeter’s tradition of water polo excellence.

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Senior Michael Tuchler rises to get off a shot.

Lower Johnathan Lee attacks a ball carrier.

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Jonathan Ye/The Exonian

Senior Brooks Saltonstall prepares to fire a shot on goal.

Lower Liam Oakley passes around a defender.

E10

THE EXONIAN

SPORTS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Coach of the Year: David Hudson

By MARIE LEIGHTON MCCALL and LAUREN MAGUIRE Contributing Writers

“I am the proudest daughter to have such an amazing role model and dad in my life,” upper Hailey Hudson said in reference to her father, coach David Hudson, Phillips Exeter Academy's Coach of the Year.

Hudson, a former Director of Athletics for the Academy, started coaching Exeter’s football and wrestling teams in 1982 and has achieved much coaching success, including numerous Class A Championships and New England Championships.

This year, the wrestling team won Class As, the New England Championships, and placed in the top ten at Prep School Nationals.

Hudson shows his dedication, discipline and passion for what he does for his team each and every day. Every wrestler approached with questions about him and his coaching replied with much gusto, respect and admiration for their coach.

“Hudson was an awesome guy and pushed us to give it everything,” upper and wrestler Stephen Cerrone said.

“He was the kind of coach that you would want to work your hardest for.”

Prep Kevin Lyskawa echoed this sentiment, “I believe that he worked us, the team, very hard. He pushed us to go further than what we wanted or what we could do.”

Hudson’s coaching tactic certainly proved to work well, as the wrestlers excelled on the wrestling mat, expanding their boundaries and achieving more than they anticipated.

And while some might think that this coaching method would be too harsh or demanding, the players disagree. Hudson is very much respected by all of his players, and many look to him as a role model.

“This past season, he was very influential in each of the individual successes our team had,” lower and wrestler Quinn Abrams said. “He is also a great role model for everyone, and he is a very disciplined guy.”

Senior and wrestler Prin Harinsuta went so far as to jokingly say, “Even his mustache commands respect.”

No one was surprised that this accolade was being given to their coach, and all agreed that it was much deserved.

Throughout the season, Hudson also fostered an environment of wrestlers who are more than just athletes. He cares about the members of his team and tries to mentor and guide them into being holistic members of the PEA community.

“He always employs his discipline in his wrestlers, whether it’s about staying mentally tough, eating correctly, training rigorously or keeping good grades in your classes,” Abrams said. “He makes sure that we perform well both as athletes and as students.”

This idea of the wrestlers as more than just athletes goes beyond just their health and their schoolwork.

While Hudson wants to all of his wrestler to be healthy, strong and hardworking students, he also sees the team as a family and treats them as such.

One example of this team-cum-family mentality is shown by Hudson's decision to not choose team captains this year. Instead of designating a couple of individuals to be leaders, Hudson wanted the team to lead each other and grow together.

Lyskawa said that Hudson looked beyond an individual’s performance.

“He liked to think of us all as a family and not two or three kids more dominant over the others,” he said.

Lyskawa added, “Of course there were kids that were better than others and had better leadership skills.”

But, he continued, because there were no team captains, everyone on the team became and felt like an equal member.

Even people who are not part of the wrestling team can see the care and dedication that Hudson has for his players.

“His athletes are like his own kids, and he will do anything for them to help them succeed,” Hailey Hudson said. “Everything he does is for the greater good of the team, and his ability to recognize what the team needs is very important.”

She had much to say about how he has been such a great leader and role model for her throughout her life as well.

“Ever since I was a kid, he has been by my side every step of the way and has been a coach for me,” she said. “The support he has given for me throughout the years makes me understand why he is valued so much as a coach here at Exeter.”

One of those Hudson has made a large impact on

Tom Appleton/The Exonian

is upper Jeff MacArthur, who is coached by Hudson in varsity football, varsity wrestling and JV lacrosse.

MacArthur shared a personal story of how Hudson is like a second father to him and helped him through a rough time during this past season.

“This year at the wrestling E/a, I was facing a guy that was the only person that beat me lower year,” MacArthur said. “I had been waiting and training to beat him since it happened.”

Unfortunately, MacArthur lost the match. “I ended up wrestling poorly, and I lost. In anger and immaturity, I threw my headgear on the floor and stormed into another room, screaming and cursing and crying in anger and disappointment. I punched the wall once and before I could punch it again Hudson was next to me.”

Hudson’s next words changed MacArthur’s view on wrestling. “He told me to grow up, be a leader and think about that day every time I was at practice or wrestling and I wanted to give up,” MacArthur said.

And he took Hudson’s words to heart.

“I ended up wrestling that same kid twice later that season, beating him both times,” he said. MacArthur eventually went on to become the heavyweight league champion and helped his team win the New England champions.

Hudson made him look at this defeat in a new way and told him to learn from his mistakes. From this guidance came an opportunity for personal growth, and MacArthur contributed all of his success to Hudson’s help that day during E/a.

“I owe all of that to coach Hudson and his confrontation of my immaturity and his ability to push me to be my best,” MacArthur said.

This moment was one of many for MacArthur.

Hudson has been an enormously influential presence in shaping his experiences in many areas of Exeter’s athletic environment because Hudson has coached him for all three athletic seasons. Hudson brings the same brand of dedication and passion to those football and lacrosse as well.

With regard to the football team, MacArthur said, “As a freshman on a football team full of eighteen,

nineteen and even twenty-year olds, coach Hudson was always someone who I went to. He understood that I was young and needed extra coaching. Whether that was an extra pat on the back or if that was correcting a mistake, coach Hudson was and has been always there for me.”

MacArthur, who will continue to play sports throughout his senior year, included that Hudson’s influence has made into the athlete and the person that he is today.

“On the football field, wrestling mat and the legendary JV lax tundra, coach Hudson has consistently been the motor behind my athletic success,” MacArthur said. “I owe it all to him for pushing me to my limit when I needed to be pushed, as well as making me laugh when I needed to laugh.”

Hudson has fostered a family through his team, not only this year, but in years past as well. Especially with the sometimes overwhelming rigors of the school, this is exactly the type of environment best suited to cultivate the kind of Exonians who combine goodness and knowledge, both on and off the playing field.

With Hudson’s guidance, the wrestling team combined all of their experiences and learned from each other. Hudson was able to take a team with wrestlers who spanned the entire spectrum of experience and bring them together as champions.

Hudson has been an integral part of the PEA community over the years, both as a coach and a leader, and he has proven time and time again to be a stellar role model. There is no doubt that he will continue to be influential in shaping the lives of the many athletes that pass through the gym doors. With his passion and his dedication not only for the sports that he coaches, but also for the wellbeing of players on the field and the mat, Hudson will certainly make Exonians into better athletes and better people.

MacArthur is only one of the many students that Hudson has positively influenced in his time at Exeter, and he concluded by saying, “I’m proud and humbled to say that I wouldn’t be the young man I am today without coach Hudson,” he said.

Girls’ Cross Country Finishes Season Strong Despite Close Loss to Andover continued from GIRLS’ CROSS COUNTRY, E11

Connor Bloom/The Exonian

Lower Christine Hu runs the course in a race.

races. As a team we really began to persevere through mental and physical barriers this season, and I think that’s where a lot of our success came from,” Hu said.

This loss, however significant, was nothing compared to what lay ahead as they had almost reached the end of the road to ‘schols.

The very next weekend the team’s top 18 runners traveled hours down to the Hotchkiss campus where they knew they would need to perform their very best in order to move up from ninth place.

The girls arrived that night and settled into their rooms at the Days Inn so kindly provided by the school. They went on a journey for pregame fuel, finally settling on pasta and lettuce, as carbo loading before a race is always a good idea. After dinner the girls went straight to bed, mentally prepared, ready to crush their own opponents.

The team came out the next day ready to run fast, and that’s just what they did, with three girls finishing in top twenty and lead runner Christine Hu placing fifth overall, the team was able to earn the

third place slot, thus bringing their season to a close on a happy note, giving them the knowledge that they had improved and would continue to.

Looking forward to next season, rising captain Barnes expected the team to “continue to work together well and use each other’s strengths to our advantage. The team is looking very good so I think we can strive towards placing well at Interschols again.”

Also looking back on the season, Hu felt grateful for the support and encouragement of her teammates, a thing she had never had before coming to Exeter.

“This season we saw huge improvements from a lot of runners, and we really developed a nice pack of fast runners to work with during races. I saw a shift in our mind sets this season. People weren't afraid to push out of their comfort zones during practices,” Hu said.

The whole team looks forward to improving even more next year and would love to see people come support one of the oldest standing sports and one of the best teams at the school.

THE EXONIAN

SPORTS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

E11

Girls’ Cross Country Finds Success in Their Seniors, Finishes in Third Place at Interschols

By GUSTAVO SANTOS Contributing Writer

For most fall sports, the season starts the first day of school. For girls cross country, however, the season starts as soon as the last day of spring term ends. That is when the girls of Exeter cross country start the longest summer training of any sport at the academy. The girls devote their summers to their sport and their team with the hopes of attaining a winning record.

“Coach Coogan sent us a training schedule that outlined different workouts we could do and weekly mileage goals. The summer was all about building a solid base and getting physically stronger,” upper Anna Barnes said. The team stuck to this strict regime and came back to school to practice as a team, preparing for the first race.

The girls came back from this intense summer of training ready and hungry for a good race. The girls were given their first opportunity at the annual Choate Invitational, a challenging course to help kick off the season.

The team arrived to the course and did just as they would before any other meet. They stretched and went for a warm up jog through the course, getting to know its hills and turns, each of them picking a point where they will start their final kick. The girls watched the boys’ race first and sat in anticipation as rain clouds rolled in above. Halfway through the girls’ race it began to pour.

The team managed to persevere and place well at this friendly invitational despite the rain. “[Our] times, especially with such a hilly course for the first race, were really impressive. The girls already established our front pack that we held throughout the season,” senior and captain Elsa Chinburg said.

The girls kept this attitude as they moved into the rest of the season, watching the leaves fall from the trees onto the paths they run and preparing themselves for the journey along the road to Interschols. One of the team’s goals set before the season was to move up from their 9th place finish at Interschols in 2013.

About a month into the season came the long awaited Exeter Invitational, a chance to host five schools on the fastest course in the league. Once Oct. 4 started to roll around, the emails started to trickle in. Each team, one by one, decided to decline their invite to the race.

Some said that the event wasn’t planned well, others said that teams were anxious for stormy weather, but others believe that both the girls’ and boys’ teams struck into the eyes of their opponents. Some said that every team canceled because they were scared of what they were in for if they decided to come. It semed they were unprepared to face the vicous and speedy runners of Big Red’s squad. This setback had given Exeter more

The girls’ cross country team kicks off a home race against St. Paul’s. time to improve and prepare to do better at Interschols.

The team moved on through the season eventually arriving at the infamous Northfield Mount Hermon (NMH) course, riddled with hills. The course was one big rollercoaster, as the runners were seemingly on an incline or decline no matter where they were on the course. The girls faced off against NMH first in an invitational and then again later on in the season.

When asked about the NMH race Chinburg said, “NMH is always really rough, it's just constant up and down. We struggled at our first meet there but we actually raced there again a few weeks later, and we went into it with a good mindset, knowing what to expect, and we ended up running really well that day and beating See GIRLS’ CROSS COUNTRY, E10

Connor Bloom/The Exonian

NMH on their home turf.”

“Interschols at Hotchkiss would also be a lot of uphill, but it would be the last race of the season and for some of us, our last cross country race at Exeter,” Chinburg said.

The team ended the season on a tough loss to Andover, their first lost of the season, leaving them with a winning record of 3-1. Lower and lead runner in girls’ cross country Christine Hu said, “E/a was the toughest race of the season. Andover had a really strong team this year, so it was mentally a bit tough getting into the right mindset before the race.”

“It was also pouring rain and freezing outside. In the end though, everyone was really tough and ran amazing

E12

Sunday, June 7, 2015

ExonianPhoto Fall Sports

Photographers: Connor Bloom, Jonathan Ye, Meghan Michel and Luz Lim

F1

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

WinterSports Season Records

Boys’ Swimming 5-3 E/a Score 108-78 L

Boys’ Basketball 14-10 E/a Score 79-45 W

Boys’ Hockey E/a Score

24-4-2 5-3 L

Boys’ Squash E/a Score

10-8 5-2 W

Wrestling E/a Score

14-5 55-12 W

Girls’ Swimming 3-4 E/a Score 107-78 L

Girls’ Basketball 17-7 E/a Score 55-51 W

Girls’ Hockey E/a Score

13-10-2 3-0 L

Girls’ Squash E/a Score

7-10 0-7 L

Track E/a Score

2-0 133-68 W

Boys’ Hockey Hits Best Regular Season in Years

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Senior Ted Hart threads Brooks’ defenders as he darts down the ice.

By TOM APPLETON Contributing Writer

As the snow continued to pile up this winter, boys’ varsity hockey was lighting it up on the ice. The team jumped out to a fast start, recording some dominant victories to kick off their schedule. Tallying up an incredible 38 goals for to nine goals against ratio in their first six games, the boys made clear that this was going to be a season for the record books.

Despite the middle part of the schedule proving to be tougher than the beginning, Exeter continued to put pucks in the back of the net, while post-graduate goaltender Bryan Botcher refused to let anything past him. Heading into the holiday break with a perfect 10-0 record, many wondered when the team’s success would ever end. As the ball dropped to mark the beginning of 2015, it was a new year but the same team dominant

team. Facing off against Brooks—who at the time was the only other undefeated team—Exeter displayed the strength and willpower to succeed. With a 3-2 victory, Exeter isolated themselves at the top of the leaderboard.

They had put a target on their backs and they were ready to fight.

Facing a powerful Dexter team equipped with top NHL prospect Ryan Donato, Exeter’s perfect record took a hit but was not broken. It was a brilliant game and could have gone either way. Ultimately ending in a 2-2 tie, Exeter was proud of their performance and kept vying for greatness. Just two games later, after a nailbiting 1-0 victory over Hotchkiss, Exeter tied again, this time to Kimball Union. By then, their record stood at an impressive 16-0-2, still the top in New England.

Exeter then crushed Cushing 4-1 in front of a packed student section, thus putting the KUA game in the rear view mirror.

Marking the midpoint of the season, the team’s focus on the playoffs intensified. Always failing to acknowledge their unblemished record, the boys insisted that their mid-season record had no weight in making the playoffs. Cruising into February, the team picked up four more wins over competitive programs before their unbeaten streak was broken. They had made it to 20-0-2, reminiscent of the 2012-2013 Chicago Blackhawks. After dropping their first game to Proctor 6-4, Exeter immediately rebounded and picked up two wins against Brunswick and NMH. The 3-0 win over NMH left a bitter taste in the mouths of the Hoggers, and they returned the favor a few days later by handing Exeter just their second loss.

Finishing out the season with two more wins and a third loss, Exeter’s impressive 24-3-2 record earned See BOYS’ HOCKEY, F2

Wrestling Wins Title Girls’ Basketball Takes Another Banner

By TOM APPLETON

By TOM APPLETON

Contributing Writer

Contributing Writer

Coming off a solid season in 2013-14, the wrestling team looked to improve upon its previous success. After picking up some great wrestlers during the offseason and training all fall, the team returned from Thanksgiving break on a mission. Big Red practiced day in and day out, improving upon various techniques, and immediately let the rest of the competition know that the team was a force with which to be reckoned. Crushing St. Paul’s and Tilton to kick off their season, Exeter’s wrestlers got the championship ball rolling. After a few holiday tournaments, the team returned for the new year with a competitive aura and desire to succeed. Having to travel to NMH twice in one week, Exeter posted a 5-1 record at the quad meet. A few weeks later, at the Exeter Duals, Big Red went an unbeaten 5-0 against the contending schools. Exeter kept the momentum rolling into E/a and clobbered the Big Blue by a team score of 55-12. The win capped off a truly spectacular regular season, after which the team began to focus on the postseason.

While many Valentine’s Days are spent out at nice restaurants and giving people chocolate, the wrestling team returned to NMH, this time fighting for the Class A championship. With incredible strength and will to win, several of the team’s wrestlers found themselves atop the podium with heavy medals around their necks. Exeter topped the conference and placed first at Class A’s—the first time since 2007. Despite returning home with a Class A title, the team wanted more.

They weren’t done just yet.

As a team that didn’t receive as much attention as they probably should have for bringing home a Class A championship, Big Red humbly put Class As in its rear view before setting its sights on New Englands.

While the Class A victory served as a boost in confidence, it did not suggest that New Englands would be an easy task.

In 2007 after winning Class A’s, the team had to settle for 7th when it came to the New England tournament. This year’s See WRESTLING, F3

Girls’ Swimming Girls’ swimming and diving were sub-.500 in the reular season but placed 6th at Interschols.

Read more on F5.

Tom Appleton/The Exonian

For the girls’ on the basketball team, basketball is much more than just their winter sport. The team puts blood, sweat and tears into developing their skills and working together. If you walk into the gym during any time of the day, you’re likely to find at least one of them drilling jump shots. Coming off a Northeast-8 championship in 2013-14, the team looked to recreate their success this season. After losing several dominant players last spring, Coach John Griffith picked up some new pieces to fill the gaps in his lineup. The final roster was composed of students from all four graduating classes.

The girls kicked off their season against the tough Northfield Mount Hermon team. The team managed to beat NMH twice in 2013-2014, but with an entirely reworked roster, the game looked to be a messy one. The game proved to be just that, and neither Exeter nor NMH jumped out to an early lead. It was back and forth basketball until the closing minutes of the game. Exeter managed to get some quick baskets and continued blocking shots to force turnovers. The game ended in a 53-51 Exeter win and set the bar of expectation at a high level.

After a tough loss to Loomis, a dominant win against Milton, and a loss to Tabor, Exeter moved into the holiday break with a record of 3-2. Invited to the Hotchkiss Holiday Tournament before Christmas, Exeter tallied two more wins with triumphs over Hotchkiss and Chase.

The girls’ returned to the frozen tundra of New Hampshire after a winter recess to resume their quest for another Northeast-8 title. Only one day after classes resumed, Exeter was faced with a difficult challenge in the Taft School. A game played at the Bancroft School in Worcester, Exeter and Taft had little time to prepare for the competition. The inter-conference matchup, one that hadn’t happened in over five years, forced coaches on both teams to prepare for a completely unknown team.

From tipoff right through the end of the first half, Exeter found themselves having to play catch-up. Taft had some of the best ball movement they’d seen, and it allowed them to eat away at Exeter’s rigid defense. After some inspiring half-time words,

Inside Sports Boys’ Basketball

Boys’ basketball made their fifth straight postseason appearance after crushing Andover.

Read more on F7.

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Upper Peace Kabari beats her defender.

Exeter took the court with a new mentality. Taft maintained their unrelenting offense, forcing Exeter to step up their game; the girls responded. With continued pressure and drive, Exeter fought back and chipped away at the deficit. The girls worked it all the way to a tie by the time the buzzer sounded; they were headed to overtime. In overtime, Exeter wanted every loose ball a little bit more, made smarter plays and ultimately edged Taft by a score of 62-59. They were back in business.

Unfortunately, their momentum hit a hurdle as they dropped a game to BB&N, a very talented school. Senior Mel Allen talked about the devastating loss. “We sat together in the team room for an hour and a half and talked about what had happened and what we wanted to achieve moving forward,” she said. Putting a positive spin on the defeat Allen noted, “it was the way we really became a team after [the loss] that’s amazing. How we See GIRLS’ BASKETBALL, F2

This Section: Track Winter track defeated Andover for the fifth straight year to cap off an undefeated season.

Read more on F6.

Connor Bloom/The Exonian

Boys’ Hockey Wrestling Girls’ Basketball Boys’ Squash Girls’ Squash Boys’ Swimming Girls’ Swimming Track Girls’ Hockey Boys’ Basketball

F1 F1 F1 F4 F4 F5 F5 F6 F6 F7

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THE EXONIAN

SPORTS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Rachel Luo/The Exonian

Upper Jake Dupont maintains control over the puck in the face of a defender.

Boys’ Varsity Hockey Has Dominant Season But Falls Early in the Playoffs continued from BOYS’ HOCKEY, F1 them the top spot in the Elite 8 bracket.

It was an unbelievably strong field and Exeter was paired up with their friends from Kimball Union Academy (KUA).

It was another battle; both teams played their hearts out and left nothing on the ice. Ending 2-1 in favor of KUA, it was the end of a remarkable season. The entire tournament bracket was flipped when top seeds Exeter (1), Cushing (2), Gunnery (3) and Loomis (4) all lost to their underdog opponents.

Though the season may not have ended as planned, players had several positive

takeaways and memories from the experience. Senior captain Ted Hart recalled an early season memory that was one of his favorites. Before the New Hampton game, coaches were calling Coach Barbin expressing their doubts in his team. “People didn't believe we had the talent to be an elite team,” Hart said. “We ended up winning 8-1. It not only showed we were one of the best teams in the league, but it was a confidence booster for the team that spurred our winning streak.”

While Hart’s most memorable moment came early in the season, senior

captain Sterling Weatherbie recalled one a little later when Exeter faced Andover for the first time. “We all believed in each other, and Ted, like the great captain that he is, scored the game winner,” Weatherbie reminisced.

“Skating over to the corner after such an emotional win just reminded me why I play the game.”

Weatherbie also wanted to make clear that everyone had possessed a leadership asset, not just Hart and him.

“I realized a couple games into the season that Ted and I really didn't need to have the letters on our jersey. Every person in the locker room was a leader in his own way. Everybody blocked shots, everybody scored and everybody encouraged and supported each other.

It’s just something that you don’t see in a lot of other sports,” Weatherbie said.

Hart echoed Weatherbie and said, “The passion and the enthusiasm my teammates brought to every game and every practice is why I loved this team and why they’re one I’ll never forget.”

Next year’s squad has some big

shoes to fill with so many accomplished seniors graduating. They have their work cut out for them. Graduating from the team is outstanding goaltender Bryan Botcher, whose composed play was a blast to watch. Four-year veteran Stanley Brenner will be graduating along with offensive dynamos seniors Andy Espinoza, Mike Kann and Brandon Gardener. Valuable post-graduates Mitchell Shennette, Robert Durst, William Seiferth and Max Roche, whose blend of hard work and creativity aided in the team’s success, will be moving on. Finally, co-captains Weatherbie and Hart, who have been playing with each other since the dawn of time as they grew up playing hockey together in Maine, will be graduating. Despite some of the gaps this graduating class will create, Exeter has several returning players that are sure to adapt to next year’s program. They all know what it feels like to make it to 20 games without having been beaten and will certainly be looking to replicate such success in the upcoming year.

Meghana Chalasani/The Exonian

Senior Coutney Henrich crosses up a defender.

Girls’ Basketball Triumphs, Emerges as NE-8 Powerhouse continued from GIRLS’ BASKETBALL, F1 could take a loss and turn it into a something powerful to motivate us through the rest of the season.”

As Big Red put the BB&N game behind them, the team focused on taking down Deerfield. All eyes were on senior Courtney Henrich. Henrich entered the competition with a high school career total of 982 points. As students packed the gym in hopes that Henrich would reach the 1,000-point milestone, the girls stayed focused on beating the Green Doors. After a hot first half, it was clear that Exeter was not going to lose. Henrich had a bit of a slow start but said, “once I hit my first three, I knew I was on.” In the early minutes of the second half, Henrich lurked in the left corner, and when dished the ball, drilled a three-pointer that put her at 1,001. While having a girl score her thousandth point while playing for Exeter is not new, Henrich became

the first player in school history to record all one thousand in an Exeter uniform.

The excitement that came with Henrich’s historic moment proved to push them through a packed portion of their schedule. The team rattled off five quick wins, including a big win over Andover, before hitting a dry spell and dropping three straight.

Determined to finish the season on a high note, the team immediately went back to the drawing board. Motivated by the tough loss to New Hampton, the girls suited up to take on Cushing. It was a dazzling offensive performance from both teams. Both Exeter and Cushing had scored nearly 80 points once the final buzzer sounded, and were tied after regulation. Intent on not losing another overtime game, Exeter saw a chance to beat a very good team and took it. They netted a handful of points in the overtime period and

held off the Penguins 89-85.

The enormous win again provided momentum as the team went on to win their final five games of the season. The team stormed through the playoffs and finished the year with a second straight Northeast-8 title.

The humble Henrich reflected on the season and recalled her favorite moment.

“Best moment of the season was Steph Curry aka Mel Allan hitting the game winner versus Cushing,” Henrich began, “She made such an impact this season after being sidelined last year due to her ACL injury.”

Both Henrich and Allen are hanging up their Exeter uniforms, but made clear that they are going to miss those frigid morning walks to the gymnasium.

“I think I’m going to miss our van rides to away games the most. Once we get the AUX cord going, there's no turning back. Also

I’m going to miss the will to win mentality the team has carried throughout the season,” Henrich said.

“I’ll miss seeing Peace embarrass her defenders. And I’ll definitely miss sharing the laughs I had speaking in french with Erika throughout the season,” Allen said.

Exeter is losing key players, including captains Henrich and Allen, defensive threat Casey Osborne and rebounding-and-scoring powerhouse Erika Steeves. While the team will surely miss these cornerstone athletes, they’ve got some great players sticking around.

Offensive and defensive dynamo Peace Kabari has another year of eligibility and will be accompanied by young stars Ella Johnson and Charlotte Polk.

With so many great players around for another season, Exeter is already a very legitimate threat to three-peat.

THE EXONIAN

SPORTS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Jena Yun/The Exonian

Prep Kevin Lyskawa pins his opponent at a meet this winter.

Wrestling Places First at NE’s continued from WRESTLING, F1 team didn’t want 7th. Big Red wasn’t going to settle for anything less than first, something that Exeter hasn’t accomplished in a decade and a half.

Upper Jeff MacArthur talked about his views on the team. “[The] guys showed a lot of commitment in the room and with the additions of Quinn, Kevin, Steve and Joey along with the strong returning guys, we understood what our potential was,” he said.

The season was full of ups and downs— some of Exeter’s top wrestlers suffered injuries and were sidelined. Determined to contribute, those wrestlers put in hours of rehab and returned to the mats in time to compete at the big New England tournament.

The ride to NMH was not new to the team, but challenged its intentness on competing nonetheless.

For the entire team, it was a day of excellent performances, including first place finishes from prep Kevin Lyskawa (106) and lowers Joey Rossetti (126) and A.J. Pedro (152). Posting a team score of 233.0, Exeter topped the charts and returned to Exeter with a New England championship.

Senior Kelvin Borges reflected on the big win at New England’s. “It had been fifteen years since the last time we had accomplished that,” he said, “And reaching that goal, as a senior in my last year, was pretty special for me, and I bet for the rest of the guys, too.”

After the team continued to prove its credibility year after year, Borges shed new light on what makes the wrestling program so successful. “We have some of the best coaches in New England,” Borges said, “and everyone worked hard. When you combine hard work

F3

with tested ability, you’re bound to get good results.” Coaches Dave Hudson and Ethan Shapiro did another unbelievable job with this year’s squad, always demanding the best out of each and every wrestler during every practice and meet.

Having spent his Exeter winters in the stuffy wrestling room, Borges also mentioned what he’s going to miss most about the wrestling team. “I'll miss how much this team loved to compete,” he said.

And compete it did, emerging victorious at nearly every meet on its schedule, winning the Class A tournament and bringing home the first New England wrestling trophy in over a decade.

MacArthur commented on what made the team so successful this season. “We always knew we were the better team heading into a meet, and that allowed us to wrestle like it every time out.”

The only thing that the wrestling team will lose any time soon is some of its dominant seniors. The loss of key seniors will

demand new leadership and an elevation for returning wrestlers. In addition to Borges, the team is losing Nick Felli, Stephan Geneus, Prin Harinstuta, Ariana Patsaros and Hunter Voslow. All six seniors brought valuable characteristics to the wrestling program and will be missed by the returning members of the team in the upcoming season.

Upper Jeff MacArthur highlighted the goals of next year. “The seniors will be missed, but we’re all focused on the next year and the possibility of not only winning Class As and New Englands, but to rank among the top five schools in the country,” he said.

Luckily, the program has an arsenal of very talented wrestlers scheduled to return for the 2015-2016 season. All three New England champion wrestlers have at least two more years of eligibility, and skillful athletes including MacArthur, Quinn Abrams, Ahbijay Bhatnagar and Stephen Cerrone are scheduled to return as well. With so many wrestlers sticking around, Exeter is sure to make a courageous leap towards repeating.

Congratulations from all of us Anjali! Well done!

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THE EXONIAN

SPORTS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

B oy s ’ S q u a s h H a s a S low S ta rt , F i n i s h e s With Winning Season

By JACKSON PARELL Staff Writer

This season Exeter boys’ varsity squash team built upon its success of years past, finishing its season off with 10 wins and eight losses. The boys’ work ethic and morale allowed them to secure a winning season in which they improved their abilities and chemistry as a team. In the end, each member of the squash team put his all out on the court, which is what put them ahead in the league.

Coming into this season, the boys were optimistic. They believed that, although they would be losing a few key players, they still had many developing players that would give their team an advantage throughout the season. “Going into the season, our plan was to build upon the successes of last year's team. Although we had lost four seniors, the team was shaping up to have the most depth in the past few years,” senior Phillip Chang said.

Big Red had a relatively slow start with a tough 0-7 sweep at the hands of Belmont Hill and a pair of close 3-4 losses to Milton and Groton. However, once the team started to work together, cheer each other on and get a better understanding of its competition, the team turned the tides, securing five consecutive wins against Saint Paul’s, Westminster, Hill School, Street Squash and Pomfret. These wins gave the team the confidence it needed to play at its best in the following 10 games. The skill and perseverance that the boys demonstrated on the court allowed them to either secure early leads with their opponent or to keep the game very close and put pressure on the opposing team, never losing by more than one match.

“We had so many really tight losses, and those only made us want to win even more. I think that our record doesn't really reflect how much effort we put in,” upper and future captain Will Ettinger said. In the end, they had an even amount of wins and losses for their last 10 matches and placed 16th at Interschols.

Going into each game the team mentally and physically prepared itself for the competition it faced. David Liu, Philip

Chang, Rex Tercek and Will Ettinger would often give speeches before the game discussing what to focus on in the matches while others would try to boost morale with team cheers including, as senior Andrew Turner said, “the blood and danger” chant.

Overall, the team needed to be focused for the fierce competition that they faced and many of the players believe that it was their pregame rituals that allowed them to perform at their best.

Nonetheless, the team also knew that they would be facing some competition that would be a challenge and would force the members to stay sensible. “Going into matches, I think we generally kept a fairly realistic mindset. We knew some teams were just better, but we stayed optimistic, and played to win whenever we got out there,” lower Nate Bogardus said.

The level mindset that the team kept, some believed, really helped shape its season. Most of the matches that decided the outcome of the overall competition were usually very close. Because the team kept a level head during these times of high stress, it secured many of these wins, allowing the boys to further improve on an already successful season.

Other players attribute their success to the many hours of training that was done in practice every day in preparation for the competitions. Prep Gautam Ramesh mentioned that the training was pretty intense throughout the season to prepare for upcoming games. The team would often work with the trainer on endurance training so that all members could keep intensity high during the competitions.

A major disadvantage that Exeter usually faces is inexperience compared to its opponents. “We’re not a team of guys who have been playing for years before high school, so to get good we needed to be devoted and I was really proud of what I saw in a lot of the guys,” Ettinger said. The hard work that the team put in every day during practice built team chemistry, which some think was the key to their success in the season.

Girls’ Varsity Squash Advances to Class A, Earns Twelfth Place

By JOONHO JO Staff Writer

Big Red’s varsity girls’ squash team completed its 2014-15 season with a 12th place finish in Class A and a final record of 7-10. Big Red took big strides forward this season, advancing from Class B to Class A—a marked accomplishment not adequately reflected in the team’s record.

Because eight seniors graduated from the 2013-14 team, the team replaced those voids with the nascent talent of younger members. This sharp learning curve resulted in a slow start to the season, but the girls picked up pace as the season progressed. Their efforts culminated in an inaugural participation in the U.S. High School Team Squash Championships.

Expectations were set low for this year’s varsity girls’ squash team, as the group foresaw a challenging adjustment period. However, according to lower Serena Cho, a number of the girls ultimately maximized their playing potentials, and the team far exceeded initial season predictions. “This season was overall very successful, everyone on the team performing much better than we hoped to,” she said. “We lost many seniors from last year, so the team was very concerned about the season,” Cho said.

As Cho mentioned, the loss of upperclassmen from the previous season was ameliorated by underclassmen who stepped up their game. However, the successes of these young players did not come easily. Each member of the team had to work extremely hard, giving all she had every practice and match.

The positivity the team exuded throughout the season made all of its hard work that much easier, as the each memberd continually supported each other every step of the way. Cho described the atmosphere as “tight-knit and close.”

The biggest contributor to this positive atmosphere was senior and captain Lizzie Wei who led by example, putting in everything she had in practice.

“In particular Lizzie, a captain, worked really hard in practice everyday setting a great example for the rest of the

team,” upper Josie Russ said. “She was one of the reasons behind our team’s best efforts each practice.”

Lower Evan Xiang shared Russ’ view of Wei’s leadership. She explained that although Wei was the only captain of the team, she drove each member and inspired others to work harder. “Lizzie Wei, of course, was our amazing sole captain this year. She really pushed all of us to work harder during practice and at every game,” she said. ”She never gave up on any of us and watching her play always inspired me to work harder to improve.”

In addition to Wei’s leadership in practice, Cho noted that senior Dana Tung pulled off an extremely impressive season. During her last season with the team, she worked hard in every match to give Exeter many chances to come out on top.

“Dana definitely had a very impressive season, and she almost always secured a win for us every single game,” Cho said. “I am so proud and happy for her to finish her last season here so strongly.”

Lastly, a third notable name from the 2014-15 season was upper Bronwyn Shields, who won the Most Improved Player award. Xiang attributes that accomplishment to Shields’ dedication and work ethic. “[Bronwyn has] really come so far from the first day of try-outs. She always gave each practice 100 percent, and her matches have really shown how much she’s improved,” Xiang said. “I really admire her worth ethic and her determination to always do her best.”

Despite both the leadership and the atmosphere, the team was still left disappointed with their sub-.500 record. One of the main reasons contributing to this record was the girls’ wavering confidence and mental strength. Often, they did not have faith in themselves during matches, which hampered their play.

“Something that definitely contributed to our losses was our mentality, where we weren’t confident and didn't believe that we could win,” Cho said.

Tom Appleton/The Exonian

Upper Torrey Foster prepares to serve the ball into play during a squash Another key component of the foundation of this chemistry and the overall success of the team was captain Philip Chang.

“Phillip was one of the star players because he had the most team spirit and helped the new kids on the team become involved,” lower Kevin Elaba said. Chang also helped to keep the overall competitions close, battling through many close matches.

Lower Darius Kahan and upper Rex Tercek were also crucial players to the team.

“Star players on the team were, without a doubt, Rex Tercek and Darius Kahan,” Chang said. “Tercek gave each match his all, playing with both confidence and respect. He was always respectful of his opponent—a true sportsman—but showed no mercy once he stepped on the court.

Kahan also starred on the team, playing number 1 in just his lower year. While he

faced tough opponents throughout the season, he never gave up or lost confidence.”

As the team looks forward to next season, they are very optimistic. They will only be losing two seniors next year and the depth that Chang referred to will only grow.

Because of this minimal loss in players, the team also hopes that that the chemistry and jovial attitude that they developed through the season will translate into and improve next year’s performance.

Overall, Big Red had a fantastic season, putting in massive amounts of time and effort to perform at its best, which it only hopes to build upon in the coming years.

Chang said, “Next year, Exeter squash will be led by Rex Tercek and Will Ettinger and, having only lost two seniors (Philip Chang and Tim Wongvibulsin), will be in for another strong season.”

“I definitely think that we need to work a lot more on our mental game. Squash is almost 100 percent mental, and your mentality really makes a difference in those ten-all situations.”

Russ explained that although sometimes the team did succeed in matches, hence the seven wins, the lack of focus caused more losses than they desired.

“We tended to be more successful when the drills in practice meshed well with all of the players and when the whole team gave their full effort and focus in practice,” Russ said. “The main contribution to our losses was a lack of focus, determination and confidence from the whole team.”

However, despite the disappointing record, playing in a higher division will bring experience and energy for years to

come. “This year, the competition was much fiercer, but it was really exciting to play against other schools,” Xiang said. “I know that I learned a lot about my weaknesses and that I have a lot to improve on.”

The team is already looking forward to next year, after all the hard work they put in this season, as they will no longer be “rookies” in Class A. Furthermore, they have been notified that a couple of recruits will be joining the already talented and young team next season, which will aid their path to obtain a more impressive record and their first ever New England Class A championship.

“I’m really looking forward to next year,” Russ said. “I think one of our main goals for next year is improving our record, and I’m confident we can do it.”

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Senior Lizzie Wei rallies with her opponent in a squash tournament.

THE EXONIAN

SPORTS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Senior and co-captain Andrew Eigner wholeheartedly agreed with Graham on the importance of the Florida training trip. “I’d have to say that one of the best moments for our team was the Florida trip. We trained hard, pushed ourselves in ways we didn’t think possible and ultimately came back closer as a team,” he said.

Eigner also elaborated on the skillset that the boys took away from the trip by explaining how the few days spent in Florida paid off for the entire team, although not everyone could make it to the trip.

“Even though not everyone was able to come, the whole team benefited from the experience. Whether it was a new and improved work ethic that we shared with the kids who stayed behind or the new sense of camaraderie, the trip was a great experience,” Eigner said.

The benefits of the training trip were evident once the team returned to racing in January. The boys went on to win their next five meets against Milton, Deerfield, St. Sebastian’s, Choate and Northfield Mount Hermon. Although there were fast times and great performances at all of these meets, the boys agree that the most memorable victory by far was the win over Deerfield Academy.

Big Red was the overwhelming underdog going into the dual meet against the eventual D1 NEPSSA champions, but Steven Kim/The Exonian the team rallied hard and managed to edge past Deerfield by a mere three points. UpUpper Aneek Mukherjee sprints toward the finish. per Thomas Gallup noted that upsetting an otherwise undefeated team marked a turning point in the season.

“Our Deerfield meet was definitely one of the highlights of the season—the energy was crazy, the swims were crazy; it was definitely a moment that turned us into a team, versus just a bunch of guys swimming

By CHRISTINE HU together,” he said.

Staff Writer Lower Joel Lotzkar agreed with Gallup, This past winter, a talented crop of that the team had gaps to fill only served stating that the victory over Deerfield was the fresh faces joined an experienced group of as motivation for the boys. “We trained as high point of the season. “My favorite memreturners to propel boys’ swimming into hard as we could to reestablish ourselves as ory was us having an upset win at Deerfield. yet another successful season. The team a powerful team despite the losses,” Tuchler Our team seems to swim extremely well midfinished with a positive 5-3 record, a drastic said. season, and both last year and this year, we improvement over their 1-6 record from A key training block that took the boys’ fought very hard against Deerfield and had the previous year’s season. Big Red also fitness to the next level was a team trip that many outstanding swims. Edging Deerfield, matched last year’s 4th place finish at the took place over winter break. The boys the eventual New England Champs, 93-90 NEPSSA Division I Interscholastic Cham- traveled to Florida to train at the renowned was an amazing feeling,” he said. pionships, not a bad result considering the Coral Springs Aquatic Complex, completing After having come off a successful dual team’s circumstances. multiple tough workouts per day. meet run, the boys threw down great perforGoing into the season, the boys had to Upper Graham Hazlett credited the mances at the New England Championships recover from losing a strong senior class the team’s success and tight-knit atmosphere to to come away with fourth place. Although previous year. “​A handful of talented seniors the trip. “After the Florida training trip, we they boys didn’t quite reach their ultimate had just graduated, and we had just emerged got into great shape, and that provided great goal of making the podium, the meet was by from a fourth-place season, so we entered the momentum for the rest of the season: many no means a disappointment. “At New Engseason with an underdog mentality,” senior of us bonded well during this, in addition to land’s, kids were dropping time like it was Michael Tuchler said. However, knowing refining our swimming,” he said. nothing and that only motivated everyone

Boys’ Swimming Finishes S trong at I nterschols

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else to swim to their full potential,” Eigner said. “We fed off of each other’s success and we came away with some really stellar swims.”

Lotzkar further reinforced this positive sentiment. “Close to everyone had great swims and best times at New Englands, and we saw tons of improvement from different swimmers throughout the season,” he said.

With five wins in a row and a fourth place finish at Interschols, Big Red seems to have had a successful 2014-15 season. However, the season was not without challenges.

“Several people on the team were sick during the season, and we had some frustrating dual meet losses, but we kept training hard and tapered especially well for an overall good performance at Interschols,” Lotzkar said.

Ultimately, the boys’ fierce determination allowed them to overcome the loss of a strong graduating class, and the outcome was greater than anyone could have asked for.

“Overall, I think this season exceeded our expectations. We had some losses early on but really rallied during the second half of the season and came together as a team,” Gallup said.

While there are many factors that play into a successful season, Hazlett gives due credit to Coach Don Mills and his teammates for their great run this year. “The great team spirit and coaching from Mr. Mills really helped me achieve great times in the water this year,” he said.

Tuchler also credited Coach Mills for fostering a positive team environment, recalling the time he staged a “Tuchler Showdown” against his younger brother, having them race each other in the 500 freestyle.

“While tearing down the pool in that last length of the 500, I turned my head and glanced at the scoreboard to see the time, and it turns out my younger brother had not only beaten me, but he beat me by 14 seconds!

Pushing teammates to perform their very best is something I try very hard to do, and I'm glad I succeeded,” he said.

As Eigner reflected on his last high school swimming season, he eloquently summarized the camaraderie and team spirit that characterized boys’ swimming this past winter.

“I think I’ll miss the practices the most.

While they could be grueling and tedious, we were always having a good time with each other,” Eigner said.

“Sometimes I’d have a rough day in class, and I would go to practice feeling stressed, only to leave practice feeling revived. We truly had a great group of guys this year, and I’m going to miss working hard with them everyday,” he added.

G i r l s’ S w i m m i n g Shines At ‘Schols, Suffers Subpar Season

By NOLAN PEACOCK Staff Writer

From tough workouts to grueling races, Exeter girls’ swimming gave it their all this season and are happy with the outcome.

Although the team ended the season with a mediocre record of three wins and four losses, the team is proud of the performances that each athlete put forward and sees it as an opportunity to improve next season.

The girls started the season with a spread of wins and losses scattered across several meets. With a tough loss at the hands of Suffield Academy kicking off their season, the girls came back with a vengeance and left their next meet victorious, having defeated Milton Academy by more than forty points.

The following week the squad put up a number of strong races, but Deerfield proved too strong, and the girls lost by a narrow nine-point margin. However, this performance was lauded by many on the team, as Deerfield is known to have a strong team every year. The girls were proud of the outcome of the meet and made an effort to maintain that momentum as they continued through the season.

However, in their next meet, Big Red’s girls faltered and gave up a win against Choate Rosemary Hall, losing the meet by a little over fifteen points. The girls were discouraged by their poor performance in this meet. However, in true Exonian fashion, they refused to allow their loss to beat them down. Instead, the team rallied and went on to win their next two meets against Northfield Mount Hermon and Loomis Chaffee.

The girls were ecstatic with their performances in these meets and as such were very disappointed when they came away from the climactic Exeter/Andover competition with a loss to Big Blue. However, like true athletes, they came away from the loss with their heads held high.

After the penultimate meet of the season, the girls went on to place sixth at Interschols and finished their season with a record that, unfortunately, showed more losses than wins. The girls played hard though and were still content with their record.

The girls diving squad was also quite

proud of their season and had some great performances from a number of athletes.

While the divers tend to get clumped in with the rest of the team and sometimes ignored, they maintain that they are an integral part of the team. “The season went really well,” lower Connie Cai said. “Joyce Tseng and Michaela Kivett made it to finals for New England diving,” she added.

Cai went on to explain the rewarding experience that diving gives her. “My favorite thing about diving is learning a new dive—especially if it’s a complicated or scary dive, it’s really nice to finally master it.” Cai said. “Next year I'm looking forward to doing more difficult dives and being with the team.”

The girls still had a ton of fun during the season and there were a number of great moments that the team will cherish for a long time. Senior Dana Yu particular enjoyed the Interschols meet during which many of the team members swam exceptionally.

“Seeing everyone support each other and cheering for their teammates at the end of the lanes was so special and heartwarming,” Yu said. “And our 200 freestyle team broke the school record!”

Senior and captain Janet Chen felt the same way as Yu and cited the 200 freestyle relay as one of the best moments of her season.

“One of the highlights was definitely watching the 200 freestyle relay of Emma Leyne, Caroline del Real, Stajz Saar and Emily LaRovere,” Chen said. “They were seeded seventh at Interschols, but everyone swam a great race and they ended up breaking the school record and coming in second!”

Chen and Yu have both reached the end of their Exeter swimming careers as they will graduate at the end of this term. As they move on from Exeter and onto the rest of their lives, the girls will miss their team terribly and hope that the team continues its tradition of support and intimacy between athletes.

“No matter what is going on, I always know that these girls will have my back both in and out of the pool,” Yu said of her

Rachel Luo/The Exonian

Senior Dana Yu powers down the length of the pool. teammates. “The group of girls is so accepting and they are some of the most genuine people I’ve ever met.”

Chen felt the same as Yu and appreciates how strong of a group the girls team is.

“We are teammates in and out of the pool, and whether it's a tough practice or a tough day at school, we always look out for each other,” Chen said.

Yu added that this year’s team differed from past years in that the team dynamic was more intimate due to the smaller size of the squad. This was not an unwelcome change, though, and Yu noted that the team performed well despite the altered atmosphere.

“This year’s team definitely had a different vibe from previous years’,” Yu said.

“It was very small, but we worked with what we had, and I think we did the best we could with that. As usual though, everyone did her

best and lifted each other up every day. The team dynamic is one that is very supportive and encouraging.”

Both Chen and Yu anticipate that the girls will have a very successful season next year as many of the swimmers on the squad are young athletes with a lot of potential for improvement. Under strong coaching and powerful leadership, the Exeter girls’ swimming team could prove to be a force to be reckoned with.

The team will be lead by rising seniors Stajz Saar and Olivia Reed acting as next years captains. Next year’s group hopes to remain the strong community that it was this year.

“I’m so excited to see how next year’s team does,” Chen said. “The rising senior class is strong in both swimming and diving, and NEGS will have great captains in Stajz and Olivia.”

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THE EXONIAN

SPORTS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

G irls ’ H ockey B arely M i s s e s t h e P l ay o f f s , Finishes with 11 Wins

By TOM APPLETON Contributing Writer

Finishing the season with a very solid 11-8-2 record, the Big Red girls’ hockey team proved themselves as a strong contender in prep school hockey.

It was a season of both development and achievement—the team improved in many areas throughout the winter.

The team began their season with a seemingly insurmountable challenge against the St. Paul’s School. The preseason favorite to win it all, St. Paul’s had toyed with Exeter in 2013-14 and had given them trouble going back as far as 2010. Many Exeter players expressed doubt, but a sliver of hope remained.

Exeter came out flying and caught the Pelicans on their heels. After a dramatic 3-2 win, the 2014-15 season was underway. The girls made it clear that they had come to play this season. Exeter made another statement with a 2-1 victory over the usually dominant Milton program.

After a couple of tough losses, Exeter worked out some kinks and came out of their New Year’s tournament with big wins against Brewster and Worcester.

After another little hiccup against Deerfield, Exeter ripped off three quick wins and an outstanding comeback tie against Andover. Exeter hit a little bit of a rough patch at the halfway point in the season, but then made a run at the end of their schedule, winning three of their final four games.

To finish off the season, the team squared off against a very strong Andover team. Even with a win, Exeter was likely to be left out of the tournament, but for Andover, a dominant victory over Exeter would likely give them a shot at the eighth and final spot in the tournament. Big Red held their own, creating several scoring chances and playing disciplined defense. Exeter held Andover to just three goals and aided in eliminating their playoff hopes. While they may not have beaten the Blue, the team proved that they were going to fight until the final horn.

“As a whole, this team was one of

the closest I’ve ever been on,” captain Marley Jenkins said, “everyone had a great work ethic and a good mix of goofiness and focus on and off the ice.”

Indeed, the team was always upbeat and positive no matter the circumstances.

Constantly reminding each other that it was “game day,” everyone displayed a willingness to work together and become a stronger team.

When asked about what one of the goals for the team was this season, captain Azniv Nalbandian noted, “We wanted to work on communication on and off the ice.” Always checking in with each other over text or in the dining hall, the team was undeniably close-knit.

Between team meals and sectioned off rows in assembly hall, there was hardly a time you could find one girls hockey player without another nearby. When it came time to get in the rink, the girls were vocal and supportive of each other all over the ice. Constantly offering compliments and critiques, the team gelled.

All three captains agreed that the Steven Kim/The Exonian team’s best moment had to be their first game of the season against the historicalUpper Kirsten Nergaard leads the fastbreak after losing her defender. ly dominant St. Paul’s team. Entering the match, Exeter doubted their chances but disciplined hockey in the defensive end While the team is losing five key recognized their potential to perform.

“They came out confident, think- and on the offensive-zone blue line. Not assets, they also have several key returning they were going to beat us,” captain afraid to carry the puck up ice, Messuri ing players. Perhaps the most valuable Clara Gilbert said, “but we showed up was also an offensive threat. Lurking on returning player is veteran goaltender the blue line, Perreault tested opposing Allegra Grant, who has been a cornerready to play.”

Perhaps their strongest performance, goalies with an absolute cannon from the stone to the team’s success. In addition the girls set the tone for their season by point. The three captains, Jenkins, Nal- to Grant, rising seniors Lexi Butler, beating the pelicans 3-2. With a final bandian and Gilbert demonstrated their Deziray DeSousa, Rachel Morse, Kirsten record of 11-8-2, Exeter’s defeat of St. offensive skill and were constantly creat- Nergaard and Courtney Peyko will look ing scoring opportunities. Nalbandian’s to create another tight-knit group of Paul’s left a mark.

“St. Paul’s went on to win the cham- praised slapper has haunted goalies dur- athletes and continue the legacy that is pionship, so we’re very proud of that ing her Exeter career. Gilbert used her girls’ varsity hockey.

A team with great depth, young stars wits and speed to battle for pucks in the win,” Jenkins said.

Brittani Chapman, Caroline Colbert, With so many skilled seniors gradu- corner and become one of Exeter’s best Katherine Dumoulin, Bonnie LaBonte ating, the team is going to have to rebound capitalizers. Despite entering and Johna Vandergraaf have the opportuwork extra hard next winter. All five her final season without a goal to her nity to return and play with an E on their graduating seniors brought lots of en- name, Jenkins netted her first early in the jerseys.

After a very solid season, the ergy and lots of focus to the rink. Both season and never looked back, becoming girls are already training and are ready Annie Messuri and Carly Perreault were one of the team’s leaders in both scoring to take a shot at a title run. strong defensive components, playing and points.

B i g R e d Wi n t e r Track Enjoys Perfect Season, Destroys Andover at E/a

By JACK BAKER Contributing Writer

The Exeter boys’ and girls’ winter track teams both had fantastic seasons, competing at many collegiate ­level meets and against other prep schools.

Team scores were only kept against Andover, against whom both teams won handedly. The boys’ varsity team won 71­- 26, and the girls’ varsity team won 62-­4 2.

The JV boys’ and girls’ teams also had a successful season finishing 4-­3 .

Girls’ JV competed once against Andover, crushing them 69­- 21. The boys’ JV competed against Andover twice. In their first encounter they were edged out 44­- 52, but in their second encounter with Andover they trounced them 72­- 32.

Overall, it was an exceptional season for all winter track teams.

Despite many setbacks, both the girls’ and boys’ teams managed to perform well. The past winter introduced many of these setbacks. For many winter track athletes, including sprinters, throwers, hurdlers, pole vaulters, and high jumpers, the cage was their practice facility.

With the unfavorable weather conditions this winter the cage flooded often, which limited the ground space of the teams to practice. The limited space in the cage create obstacles that forced the teams to think outside of the box.

Prep Cedric Blaise recalls this limited cage space.

“Only half of the cage was flooded, which limited our practice space, but we tried to work around it as best we could,” Blaise said.

We didn’t let this obstacle damage our practice. We divided the space we had into smaller sections so that the throwers could throw, and that the sprinters could still do their thing.”

Blaise said.

“Practice still flowed the same way under these constraints. Although at times it was cramped, we tried to not let

it affect us,” Blaise added.

The distance runners were also affected by the weather as well. Because most of their practices went on outside it forced the distance runners to get creative.

Many practices were held in the cage on the wooden track. The team also utilized the rest of the gym, going on “gym” runs. Despite the setbacks the weather introduced, both teams were able to battle on and have successful seasons.

Captain and senior Marcus Polk elaborated on the season and commented on the team’s ability to overcome adversities both on and off the track.

“Toward the end of winter season it became very apparent how far we had come as a team,” Polk said.

“I was really proud of us for overcoming the troubles we had with the cage,” Polk said.

Polk continued. noting the older athletes who helped the younger ones improve.

“I think we have a lot of depth but also I find the older kids try to help the younger athletes develop the best they Connor Bloom/The Exonian can which builds trust and helps us grow together,” he said.

Lower Christine Hu approaches the finish line in first place.

Senior and captain Holden Hammontree also commented on the team’s in an outdoor season, let alone indoor Blaise recalled his favorite memory season, as well as the drive of the run- track.This had to be the closest boys from the season. ners. team I have ever been on. The bus rides “I remember Marcus and Mason “This was a special season, no doubt were a riotous after every single meet.” calling me up to lead the line in the warm about it, from both a competitive and Hammontree noted that the team ups. It wasn’t a big thing, but it meant experiential standpoint,” Hammontree unity is atypical for a track team and a lot to me.” said. attributed Big Red winter track’s unity This moment Blaise recalls shows “People were just left to watch each to the athletes’ overall talent. how tightly knit the teams really were. other go after each and every race, and “Track is a strange sport, because it In conclusion, both the girls’ and so we caught a lot of momentum.” involves different people doing totally boys’ winter track teams both had stuHammontree also commented on the different activities under one umbrella pendous seasons, capped off with the team’s unity. team, but this season we ended up having landslide at EA. Aside from the results, “There was a lot of energy on the a homogenous culture of classic team this team was also one of the closest. team,” he said. shenanigans and stories. But, I mean, it “After every season I miss the group “Everyone had such a hunger for probably had something to do with how we had but it's always fun getting know their personal bests that is rarely found fast we were,” Hammontree added. some new faces,” Polk said.

SPORTS

THE EXONIAN

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SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

B oys ’ B asketball F ails T o C apture T hird T itle , A nticipates S tronger 2015-16 S eason

By TOM APPLETON Contributing Writer

After winning back-to-back NEPSAC Class A championships, Exeter boys’ basketball entered the 2014-15 season with high hopes. Equipped with young stars and veterans, the team jumped out to a great start.

The team first pulverized Hebron by a score of 94-10, a victory that amped the team up and carried it into its next competition against Nobles. Another strong showing on both ends of the court propelled the team over the Knights 54-37.

Two games into the season, it was clear that Big Red still needed to iron out some aspects of its play, and with a big game against Kimball Union Academy approaching fast, it needed to do it quickly.

Proving themselves as some of the most dedicated athletes on campus, the boys often woke before the sun rose to get shots in. Ending their days with enduring practices, they improved with each passing day.

The squad from Kimball Union has managed to challenge Exeter each year, no matter the circumstances. Coming off the two big wins to start their season, Exeter stormed into Love Gym on a mission, and the game lived up to its hype.

The two teams battled back and forth all game.

Tied entering the final minutes of regulation, Exeter kicked their lockdown defense into a new gear. After creating a number of turnovers, Exeter managed to drill a closing-seconds three pointer and secure a 5754 victory.

Upon capturing their third straight win, the team shifted its focus to Williston-Northampton. The game was to be played at Babson, a neutral location. The Wildcats’ gameplay troubled Exeter, and Exeter was handed their first lost of the season, 66-68.

Determined to rebound, Exeter bounced back with dominant victories over Milton, Brunswick, Nobles (again), Proctor and rival Andover. A third of the way through its season, the team had crafted an impressive 8-2 record.

Having to go up against some very strong competition in Choate, BB&N and New Hampton, Exeter fell into a slump, going 1-6 in their next seven games. With the playoffs just around the corner, the team looked to regroup. They fine-tuned their playbook and set out to make a run for the tournament.

Appearing rejuvenated, Exeter humiliated Deerfield and Belmont Hill. The boys then set their sights on Tilton, a double-A powerhouse. Exeter displayed toughness and smarts as the athletes managed to top Tilton 77-72. Tilton went on to win the New England Class AA championship.

Then, after a tough loss to Cushing, Exeter needed to win their final two games of the season to have any chance at making the playoffs. After thumping Thayer and lighting up Andover at home to round out their schedule, the playoff hopefuls awaited the NEPSAC seedings.

Surely enough, Exeter snuck into the postseason as a #7 seed. The #2 seed? Their friends at WillistonNorthampton. Troubled again by the Wildcats’ style, Exeter fell 56-61 in the quarter-finals. WillistonNorthampton went on to beat Suffield 51-48 to win the Class A championship.

While the team wasn’t able to three-peat, it was a successful run nonetheless. Upper James Foye recalled his season highlight.

“The best moment of the season was our biggest win over Tilton,” Foye said.

Meghana Chalasani/The Exonian

Postgraduate Christian Lutete shoots as teammate Evan Crawford positions himself for a rebound.

“Tilton was 23 and 1 at that time, and I think they overlooked us.” Foye went on and called the win a “huge upset” Unfortunately, Exeter will say goodbye to several of its key players in 2015. Graduating student athletes include superstars Evan Crawford, Kyle Daugherty, Christian Lutete and Liam McKersie.

Also saying goodbye to Exeter are cold-blooded offensive seniors Troy Morrison, Hugh O’Niel and Tim Reitzenstein. Andrew Poggione, a 4-year senior who finally cracked the varsity lineup in his final year of eligibility, is also graduating.

After a long time waiting to check-in, Poggione finally got the nod in the final minutes E/a game. After crossing himself over, Poggione posted up and banked in the final basket of the game. His two points spawned an eruption of applause and caused campus safety to push students back off the court.

Before graduating, Daugherty offered reflection on his season in an Exeter uniform.

“This team definitely changed me,” Daugherty said.

“I had to become a much smarter player and make better decisions because I couldn’t get by with just being athletic.”

New England prep basketball is some of the best high school basketball in the country. Annually sending players to top collegiate programs, many NEPSAC’ers have even landed a spot in the NBA, most recently Nerlens Noel (Tilton, ’12).

Looking ahead to next season, coach Jay Tilton has crafted a team with great depth. Some key returners include Perry DeLorenzo, Foye, JT Thompson and the ambitious Kirsch brothers— upper Max Kirsch and

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Upper Perry DeLorenzo looks for a teammate cutting across the lane.

lower Mitchell Kirsch. Next season’s prospects look pretty good with this returning group.

“We have a strong foundation with a tremendous group of returners,” Kirsch said. “[By] adding a few new players to that mix, I think there are some great opportunities we have the possibility to take advantage of,” Kirsch added, regarding the season ahead.

Many Exeter players will seek out AAU opportunities this summer, playing with different teammates under different coaches.

Foye, however, expressed how he’ll miss playing with his Exeter brothers in Love Gym. “I’m going to miss pushing each other to be better and laughing and cracking jokes in D-Hall after practice,” Foye said.

Daugherty, too, will be longing for experiences like those he had this winter. He commented on the admirable drive of the team.

“I liked the way that we came together when things got tough. When we could’ve given up, we didn’t,” he said.

Kirsch echoed Daugherty’s sentiments.

“One word to describe this team would be resilient,” Kirsch said.

“Adversity hit us hard early on, but we never stopped fighting and in the end scrapped out some wins we should be proud of.”

Ultimately finishing the season with a 14-10 record, the players grew and matured over the course of their schedule. With so many talented players scheduled to return in the fall, Exeter is surely going to be eyeing a third NEPSAC trophy. The athletes will have a target on their backs but that won’t stop them.

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Postgraduate Christian Lutete soars to the basket for a contested layup.

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Sunday, June 7, 2015

ExonianPhoto Winter Sports

Photographers: Rachel Luo, Steven Kim and Jena Yun

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SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

SpringSports Season Records

Baseball 7-12 E/a Score 7-3 L

Boys’ Crew 4-8 E/a Score 2nd

Boys’ Lax 13-5 E/a Score 12-11 L

Boys’ Tennis 9-2 E/a Score 2-4 L

Boys’ Track 7-0 E/a Score 95-44 W

Boys’ VBall 7-0 E/a Score 3-0 W

Golf E/a Score

13-0 1st

Softball 10-10 E/a Score 7-0 L

Girls’ Crew E/a Score

Girls’ Lax 7-7-2 E/a Score 11-10 L

Girls’ Tennis 4-5 E/a Score 9-0 L

Girls’ Track 3-3 E/a Score 73-72 L

Girls’ WoPo 8-6 E/a Score 14-6 W

Cycling E/a Score

2nd 1st

3-7 1st

Golf Follows Sub-.500 ‘14 With Perfect ‘15 Season

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Lower Brian Choi sizes up a putt on the greens.

By PHILIP KUHN Staff Writer

“I have never seen a more determined and skilled group of golfers at this school,” varsity golf’s seven year coach Robert Bailey said when asked to describe the 2015 season. No one on the team would disagree. Big Red golf posted an impressive 13-0 record this year, becoming the first golf team to go undefeated in over a decade.

However, coming off a 6-7 record, the team certainly wasn’t predicting this many wins at the start of the season. In fact, a significant portion of this year’s roster consisted of new players, adding another element of skepticism at the start.

This element faded quickly though. According to lower Stella Woo, while the team didn’t know each other very well at the start of the season, it didn’t take long for them to bond and to “begin playing well together.”

“We were supportive, cheerful and respectful of one another which made the team even stronger,” Woo said. “We also had many dedicated golfers who enjoyed practicing, which added even more to the team.”

As one of the new members on the team, prep Daulet Tuleubayev agreed with Woo. While he expected joining a team of mostly lowers, uppers and seniors “wouldn’t be very welcoming,” his expectations proved to be wrong.

“From the very get go, everybody was extremely supportive,” Tuleubayev said. “I felt like part of the group in no time. We were laughing together in just the first week and always provided encouragement for one another.”

From high-fives to inside jokes, senior and captain Paul Lei believed the team’s continuous supported has had a huge contribution to their success. Some of these small gestures seemed insignificant at the time, but overall they made the season a lot more enjoyable for all of

the players and helped them stay motivated, especially when they were struggling.

“Although golf is an individual sport, we managed to really bond as a team,” Lei explained. “It was the little things every day that helped us grow together: the jokes and team workouts. We even motivated each other to perform our best, and each match victory fed off of one another.”

Yet it took a lot more than a strong team chemistry to boost this year’s team to an undefeated season. In fact, the beginning of the season presented many challenges.

To start, snow plagued the campus for its first month, keeping the team indoors. Coming into its first match, the team was still yet to play on an actual course.

Lei went on to explain that even though the team was stuck inside for so long, they took every opportunity See GOLF, G2

B.TennisWins Chip Boys’ Volleyball Brings Home Title in Program’s Second Season

By JI WON SUNG Staff Writer

The Big Red boys’ tennis team ended the season as New England Champions. With an almost undefeated season with only two losses, the team demonstrated unparalleled dedication and positivity.

The most valuable experience for many members of the team was being in a team itself with so much comraderie. Each member showed support for each other, both on and off of the court. Although there were some members who graduated from last season, most of the team returned, making it easier for the team spirit to be alive.

“This season was great because most of the team knew each other from last year, and the new kids on the team integrated themselves very quickly,” senior and captain of varsity B Nick Diao said.

Although tennis is an individual sport, there is always room to show teamwork through doubles matches and cheering for one another if another player’s match hasn’t finished. “During our matches, when most people were done and there was one of us still playing, we would all gather around their courts and support,” prep Pedro Sanson said.

Diao also emphasized the importance of teamwork before having good results. He said that having a good team atmosphere motivated each member to do his best.

The team’s positive energy was exactly what enabled it to have such a dominant season and win the New England Championships.

“If we as a team can feel united, bound together like brothers who happen to be conjoined twins, then we will fight together. During practice, during matches and during tournaments. And that’s exactly what we did. And that’s why we’re New England Champs,” Diao said.

This season was the first time boys’ tennis has ever won a New England Championship, and coach Freddie See BOYS’ TENNIS, G3

Girls’ Water Polo Girls’ water polo was led by a squadron of strong seniors to a successful season.

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Read more on G6.

By VINNY KURUP Staff Writer

This past season was filled with triumph for Exeter’s boys’ varsity volleyball team. According to upper Kyle Xia, the season was amazing. “We felt a lot more confident after just a year of learning the sport,” Xia said, “[and] having an experienced PG really helped.”

In the inaugral 2014 season, a 4-5 record last season was to be expected with a group of players who had never played volleyball before. Despite the results, last year helped prepare the team for the 2015 season. Returning players had some chemistry already formed which made it even easier to incorporate new players. The returners also built upon their development from the 2014 season. “Since this was only the second year of the men’s volleyball program at Exeter, many of us on the team had not played too much volleyball in our lives. We relied mainly on our raw athletic talent,” senior and captain Andrew Poggione said.

The squad’s athleticism certainly paid off for them as they shot off to a 5-0 start to the 2015 season. It also bought the boys time to work on improving their individual skills, which paid off down the stretch. The team suffered its first loss in the third week of the season against NMH, whom they had previously defeated 3-1. In the loss, Exeter had a tough time handling NHM’s size and athleticism. The next weekend, PEA grabbed victories in both of its games and gained some momentum for the next weekend’s championship tournament.

Going into New England’s, Exeter was tied for first seed with NMH. After a flip of the coin, NMH was granted first seed and Exeter the second. After sweeping Choate both in regular-season matches and the semi-finals, the boys continued up their bracket until they played for the crown against NMH. “NMH took the first two sets and we thought we were [done], but we were determined to take at least one set and in the third set we smashed them,” Poggione said. “We were still

Inside Sports Boys’ Crew

Boys’ crew had some struggles across the season, but persevered through to some wins.

Read more on G4.

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Rachel Luo/The Exonian

Postgraduate Hugh O’Neal soars for a spike.

down 2-1, but all the momentum was on our side, and took home a fourth set.”

After a couple apparent lost points in the fifth set that were then awarded to Exeter because of net violations, PEA volleyball See BOYS’ VOLLEYBALL, G2

This Section: Cycling

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Golf

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Boys’ Lacrosse G5

Cycling managed to come in second in New England despite early injuries.

Boys’ Tennis G1

Girls’ Lacrosse G5

Boys’ VBall G1

Track

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Boys’ Crew G4

Softball

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Girls’ Crew G4

Girls’ Tennis G6

Read more on G4.

Baseball

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Girls’ WoPo G6

Cycling

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THE EXONIAN

SPORTS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Lower Ellena Joo follows through her swing.

Golf Wins a Title as Part of Undefeated Season, Only Losing Three Seniors continued from GOLF, G1 they had in the gym to begin preparing for each match. From hitting on indoor mats to designing specialized Coach Sweet workouts, the team’s hard work payed off.

They beat Deerfield for the first time in seven years, starting the season out with a strong momentum.

Like Lei, Bailey also recognized the team’s hard work both in and out of the season to all athletes’ strong start.

“It stems from a lot of hard work during the off-season,” he said. “We have several people who are very avid golfers and will practice and play all year around.

I think that really shows when you put them

all together. It also encourages the kids who only play golf in the spring to try a little bit harder and to train more in the offseason.”

Between the team’s extensive preparation and positive results, according to Tuleubayev, the players kept high spirits.The team never felt overly stressed, and went into each match with the perfect balance of confidence and caution, a recipe for wins.

Woo believed this aspect of caution was an overlooked trait this season. As the possibility of going undefeated grew more probable, the team held themselves from becoming arrogant and slacking off.

“Midway through the season, we were

confident about our game and results, and knew that we were close to claiming the ‘undefeated’ title,” Woo explained.

“But we never gave up that effort, and I remember whenever someone said, ‘Yay, are we undefeated?’ someone else would reply, ‘Just not yet. Almost, but not here yet.’”

The only disappointment of the season came at the very end. While Big Red won each match, they also competed in a couple of off–record tournaments against different teams in their league. The team took first place in their first tourney, but in the second one they fell short of their expectations, finishing third.

Tuleubayev attributed their struggles to it “just being a bad day.” According to him, the team prepared the same as always and came in with the same attitude. But things just didn’t work out for them when it came to hitting and some of their top players found themselves shooting high scores.

As the team moves on in to the next season, they hope to see the same results, and possibly even a better season

Meghana Chalasani/The Exonian

Postgraduate Hugh O’Neal puts his hands up to block an opposing spike.

B. Volleyball Rise to a 9-1 Season, Sweep Andover 3-0 continued from BOYS’ VOLLEYBALL, G1 arose victorious. “We kept strong and stayed mentally alert,” Poggione said. “Despite the monumental task of winning three straight sets against a team that sported a seven footer and - I think - five guys over 6’6, we were able to take home the chip. There was no better moment this season than making that comeback.”

The team’s almost undefeated season, according to Xia, was greatly facilitated by the comradery and energy displayed at each game.

“We were very energetic during the games,” Xia said, “which definitely played a role in our almost undefeated record.”

The members of the team echoed Xia. “If you saw us walking down the street together,” upper Max Kirsch said, “you wouldn’t expect

us all to be on the same team, but the team unity among our ‘odd bunch’ was amazing.”

Not only did the raw talent of each member help greatly, but the team’s chemistry allowed Exeter to come back from a 0-2 deficit in the New England Championships to clinch a victory 3-2.

Poggione summed it up. “Volleyball is not an individual's kind of game. It is a true team sport. We were champs this season because of our excellent team chemistry,” he said. “Because, after all, you can’t get a spike off without a proper set. You can’t get a good set without a nice pass. Each cog in the machine needs to be working well or else the team is in trouble.”

For prep Noah Asch, volleyball was like

where they win each tournament as well.

Knowing the roster will be similar, all of the players seemed confident that these were feasible situations.

Yet the team will still lose three seniors, including their current captain.

To make up for their absence, a few other members of the team will have to pick up the slack and shoot season records next year.

After seeing large improvement in some players this year, Tuleubayev believes the remaining members of the team should definitely be shooting lower scores next year, bridging the gap left by this year’s graduating seniors and possibly even surpassing it.

“Even though we are losing an important member of our team, I feel like our momentum will propel us right into wins next season. With how hard everyone has been working, members on our team are going to improve big time, hopefully making up for the absence of some of our top players,” Tuleubayev said. “Yet no matter how well we shoot, I know it will be a great season.”

a second family and a very friendly group of individuals. “It was a great group of guys, and I didn’t feel like the lower classmen were excluded and alienated,” Asch said. “I felt like I was part of the team from day one, like part of a family.”

Not only was the New England Championship an evidence of teamwork and chemistry, but it was the ultimate test of endurance and mental stamina. “My favorite moment of the season was definitely coming back from a two set to none deficit to win the New England championship,” Poggione said. He continued to explain that in volleyball, it is quite rare to win three straight sets in a row, especially after losing two.

For Xia, the transition from last year allowed him to become better mentally prepared for each game. “As an athlete, I think I’ve learned to have a lot stronger state of mind during games,” Xia said. “This season I was definitely a lot more calm and collected during games.”

Looking forward to next year’s season, Xia hopes to strengthen even further team chemistry.

“Next season I’m mostly looking forward to

seeing the team together again,” Xia said. “It’s a great team, and I just enjoy working hard to get better with them.”

Prep Abel Ngala agreed with Xia. “We are losing some great pieces to the team,” Ngala said, “but next season I’m looking forward to being with that same composition of guys.”

The graduating members will be missed, however. “I had an incredible season with the boys,” Xia said. “Shout out to Andrew for being an amazing captain and Hugh for having the best stats in almost every category.”

With eleven of the fourteen players on boys’ volleyball returning for next year, it’s not inconceivable for Exeter to defend its title as New England champion. The team still has areas to improve upon, specifically passing and serving, if they want the best chances of winning again, but those can be fixed with even more experience and chemistry.

Overall the outlook for the 2016 season is very bright, but in the meantime, the boys can use the summer to kick back, play some beach volleyball and enjoy their championship just a little longer.

THE EXONIAN

SPORTS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Prep Pedro Respold de Sanson positions for a volley while his partner, prep Vinayak Kurup, serves.

Boys’ Tennis Rockets to Top continued from BOYS’ TENNIS, G1 Brussel was extremely proud of all the members of the team. He was especially proud of the team making a great comeback in times of great pressure.

“In the semis and finals of the tournament, we gave up the first three points to comeback to win the next four points to win the matches,” Brussel said. He specifically noted upper Rex Tercek’s impressive victory. “In the semi-finals, Rex was able to overcome three matchpoints and one set down to win his match which was also the team’s victory,” Brussel said.

Upper Joon Kim also picked Tercek’s victory as a memorable moment of the season. “The best moment was actually not winning New Englands, but rather winning the semi finals. Rex was down big, but he came back, and it was really

exciting for us as a team,” he said.

“In the finals, losing the doubles point and the first two matches to finish, [lower] Brian [Niguidula], [senior and captain of varsity A] Moises [Escobar] and Rex evened the match score with their victories, which left everything riding on Ryan [Nguy],” Brussel said. “Ryan lost his first set and had to win the next two to win his match and secure a victory for the team, which he did. This was the first time Exeter has ever won the tournament.

Every member on the team did something well.”

Many athletes credited the team captains for their leadership, and the captains complimented each other. Sanson, as this was his first year being on the team, praised Diao for his leadership.

“Tennis season was the best. As a freshman, it was awesome to have such a good captain who would always help me and teach me how to be a better player,” Sanson said.

Diao and Escobar credited the former captains and explained that their motivation came from the warm atmosphere that was continued from a long time ago.

“Both captains, Moises and I, arrived last year as new uppers. But we immediately found a home on the team, in part the result of the welcoming efforts of last year’s captains. And so we both tried to replicate such vibes for the team this year,” Diao said.

Despite having a strong season, the players felt that there was definitely room for improvement. Most of the team members agreed that the team could have come together and focused more on doubles.

“There are always fields to work on with tennis. I think that some of us fo-

G3

Meghana Chalasani/The Exonian

cused a lot on playing singles and forgot about doubles. Doubles are equally important during a tennis match,” Sanson said, stressing the importance of doubles matches.

Kim echoed Sanson’s sentiments.

“The team could definitely have worked on our doubles,” Kim said.

“What was more often times, we lost our doubles point and fell into an early hole, even though we pulled out most times.”

Kim hoped to improve the team’s performance in doubles next season.

Regardless of what specific aspect of the sport the team will need to focus on, all the returning athletes will need to train rigorously for another successful season next year. The team only graduates three seniors, but the lowerclassmen and rising seniors will all need to step up in order to remain at the top of the league. With the taste of the championship title, the team will only be hungrier for another title in 2016.

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THE EXONIAN

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Cycling Places Second in NE

By JOONHO JO Staff Writer

Exeter’s cycling team claimed second place at the New England Road Cycling (NERC) championships to cap off its 2015 season. The team came short of Gould Academy, which gathered 122 more points than Big Red, while the third place team, Profile Academy, came 850 points short of Exeter. Coming off of a New England championship, Big Red’s cycling team held very high expectations for themselves to start off the year. And as expected, the season started with a bang.

Exeter completed a successful outing in its first race of the year, the Individual Time Trial at Proctor Academy, with the boys’ team collecting first, second and sixth place and the girls’ placing 4th and 10th. Senior and captain Erick Friis, who finished second in all of New England individually, placed first in this race.

As the season progressed, chemistry grew and practices began to improve the skills of the racers. However, injuries to several significant racers on the team began to take their toll on the successes of the team. Two of these injuries occurred midway through the year, when lower Rudi Ying and upper Jun Park were two of the nine racers who were involved in a crash during the Holderness race. After losing points due to these losses, Big Red had to play catch up the rest of the year.

Lower Ricky Lee said that without the “hurdle of these injuries,” there was no doubt that the team would have placed 1st in the NERC Championship race.

Despite this, Exeter fought on. Each practice consisted of hard work and persistence, which pushed each racer to his or her limit.

“While we did encounter quite a few setbacks,

including an injury to a teammate early in the season and quite a few crashes during the races, we were able to overcome each of these challenges as a team and keep pushing forward through the rest of the season,” upper Killian Dickson said. “Everyone on the team worked incredibly hard, which was a major factor to our success this season.”

Another core reason behind the team’s success was the sense of camaraderie and community the cycling team displays each year.

Assistant coach Vikkie Baggia described this season as “one of the best in terms of solidarity, responsibility and camaraderie.”

Likewise, assistant coach Timothy Whittemore said, “I was impressed by the sense of community and support among the riders. The older and more experienced riders offered the younger and less experienced riders tips about how to take care of their bikes and prepare for riding efficiently.”

Lee shared Whittemore’s view on the team’s atmosphere, which made cycling practices his favorite parts of each school day.

“Going to practice is usually the highlight of my day because I genuinely enjoy being with the people on the team, and I am sure that everyone feels that way,” he said. “We each support each other and give each other mental boost.”

With hard work, persistence and a strong sense of team commitment, the cycling team progressed immensely throughout the season.

Returning racers such as Friis, senior and captain Cornelia Smith and upper Tessa Vaccaro continued their strong seasons, bringing the team up in rankings with each race. In addition, new racers, such as seniors Parker Wild and

B aseb all S tuggles Conference Play

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By CHRISTINE HU

Rachel Luo/The Exonian

Upper Tessa Vaccaro leads the way in a race.

Brooks Saltonstall made immediate impacts on the team, as Wild and Saltonstall often finished in the top five or ten in the races.

“Each practice helped us improve and make tactics for races, while chemistry improved day by day,” lower Erik Carlson said.

In addition to the tactics and chemistry, Whittemore noted that the racers grew stronger with each mile they biked in practice. “As the season progressed, some riders advanced as they gained familiarity with their bikes and as they gained leg strength and strategic understanding,” he said.

Lee credited those not only to the hard work, persistence and camaraderie, but also to the enthusiasm of his teammates. “This season, there was definite improvement in returning riders, but there were also quite a bit in new members,” Lee said. “Overall, we had a group of consistent and enthusiastic people which set an environment for success.”

The coaches also contributed to this “environment of success” by providing supportive and advice in both practices and races. “Coach Mills knows just about everything there is to know about the sport, and his expertise and instruction made us the best cyclists we could

be,” Dickson said. “Coaches Baggia, Wakeman, Burke-Hickey and Whittemore were also incredible in preparing us for each of our races.”

On the other hand, Baggia credited the two captains for the environment of success, saying that it was their leadership that allowed the team to perform as it did. “For me, the leadership that Erick and Cornelia showed was exceptional,” Baggia said. “The team as a group loaded and unloaded bikes, pumped up tires, even put bandages on one another's wounds and cheered for one another at races with no prompting by the adults.”

Although the team will lose several important seniors next year, it hopes to continue the successes of the past two years while maintaining the community of the team. “Next season I am looking forward to seeing the improvement that we as a team can accomplish and at the same time just getting a chance to ride with people I genuinely care about and enjoy riding with,” Lee said.

“Looking forward to the 2016 season, I hope we can continue to perform to our greatest potential while continuing to foster the team spirit that makes Exeter Cycling so special,” Dickson said.

Boys’ Crew Falls Short at NEIRAs, Eyes Ahead to ‘16

By VINNY KURUP Staff Writer

Staff Writer

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Exeter’s boys’ second boat strokes their way to victory at Andover.

Senior Sterling Weatherbie hurls a knuckler.

Boys’ baseball finished the 2015 season with a 7-12 record, an improvement from last season’s 6-13 finish.

Although the team faced plenty of hardships heading into the season, the group of talented newcomers and experienced returners managed to pull off some solid wins this spring.

Upper Stephen Cerrone was one of the contributing newcomers this season, and he described his mindset going into the season. “I had really high expectations coming into this season. With a great group of guys and some awesome talent, I thought we would be spectacular. I personally wanted us to win the league title. Besides that, I wanted to improve my own skills,” he said.

Postgraduate and captain Frank Gregoire shared similar ambitions heading into the spring. “Our ultimate goal was to win the New England championship. Our mindset was to win one game at a time and see how far we could make it,” he said.

Lower Collin Shapiro agreed with Gregoire’s optimistic mindset, and also elaborated on the uncertainties the team faced going into the season. “Our mindset was definitely to make the playoffs, as it always is. We knew we would have a pretty good hitting team, but we weren't too sure about the pitching we would have,” he said.

The boys kept an optimistic mindset despite some of the challenges they faced in the early season. “One hardship we faced was not having a spring training and not being able to get outside very early,” Gregoire said. “It was tough to overcome, and it took a few games for us to get into a groove.”

Not having a spring trip made it tough for the boys to compete against

Rachael Luo/The Exonian

teams that had the opportunity to train down south. However, the boys managed to bounce back after losing 6-2 in their opening game against Tabor with a 3-2 win over Holderness school.

Cerrone commented on other setbacks the team faced. “As a team, I thought we were generally flat and without a lot of energy. Whenever things went well, we were full of energy and played great, but when something went wrong, we got down on ourselves and could not really bounce back from it.

We really did not work past this setback, and it hurt the team a lot,” he said.

Shapiro shared some similar viewpoints, addressing the difficulty the team had closing out games. “Some problems we faced along the way were not being able to close games out at the end when we had put ourselves in a position to win.”

He also noted that opposing teams often had superb pitchers. “We also faced some good pitching this year, and unfortunately we were not able to make the playoffs,” he said.

After the first two games against Tabor and Holderness, the team’s record fluctuated rather inconsistently, with two losses against Worcester Academy, a win over New Hampton and a loss against Cushing. Exeter’s 8-6 win in the second game of their doubleheader against Deerfield was what most boys considered to be the highlight of the season.

“One of the more memorable moments for me was when we came back from down six to Deerfield to win our first league game,” Shapiro said.

Cerrone reiterated this statement, reflecting on the highlights of this past spring. “Our second game in the Deer-

See BASEBALL, G7

This past season was filled with triumphs and losses for the boys’ crew team. According to captain and senior Benjamin Cohen, “The season was excellent. We had some ups and downs, but at the end, I think we finished strongly.”

Each boat consists of eight rowers and one coxswain, better known as the 8+ shell. Each gender has six boats: the first two are varsity, the next two are JV and the final two are novice.

The two varsity boats, B1 and B2, went to five regular season regattas to seed them for the New England Interscholastic Rowing Association

Championships (NEIRAs). Both boats had some wins and losses throughout the season, but the road to NEIRAs was different for the top two boats.

According to Cohen, B1’s momentum picked up at the end of the season. “Our boat came together at the end of the season when we changed our mentality from that of a boat that paced to a boat that raced,” Cohen said.

“We started to want it more.”

See BOYS’ CREW, G7

Girls’ Crew Preps for ‘16 With Strong Uppers

By JAMIE CASSIDY Contributing Writer

Exeter’s girls’ second boat powers towards the finish.

The girls’ varsity crew team had a successful season developing new, young rowers.

While their 3-7 record doesn’t reflect a very strong season, the girls cultivated an amiable team atmosphere and geared up for a successful 2016 season.

This year was difficult for the team as the girls lost the majority of last year’s championship-winning team. However, many younger girls stepped up this year, showing great promise for a successful future. The fact that the girls’ second boat (G2) and third boat

Steven Kim/The Exonian

(G3) both placed third at interschols shows that the girls have a strong core to build upon in years to come.

“Next year we will have an awesome group of girls with a drive to succeed,” upper and coxswain Ashley Baxter said. “This year was really a rebuilding season for EGC since we lost so many talented seniors, but next year our younger rowers are coming back ready to challenge the teams we lost to.”

See GIRLS’ CREW, G7

THE EXONIAN

SPORTS

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

G5

Boys’ Lax Has A Terrific Girls’ Lax Falls Short Season, Despite E/a Loss In Many Close Games

By MELISSA LU

By TOM APPLETON

Staff Writer

Contributing Writer

Diana Davidson/ The Exonian

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Postgraduate Grant Schultz darts down the sideline.

Upper Bronwyn Shields looks for a way through the Andover defense.

After posting a strong 14-6 record in 2014, the boys’ lacrosse team entered the new year with high hopes and high spirits.

With the help from some fantastic offseason acquisitions, this Exeter team looked like it had the potential to go the distance. With a great blend of returning and new athletes, the team began training in the fall. Participating in the challenge fitness program and often playing indoor lacrosse, the team gelled and improved before the spring season even began. Heading into the season, Exeter was viewed as one of the strongest teams by its competitors. With senior goaltender Thomas Stockham returning for another year, opponent teams were forced to address Exeter’s dominant defense if they had any chance at besting Big Red. The team was one of the first to begin playing this spring, with a game against St. Seb’s on March 25. After a tough start to their season, the boys came together and motivated each other to be better. The effects were seen almost immediately. Exeter humiliated Cushing 16-4 before crushing Tilton 18-8 to improve to 3-2. After continued practice and work on ground balls, Exeter kept their momentum rolling as they rattled off five consecutive wins against Proctor, Portsmouth Abbey, Pomfret, Dexter and New Hampton. The team was living up to the hype before they ran into Loomis Chaffee. It was a frustrating game, and Loomis’ high energy and up-tempo style of play seemed to shake the boys a bit. Despite being down by seven goals in the closing minutes, Exeter continued to display their willingness to compete and netted a final minute goal to finish off the 3-9 loss.

Determined to bounce back, post-graduate Chris Dumont said, “I think [the loss] will only motivate us to play better in the future.”

Big Red girls’ lacrosse may have ended the season with a disappointing record of seven wins, seven losses and two ties, but the score does not tell the whole story. Their record is not an accurate representation of what truly happened on the field this season. The girls gave their all in every match and came to every practice determined to improve. Every one of the girls’losses were close, the difference being only single goal each game. As head coach Christina Breen said, this year’s team was a “no drama” team: a strong-willed group of girls who worked tirelessly to improve, and that’s what they’ll be remembered for, not their season record.

Senior and captain Elsa Chinburg also said that the season record didn’t reflect the skill of the team. Chinburg looked to the performances in each game, concluding in the end, that she couldn’t have been prouder of the team. Chinburg described this year’s team as “one of the best lacrosse teams [she has] ever been a part of,” and personally, it was her best season at Exeter. Senior and co-captain Clara Hobbie also acknowledged that this year’s season was tough, but in Hobbie’s opinion, that’s exactly what made the team so strong this year. Even after each disappointing loss, the girls were able to pick each other up. Each loss drove them to work even harder for the next game. “Despite [the losses], the members of this team kept me wanting to come to practice each and every day, after wins or losses. Every person wanted to improve in every practice which lifted the team up,” Hobbie said. “We were all frustrated by some games where we did not play to our full potential, but we learned a lot from them and this fueled our drive in the last Andover game.”

While, in the end, Exeter lost to Andover by one point, Hobbie and many others on the team remained proud of their accomplishments in the

After the team committed to heightening the intensity in practice, they entered the final third of their season with a newfound resolution to win out. With help from leaders on the team and the accomplished coaching staff, Exeter addressed some elementary aspects of their game before looking to improve some of their more complicated plays.

With the Brewster Bobcats next up on their schedule, the team was in for one of the most challenging tests. Brewster, a secondary school widely known for its lacrosse program, had caused problems for Exeter in years past.

Stomping Exeter 11-6 in 2014, the boys knew what they were up against and made sure that they would not go down without a fight. The match against Brewster made it clear that the loss to Loomis had not affected the team in the slightest. After a great all-around effort, Exeter eeked out a 12-11 win versus the Bobcats. It was truly a turning point for the team, as it rejuvenated their spirits and gave them the momentum they needed to finish out their season.

In a highly anticipated matchup against Tabor, a game with the Browning Trophy on the line in addition to a father-son coaching matchup, Exeter proved more skillful as they silenced the Seawolves in an 11-6 victory. Next in line were the KUA Wildcats, a team Exeter hadn’t had much trouble with in previous seasons. In another very dominant performance, Exeter improved their record to 11-3 in a huge 17-6 rout. Before a big game against Deerfield, Exeter faced off against the NMH Hoggers.

Much like KUA, NMH has historically put together a good team, but was never able to compete with Big Red. Exeter displayed strong defense and held the Hoggers to just two goals.

After some late offensive fireworks, Exeter rolled out of Gill with a 10-2 “W.”

See BOYS’ LACROSSE, G7

E/a game, as well as their season as a whole. The girls fought hard every second, and that’s what matter the most to the team in the end.

Part of what made this year’s team so strong was the close camaraderie that was formed among the girls. This year’s Big Red lacrosse team was larger than any other year, having a grand total of 30 players. The fun and supportive environment that was created at each practice and game spurred the players to train with even greater fervor. For many on the team, this will be a greatly missed season.

Despite the great size, lower Emily Ryan said that the team never split into cliques or small friend groups—the team was a big family that was all-inclusive. Chinburg agreed, commenting that the friendships created on the team this year were really special. “I’m going to miss so much about this team that I can’t really pinpoint one thing, but I guess most of all I’ll miss the level of camaraderie we have. I really think our team is special in how close we all are, and the levels of support that come from every player.

This is the funniest, weirdest, kindest and most dedicated group of people I have ever been a part of,” Chinburg said. Each voice brought something new to the table that helped push the team further. Ryan said that because the team was so big, the girls had the advantage of many different perspectives, skill sets and personalities that added to their successes.

Learning about each other’s strengths and weaknesses over the season greatly improved the team’s performance. According to many, this was one of the team’s biggest improvements over the season, as they began capitalizing on each other’s strengths, covering for each other’s weaknesses and predicting each other’s movements. By the end of the season, the team gelled on the field, moving as a cohesive unit rather

See GIRLS’ LACROSSE, G7

Spring Track Goes 10-3, Breaks Multiple Records

By CHUDI OBIOFUMA Contributing Writer

Talented, insatiable, dominant. These are a few words to describe one of Exeter’s most successful team, the boys’ and girls’ varsity track team. The team came into the season facing a good deal of pressure. Not only were they coming off of an undefeated season from last year, but they were also facing the final season of many of the team’s strongest runners.

On expectations for the season winter track record holder, upper Vincent Vaughns said, “Coming into the season, I knew the season definitely had a lot of potential.

Coming off of winter, we had great PR’ by [seniors] Mason [Polk] as well as Marcus [Polk] and everyone else was really getting strong in the weight room. That’s when I knew this season could be a great season, and that’s exactly what it was.”

There indeed was a great season coming, as this squad’s greatness shone more and more after every meet and every victory.

Vaughns continued, “We would go out to a track meet on any given day. We were able to execute our races. Even though we were swamping teams, we stayed hungry, and I believe that’s one of the biggest contributors to our success. Even after winning interschols, we did not let Andover one-up us.”

Not only was the team finding itself triumphant over its competition time and time again, but they were also consistently victorious in their fights with the record books.

Marcus Polk broke and matched records in the 110 and 300 meter hurdles and upper Chudi Ikpeazu broke the school record in the discus when throwing against the fourth best thrower in the nation at Belmont Hill.

One of the biggest accomplishments of the season was the completion of a two-year goal to break the boys’ record for the 4x4 relay. A team of seniors Talla Babou, Mason Polk and Holden Hammontree and upper Matt Asante set the record at interschols.

While an incredible feat on its own, it is even more impressive considering they used the relay to clinch their third straight state championship.

The boys weren’t the only ones displaying the fruits of their hard work. The girls’ team sported a number of hall of famers and girls coming close to breaking records themselves. Senior and captain Joey Bolden said, “I think the highlight for me this term was watching [lower] Gwen Wallace blossom into such an amazing athlete. She is one of the sweetest and most dedicated athletes on the team and watching her run or jump was inspiring. It was her first time doing spring track, and she really was a force to be reckoned with. She won triple jump at Interschols and finished the season with a PR of 36 feet 8.5 inches. She soared like the angel she was and it was a blessing and an honor to have her on the team and to be able to call her my friend.”

Senior Marcus Polk flies down the track.

The girls placed third at Interschols, boasting multiple state champions and even placing third in the 4x1.

The 2015 track and field season can only be labeled as a success. On watching her progress through the season, coach Toyin Ikwuakor commented, “A great end to a great season. It was a slow start in after spring break with snow still on our track in April but we still put in the work to sow seeds for strength and speed to be reaped throughout the season. There is always a healthy mix of joy and pain in athletics and with over 100 student athletes giving blood, sweat and tears, the emotions run high and in overdrive. From injuries putting kids out for the entire season to multiple school records being broken, we covered the spectrum of emotions. I’m so proud of our kids. As we say goodbye to our seniors we welcome in a new crop—hungry and talented. Anyone who thinks we can't win a fourth consecutive Interschols title doesn’t know our kids.”

The heart and soul of the track team can be best explained by the remarks of Bolden.

Steven Kim/The Exonian

“This was my fourth and final season of track at Phillips Exeter Academy and going into it, I was sure it was going to be an emotional roller coaster. This was the last time to break personal records, blast away the competition and be with my track family.”

Bolden expressed her admiration for her teammates’ effort and work ethic throughout the season, as well as her love for the sport.

“Track is probably the main thing I’m going to miss after leaving Exeter. No matter what I did on the track, win or lose, Hall of Fame or get disqualified, I felt valued.

Track was probably the one place on campus where I wasn't afraid to make mistakes and take risks because of the wonderful community I had supporting me,” Bolden said.

With many key contributors returning for the 2016 season, Exeter track should once again be a force in New England. Boys’ track will look for their fourth consecutive undefeated season, and girls’ track will try to improve upon their .500 record from this past season.

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SPORTS

THE EXONIAN

Girls’ Wopo Uses Seniors As Means For Success

By JACKSON PARELL Staff Writer

Senior Janet Chen protects the ball as she looks for a shot.

Throughout the 2015 season, Exeter girls’ varsity water polo participated in every practice and game with commitment, hard work and communication. Despite only having four seniors on the roster, the girls were rewarded for their hard work with an 8-6 record, which placed them fourth overall in their division. This year seniors Janet Chen and Michelle Ysreal led the team, working hard to fulfill the legacies left by last year’s seniors. With encouragement from their captains, each player on the team improved her level of play tremendously throughout the season and, in the end, was proud of the team’s overall performances. Now, only graduating a total of four seniors, Big Red girls’ water polo is looking to add to this years’ success next spring and maybe even bring home the division championship trophy

Jena Yun/The Exonian

that the team so narrowly missed this season.

Despite losing many of the key players from last year, Exeter still had many returning stars who were strong forces in the pool. “The returning players were going to see a lot of pool time because we had some big shoes to fill from last season,” coach Melissa Pacific said. The starting line up this year included Chen, Ysreal, senior Emily Zhu, uppers Abigail Ambrogi, Caroline del Real and Madison Hillyard and lower Emily LaRovere. Each player pushed herself during practices in hope of matching the outstanding performance of the 2014 season.

The improvements in the team’s ball skills, chemistry and awareness were noticeable even in the first few practices of the season. Prep Maddie Shapiro recounted her personal experience of how the team’s sup-

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

portive environment helped her grow into a better player.

“The first week of practice I had absolutely no idea what I had gotten myself into.

It was obviously huge for me when I got to play in the actual games not just when we were winning, but when we were losing, too, because the coaches are assuming you're going to help bring the team back.”

Shapiro continued to describe her “turning point” of the season. “One day during practice we were going to start 2-4 shooting, and we had always had all the new people at one goal and the returners at the other. I was going to the new people goal and coach P and Mc T said ‘Maddie, go to the other goal.’ It really clicked for me that they believed in me and so did the rest of my team.”

The improvement of every player on the team led to an overwhelming 12-7 win against Deerfield in the first game of the season, which gave the team great confidence, carrying Big Red through the next three games.

In the next two tournaments, the team kept all of its games close with powerful defense and tight offense, finishing with a record of 6-2 at this point in the season. Then, the girls played two games against Andover and Choate before entering the ending to their season. Sadly, they only managed one victory in their last five games, against Williston, before the playoffs.

Many players attribute the success they had throughout the season to the seniors, especially the captains. Shapiro said, “Janet was definitely a star. She killed it this season, and we scored so many goals just by getting the ball to her. Michelle also was a very important player. She scored a lot of goals off of drives. Dana [Yu] made beautiful shots from the 5 as well.”

However, what really set the performance of captains and seniors apart from those of years past was the fact that they created an accepting environment in which the new players could grow and improve. Lower Autumn Herness said, “The captains and all of the seniors were amazing this season for the new players. We came in with no experience and [were] pretty scared in general, but they taught us so much in and out of the pool.”

Meanwhile, the captains pushed those with more experience to be a stronger force.

“Our captains were supportive and made it fun. They always pushed us and made us work harder,” Shapiro said. “They expected a lot from us because they knew what we were capable of. We always worked our hardest in practice. Janet and Michelle were always there to keep us on track.”

In the future, the girls will be looking to keep up the intensity that they demonstrated throughout their season this year while working on their tactical awareness in the water, which they hope will give them an edge over other teams next year. Pacific said, “We will need to work on ball skill and overall ball play. Swimming is never a downfall for these young ladies, I would like to see us improve in reading and reacting and spatial awareness.”

The team is disappointed to be losing many of its star seniors, but they are excited to see how the preps, lowers and uppers will step up their performances to match the ever-changing competition in their division.

Senior Dana Yu said, “As for next season, four of us seniors are graduating, which is a solid chunk of the starting lineup, but I have faith that the team will continue to improve.

They are all such quick learners, so as they get more experience and more playing time, I have no doubt that they’ll kill it next year.”

Girls’ Tennis Starts Hot, Cools Off Down Stretch

By NOLAN PEACOCK Staff Writer

The Big Red girls’ tennis finished the spring season with a fairly dismal record.

While the team boasted four wins, the team also fell off the wagon on five other matches, finishing the season with 4-5 record. The athletes, however had a great time over the course of the entire season and were pleased with the outcome of their season.

Initially, the outlook for the team was incredibly encouraging. The girls kicked off the season with a 6-3 win over Governor’s Academy. The athletes performed their best in their first match, and started the season off with a bang. This match saw the girls begin to form the intense chemistry that would go on to serve them so well in the latter half of the season.

The following week, the players came away from their match against Northfield Mount Hermon with another win under their belt. Finishing with another 6-3 final score, the girls took down the NMH team quickly and efficiently and added another name to their win streak.

These wins were crucial to the girls’ season, and also provided them with a strong sense of confidence that would prove invaluable in their next match against Tabor Academy. Yet again, the girls team came away victorious with a final score of 5-1.

The team was ecstatic to continue their

win streak, and the girls grew closer as the season progressed.

However, the girls’ spirits were dashed the following week after the team went head-to-head against Andover. Despite some strong performances and a lot of hard work, the girls were unable to win even a single match against Big Blue, and came away from the match with a 9-0 shutout defeat.

This pattern continued into the girls next match against Milton where, again, the girls couldn’t eek out a win. Upper Michelle Bosche said that the team could have put down a better performance if they had maintained more composure in their matches.

“I think if we would have kept our heads more as a team, and been more optimistic about certain matches, we could have done better, but it was fun nonetheless,” Bosche said.

In their next match against Choate Rosemary Hall, the girls did not manage to secure a win, but they did win a few of their matches, and lost to the rival squad 3-6. Senior and team manager Drew Goydan spoke about the girls’ performance this season.

“The girls did a great job keeping team spirit up, even against some tough competitors and match outcomes," Goydan said.

Softball Finishes Second At Big East Tourney

By JOONHO JO Staff Writer

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Prep Ella Johnson anticipates the ball while working the field.

Exeter’s girls’ softball team finished the 2015 season at 10-10, falling short of last year’s record of 11-7. Although the team’s record did not show it, the softball team led an impressive season this year, highlighted by their first place victory at the Big East Tournament at Brooks and 2nd place at the Big East Tournament at Andover.

At the start of the season, the softball team held its expectations low, aiming for a .500 record according to lower Brittani Chapman, as only five of the 14 girls were returning athletes and only two of the 14 were seniors. Upper Sequoia Johnson, one of the five returners, called this past season a “rebuilding year.”

Because of the lack of returning players, and thus the lack of the sense of team, the season

started slow. Over half the team was composed of preps and lowers, and due to this, lower Jada Huang described this team as an “underdog story.”

“I’d definitely say that the team this year experienced something of an underdog story.

We were a very young team and hardly any of us had experience playing together,” she said. “It was clear at the beginning of the season that we couldn’t really call ourselves a team. We didn’t have that chemistry.”

However, as the season progressed, this hindrance did not stop Big Red. Each practice, the players worked hard to improve their game, as well as build chemistry. Outside of the field was the same story—the captains, upper Courtney Gibeley and senior Carly Perreault set up

Meghana Chalasani/The Exonian

Senior Amanda Hu braces for a backhand.

However, the girls managed to come out of their slump, and pull out a win against the Winsor School. Unfortunately, this victory was the last one experienced by the team.

Bosche spoke about her opinion of the season, and expressed her view that the season “was a fun time.”

“We had an okay season this year,” Bosche said. “Our record was not strong, but I think the team chemistry grew a lot from the past years.”

Lower Connie Cai agreed with Bosche. “I think we got really close as a team this year and we had a lot of good times,” Cai said.

Bosche went on to detail the girls’ strong performance at the Kent School Tournament.

“We did much better at the Kent Tournament than we have in years past,” Bosche said. “We didn’t make it to New Englands, but I think the main part of our team is having fun and not necessarily try-

ing to win everything, as there are some amazing teams in our league like Milton and Andover.”

Bosche and her teammates were disappointed with their record, but happy with the experience that they had over the season. She expanded on her favorite moment from this past year’s season. Bosche and her doubles partner, senior Helen Edwards, were competing against a rival team in the midst of a grueling tournament at the Kent School. The girls worked hard, played well and managed to break the tie and continue on the to championship round. “We were on fire and it was a blast to play,” Bosche said.

Bosche looks forward to the upcoming season next spring, and is optimistic about the girls performance next year.

“I’m excited for the new recruits we are getting next year,” Bosche said. “I’m also just excited to hang out with the team.

It’s a fun group of girls and the best part of every season is just the friends you make.”

team bonding trips, such as scavenger hunts and team dinners to create friendships among the girls.

“Since we had a team with only five of the fourteen being returners, we had a lot of team bonding throughout the season,” Chapman said.

“Scavenger hunts, movie nights and frequent team dinners were all a part of the recipe to our teams many successes this year.”

As a result of this, Huang noted that the team grew very close with each other. They were no longer a group of strangers playing softball together but a family. “There were no cliques, and everyone was open to everyone else,” she said. “We really became family.”

Day by day, the group became a team, and at the same time, their on-field tactics and skills were improving. Fielding and pitching became cleaner, which Johnson said were two of the keys to the wins the team claimed near the end of the season.

“We really came together as a team toward the end of the season, but we did not have a strong start,” she said. “Our fielding really cleaned itself up toward the end of the season, which helped us win some close games. Our pitching also made massive improvements from the beginning to the end of the season.”

The chemistry and cleanness of the fielding and pitching all amounted to the win that secured the team’s goal of obtaining a .500 record. At the Big East Tournament at Andover, Big Red was deadlocked with Buckingham Browne & Nichols (BB&N) in the eighth inning. Up to that point in the game, the team had fought extremely hard with a collaborative solid game of defense and offense. Chapman stepped up to the plate, awaiting the pitch. With one sharp crack of the bat, Chapman’s ball flew over the fence and the umpire signaled a walk off home run, which snatched the win in a tough fought game.

Huang marked this match as her favorite of the season. “We had already played another game earlier that day, and then two more games the day before. I think we were behind by six runs at some point,” she said. “And yet, our team gave it all we had, and we were rewarded for it.

It was an amazing experience.”

This season for softball was filled with memorable moments. “The best two moments of the year was winning the Tabor game and placing second in the Big East tournament, which is better than any PEA softball team has placed before,” Johnson said.

In these wins, and even in the losses, several players “stepped up to the plate” for PEA softball such as prep Ella Johnson who finished the season with six home runs for the team lead.

In addition to Johnson, several players noted that the captains played a huge role in the successes of the team, both on and off the field. Huang said that they would motivate and energize the team day in and day out. “This team would not have accomplished all we did this season without our captains, Carly Perreault and Courtney Gibeley,” she said. “They were constant sources of positive energy and motivation, not to mention invaluable team players.”

With the unexpected successes of this young team, the now more experienced team looks forward to next year, in hopes of topping this year’s underdog performance. In addition, it hopes to retain the family atmosphere, which was one of the core reasons behind its wins.

“I absolutely love the team, and I am just looking forward to spending another season with them all; we have really become a family,” Chapman said.

Huang holds high hopes for next year’s season, saying that next year, the team has a chance to come “home from the Big East Tournament with first place.”

THE EXONIAN

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SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

G7

Young Core Looks for Some Redemption Next Season continued from BASEBALL, G4 field double header when we came back to win was the best memory of the season,” he said.

Gregoire agreed with Shapiro and Cerrone, explaining how the boys had made an extraordinary comeback in the latter half of the game. “The most memorable moment of the season was when we scored seven runs in the 6th inning to beat Deerfield in a 8-6 come from behind victory,” he said.

After the match up against Deerfield, the boys pulled off another victory against Tabor Academy.

In the following weeks, Big Red crushed Berwick Academy 14-6 and defeated Northfield Mount Hermon 16-6.

Although the team put a good effort into each of

their games and had some high points in the season, the boys know they can do better in the future.

“Our team did not come close to our goals, and I did not either,” Cerrone said. He also recognized the room for future improvement. “If something doesn't change, then our team will finish the same as we did this year, which hopefully doesn't happen.”

Postgraduate Will Seiferth reflected positively on the season. “Despite some struggles during the season, we really came into our own and came together as a team. It was great being able to play alongside such great guys,” Seiferth said.

Gregoire also looked to the future with optimism.

“We did not reach our original goal, but we all got

better and next year will be another great season,” he said.

Looking forward, the team will be looking to improve on their 7-12 record and hopefully make it to the playoffs. Their prospects look good with a solid group of returning players.

“I’d say next year we will have a good base of returning players, and we’ll look to make a deep playoff run,” Shapiro said.

Seiferth agreed with Shapiro, showing confidence in the returning classes to carry out a successful season. “The future looks bright with a great senior class coming in next year and the younger guys coming on strong this season.”

Boys’ Lacrosse Boys’ Crew has Rocky Season, has Loses 11 Seniors Many Strong Returning Rowers continued from BOYS’ LACROSSE, G5

It was a game that had been circled on the calendars since early March. A game that both Exeter and Deerfield wanted to win more than anything. After a lengthy haul down the the land of the Green Doors, Exeter loosened up and got ready to take on one of the best teams in New England. Deerfield troubled Exeter with their split-second transitions and high energy. It was a back and forth game; Exeter scored, Deerfield scored.

As the final seconds ticked off the clock, the score was tied at 8 a piece. In OT, Deerfield edged Exeter and quickly scored to send Exeter off with a 9-8 loss.

After a quick and easy win over Holderness 9-4, the team shifted its focus to another huge competition against rival Andover. Exeter knew that in order to win the game, shutdown defense was a must. Exeter jumped out to an early lead and maintained control into halftime. The third quarter began and Exeter continued to showcase its skills, but Andover never took its eyes off the prize. Big Blue came out flying and picked apart Exeter's proven defense. They ate away at the deficit until tying things up at 11 by the end of regulation. Overtime was very brief as Andover scored a quick game-winning goal.

Exeter finished the season with an impressive 13-5 record. Graduating from the team are a handful of seniors.

Morgan Burrell will say goodbye to the team along with fellow longstick-midfielder Chris Dumont. Midfield moguls Peter Graves and Max Roche are headed off to college. Exeter is only losing one defenseman in Brendan Graniez. Attackmen Grant Schultz and Bradford von Syring have also played their final game with Exeter. Finally, captains Will Edwards, Tucker Lemos, Winston Smith, and Thomas Stockham have hung up their Exeter uniforms for good.

Fortunately, Exeter has one of the deepest teams amongst all prep schools and is lucky to have several players scheduled to return. Exeter has two starting offensemen returning in Nick McCall and Jimmy Young. Midfield combo Henry Behrens and Bradley Ingersoll have another year of eligibility. McCall also mentioned two incoming post-graduates to help fill the offensive gap left by Schultz and von Syring. Upper duo Alex Farley and Jason Corcoran will continue to set the defensive tone. Upper Malcolm Ogden will also likely serve as next year’s goaltender.

All in all, the year was a success, and despite tough losses towards the end of the season, the boys expressed satisfaction with the way they came together as the year went on.

G. Lax Bids Adieu to Nine Seniors continued from GIRLS’ LACROSSE, G5 than several strong players. The players of this year’s team were unique in that they all played for the team, not themselves. Breen was proud of the girls transformation, commenting that the girls worked “beautifully as a team.”

Another big area the girls improved in was their shooting accuracy. Practicing their shots was a major order of business at every practice, and their hard work paid off—by the end of the season, the girls’ shooting percentage increased from about 20 percent to 70 percent, according to upper Noa Siegel.

Many of the younger team members are saddened to see the seniors go. “I will miss all of the seniors. [Hobbie] and Ruby [Epler] were awesome voices and presences of defense.

[Jenkins] and [Chinburg] were fantastic and irreplaceable throughout the midfield, offense, and defense. Clara [Gilbert], Charlotte [Ouellette] and Erika [Madden] were energetic and loud on the sideline, which definitely helped the people on the field's mindset throughout the game. Finally, Walker [Foehl] had a bounce shot like no other,” lower Hannah Gustafson said.

Undoubtedly, the remaining girls plan to work even harder in the next season to make up for the loss of their dear seniors.

Siegel said that next year’s season will be “a lot of fun.” In addition, the girls on the team this year will be able to carry over this year’s experiences and improve from them. Another area that the team hopes to improve in is their draw controls throughout the game. Doing this, according to Gustafson, along with greater mental toughness, will help Big Red maintain their leads.

The accumulation of seven one-goal losses was one of the biggest mental obstacles the team faced this year. Ryan said that the almost-wins “still sting.” For the next season, the team hopes to strengthen their mental tenacity, going into the next season with the hindsight of this year’s. “Next season we need to learn to hold onto the lead and play a full 50 minutes or 56 if we go into overtime again,” Ryan said.

Most of all, the girls hope to recreate a friendly and supportive environment. This year’s team dynamic inspired many to improve and gain confidence. Upper Allegra Grant, who played as a lacrosse goalie for the first time in her life, was especially grateful for her teammate’s continuous support over the season.

Upper Jacie Lemos and prep Charlotte Polk will be rejoining the team next year. The two had not been able to play this season because of previous injuries.

Everyone on the team contributed to this year’s success.

The girls' hard work goes beyond the numbers and each girl acknowledges that as the most important part of lacrosse.

continued from WRESTLING, F1

Exeter’s first boat thunders down the race course. continued from BOYS’ CREW, G4 Upper Jake DellaPasqua agreed. “We had a tough start, but the team stuck through a few losses and ended up with a strong finish at NEIRAS.” DellaPasqua accredited the changed mindset to early losses.

“Throughout the season we became much more aggressive. We no longer went into racing thinking we would win, and we began to go into every race knowing it would be a fight. Everyone started to give it their all, and we left it all out on the water.”

According to DellaPasqua, because B1 didn’t have the season’s early success that last year’s B1 had, the boat had to take on an underdog mindset this season. The aggressive and confident mindset acquired over the season was a deciding factor at NEIRAs. The B2 also started off the season as an underdog. “During the first race of the season, we ended in a disappointing fourth place,” upper and coswain Will Rau said. “We came to the boathouse on Monday ready to work, and two weeks later, we beat Andover.”

For B2, the moment of change happened during the E/a race.

“I remember crossing the 300 meter mark at Andover, and yelling ‘Shut the door, boys!’” Rau said. “It became our motto—we tried to ‘shut the door’ on all the other teams for the rest of the season.”

At NEIRAs, when Rau called it again, he said that he could see the fire in the rowers’ eyes.

That wasn’t the only invigorating moment for the 2V. “At Saint Paul’s we found our spirit,” said Rau. “I remember yelling ‘time to move, boys. Let’s finish them!’All of a sudden, we could feel the boat rise out of the water.” For Rau, beating Saint Paul’s was the moment that propelled the boat forward into NEIRAs. The season ended with NEIRAs a week after the St. Paul’s race. The varsity boats entered with high hopes and aspirations, aiming to win gold medals for both boats after an unsuccessful 2014 NEIRAs. Accord to upper Mahesh Kumar, however, the competiton this year was quite intense. “This was a tough season,” Kumar said. "The entire league was incredibly fast this year, and competition was tough for all of our boats.”

Steven Kim/The Exonian

Going into NEIRAs, Exeter’s B1 was seeded seventh.

However, after getting the better of St. Paul’s the third time around, they made the Grand Finals and finished fifth. The B2 placed fifth as well, and Rau was happy with the performance of the B2 throughout the season.

“Overall we had a great season,” Rau said. “The boys in the boat helped me develop into a much more receptive and skilled cox, and we pushed through a tough start to come back and win some huge races including ones against Andover and St. Paul’s.”

Both boats contributed a lot of time toward the season even before spring term began during pre-season training, Kumar said. “Training this winter had a heavy focus on physical conditioning. “We spent a lot of time getting into shape for the racing season.”

Once spring season rolled around, the rowers were quite ready to face the challenges ahead. “Once we got onto the water this spring, our focus shifted to more technical based issues,” Kumar said. “The spring was definitely more about honing our form and developing the speed we cultivated in the winter months. As an athlete I saw my efficiency on the water improve throughout the season.”

Another aspect of improvement over the course of the season was mental. “I began to learn what it felt like to race, rather than just row a race,” DellaPasqua said.

Coming into next season, the team expects a improvement through rigorous winter training. “Though erging gets to be monotonous, training with a good group of guys makes the long hours a lot more bearable,” Kumar said. “As much as I’m looking forward to racing next spring, I’m also excited to get a lot faster with the team in the winter.”

Rau echoed Kumar’s thoughts. Because B2 made the Grand Finals this year, Rau stressed the importance of off-season training. “Off-season training will be huge,” he said. “After we made the [finals] at NEIRAs this year, better off season training will help us win the championsip next year.”

DellaPasqua said, “We can bring the cup back to Exeter.”

Girls’ Crew Takes Pair of Bronzes at NEIRAs with Top Three Boats continued from GIRLS’ CREW, G7

Coach Marshall Moore agreed with Baxter’s sentiments and elaborated upon the importance of team improvement and development over the season. “This was an important year in the growth of this program,” Moore said. “Even if some boats did not place as highly as they hoped for going into this season, the girls were successful, showing great improvement and winning strong races in the regular season.”

However, the girls feel there is still significant room for off-season improvement. Crew, like most other sports, is often defined not by the work put in during the season, but by the team’s dedication to come in together and work out, even when they have other commitments. For the girls, that training comes in the winter, when the girls are relocated from their boat house and shoved in the far reaches of the gym with their male counterparts.

“Moving ahead we have a lot of work to do,” upper Lily Sexton said. “We especially need to focus on our sprint at the end of the race because it’s often where we get beat. This season will remain ingrained in our minds, and it’ll definitely help motivate us to pull harder in the offseason.”

One major difficulty that the team faced this year was the brutal winter. While winter training is certainly beneficial to strength, it takes time on the water to develop the true technical skill that a rower needs to preform well. This year, the girls lost this time to the elements. Instead of getting on the water, the girls spent weeks stuck conditioning on land while strong competitors were able to row in warmer areas over spring break or simply row on their own river that had thawed. This disadvantage significantly hindered the team. However, the team showed both talent and depth consistently this year after the setback and is only getting better.

“I think one of our biggest obstacles this year was the weather,” upper Katya Scocimara said. “We only had a total of five weeks practicing on the water, and that makes a huge difference in how well we row as a team and our chemistry in the boats. Another thing that was tough this year was that we had a pretty young team, so there was a lot of learning that needed to be done before we started to reach our full potential.”

Upper Olivia Reed agreed with Scocimara, but she was quick to emphasize the positive attitude that came with the team. “This season was tough for because we had so little water time and many injuries on the varsity boats. Despite these challenges, we came together and supported each other. I think we have learned a lot from the adversity and losses we faced this season, and we’ll be ready to come back strong next year.”

Over the course of the season, all of the girls’ races were to reach a higher seed for the New England Interscholastic Rowing Association Championships (NEIRAs). On Saturday, May 23, the girls set out early in the morning to compete at Lake Quinsigamond, Worcester, Massachusetts for the NEIRAs. Brisk winds and cool temperatures that offset the boats were a major factor for the early races for the first heats.

However, as the day progressed, temperatures reached the high 70s with lighter breezes. The King, the M. Cat and the Stanley, the top three boats, rowed well this year and were seeded favorably heading into NEIRAs. Every boat made the Grand Finals, and both G2 and G3 placed an impressive third place in their respective divions. G1 was slightly disappointed by its 5th place time, but seven out of the nine rowers will be returning next year to compete again and avenge their loss.

However tough the results may have been for the girls, they kept their heads held high and enjoyed their time together as a team. “On the way back from NEIRAs, after a long, hard day, all of the varsity girls sang, or screamed really, the whole way back,” Baxter said. “No matter the outcome this season, we all smiled together and made each other laugh.”

One of the things that separates the girls’ team from the boys’ is a tradition known as the “Manus Tria” system. Similar to “psychs” on other teams, Manus Tria is a psych group that involves a girl from each level - varsity, JV and novice. The groups not only get the girls amped up for race day, but also allows them to form a friendship with girls from other boats.

All in all, the girls have pushed each other throughought the whole season in more ways than one, but they’ve had each others’ backs the whole way. Scocimara said. “I’m glad I had the other girls with me to help me reach my limits and go above and beyond.”

G8

Sunday, June 7, 2015

ExonianPhoto Spring Sports

Photographers: Steven Kim, Rachel Luo and Jena Yun

The Humor Page Vol. 2, Number 1

The Oldest Preparatory School Humor Page in America

www.theexonian.com

Sunday June 7, 2015: Graduation Issue

Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire

Congratulations on the Diploma ...

Graduation Quote Box

By WILL ETTINGER

I didn’t Send Quote Confirmations

Drew Goydan—“I’m going to UChicago. So nothing will change.”

Katie Liptak—“Biggest regret? The Exonian.”

Thomas Hassan—“I can’t wait until grad. I’ve already got my whole summer planned out. I’m going to spend a couple of weeks bumming around Europe, complaining how terrible everything is.”

AJ Cosgrove—“I hate senior spring. Everybody looks too happy. It bothers me.”

Stuart Rucker—“I can, without the smallest shread of doubt, say that the seniors are graduating.”

Letter from the Editors

By ASHLEY BAXTER

The Exonian Sugarmomma

“We’re not stealing it. We’re borrowing it.” wear four days in a row (inside and out, front and back).

By ASHLEY BAXTER and WILL ETTINGER Biz Board > Ed Board

Dear Seniors, You thought Exeter was bad… wait until real life hits ya.

You thought emergency doubles were bad… wait until you have studio apartment with no air conditioning and a roommate you met on Craigslist who has an affinity for feet.

You thought Mr. Hardej was strange… wait until you sit on the train next to that man who is proudly wearing just an overcoat.

You thought dhall was bad… just wait until all of your meals are found or donated.

You thought E&R was bad… just wait until you have to wear the same Duane Reade bag as under-

You thought dating here was bad… just wait until your search parameters on JDate are over thirty and never married.

You thought the health center was bad… just wait until your same feet-loving roommate assures you he played a lot of Operation as a child.

You thought prep hazing was bad… just wait until you are at Goldman getting paddled.

You thought EP was bad… just wait until a blind date actually means dinner with her seeing eye dog. Just her seeing eye dog.

You thought the dress code was bad… just wait until your only collared shirt is your Dunkin’ Donuts uniform.

Lessons Learned

By AUDREY DEGUERRERA Wise Person

The value of an Exeter education, as many often say, cannot simply be measured in dollars. Though you can spend millions of pennies on just four years of education, the life lessons students learn while attending the Academy are arguably worth much more.

From the dorm to the classroom, students learn from every aspect of their life at Exeter, and here are several of the most beneficial, yet underappreciated benefits of an Exeter education: You learned how to get ready for class in under five minutes: Regardless of whether you live in Moulton or in Wheelwright, you were always able to make it to class less than five minutes after getting out of bed. In leggings, a messy updo or in a polo in tie, rolling into your first class on time was effortless by your second term.

Besides, who cares if you haven’t washed your hair in days or look twelve years old without make up on?

You still made it to class, and your teacher can’t dick you for being ugly. By utilizing the jog-walk, a mode of transport key to success at Exeter, you were able to get from point A to point B on campus in an seemingly

Dear loyal Humor Page readers, Courtesy of Will Ettinger’s awesome Photshop skills

You thought the crew culture was a cult… just wait until you interview at JP Morgan.

We apologize for this year’s paper.

Best, Your Humor Editors

Yo u t h o u g h t t h e Wi F i w a s slow... just wait you are sitting outside of Starbucks streaming House of Cards because the internet is for paying customers only.

Quincy Through The Years

You thought fac brats were annoying... just wait until your English Major lands you a job as an Au-Père with one of the bratty off-brand Rockefeller kids.

Cheating at Photojournalism

Some pictures help us look back at Quincy Tichenor’s four years at Exeter, and you can see his shades. H1.

Steven Kim/ The Exoian

You thought the Exonian was bad… it is. But shhhh don’t tell Jack Hirsch.

Love,

Lower Year Quincy

The grumpy omelete guy

inhuman amount of time, and this will pay off when you continue to oversleep in college.

You learned to act like you knew what you were talking about: At some point in your Exeter career, you showed up to an English class without even touching the reading. We’ve all been there. For the next fifty minutes, as any smart, stressed student in your situation, you stared at the unmarked pages of your book, nodded enthusiastically, and tried not to gasp as other students spoiled the reading for you. If you were brave (read: if you cared about your participation grade), you even tried to make sense of what other students were saying and attempted to toss in a comment that was vaguely related to the text. After twelve, nine, six, or just three terms of this, you are ready to use this skill where it will matter most: job interviews, hitting on girls/guys, or when someone strikes up a conversation with you when they see your Exeter t-shirt.

You learned how to juggle school, sports, sleep and a social life: Just kidding—you didn’t. No greater lie has been told than that an Exeter student can successfully juggle all four of these important aspects of Exonian life without significant stress. The life lesson here is that, by coming to Exeter, you’ve learned that 24 hours is shorter than it seems, and only so much can be fit into one day. Prioritization is key, and no matter where you go, you’ll continue to fight this battle in college — you may even have to delete your Snapchat, Facebook, Tumblr, and/or Instagram.

I’m Coming Home

Humor Editors William Riche Ettinger, Audrey Daggers and Kevin Leslie Zhen put jokes on a page. H2-5.

Courtesy of lionlinks.exeter.edu

Upper Year Quincy

Senior Year Quincy

Humor’s Forecast

Will & Kevin Tell Jokes

Tom Appleton modestly recounts his journey back to the ice and his hometown. H3.

Steven Kim/ The Exoian

Prep Year Quincy

You thought Las Olas gave you the runs... just wait until your girlfriend convinces you to do a super cleanse.

Inside The Humor Page

Check out Quincy’s face

By WILL ETTINGER

Yesterday: Not Snowing The Day Before That: Hot enough to go bridge jumping.

Graduation: Sunny with a chance of crippling debt

H2

THE EXONIAN

Changes to Exeter for the 2015-16 School Year

By WILL ETTINGER and KEVIN ZHEN Still Angry About Our Couches

Because of the over enrollment, Peabody is going to become a boy’s dorm.

The Exonian is going to be printed in a Russian-Swahilian hybrid.

Dem Club and Pub Club are going to get along.

The Cage will give students the bubonic plague and bronchitis.

Our principal’s spouse won’t control the New Hampshire State Guard.

Grill prices will rise (no surprise).

3 fewer people will listen to WPEA. Mr. Cosgrove will convince new principal to cancel all future Principal’s Days and Sundays.

The news editors are going to become even more uptight (beware new writers).

The health center is engaging in a new promotion: condoms will now prevent sexually transmitted diseases, such as senioritis.

Webster will be undergoing un-renovations and returning to its previous asylum-like state.

The Boys’ Varsity Swim Team will donate their body hair to the nearest St. Jude’s Hospital.

Tom Appleton will rejoin Girls’ JV Puck.

New Exonians will no longer be able to bridge jump because of the dam.

You’re finally gonna talk to that prep who never left his room.

Dhall will serve food.

Exeter will establish a satellite campus on the moon.

Grades will depend on the amount of legacy in your blood.

Billy from Cilley will drop his new album: “I am the Best.”

Floyd Mayweather will enroll with the hope of learning to read. He might not be able to find his way here.

Advisors will be replaced by angry grizzly bears.

See FUNNY, H2

HUMOR

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Mysterious Streak of Spontaneous Couch Combustions Leads to New Rules

By SAM KUSHELL

Senior Sitting Correspondant

EXETER, NH— Ever since Charles Dickens wrote about the topic in 1853, people have wondered about the plausibility of spontaneous human combustion. However, no one ever gave a second thought to the possibility of their upholstered furniture bursting into flames… that is, until now. All throughout the quaint town of Exeter, NH, residents’ comfy chairs, couches, carpets and, in the nicer parts of town, padded toilet seats, have been catching fire without any apparent cause.

“We were just sitting in our living room, watching some old MacGyver reruns, when our couch caught on fire out of the blue!” an Exeter resident, Edna Leighton, claimed. “Luckily, MacGyver was in a similar situation, so we kept watching and figured out how get out safely.” Leighton was one of the luckier victims. Another Exeter man, Paul Gregors, was home alone simply enjoying clam chowder breakfast and half a (subpar) bagel when he initially smelled the smoke. He described the pain of going into the next room only to find his favorite comfy chair burning to a crisp: “That chair was like family to me,” Gregors eked out between sobs.

Between situations like the close call of the Leightons and the Gregors’ terrible loss, the Exeter Fire Marshall has come under a lot of pressure to figure out a way to stop this epidemic. The final decision of the department was a total recall of all upholstered furniture. “We’ve never seen anything like this. But you know, desperate times, desperate measures. Of course, this is the only situation when it would resonable to ban couches,” a spokesperson of the Fire Department said.

Phillips Exeter Academy students are overwhelmingly dismayed at the decision under the impression that, without furniture or rugs, their dorm rooms will “feel even more like prison cells,” in the words of one 333-writing Upper.

When asked to comment on how effective he thought the recall-strategy is, the Fire Marshall responded, “We’re unsure this will actually solve the issue of all this spontaneous combustion. As you probably know from your high school chemistry class, the way things combust is by reacting with oxygen, so phase two of this plan is to remove all of that pesky gas from Exeter as well.” The Fire Marshall continued to describe the imminent installation of a vacuum dome over the town, to ensure that no oxygen is allowed in. “We expect a slight drop in the town population, but we are 100 percent sure that this will stop this terrible streak of unprompted fires.”

Other towns in the surrounding area are having similar issues as well. A recent Portsmouth police report described a peculiar case concerning spontaneous combustion. Linda Reltan, the wife of victim Walter Reltan, described the scene: “He came back late, around 3 a.m., and I knew he had been up to something.” Reltan says she asked her husband whether he had been with another woman. “Of course he said, ‘no,’ but I knew it was a lie the second it came out of his mouth.” It was at this point, Reltan claims, that her husband’s jeans burst into flame. Portsmouth’s City Council is considering asking the Fire Marshall to impose a temporary ban on all trousers; however, this seems excessive to many residents of the city, as it appears that only liars’ pants are on fire.

Students Don’t Like Change FUNNY, continued from H2 After a heated debate in StuCo, preps will no longer be able to speak, except for in special circumstances, such as in the Op-ed page.

Dean Cosgrove is giving his deanship to go on tour with a Spice Girls tribute band. He’s Mel B. Ms. Trueman will remove the head of the next person who fails to purchase their bus tickets on time.

Students will realize that nowhere in the E Book does it say that you can’t have sex during open door legal Vs. The humor writers will finally be released from Cosgrove’s dungeon.

Prep health courses will now teach basic hygiene.

Budget cuts: Abbott will be destroyed. Nobody will notice.

See FUNNIER, H4

HUMOR

THE EXONIAN

I’m Coming Home

By TIM ORANGETON A Big Deal

Before anyone ever cared where I would play hockey, I was a kid from southeast New Hampshire.

It’s where I walked. It’s where I ran. It’s where I cried.

It’s where I bled. It holds a special place in my heart.

People there have seen me grow up. I sometimes feel like I’m their son. Their passion can be overwhelming. But it drives me. I want to give them hope when I can. I want to inspire them when I can. My relationship with southeast New Hampshire is bigger than hockey. I didn’t realize that a year ago. But I do now.

Remember when I was sitting there in the scorers’ box in 2014 next to Gracie and Chris, the athletic trainer? I was thinking, This is really tough. I could feel it. I was leaving something I had spent a pretty brief amount of time creating. If I had to do it all over again, I’d obviously do things differently, but I’d still have left. Girls’ hockey, for me, has been almost like juniors for other kids. These past 6 months helped raise me into who I am. I became a better player and a better manager. I learned from a program that had been where I wanted to go. I will always think of girls’ hockey as my second home.

Without the experiences I had there, I wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing today.

I went to girls’ hockey because of Coach P and CB. We made sacrifices to keep DD. I loved becoming a big bro to Kat. I believed we could do something magical if we came together. And that’s exactly what we tried to do! The hardest thing to leave is what I built with those girls. I’ve talked to some of them and will talk to others. Nothing will ever change what we accomplished. We are family for life. I also want to thank Az, Marley, and Clara Gilbert for giving me an amazing year.

I’m doing this essay because I want an opportunity to explain myself uninterrupted. I don’t want anyone thinking: He and Coach Pacific didn’t get along. … He and BreMiller didn’t get along. …

GVH couldn’t put the right team together. That’s absolutely not true.

I’m not having a press conference or a party. After this, it’s time to get to work.

When I left boys’ JV puck, I was on a mission. I was seeking free periods, and I got two.

But I already knew that feeling. Our team hasn’t not had that feeling in a long, long, long time. My goal is still to beat Andover by as many goals as possible, no question. But what’s most important for me is bringing one trophy back to boys’ JV puck.

I always believed that I’d return to boys’ JV puck and finish my career there. I just didn’t know when. After the season, free agency wasn’t even a thought. But I have two ears and my 32nd cousin thrice removed’s dog, Stella, who is pregnant with 9 puppies. I started thinking about what it would be

like to raise my family in the JV locker room. It’d be terrible. That place stanks. I looked at other teams, but I wasn’t going to leave GVH for anywhere except JV puck. The more time passed, the more it felt right. This is what makes me happy.

To make the move I needed the support of my advisor and my mom, who can be very tough.

The letter from Coach Glennon, the booing of the boys’ JV puck fans (I see you Malcolm Ogden), the jerseys being burned (sorry, Mac. I’ll get on that payment)—seeing all that was hard for them. My emotions were more mixed. It was easy to say, “OK, I don’t want to deal with these people ever again.”

But then you think about the other side. What if I were a kid who looked up to an mediocre-at-best junior varsity athlete, and that athlete made me want to do better in my own life, and then he left? How would I react? I’ve met with Coach, face-to-face, man-to-man. We’ve talked it out. Everybody makes mistakes. I’ve made mistakes as well. Who am I to hold a grudge?

I’m not promising an E/a victory. I know how hard that is to deliver. We’re not ready right now.

No way. Of course, I want to win next year, but I’m realistic. It will be a long process, much longer than it was in 2015. My patience will get tested. I know that. I’m going into a situation with a young team and a lively coach. I will be the old head. But I get a thrill out of bringing a group together and helping them reach a place they didn’t know they could go. I see myself as a mentor now and I’m excited to lead some of these talented young guys. I think I can help Austin Scronce become one of the best left wingers in our league. I think I can help elevate Morgan Himmer and Billy O’Handley. And I can’t wait to reunite with Jason Corcoran, one of my favorite teammates.

But this is not about the roster or the organization. I feel my calling here goes above junior varsity hockey. I have a responsibility to lead, in more ways than one, and I take that very seriously. My presence can make a difference in GVH, but I think it can mean more where I’m from. I want kids from southeast New Hampshire, like the hundreds of Oyster River third-graders I mercilessly dangle around at stick ‘n puck, to realize that there’s no better place to grow up. Maybe some of them will come home after college and start a family or open a business.

That would make me smile. Our program, which has struggled so much, needs all the talent it can get.

On Rink B, nothing is given. Everything is earned. You work for what you have.

I’m ready to accept the challenge. I’m coming home. (inspired by Lebron James’ piece I'm Coming Back to Cleveland published on July 11, 2014 in Sports Illustrated Magazine)

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

H3

History 334 To Become Diploma Requirement

By AUDREY DEGUERRERA Lives in the Library

EXETER, NH - In a move that can only be described as cruel and unusual, the faculty, with strong recommendation from the history department, have added History 334: Hell on Earth as a diploma requirement.

This course will cover nuances of U.S. History that all of your previous classes missed, such as President Pierce’s favorite color and why Hillary Clinton looks so old, among other important details. The class will culminate in what will become the infamous 334, a paper so long that you will not even remember what your bed feels like by the time you turn it in. While the student response has been generally nonexistent because students do not fill out email surveys, history teachers see the 334 as necessary to truly prepare students for college, just like my third grade teacher said I would need to know how to write in cursive.

“I feel that it is our job to remind students that yes, their lives do stink, and will continue to stink, and that they should get used to it,” the current history department chair said, “Maybe with the advent of the 334, students will realize that they should have gone to Andover when they had the chance.”

Although the history department attributes their creation of the 334 to their desire to expand the horizons and crush the souls of current students, some wonder if the decision may have stemmed from the department’s insecurity about history being an elective course. According to our insider who is definitely not the new guy, verbal frustration about the elective status is often expressed during meetings, but due to the family values of The Exonian, we are unable to print their comments at this time.

Other members of the history department cite population control as their driving factor in supporting the 334.

“This school has too many kids running around it,” disgruntled history teacher said, “Perhaps if we made History 334 a requirement, we’d have fewer of those darned preps running around the quad. Maybe then we wouldn’t always be over-enrolled, converting doubles into triples, and dicking students for assembly when they all can’t physically fit in the assembly hall.”

While we expect that the student body will be quite upset when they finally get around to checking their email, we found one student deep in the bowels of the library who claimed to be quite excited for the new history course.

“I can’t wait to take U.S. History 334,” said No Won Ehver, “It’s not like I have anything else going on in my life. I’m not really sure what a social life is, I don’t play any sports or an instrument and I’m not involved in any extracurriculars on campus. In fact, I’m not actually taking any other classes except for U.S. History, so the 334 course will be perfect for me!”

The new diploma requirement will become effective immediately, and all those currently enrolled in History 333 will be required to take the course in the fall.

A Brief Summary of Prep Year Courses

By EMILY GREEN Didn’t Pay Attention

English: Even if you think you’re showing, you’re probably still telling.

Bio: The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.

Physics: Gravity is like my GPA. With physics, it only goes down.

Comp Sci 205: There are only 10 types of people in the world. People who know binary and people who don’t.

Latin 110: I’ve made a mistake.

Math 110 - ∞ : You think you know what’s going on, but you really don’t.

The End Has Come

By MAJESTIC TERHUNE Halfway There

Graduation is here and I am sad to say it.

And by sad, I mean internally cheering louder than at E/a. Many won’t see their classmates for several more years, and some will never return.

Inside jokes will be something only you get, Saturday classes will be suppressed memories and someone else will inherit your assigned prison blanket. But when you’re handed that diploma, is that really it? Is that when your Exeter experience is over? This is how to recognize the end.

Lingo—you can no longer call someone out on being a Harkness Warrior and expect them to know that they’re being a lint licker.

(Alternatively, you can accuse someone of being a Harkness Warrior and not be considered rude.) If you tell people that you went bridge jumping, they might imagine you to be an adrenaline junkie, but in reality you are actually the opposite. No one will appreciate the terminology you use for missing a class, and if you ask bae for fives, they’ll just try to pay you.

Worries—it probably seemed like that one math test was going to make or break you, and though you took multiple Stillwell’s trips to expel the thought of the dark hole that is your grades, it does not really matter. You’re still going to wake up the next morning, get a job, push on pull doors and pursue impossible dreams. Asking the right person to tea is not the equivalent of asking the right person to marry you (hopefully). Look through their wardrobe, look through their Facebook and you’re good.

People—maybe sports game attendance is low, but support certainly is not. It can be hard to find someone willing to stay up past three

in the morning just to debate the philosophical significance of goats’ mineral cravings. Sure, that could be because everyone at Exeter is as unstable as you are, but the comradery is still there. No one will ever wave as enthusiastically at cars as Exonians when T. Hassan is in town.

And how many of your future English teachers will actually want to see your interpretive dance moves? At Exeter, people are generally above average when it comes to putting up with who you are.

Want to leave—expressed in countless forms of media as the coming-of-age story, there comes a point when everyone wants to be more than the daily routine of 8 a.m. classes and failed adventures at the panini press. There are people here who have been to nearly every continent, and you’re going on your third straight month in New Hampshire (congrats on surviving). When your time has come, your time has come.

And this is how to recognize that it’s not really over.

No matter how much you try to escape, you run away from something that has, for better or for worse, affected you as a human being.

Your friends might not understand what “D” you are referring to when you say you want to go to a DHall, and no one will ever appreciate how much of a perfectionist you are. And you probably didn’t ask for it, but you now have the unshakable ability to distinguish between brick buildings. Whether you decide to go off the grid or come back (a true act of non-sibi), Exeter will, much like your 333 or that AP Physics final, haunt you for better or for worse.

20th Century History: Communism is like varsity football. Good on paper, bad in action.

Religion and Pop Culture: GOD IS EVERYWHERE. Faith and Doubt: GOD IS NOWHERE. Photography I: Is this a class?

Fall Health Class: How to “meditate” during assembly.

Winter Health Class: Stay in drugs, don’t do school.

Spring Health Class: We watched the birth video. Backwards.

Prep Spaz: What’s the lamest way someone can get a concussion?

Drama Sports: The answer to the question above.

H4

THE EXONIAN

Students Still Don’t Like Change FUNNY, continued from H2

HUMOR

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

25 Things You Should Do as an Alum

By MAJESTIC TERHUNE Director of Alumni Affairs

1. Escape from New Hampshire.

The Health Course “Human Pursuit of Euphoria” will begin experimenting with foul-tasting mushrooms for educational purposes.

2. Stop shaking.

Stricts will be replaced by a mandatory 2-hour punishment seminar where you just listen to Benj talk about his 2k time.

5. Forget the majority of the things that you learned.

Grades will be given in the form of emojis, and Out-Of-Towns will need to be requested in interpretative dance.

Dorm assignments will be determined by the Harry Potter sorting hat.

PGs graduate. Nobody ever wears a bucket hat again.

Rex blows up a new girlfriend.

3. Grow back the hair you lost upper year.

4. See a therapist.

6. Regret never bridge jumping.

7. Bridge jump.

8. Breath a sigh of relief knowing that college will be easier.

9. Find out that college isn’t easier.

10. Actually have a reason to stay up past midnight.

11. Attempt art.

12. Scare your parents by saying you’ll be an English major.

13. Invest in sweater vests and monocles to remind everyone you went to boarding school.

14. Spend time trying to convince people that boarding school didn’t mess you up.

Georgia moves on from Tinder to Andover girls. People still make fun of his “love life.”

15. Write a narrative about your experience.

People will finally realize that Tim Jones and Sage Mason are two different people, but only because Sage graduated.

17. Become Mark Zuckerberg.

The cross-country team finally admits “Ache te Vitu” means “I wish I played a real sport.”

College admission officers will decide acceptances by throwing a dart at a board with our Lionlinks photos. If you’re a legacy you get 20 extra photos.

16. Become Dan Brown.

18. Become Andover’s principal.

19. Never wake up at five for illegal V’s again.

20. Never call sexual activity “illegal V’s” again.

21. Facebook stalk your classmates (oh wait, you already do that).

22. Realize that there is no food for you to eat and you either get fat off of take-out or starve (oh wait, you already do that too).

23. Exercise your voting rights and vote Hassan for First Gentleman.

#JustExeterThings

24. Donate a statue of yourself.

25. Dick your own assembly.

By MAJESTIC TERHUNE A Sentimental Lower

Humor Editor Will Ettinger would like to take this time to reflect upon all of the times this year that he hasn’t had enough space to fill up the Humor Page. He remembers fondly all of the times that he’s had to use creative spacing to fill up empty space and get his work done.

A Graduation Puzzle

By WILL ETTINGER

I Spent my Saturday Editing the Graduation Issue

Disclaimer: This Puzzle stumped many of the greatest minds to ever graduate from Phillips Exeter Academy

Across 1. Are you going to miss Exeter?

Answers 1. What do you think?

Regardless of whether you have attended Exeter for one year or four, you have participated in the chaos that brands itself a prep school. The conventional definition of a prep school is a high school that fully prepares a student for the academic rigors of a university, but by bending the rules and struggling to survive, students at Exeter have been prepped for much more: Appearing Professional: As it turns out, the ties weren’t covering up the hoodies or boy’s ability to wear non-fingertip length shorts. Yeah, some days you probably showed up to class looking like you just got out of bed (because that’s exactly what happened). But that doesn’t matter. What matters is seeming as if you stepped out of an Old Spice commercial in front of the teachers who actually care. Furthermore, from all the official and unofficial “debating” in History and English, you have most likely grasped the art of nicely saying, “It seems like you’re trying to make a point, but all I hear is nonsense spewing from your mouth hole.” Even during Experience Exeter, you have somehow managed to write an articulate soliloquy about how avocados relate to Buddhism and not sound like a complete wack job. Overall, you are able to hide the confusion, anxiety and Exeter bars that make up your insides.

Living with Minimal Sleep: Sometimes sleepless nights result from unnecessary homework and sometimes they are caused by other distractions. Maybe it was Buzzfeed videos.

Maybe you mend the fatigue with a manmade sleep-in. Having acquired a diet of sugar, cane sugar and glucose, you have reached the top level in the wide-eyed, maniacally laughing axe murderer persona and managed to get a decent grade on the math test at the same time. You basically blend in with all of the other zombies.

Being Open: Being a prep and seeing a nearly naked senior was probably terrifying in the moment, but now it’s just a silly memory. Hopefully. Close living, sports changes, existential crises and five a.m. “workouts” allow you to acknowledge that most of us are human, and that’s simply how we look beneath the jeans and t-shirts. Even more, because it is practically impossible to be alone, you have no option but to tell everyone your highs and lows and they have no option but to listen because they’re waiting to talk about themselves. You probably don’t want to hear about your friend’s weird rash, but you’re going to hear it anyways. When it comes to you and dorm life, there is no such thing as TMI. Cooking: Okay, not really. You can’t make a microwave meal without setting off the fire alarm and you don’t know how to make stir fry taste like anything more than cooked vegetables, but your peanut butter and banana sandwiches are absolutely divine. And let’s not forget about that perfect spiral on the top of your ice cream cone. When confronted with a full, functioning kitchen waiting for your use, you might break down and cry, but cheer up! You are well versed in the art of scavenging and storing various bits of food-like material. Congrats on becoming a squirrel.

Not Caring: At some point, you just have to stop caring.

You realize that your life does not depend upon one grade. You realize that it’s two in the morning and you really should not be crying over the lack of potato skins in the world. And maybe, just maybe, your idea for replacing hot chocolate with hot vanilla is something you should set aside for now. Unless you think it’s your life purpose. In that case, YOLO. Caring Too Much: You have a paper, a test, and impending suffering, but your friend’s DRAMAT play is going up and not attending is not an option. And although it may seem like this occurs every week, sometimes you just need a timeout to take someone for a much needed Stillwell’s run. Further, Exeter is supposed to be the place where you discover your passions.

Who cares if you’re really into medieval hymns? Forget the haters and rock out.

You could leave PEA and end up two blocks or two continents away. You could say goodbye and end up awkwardly walking in the same direction. Still, no matter when or where, you will be connected to all Exonians through #justExeterthings.

THE EXONIAN

NOT HUMOR*

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

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* This page used to be all jokes, but Editor-in-Chief Jack Hirsch wanted it to be ads. If you have any complaints (even just about life in general) please direct them to wettinger@exeter.edu

A List of Things Exeter Alums Will Miss from Exeter

By Kevin Zhen

Senior Sitting Correspondant

Dining hall food The fact that Wetherell is closed on Saturday Pulling all nighters for school work 8 a.m. classes Thompson Gym and it’s partner in crime, The Cage Our abundance of snow days Preps that look like faq brats Saturday classes Fisher Theater 10 hour school days Our 12 finals weeks The small gnomes in the Exeter Forest that give you free candy The fire-breathing statue of Principal Hassan hidden in the attic of the Academy Building Overly priced Grill food Wearing ties every day (for boys) Getting quarantined at the health center when you’re not sick Getting turned away from the health center when you’re sick Cute PG’s Faculty Follies Roommates that snore too loudly Exeter dances Senora Flores dress coding you (for girls) 5 a.m. workouts Intellectually stimulating assemblies

Why You Should Write for Humor

By Alan Liu, R.C. McShane and Ahmad Rahman

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Why Humor Is The Best Section

By Alan Liu, R.C. McShane and Ahmad Rahman

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THE EXONIAN

LIFE

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Scholar of the Year|Alex Song

Mathemagician: Alex Song

By ALAN LIU and NOLAN PEACOCK Staff Writers

Senior Alex Song may well be the finest mathematician in the history of high school competition mathematics. He has won medals, has broken records and carried the Exeter mindset.

Before arriving at the Academy, Song attended the Detroit Country Day School for his seventh and eighth grade years. When his parents announced that they had decided to move, Song applied to Exeter to keep his options open.

On campus, Song is involved with numerous organizations and has dedicated most of his time to the study of math and science. As co-head, he has led Physics Club, Biology Research Club, Science Quiz Bowl Club and Math Club. Outside of campus, he teaches at the A-Star summer math camp. He also teaches IDEA Math, in which math instructor Zuming Feng holds the role of Academic Director.

Feng, who has known Song for five years, described him as “a cool dude,” and “very competitive when it counts.” He said, “I am not a fortune teller, so I could not and do not want to predict anything, but I believe that he is a good guy, with good heart and tremendous abilities. With some lucky breaks here and there, he can contribute a lot in a positive way to our life.”

Math instructor Greg Spanier, who had Song in a class one term, described him as an “outstanding performer” and an “early leader.”

“Alex always did a fine job tailoring his presentations to the relatively wide ability range we had,” Spanier said. “I think the other students truly appreLuz Lim/The Exonian ciated his work, his ideas and his leadership; I cerSenior Alex Song is mathematics excellence personified. tainly did too.” “[Song] has also been an outstanding leader in Besides leading Exeter Math Club, he is a model Exonian.

Math Club, showing an engaging modesty along with gold medal this July, his place will shoot up to first his exceptional abilities,” he added.

Upper Kevin Sun said that Song seemed like a in the history of the competition.

Song enjoys the travel aspect of attending math quiet person when they first met, but once they got to know each other Song’s humorous personality competitions the most. For him, the best part is meetpresented itself. Sun also commented on Song’s reli- ing people from other countries and setting aside time to have a vacation from normal school work. ability.

“He’s someone you can always count on to get According to Song, every year, at a different country, things done,” Sun said. “When he is involved in the competitors have the chance to tour around the something, such as [Exeter Math Club Competition] area for three or four days.

Surprisingly, Song did not come to the Academy or Science Bowl, there is no doubt that he will do everything he can do to help. Alex is a valuable person because of his math pursuits. Instead, he came to the to have on any team, whether for some project or a school knowing that it would not be the best place to develop his math skills, because of the rigorous math competition.”

Of the various math competitions Song has par- schedule.

“The reason I chose Exeter over a public high ticipated in, the International Math Olympiad (IMO) is the most notable. He first attended in seventh school is because I really wanted this time to not be grade; now, six years later, Song is ranked fourth in spent on mathematics,” he said. “I don’t necessarily the Hall of Fame having scored high enough to earn want to do things that are not intended for my age four gold medals and a bronze. If he earns another right now. I don’t need to take college level courses

just because I’m a senior.”

Outside of Math Club, Song also plays an active part in physics, biology and Science Quiz Bowl club.

He said that he most enjoys the student atmosphere of these clubs. “It’s like a classroom discussion, where we learn things from each other, and of course we learn from each other because faculty don’t really have a lot of time,” he said. “And the topics the teachers can teach us are too advanced for a club. So we teach ourselves.”

Many students describe Song as a quiet, yet reliable and dedicated friend. Upper Alex Wei, who has led Math Club and Science Quiz Bowl club alongside Song, recognized him as “meticulous and organized.”

“Working with him has been a great experience—his intellectual capabilities are also expressed through his responsibility and planning,” Wei said.

“Alex is also a funny guy and a great person to have thoughtful discussions with—not just on math and science, but also on social issues and life optimization.”

Last year, science instructor Townley Chisholm had Song as a student in the advanced biology sequence. Chisholm called the experience “a blast” and knew he could always call on Song to explain a tough concept. In addition, he congratulated Song on a terrific job of leading the Academy’s Science Quiz Bowl team this year. Song held the team practices every week and made various arrangments in preparation for the spring term tournament.

“Alex is kind, patient, good-humored and unfailingly positive in all the areas in which I have worked with him. He doesn’t always say much, but he gets a great deal done,” Chisholm said.

Senior Andy Wei carried a similar sentiment.

“His usual brilliant mathematical and scientific insights and his strong urge to pursue knowledge—in areas of not just math and science, but also, for instance, English—is what I respect him for the most,” Wei said.

As an undergraduate, Song plans to study mathematics but asserts that he will not neglect other subject fields. To better prepare himself for college, he has taken math 999, the independent study course, for this past winter and spring.

Next year, when the two have parted, Wei will greatly miss Song. “Alex has a very distinct personality, very logical, but also very curious and full of ideas,” he said. “Next year, I will definitely miss his thought-provoking conversations, his distinct personality and simply his presence around in my life.”

Although Song will be leaving the Academy in the spring, Princeton University will be blessed to have him.

Scholar of the Year|Ruby Malusa

A True Gem: Ruby Malusa

By HENRIETTA REILY Staff Writer

If everything had gone her way, senior Ruby Malusa wouldn’t have come to Exeter. She wanted to stay at the Long Island School for the Gifted, but financial complications led her to be homeschooled during her eighth grade year. That year, she said that she learned to sew, make jewelry and play computer games. She also started to expand her horizons and began researching prospective schools. Malusa applied to boarding schools and decided to attend Exeter primarily because of its library.

Though the decision didn’t follow her original plan, in retrospect Malusa is grateful that she picked Exeter over Andover because she has had a valuable experience over four years, especially due to her enjoyment of Harkness math and science.

During her prep year, Malusa said she was “unimaginably excited” to be an Exonian, but she avoided joining clubs to save time for her homework assignments and sleep. She added that she “didn’t really have any friends.” Malusa also described herself as a Harkness warrior, but she said that she “gradually chilled out” and became more relaxed, finding a more helpful role in classes.

“It took me until winter term to find people I really clicked with,” she said. “At that point productivity declined, but overall happiness went way up.”

She stressed the importance of her enduring friendships over the course of her time here and how much she has gained from them.

Malusa has a distinct personality, one that makes her friendship invaluable; her friends, all independently interviewed, described her quite similarly. They portrayed Malusa as fiercely unique: uncompromising in her intelligence, kindness and passions.

Upper Lily Friedberg got to know Malusa through mutual friends. Friedberg described their first conversation on the shuttle back to campus from the airport one vacation as one of the most “pedantic and bantering” she’d had that year.

“We had many of the same interests, so talking to her was like the intellectual equivalent of a playground full of funhouse mirrors,” Friedberg said.

As they’ve grown closer, she has come to further appreciate Malusa. “It’s a privilege to call her one of my closest friends,” she said.

Senior Rowan Rainwalker, who has been friends with Malusa since prep year, said he admires her ability “to be herself in every situation.

No matter who she is around, there is never a sense of falseness or any sort of pretension. She is exactly who she is: no more, no less.” He explained that this makes her enjoyable to be around at all times, and allows those around her to act more genuinely as well.

Senior and friend Hersh Bhargava said that she is “an incredibly powerful member of any class,” and that her voice in conversation adds both kind-

Jena Yun/The Exonian

Senior Ruby Malusa is an extraordinary student embodying the drive and focus of a true Exonian.

ness and intelligence. This led him to say with certainty that “she will accomplish incredible things in the future.”

But her Exeter journey has been neither effortless nor always easy. While she was careful to manage her time well and hesitant to take on too many extracurriculars that could crowd her schedule, there were unavoidable and unprecedented challenges that came her way.

Malusa, who was a self-described perfectionist even before coming to Exeter, said that her time here has made her desire to do everything faultlessly even stronger. She said that the culture at the Academy led many students to tie their academic performance dangerously closely to their senses of self-worth, a problem of which she has found herself a victim. After years of observing her peers compare suffering and challenges like a game, she said that “we really need to stop normalizing the enormous pressures people are experiencing.”

Malusa hit a wall during her upper spring. While she’s had “a lot of trouble with anxiety throughout” her years at Exeter, that term was particularly challenging for her to endure. The pressures of extracur-

riculars and her 333 compounded, creating unprecedented stress that she had previously avoided. But she credits perseverance and the support of friends and faculty members with overcoming many of her challenges and “learning to be kinder” to herself.

While she couldn’t help but focus on grades much of the time, Malusa said that seeking a higher GPA should never come “at the expense of your own wellbeing.”

Despite some of her inner trials, Malusa continued to be a consistently engaged student in all of her classes and a reliable friend. Every instructor who had taught her was extremely impressed by both her work ethic and abilities. Modern languages instructor Kayoko Tazawa had nothing but praise for Malusa in class.

Tazawa added that she was not only “engaged” and “well prepared,” but also offered explanation of grammar or vocabulary when her classmates are lost or confused, skillfully guiding the class to a better understanding of topics and a more positive general atmosphere. In three years of teaching her Japanese, Tazawa said that Malusa never disappointed; she successfully completed every assignment given her over nine terms.

She also explained that Malusa continually exceeds expectations, making her more than simply an impressive student intellectually. Tazawa said that Malusa was also a “great citizen.” Tazawa said that she admired her care for social justice and equity that comes across in all the work she does, even the most mundane.

Science instructor Allison Hobbie said that Malusa’s eagerness and enthusiasm in class and in Chemistry Club made her stand out from other students. But Hobbie was quick to add that Malusa’s character is not for the sake of self-advancement, her passion “for whatever we were studying was infectious, making her a fantastic student at the table.”

Hobbie compared Malusa’s presence during class to a child in a candy store, delighted to work and care regardless of the task or subject matter at hand. Hobbie added that her “uniquely curious mind” drew relationships between ideas and built connections between abstract theory and the real world that were difficult for most students to grasp.

While Malusa’s work ethic appeared outwardly effortless to many of her friends and teachers, Hobbie said that Malusa “seems to know that the more carefully she has prepared for class, the more enjoyable class is.” Thus, she came to each class energized and exceedingly prepared.

Ruby Malusa’s four years at Exeter have been characterized by passion, happiness, challenges, friendships and, ultimately, great success. She is regarded by teachers and friends alike as an invaluable asset; a student who will always be true to herself, Malusa is sure to exceed expectations no matter where she continues in her bright future.

THE EXONIAN

LIFE

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

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Artist of the Year|Millie Dunstan

Designing the Future: Millie Dunstan

By VAL JACKMAN and MELISSA LU Staff Writers

Senior Millie Dunstan is beyond the confines of typical “artsy.” As a past writer for The Exonian’s ‘Trendwatch,’ a cofounder and Editor-in-chief of the Street Side Editorial online blog and a recipient of multiple Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, Dunstan is the picture-perfect artist whose passion and talent in art are known across campus. Dunstan is not only a stunning artist on paper, but anyone who passes her on the path can see that she is a walking model of her passion for art through her fashion sense. Dunstan’s calling in art mainly lies in painting, drawing and fashion, although she adores all the different mediums in which art comes in.

For Dunstan, the arts are a way for her to express herself genuinely and fully. In fact, Dunstan first fell in love with art because of the individuality and freedom that it provides.

“There are no rules in art. It’s pure expression and it can come in any form you can possibly imagine. You can’t say that about anything else in this world,” Dunstan said. “The people who don’t understand art haven’t allowed themselves to view the world objectively yet. They haven’t taken that risk.”

Dunstan has made her yearning for taking this “risk” a focal point of her life by intertwining her love for art into her dayto-day life. Whether it is the fashion blogs that she has founded or her design internship at Nicole Miller’s design headquarters in New York City this past summer, Dunstan has carried out her love for art in many ways on campus as well as off-campus.

The internship was a crucial contributor in Dunstan’s decision to pursue art throughout her life. “[At my internship] I learned what actually goes on behind the scenes of a design house, and the incredible amount of time and work that goes into every detail of a line and what is displayed on the runway,” Dunstan said.

As a design intern, Dunstan spent time with Nicole Miller and was consistently impressed by her down-to-earth demeanor. Dunstan helped Miller prepare for her fall Fashion Week, which displayed her spring 2015 line.

“Every aspect of my internship confirmed my interest in this industry, ” Dunstan said.

On-campus activities have also influenced and furthered Dunstan’s passion. At the Academy, among her many activities, Dunstan was a former editor of the Life section for The Exonian along with seniors Michael Baldyga and Monica Acosta. Dunstan also was a co-writer for The Exonian’s weekly “Trendwatch” column, working alongside senior Helen Edwards.

Baldyga described working with Dunstan in The Exonian as one of the highlights of his Exeter experience. The three editors had greater flexibility in what they published than most of the other sections of the newspaper, a great match for Dunstan and her constantly creative mind.

“Her artistic and creative talent really permeated throughout the Exeter Life section of the paper, both in content and in design, as we strayed away from the norms set by the preceding board,” Baldyga said. “Obviously, this was a perfect canvas for Millie as we did everything from creating crossword puzzles to taking pictures around town for our section.”

“Trendwatch” featured both campus-wide and worldwide trends weekly and also featured individual students who modeled inspirational looks that Dunstan or Edwards believed stood out.

“I honestly had a lot of fun writing the column because I was writing on topics that I’m very passionate about,” Dun-

Luz Lim/The Exonian

Senior Millie Dunstan has been working closely with the Academy art department to pursue her passion for design.

stan said. “I wrote about people on campus who I thought wore something different and creative. I admired when people stepped out and tried something different.”

“Trendwatch” served as an outlet for Dunstan to express her love for fashion. To Dunstan, fashion is much more than just wearing some clothes that one or others find interesting or pleasing to the eye. Fashion is not about knowing and following the season’s trends. Fashion, to Dunstan, is just like other art forms; it’s just about “taking that risk.”

“I love fashion because I find it empowering. Fashion is about being comfortable in your own skin and having that reflect who you are and how you want to be portrayed as an individual,” Dunstan said. “I see it as another form of art because it’s 100 percent about individuality but in this case, you are the piece of art, and you are the artist.”

Consequently, through “Trendwatch,” Dunstan has tried to inspire people, encouraging them to create their own fashion identity. To further immerse students on campus into a discussion surrounding fashion, Dunstan co-founded her own fashion blog, the Street-Side Editorial, during her lower year alongside senior Anjali Banerjee.

“I created [the blog] with the intention that it would stand out from other fashion blogs on campus by having more of a conversation about the fashion industry outside of the Exeter bubble,” Dunstan said.

Students can be a part of this “conversation” by writing a post for the blog, taking part in a photo shoot, photographing a shoot or simply viewing the blog online or on Instagram.

Even with a hectic schedule, Dunstan has managed to

incorporate art into her life, even in classes. Dunstan was involved with the Academy’s new Print to Fit program as an upper. The program is one of the few and first to come to Exeter, and with it, it has brought a greater fashion influence into the art department on campus. Dunstan played a dynamic role in its creation and development over the past year.

Art department head Tara Misenheimer, who has worked with Dunstan in several art classes, was amazed by her passion for fashion, describing Dunstan as “an important part” of the Exeter art program during an “exciting phase of its evolution.”

“Fashion design didn’t exist in our curriculum and Millie was the first student to create apparel in the art studios in the Mayer Art Center. She has helped launched a very important 3D course, and I know we will be reading about Millie in the news and will see her work in fashion magazines and online in the near future. She is a superstar,” Misenheimer said.

Senior Conrad Diao worked with Dunstan on two Print to Fit projects, in addition to an entry into the Vans Custom Culture Competition. Working alongside Dunstan in so many projects as well as getting to know her as a friend, Diao has been inspired.

“Millie is a really diligent and really self-motivated artist.

She doesn’t really do what she doesn’t want to. Because of that, the work that she does produce is truly her own, and something that she was driven to create,” Diao said. “She is always in the studio and motivates the people around her to really spend the time working on their art, to make sure that they make something that they are proud of.”

Dunstan’s hard work has surely paid off, and it reflects in her work. For example, Dunstan was recognized by the renowned Scholastic Art competition with a National Gold Medal in her upper year in the drawing category. At the Academy, Dunstan has truly developed into a confident and vivacious artist who has learned to be proud of her work and share her work with those around her.

Senior Michelle Ysrael, a close friend of Dunstan’s, has had the pleasure of being a part of her art world audience. Ysrael reflected on Dunstan’s diligence, individuality and her overlying passion. Ysrael commented on Dunstan’s tendency to be a perfectionist and her incredible ability to devote her time and energy to her work. “Art has become more than just a set of projects for her; she literally lives in the art building. Dunstan is also known to carry out her love for fashion in her day-to-day style choices. Her talent lies in her eye for the unique and daring. It’s most obvious in her stylistic choices and fashion. She has that kind of style that people would say ‘only she could pull that off,’ and that’s mainly because she dares to.”

At Exeter, Dunstan has grown and excelled as an artist, truly developing her own style as well as inspiring others to create their own. Her passion for art has shined through in her numerous achievements and activities on campus and off-campus. When she graduates this year, the campus will not only be losing a great student, but a crucial and inspiring facet of art at Exeter. However, it is certain that this will not be the last the Academy hears of Dunstan. Dunstan plans to pursue a career in design and will be attending Parsons the New School for Design, a top art college in New York City, a bustling hub of fashion and creativity. While Dunstan may be departing Exeter, the impact she has left on the Academy will never disappear.

“When you think of Exeter art, you think of Millie Dunstan,” Ysrael said.

Artist of the Year|Scott Hermenau

Musical OverDoS: Scott Hermenau

By JOONHO JO and ALAN LIU Staff Writers

Senior Scott Hermenau does not just love music, he lives it. In doing so, Hermenau has introduced the Academy to a whole new style and a whole new way of thinking about sound. As a singer, arranger and composer, he has created a “democracy of sound” for all of the student body to experience.

Encouraged by his father, an avid music fan, Hermenau began his music career at a young age. He started singing at four and began starring in musicals at seven. At twelve, his father taught him the basics of the guitar, such as the first position chords and the names of the strings, and from that point on Hermenau was hooked.

Hermenau began teaching guitar while he was in 8th grade, and initially had three students. He continues to teach, four years later, on his own time. When asked about why he enjoyed teaching, Hermenau couldn’t pinpoint a reason. “I’m not sure what motivates me to give lessons,” he said. “I don’t come at it as if it’s school; I come at it for fun. That’s what my students want, too.”

Driven by his curiosity for music, Hermenau started taking composition lessons with music instructor Jon Sakata immediately after his arrival to Exeter as a new lower. The lessons continue to vary, even after more than two years. “We might listen to a piece I’m working on and discuss it, listen to a piece he’s working on and discuss it, make music, tour around areas of campus planning a Democracy of Sound (DoS) event, talk about any number of things, listen to other people’s work and discuss,” Hermenau said.

“Lessons with Dr. Sakata are aligned in a way that makes more sense than many other things,” he added. “He doesn’t rush or trample anything. Everything is open.”

Sakata had much to say about Hermenau’s work. “I can think of few — if any — students who have brought the levels of intense pleasure, critical acumen, sensitive soulfulness, playful jest and dedicated immersion in music as Scott has,” Sakata said. “In this sense, personality is eclipsed by a compelling creative exhilaration and joyous commitment to build, play, transform from project to project, week to week, term to term.”

“Scott’s development is reflected in that he has strengthened what some might call ’fundamentals’ of listening and theory, but through dynamizing them as part of a larger, lived practice of expansion, artistic risk and probing depth. Through this, he is creating his own artistic itinerary and I am excited for where this leads to over the coming years and decades!”

Sakata introduced Hermenau to Ableton, a digital audio workstation (DAW) used to record and edit audio files. Ever since, Hermenau has used the music production software to produce all sorts of music, with a tendency toward dance music and variations of house music.

“I also make sound ‘stuff.’ I don’t know what to call it,” Hermenau said. “I started calling them sound-crepes.”

Around the same time he started taking lessons,

Luz Lim/The Exonian

Senior Scott Hermenau started DoS as a way for students to experience art in unconventional ways.

Hermenau joined Exeter’s concert choir as a bass singer.

Spencer Huffman ‘13, then a senior, invited Hermenau to join the Exeteras, the all-male acapella group on campus that needed another bass singer at the time. Since then, Hermenau has left the concert choir, but has continued in the Exeteras and became a co-head alongside two other seniors. He enjoys arranging the group’s music the most and teaching it to each section.

Fellow co-head and senior Josh Martinez described Hermenau as “one of the realest in the game” and as a person who never fails to keep the group lively. “While he keeps us productive when we have to, he cracks us up regularly with jokes and ridiculous similes that I can’t recall, but I assure you, they’re killer,” Martinez said.

When asked about Hermenau’s contributions to the Exeteras, Martinez simply responded with, “What doesn’t he add?”

“Scott is never afraid to tell it like it is, but when he disagrees with someone or has criticism to offer, he has a way of making everyone feel comfortable all the same,” senior Duncan Nyland, the third co-head of the group, said.

Nyland continued. “Not only is he a really friend-

ly and down-to-earth guy, but he also has an air of ease about him that I still envy now. There aren’t many people as effortlessly cool as Scott Hermenau.”

In addition to the singing groups, Hermenau joined Composers’ Club as a lower, since he knew co-head Nathan Randall ‘13 and club adviser Sakata. At the end of the year, he was promoted to co-head by Randall. Unsatisfied with the lack of attendance, Hermenau made the decision to completely revamp the club. “An uninviting title, a perpetuity of the image of the lonely attic ‘composer’, inconsistent meetings and inconsistent members were holding the club back,” Hermenau said.

Sakata helped Hermenau reinvent Composers’ Club into an open platform for all types of music and sound.

The product was given the name Democracy of Sound, or DoS for short. Hermenau asked Sean Lee ’14 to join him as co-founder, and with a very small group of committed members, the club was able to hold two successful events last year: (Per/In)vade Fisher and Soundfest.

This year, with a larger membership base, the club has been expanding its influence on Exeter’s campus.

It has held well-attended events across campus such as Scooby Dooby DoS, Dia de DoS(e) Muertos, the DoS assembly and (E)xeter (vs) (a)coustics. For the spring, the club is planning its (in)FEST(us) event.

“The best thing about DoS is that we do something nobody else on campus does,” Hermenau said. “We do anything we want within reason as long as it involves sound and stands up throughout our meetings.

Hermenau added. “The best thing about DoS is that anyone can join and there’s always something to do. The best thing about DoS is also that we do not subscribe to a dogma or sound belief system. It is a Democracy of Sound, and therefore open to the members.”

One of Hermenau’s favorite aspects of DoS is the potential for anyone and everyone to participate. Personally, he has contributed greatly to the club as a guitarist, synthesist, builder, planner and idea generator. “It is open to allow any member to focus on their specialty, be it classical cello playing, physical electronics or ballroom dancing,” he said.

Overviewing all of Hermenau’s musical exploits, Sakata attributed Hermenau’s success to his never-ending motivation. “An often overlooked aspect of ‘talent’ is an individual’s desire to grow,” Sakata said. “With such desire, which Scott clearly has, there comes a desire to not just embrace challenges, small and large, but to learn to develop the nature and reach of these challenges just like one develops one’s technique, ear, thinking.”

“Scott has been fully tuned into evolving challenge as an individual — in small and large collectives — motivating himself, and even more importantly, his peers and collaborators to new plateaus and dimensions of expression, imagination, intensification, fun. In a nutshell, he is living a democracy of sound, by example!”

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THE EXONIAN

LIFE

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Senior of the Year|Benj Cohen

Mr. President: Benj Cohen

By PHILIP KUHN and WILL SOLTAS Staff Writers

It’s difficult to stay humble when you’re the head of two large clubs, one of the top rowers in the country and one of the most well-known students on campus, but four year senior Benj Cohen walks around with a certain touch of humility.

Cohen was first drawn to Exeter by the idea of Harkness, which he still claims is the “best way to learn.” The learning system seemed more engaging and interesting than a normal high school class, and its close student interaction helped Cohen find friends right from the start.

While Cohen enjoyed the classes at Exeter, it didn’t take him long to get involved in many other groups and extracurricular activities outside the classroom. Dorm life, in Cilley Hall, was one of the first areas of Exeter that caught Cohen’s attention. In the dorm he began to develop many close friendships, especially with his proctors, whom he strove to emulate.

“I feel like living in Cilley was the best thing that happened to me because during my first year at Exeter the proctors were really awesome dudes and really good role models for me,” he said. “They just seemed really engaged in everything they were doing, involved socially and just awesome guys to be around.”

One of the characteristics Cohen soon picked up from his proctors and other dorm mates was “how to be a really good friend to people in the dorm.” According to Cohen, seeing how other people in the dorm treated each other helped him learn how to connect better with people and have more fun with them. Whether it was 2 a.m. games of Halo or wrestling in the hallway during frees, he created many fond memories in the dorm and learned how to be a more affable guy.

Senior Jay Lee, who spent four years in Cilley with Cohen, described this side of Cohen’s personality. “Since prep year, we’ve grown to become like true brothers, and he’ll always have my back as much as I have his, especially when either one of us is going through a rough time,” Lee said. “This friendship has been priceless, and living with him has made [our friendship] memorable and strong enough for a lifetime and more.”

Cohen now serves as a proctor in Cilley Hall and enjoys the opportunity to hang out with new students and help them out as his proctors did for him.

Cohen’s ability to connect well with other students drew him to other areas of Exeter. Like in Cilley, Cohen found himself a home on the crew team. While he was one of the last kids to make the team, he found a new passion for physical activity and competition through crew and transformed himself into one of the top rowers in the nation.

Since his prep year, he has created a long list of accomplishments during his crew career. Lower year, he and the rest of the team won the New England Championship, a feat which he considers his biggest at Exeter. Outside of school, he has participated in many worldwide crew events, such as traveling to Spain with the world develop-

Meghana Chalasani/The Exonian

Senior Benj Cohen magestically balances his life as a national level rower and Student Council President.

ment team two summers ago and representing the U.S. in the youth olympic games last summer. Cohen’s hard work and success in crew serves as motivation for both himself and his fellow teammates.

Upper Josh Forbes described Cohen as “awe-inspiring” when it comes to crew, and his ability to work and lead.

“He’ll act like another coach—instructing us on our form or telling us what workouts to do,” Forbes said.

“Anyone who knows anything about the ‘cult’ of crew knows that Benj is its smiling, Jewish patriarch here at Exeter, and he’s always willing to help anyone from novice to fellow members of B1.”

Besides being a leader on the boat, Cohen also carries his leadership into student government as the president of Student Council (StuCo). He first joined StuCo with one goal in mind, “to make our school better.” Since then, he has lead many initiatives that have been spot on for making the community happier.

This year he helped create a new gender-neutral dress code policy with the absence of ties as well as a StuCo app to further student feedback.

For many students involved in StuCo, Cohen’s passion for the club is clear and admirable. Senior Emily

Lemmerman was impressed by Cohen’s constant engagement, even when questions directed to him become repetitive.

“Benj has an incredible commitment to StuCo, which definitely shows through in his patience as he explains the dress code for the umpteenth time,” she said. “His approachability as a leader has also been really important to the mission of council this year.”

Director of Studies Laura Marshall agreed with Lemmerman. Throughout this year of working with him she has seen his strong desire to help improve the lives of the student body.

“It’s been great working with Benj,” she said. “I think he has had a very ambitious year. He has tried to accomplish a lot and has accomplished a lot. He is very dedicated and cares a lot about the student experience.”

Crew and StuCo aren’t the only two areas where Cohen has sacrificed hours to work toward a goal. Cohen has been involved in The Exonian’s Business Board since his prep year and served as the chair of the club his upper year. One of his favorite parts of the club is seeing a group of students unite around a shared passion every week, without any alternative incentives.

“No one is payed in Biz Board, yet we came in every week working to increase subscriptions and working around the same goal,” he said. “Getting everyone to unite around one thing and working together as a team to get it done is the most valuable thing that I have learned from these experiences at Exeter.”

Cohen not only serves as a good leader to his peers, but also as a great listener. According to Allison Battles, the advisor of Business Board, while Cohen was always “set on achieving certain goals,” he was always open to feedback from his co-workers.

“If a peer would bring him an idea he would always listen to the idea and try to work it in with the overall goals of Business Board,” she said. “He was willing to listen and come to an agreement if there was a different point of view, as well as to see both sides and make a compromise for everybody.”

However, while many students view Cohen as an inspiring leader and hard worker, Lee believes he has a great “soft side” as well and knows how to balance work and fun perfectly.

“He’s sort of like Peter Pan in my opinion, never wanting to leave Neverland and loving his youth,” Lee said. “And it’s not like he’s a child all the time; most of the times, he is that diligent student that everyone sees him for, and then the next moment he’s like a playful child.”

Lemmerman agreed. According to her, Cohen’s biggest strength in StuCo is getting things done while still keeping a light hearted and fun attitude.

“He balances hardworking and laid-back in a really great way,” she said. “He’s friendly and thoughtful, but never too serious. I’ve definitely learned from him the confidence to go the last mile in anything I do.”

Senior of the Year|Jeanne Olivier

Quebecoise Queen: Jeanne Olivier

By MELISSA LU and HENRIETTA REILY Staff Writers

Senior Jeanne Olivier epitomizes the textbook definition of a successful Exonian. She is an ESSO Club Head, a proctor in McConnell Hall, captain of the girls crew team and one of the early inductees of the Cum Laude society. Her achievements don’t end there. She is known for her sincerity, kindness and cheeriness, and she is valued highly by her friends, teammates and teachers for her distinctive presence.

At 6’0” (or, as she calls it, “5’12,”) Olivier is hard to miss as she makes her way around campus. She is “poised,” “always put together” and “admirable,” to name just a few qualities her friends used to describe her.

Originally from Quebec, Olivier grew up speaking French in school and at home. She maintains her dual fluency and close connection to her family by calling her family “almost every night” and speaking in French.

Olivier described transitioning to an English-speaking school in her lower year to be quite difficult at times, as she was presented with unexpected culture shock.

“The culture in America is completely different from the culture in French-speaking Canada,” she said.

Even now, she finds herself counting in French in math class or being surprised by jokes or English sayings. Olivier recalled the challenge of identifying herself through her transition to the United States and Exeter.

“It’s harder to be completely yourself in a different language,” she said.

Despite linguistic and cultural obstacles, Olivier has without a doubt experienced terrific success at the Academy. The summer before she began as a student, she took the initiative and reached out to the former ESSO coordinator, Laurie Loosigian, to start up a Fair Trade Club.

Olivier’s interest for fair trade developed through her participation in a similar club at her previous school in Canada. She was excited that at Exeter, the club would be fully student-run, allowing her to pursue her passion more freely and independently.

Another aspect of Exeter that Olivier looked forward to was the collective drive to learn and grow as students.

At her old school, there was stigma for asking for help since it was believed to be “a thing dumb kids did.” However, Olivier said that at Exeter she has truly learned how to seek help and acknowledges the process now as a strength rather than a weakness.

Olivier is quite the opposite of a “dumb kid.” Around campus, Olivier is known for her insightful comments at the Harkness table, her thought-provoking conversations and her impressive academic record. History instructor Michael Golay, who is also a McConnell dorm affiliate, said, “It’s always been clear to me that she has a very active and impressive mind, and I’m definitely not alone in [thinking] that.”

Olivier has proven to be not only naturally intelligent, but also an extremely hard worker. Senior Alice McCrum described Olivier as “the most hardworking person” she’s ever met.

“I call Jeanne ‘the Exeter unicorn,’ because she

Luz Lim/The Exonian

Senior Jeanne Olivier beautifully balances her life as a dorm proctor, crew team captain and ESSO club head.

somehow manages to do everything in a day effortlessly, calmly and fabulously,” McCrum said. “She has an amazing academic record, but she also does so many other things at school, manages to go to bed by 11 every single night and looks incredible every day.”

Olivier’s hardworking attitude not only reflects in her academic performance, but shines through in all facets of her life, inluding athletics. Before arriving at the Academy her lower fall, Olivier had never rowed before.

In fall club crew, Olivier quickly learned the ins and outs of the sport and fell in love with it immediately. Crew is known around campus as one of the most difficult and self-disciplined sports, and so it was no surprise that Olivier loved the challenge and soar above and beyond already high expectations.

Crew and JV Hockey have emerged as key aspects of Olivier’s daily life at the Academy. Through these teams, she has found a close-knit friendship group and support system, as well as a cherished passion that often eases the pressures of school work.

As the captain of both the girls’ crew team and the JV hockey team, Olivier has led her teams into numer-

ous victories, and in the process, has provided invaluable lessons and support to her teammates. Naturally, Olivier has set a shining example for younger team members to follow.

Olivier brings this same admirable leadership and guidance to her dorm, McConnell Hall. As a proctor and friend to many, Olivier is a cherished proctor on which everyone can depend.

Senior Stephanie Chen said, “Jeanne is an exemplary proctor. She’s always organized, she’s always put together and she always has a smile to greet the girls in the dorm. We all definitely consider her a role model.”

Upper Melody Nguyen added that Olivier is a strong proctor because she can make the dorm a very comfortable environment. When members of the dorm are being too loud in the dorm, Olivier quiets them down in a gentle, respectful and sometimes humorous manner. Not many have that friendly yet powerful presence that Olivier has.

Most of all, dorm mates, students and faculty alike adore Olivier because of her outgoing and warm personality. Olivier “always has time for everyone, regardless of whatever may be going on,” Nguyen said.

She recalled a time that Olivier reached out to her, a memory that has stayed with her ever since. “It was last year, and I was having trouble doing homework because my hallway was too loud. I was complaining to somebody else about it and she, without knowing me very well, said ‘Come to my room and study. It’s quiet there.’ I was a new student, so her reaching out to me was incredibly nice,” Nguyen said.

Bruno Jacob ‘14 agreed with Nguyen and recalled a similarly touching encounter with Olivier. Coming from Brazil, Bruno said he was never able to fully adapt to the Exeter winter and was, as a result, often melancholic during the cold season. He was sitting alone in the dining hall one night after an International Student Advisory Board meeting ran late. Olivier was at the meeting as well and without ever meeting or speaking before, Olivier sat down next to Jacob and simply began talking to him.

“In that first encounter, Jeanne reminded me of how uplifting laughing could be. What made me laugh then, and continues to cheer me today, is her ability to propagate happiness with her own endless vivacity,” Jacob said.

Today, Jacob and Olivier remain close friends.

For that, Jacob has described one of Olivier’s greatest strengths as “her audacity to sit in front of a stranger and make a long-lasting connection.”

For that same reason, there is no doubt that Olivier’s presence will continue to permeate into Academy life, even after she parts at the end of the year. The friendships she has made, the legacy she has left and the people she has inspired go beyond time and distance. Many will miss her, but many, equally, are happy to see Olivier embrace bigger and brighter things beyond the Academy where she will continue to excel and inspire those around her.

THE EXONIAN

LIFE

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Senior Meditations

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By ALAN LIU and R.C. McSHANE Staff Writers

Every Wednesday at 9:50 a.m., the sound of a bell calls students to Phillips Church. A silence gradually falls upon those inside, and music fills the air. Afterwards, a senior walks up to the podium, and for the next twenty minutes, the speaker embarks upon an emotional, reflective journey in a setting unique to the Academy: Meditation.

Throughout the fall and winter terms, speakers are faculty, staff or their family members. During the winter term, each senior writes his or her own meditation in English class. A little under a third of the total meditations are submitted to a committee, which then narrows it down to about a dozen. This year, 11 seniors were chosen to read theirs during the spring term, in this order: Will Li, Dana Tung, Molly Bolan, Monica Acosta, Hannah Graham, Lilly Brown, Morgan Burrell, Katie Ying, Alice McCrum, Zoha Qamar and Max Le. Here are brief previews of a few of them.

Dana Tung - “ “I was born into characters,” Tung states at the beginning of her meditation.

Students and their Experience Exeter shadows walked into Phillips Church on March 30 to find bookmarks on their seats. Seven traditional Chinese characters and their meanings were printed on them.

Tung’s essay focused on her family and her understanding of religion and meditation over time. She broke it up into

seven parts, talking about each of the seven characters on the bookmarks and how they related to her life. Before each character, she took out a large Chinese ink brush and traced out each and every stroke, breaking each word down to its roots and defining them. Then came the memories, they flowed from moments with her grandfather to her first time at the Jade Buddha Temple, from a film watching to a train trip. Tung ended

(Xiào)”

with one final memoir of her grandfather, a recurring image of the young following the old.

In the beginning, Tung was unsure how to start writing, so she simply described some images and moments that had always stuck with her. It wasn’t until she discussed her meditation with her family that she was inspired to organize her piece with Chinese characters. As soon as she figured out the or-

ganization, everything came together more naturally.

“My favorite part of the meditation is the organization of my stories by Chinese characters and the history of the characters,” she said. “I believe the stroke orders and history of each of the chosen characters signify valuable, and sometimes hidden, aspects of Chinese culture that I would like to share with the community.”

Molly Bolan - (Untitled) Seventeen. Kindergarten-age Bolan freezes at the number, unsure of what comes next. Her teacher, Ms. Miot, urges her on, patient, but Bolan sits in horror.

The memory of this would stay ingrained in her mind, dug up a decade later to lay the foundation for her meditation.

She continues, personifying the river behind her home and describing her one-sided conversation with it. From this point, Bolan grounds herself in specific

times and places. She talks about her siblings, her blue Chrysler Pacifica, her music, her silence.

By the end, Bolan finds herself in the back of a church, standing in the silence.

And through that silence, she reaches multiple revelations, one of which is that “at the core of every song lies a beat, because at the core of every person lies a heart. To ignore that rhythm is to die or at the very least to cease to live.” The frozen 17 from

the beginning of her meditation, her life, begins to count again: 17, 18, 19, 20.

Bolan had written about half of her meditation before her father passed away, and finished the rest a few weeks after the death. She described the experience as difficult yet healing.

“At first, I was a little unsure about the whole thing—it felt a little strange to be writing twelve whole pages all about myself, my joys, my troubles, my memo-

ries,” Bolan said. “I learned a lot about not just writing, but also the way I perceive and understand the circumstances of this life.”

Bolan also said that despite the feelings of loss and grief, she was able to draw inspiration from her gratitude “for the strength of [her] family, all the good memories I had to choose from to write about, and the kind words and gestures of friends both back home and here at Exeter.”

Hannah Graham - “Happiness” Graham’s meditation opens in an aisle of Walmart, her little sister trailing behind her. They’re buying a tub of Ben and Jerry’s peanut butter cup ice cream, but Graham is troubled. Her sister is a special needs child and Graham cannot leave her alone.

Over the course of her meditation, Graham compares her life at the Academy

to her life at home. She reflects upon the caring of her sister, the fights in her family and the experiences with her friends at the Academy as she explores what it means to be fearful, regretful, responsible and lastly, happy.

Graham’s writing process was sporadic. “Honestly, I just wrote,” she said. “I started out with the easy parts, my sister,

and the rest just followed.” Graham even recalled one night where, in one sitting, she found inspiration and wrote around five thousand words—the length of her final copy.

“While writing [my meditation] and analyzing my life, I found out many hidden truths in my reality that I had not realized,” Graham said. “I forced myself to

face how I had changed and why I am who I am.”

When she stepped up to the podium in the church, Graham felt a sense of closure, a sense of honor. “The support was overwhelming and through giving my mediation in the church, I realized how much I’ve grown here and how much support I’ve had,” she said.

Zoha Qamar - “Safe” Since prep year, Qamar knew she wanted to write her meditation on a topic relating to religion or culture, but didn’t narrow it down until recently. She based her meditation on two narratives and a history research paper, all of which she wrote this fall term.

“Safe” centers around Qamar’s experience as a woman in a Pakistani-Muslim community. The scene starts off in

a mosque, where she contrasts the stark white walls of the “women’s section” to the men’s grand halls with Arabian architecture.

“I want to tell people I’m Muslim without having to explain why I don’t wear a headscarf, or how I really have come to love the religion, but simply detest the way it has been misogynistically, culturally institutionalized in too many

societies—East and West,” she said.

Qamar takes the image of an “itchy black scarf,” her hijab, and incorporates it again and again to show the “undeniable divide between men and women, boys and girls.” She uses a pair of pink Nike shorts to express her grandmother’s anxiety to preserve her culture. Qamar continuously questions the hijab’s ability to keep her “safe.”

If Qamar added up all the pages of personal writing she did for the meditation, she would have around 80 pages worth of material. “I spent the entire term flushing out these ideas,” she said.

“I know that sounds excessive, but it was such a relieving process. Finding the words wasn't simple, but I'm happy with how I've expressed myself in the end.”

Year in Music

By JEFF MELLEN Contributing Writer

The end of the school year is a time to reflect, not only for the seniors who will be moving on to the next great chapter of their lives, but also for those of us who will return to Exeter in the fall. This year brought Exeter Climate Action Day, a new principal and the coldest, snowiest winter that many of us have ever experienced.

Whenever I look back on a period of my life, music is one thing that sticks out in my memory. While I can’t go back to the past, I can always listen to the music that I liked earlier in my life and feel like I’m experiencing it all over again. Here are some of the albums, both old and new, that I will always think of when I look back to the 2014-15 school year.

Flying Lotus - You're Dead!

My soundtrack of fall term was largely comprised of this record, which was released in October. I can guarantee that you will never hear another album like it; it has everything from lyrical hip-hop, to experimental electronic music, to fast-paced jazz, and that only covers what few songs on the album I can characterize with a genre. Incredibly, the album still manages to be cohesive, as it is a concept album and all of the songs are linked, either in their lyrical themes or in the feelings that they impart on the listener.

One of the album’s standout tracks was “Never Catch Me,” a fast-paced hip-hop song with introspective lyrics provided by — arguably — the year’s most prominent rapper, Kendrick Lamar. Another of the album’s hip-hop songs, “Dead Man’s Tetris,” featured rapping by west-coast legend Snoop

Dogg, along with Flying Lotus himself under the pseudonym Captain Murphy.

“Coronus, the Terminator” is another huge highlight, a smooth, spacey and otherworldly electronic piece with haunting choral vocals. The album ends very strongly with “The Protest,” an ethereal piano ballad that builds in intensity before taking on a more hiphop inspired feel.

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

Although I was a bit late to the party in discovering this 2008 release, it has been a big part of my year musically, along with Bon Iver’s other selftitled album as well. Justin Vernon’s unique falsetto vocal style and his impeccable songwriting blend to create one of the strongest releases in folk music of the 2000s. Short but sweet, this is an album in which you can get lost.

The album features “Skinny Love,” an emotionally driven track with a minimalist instrumentation of drums and acoustic guitar, which became by far the most successful song of Bon Iver’s discography. “Creature Fear” is another highlight of the album — though often overlooked — with quiet and subdued verses punctuated by the song’s chorus, which is one of

the album’s rare moments of intensity.

The album closes with “For Emma,” one of the more upbeat songs on the album, which lends its title to the album name, followed by “Re: Stacks,” contrastingly one of the album’s most evocative tracks, and another favorite of mine.

Mick Jenkins - The Water[s]

Mick Jenkins is an up-and-coming Chicago rapper with talent and potential that is evident to anyone who gave his debut album “The Water[s]” a listen. He’s new to the scene, but he’s quickly gaining traction, as critics and fans alike have been floored with the quality of the album.

Jenkins proclaims himself to be the next big rapper out of Chicago, following the legacy of greats like Kanye West and, more recently, Chance the Rapper. The album supports that notion; it is stylistically diverse yet cohesive, and Jenkins’ lyrics are consistently thought-provoking as well as witty, keeping you on your toes as he flawlessly weaves in puns and one-liners. The production on the album was also stellar, featuring beats from Statik Selektah and Pro Era’s Kirk Knight.

Possibly the album’s two biggest

highlights are the opening and closing songs. It begins with “Shipwrecked,” a song that starts out dreamy and spacey until the beat switches and it takes on a more energetic feel, and it ends on “Jerome,” an overall much darker track with a harsher beat and angry vocal delivery.

Radiohead - Amnesiac

For a while, “Amnesiac” was the only album by my very favorite band Radiohead that I just could not fully appreciate. I couldn’t wrap my head around the unconventional song structure, the instrumentation that couldn’t seem to figure out if it wanted to be electric or acoustic, and the vocals, which on some songs were autotuned and on others were high and warbling.

However, I highly encourage anyone with the time, patience and willpower to give this album multiple listens, because when it finally clicks, it opens up a whole new world for the listener. In all its weirdness, I’ve come to love this album as much as I love the rest of Radiohead’s work, and it became a very big part of my playlist this winter.

The album features “Pyramid Song,” a slow-paced ballad which

some band members consider the best song they’ve ever recorded. Jazz influences are plentiful in this album, particularly on three tracks which I consider some of the standouts on the album: “Knives Out,” “Dollars and Cents” and the album’s stunning ending track “Life in a Glasshouse.”

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LIFE

THE EXONIAN

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

Thai Scholar|Torpong “Tor” Nitayanont

Tor Nitayanont: Non-Sibi and More

By THOMAS CHOU and PHILIP KUHN Staff Writers

“Priceless” is how senior Torpong (Tor) Nitayanont described his opportunity to study at Exeter, as well as how Nitayanont’s peers and teachers described their relationship with him. Whether he is on the path, relaxing in Elm Street, working in the library or sitting in class, Nitayanont can always be seen with a smile on his face and an open attitude to help those around him.

Nitayanont first found Exeter through His Majesty The King of Thailand’s Scholarship Program, which was founded by King Rama V in 1897 with the aim of gathering Western skills and knowledge appropriate for the development of his nation.

Through the years, the program has expanded and developed. Today, the scholars are no longer selected solely by the King of Thailand, though the scholarship is still extremely prestigious. The program selects scholars amongst a pool of the brightest young minds of Thailand; applicants are chosen based on merit and must pass a paper examination and interview before they can be accepted as Thai scholars.

Nitayanont is one of Exeter’s two Thai scholars this academic year. Funded by the King’s Scholarship through the Thai government, Nitayanont was selected as one of nine students who received the award. After being selected, Nitayanont decided to study abroad in the United States, where he eventually found Exeter.

One of the challenges most Thai scholars face when first coming to America is the huge cultural difference. Most scholars rarely spoke English while they lived in Thailand, and as a result, some struggle to adapt to the new school environment along with the societal differences. However, while Nitayanont experienced a small bit of culture shock when he first came to Exeter, he believes the open environment of the school has minimized the differences.

In fact, the main differences Nitayanont felt when moving onto campus are deriven from Exeter’s own unique culture. He expressed gratefulness for all of the interesting skills and characteristics that he has learned during his time of adjustment and expects that they will help him in his preparation for college.

“I have learned about many interesting cultures that I will still remember when I go to college, such as how people greet each other on the path and how everyone organizes their time so perfectly that they can join so many activities in a limited time,” Nitayanont said.

Luz Lim/The Exonian

Senior Tor Nitayanont has cherished his limited time at the Academy, assimilating well to American culture.

Lower Joel Lotzkar witnessed some of the ways in which Nitayanont has grown and changed during his time at Exeter. According to Lotzkar, not only has he picked up many aspects of American culture, but he has also grown more confident in both himself and others.

“When I first met Tor in the fall, he seemed friendly, but a little reserved and nervous,” Lotzkar said. “He has really grown as a person through being at Exeter. He asks me questions and converses with me more confidently than he did in September.”

While Nitayanont has developed into a role model person during his time here, many students and faculty believe he was a model Exonian right from the start. One quality that Nitayanont embodies as an Exonian and values most is his drive and strong work ethic.

“I never give up on the assignments I am given, however challenging, tough and time-consuming

they are,” Nitayanont said. “I always keep in my mind that nothing can be achieved easily, and even if we fail to meet our goals, people around us, including teachers, must realize, in some way, how much effort we have put into our work. They will value it.”

Academic Support Counselor Pamela Parris agreed with Nitayanont, recalling a story that demonstrates this aspect of his personality.

“I remember one day when we had no classes: I stopped in my office briefly and Tor and James were at one of those tables in the hall, hard at work,” Parris said. “I pointed out that it was a beautiful day and that they ought to spend part of it with a frisbee or a ball or making a new friend, but I could see they were going to stay right there and get ahead in their work.”

While Nitayanont takes his work very seriously, he still manages to find time to help out the community. In his time at Exeter, Nitayanont has taken a strong liking to Peer Tutoring, through both helping others and learning from his peers as well. For him, it’s “really enjoyable” to watch other students share knowledge and learn together — an activity he sees as one of the best ways to contribute to society.

Parris echoed Nitayanont’s thoughts, “Like many past Thai scholars, he could help his peers with math and the sciences, and they could help him with English, a win-win situation.”

Many students also admire Nitayanont’s passion for helping others, which complements his thoughtful and bright personality. Senior Dana Tung commented on the amiable characteristics that make him so “friendly” and “relatable.”

“He is always smiling and willing to help others out,” Tung said. “Despite knowing the solutions to almost every problem in [our chemistry] class, he is very modest and humble.”

Finally, when asked for his final remarks regarding his time at Exeter, Nitayanont described Exeter as “one of the big and adventurous chapters of [his] life,” and the community as “an important part of his story.” He wanted to give thanks to the community as he graduates and advises the future Thai scholars to make the most of their valuable time here.

“To the future Thai scholars, I would say that you have to be confident. Don’t be afraid of this new and unfamiliar place,” he said. “Everyone here is friendly and is willing to help you whenever you need it. Try to harvest a worthy experience at Exeter and learn many great things. Good luck!”

Thai Scholar|Korrawat “James” Pruegsanusak

Bangkok’s Brilliant Boy

By HENRIETTA REILY Staff Writer

The tradition of sending Thai students to North America for education in top boarding schools and colleges has been a long-standing one since 1897.

Since the start of the then-called King’s Scholarship program, students have traveled thousands of miles from their native Thailand “to gather western skills and knowledge appropriate for the development of [the] nation,” according to the program’s website.

Each graduating Thai high school student that achieves an A average GPA is eligible to take a highly competitive, government-administered, nation-wide exam. Those receiving the best scores are then selected for interviews, and the top candidates are chosen as Thai scholars by the royal government. The program’s website named these students “exceptional” young men and women, “the best and brightest of Thailand.”

Each year Thai scholars come to Exeter for a postgraduate year to further their studies before going onto college, typically in the United States. Because their time studying is subsidized by the Thai government, for each year of education, the students are expected to serve their sponsoring organization for two years, “which can mean making a twenty-five to thirty year commitment to Thailand.”

The website asserts that Thai scholars often become university professors, research scientists and go on to be leaders in their respective fields. Senior and Thai scholar James Pruegsanusak, from the Songkhla Province in Thailand, said the nearly 50 students who come to America annually through the program usually spend a year in boarding school. “Studying and living in prep schools not only prepare us for college applications, but also make us more familiar with American education and culture,” Pruegsanusak said.

Pruegsanusak said that the education system at Exeter differed significantly from what he experienced in Thailand. One facet he found interesting was Exeter’s tendency to embrace change that accepts student opinion. He cited the practice of METICs, and a continual forward motion towards positive change—like the implementation of advising block, addressing virtue and goodness and making change to rules like dress code—as a distinguishing feature that his previous schools had not addressed on such a large scale.

Pruegsanusak said that this different environment has made him more aware of the the importance of his decisions and also “more grateful of others’ help.” Because, as he explained, studying and activities involve the participation of students, he said that every moment has helped him to realize how his actions “can contribute to the community and how others have encouraged my improvement as well.”

He explained that because Exeter demands selfstudy and participation from its students, he feels

Alison Dowski/The Exonian

Senior James Pruegsanusak has enjoyed his year at the Academy and his experience with Harkness learning.

“more engaged” in the material and has learned more from teachers, friends and himself. He said he looked forward to returning to Thailand, taking what he has learned over the course of his year here to “propose some improvements” to his previous school.

Though Pruegsanusak’s time at Exeter has been short, he has left a mark in classes and around campus.

Teachers noted his outstanding work ethic in many classes. Math instructor Jeff Ibbotson, who taught Pruegsanusak multivariable calculus, said he was an exceptional participant.

Ibbotson said Pruegsanusak saw very “deeply” into the study of mathematics and was incredibly motivated throughout the term, never coming to class with incomplete or unsatisfactory work. Each day during class, Ibbotson said Pruegsanusak would present the most difficult problem and explain concepts to the class in a helpful way that they likely wouldn’t have derived on their own. “[Pruegsanusak] was very much at home in math class,” Ibbotson said. “Every day the other students would just cheer him on; they knew they couldn’t do much of the work he was doing.”

Pruegsanusak said that math has been his favorite

subject for much of his life, but coming to Exeter made him even more interested in the subject. While he had been initially skeptical of the compatibility of the Harknesss learning style and the subject of mathematics, “[w]ithout textbooks, we have a sense of discovery of theorems by solving problems, for which we then present our approaches in classes. This encourages me to pose any further question, even if it’s unsolved.

Harkness math not only deepens my understanding, but also widens my curiosity at all times.”

Lower Ta Thanakornyothin, also from Thailand, said that Pruegsanusak was a “really nice guy” who also helps him with homework from time to time, in math especially. Thanakornyothin described Pruegsanusak’s work ethic as impeccable. “He’s hardworking and is usually done with homework before I’ve started mine, even though his is a lot harder.” Thanakornyothin further lauded Pruegsanusak’s intellect, saying he is “smart beyond my comprehension.”

Early into his year here, Pruegsanusak began peer tutoring. Academic Support Counselor Pamela Parris, who works with Thai scholars every year, said that he has all the qualities that make for a successful Thai scholar. She said that peer tutoring helped him practice explaining math and science in English.

Friends and teachers alike described Pruegsanusak’s demeanor as easygoing, calm and quiet. Even in math class, Ibbotson said that while his achievements were worth recognition and he was a happy person in class, he was simultaneously “very humble and shy” about his successes.

Thanakornyothin said that while his personality can be “quiet,” Pruegsanusak is also “extremely funny.”

Parris recalled a specific fond memory of Pruegsanusak teaching her the phrase “good night” in Thai.

“Every night that I say it, he smiles broadly and replies, but in English. I suspect my Thai pronunciation is so bad that he wants to laugh every time! Of course he is much too polite to do that,” Parris joked.

In Main Street Hall, dormmates said Pruegsanusak has been a quiet presence but also one full of joy. Upper Will Ettinger, who lives in Pruegsanusak’s hallway, said he is a “calm but bright” character in the dorm, and someone who lightens the mood with his piano playing and gentle personality.

While Pruegsanusak’s time at Exeter has been short, this does not lessen the impact he has had on the Academy or the lessons he has learned. In the future, he said he looked forward to not only carry ideas from Exeter on in life as he returns to Thailand, but also to continue to connect with Exonians in the future, namely at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) next fall.

LIFE

THE EXONIAN

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015

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Someone You Should Know|Elizabeth Stevens

Taking Environmental Action

By JENNY HUNT and JOONHO JO Staff Writers

Whether in the classroom teaching her students biology, advising environmentally conscious clubs or helping launch Climate Action Day, science instructor Elizabeth Stevens knows the ins and outs of the Exeter Biology Department and sustainability organizations.

Stevens’ appreciation for the environment was fostered from a young age. “I grew up spending a lot of time outdoors and have a great appreciation for the natural world,” she said. The amount of degradation she has seen inflicted by our world’s growing population and lifestyles has compelled her to become involved in environmental education. “I don’t believe the Earth can continue to support us unless we make profound changes to the way we live,” Stevens said. Stevens has dedicated much of her time to teaching others, especially her students, so they can understand the importance of becoming environmentally aware and active.

As a biology instructor, Stevens has undoubtedly impacted and increased the knowledge of countless students. According to science instructor Sydnee Goddard, fellow instructor of science, Stevens’ warm and nurturing presence provides a supportive learning environment for her students.

“There is always a great deal of laughter in her classroom with big smiles all around.”

Upper Chris Lee, one of Stevens’ former students, recalls that during classes, “[her] enthusiasm definitely comes across in her teaching.”

Stevens’ environmental activism resonates in all the classes she teaches. “Even in her classes that are not environmentally focused, she manages to work in human impact,” former student senior Sabrina Movitz said. Stevens strives to fulfill her goal to instill “an appreciation for nature and a sense of stewardship of the Earth” into her students.

According to Movitz, Stevens reminds students that everything people buy is essentially a vote with a tangible outcome. Through messages like this, she inspires her students to be conscious that “every little thing counts and is worth taking note of.”

In class, lower Brian Choi appreciated the way Stevens “connected all of our readings and homework to modern, real world examples. Some of the

examples were environment related issues, so she raised awareness while making it easier to understand the topic,” he said.

Not only do Stevens’ organization and motivation skills help make her a strong leader in the classroom but it also makes her a force on campus.

“She has incredible vision and an amazing way to see the big picture, something that I feel is often lacking at Exeter,” senior Connor Bloom said.

Environmentalism, a field that can seem bleak at times, has a knack to turn people into cynics. In addition to her vision and ability to see the “big picture,” Bloom admires Stevens’ ability to remain patient and level-headed in the face of challenge.

“She is incredibly down-to-earth and pragmatic which is something environmentalists are often accused of lacking,” he said.

Her successful leadership style has allowed her to make big waves in the larger Exeter community.

Stevens spearheaded the effort to execute Climate Action Day, a day in February of 2015 completely devoted to environmental education for the entire student body. It was an overall success; an impressive feat considering it was the first of its kind. The day sparked an important conversation and brought attention to an important current affair.

Stevens also plays an important role in guiding Exeter’s environmentally-focused clubs. She acts as the faculty adviser for the E-proctors, a group of students who are dedicated to promoting environmental awareness. With her help, they “reach out to students, and the campus as a whole in a positive and most importantly productive manner,” Bloom said.

Her passion for environmental awareness and education has taken her beyond campus. With Environmental Action Committee (EAC), Stevens has organized trips to tar sands rallies in Portland, the Senator's office and climate action hearings at Exeter High School. “Ms. Stevens always found a way to get students outside of the Exeter Bubble and nurture a sense of place in our surroundings,” Kristen Truesdale, senior and EAC co-head said.

Stevens’ interests extend further than teaching and tackling environmental awareness on campus; she is also very involved with Los Pequenos Her-

Luz Lim/The Exonian

Science instructor Elizabeth Stevens organized the Acedemy's first ever Climate Action Day this winter.

manos, a Honduran orphanage. “Like teaching, this experience has brought meaning to my life,” Stevens said. She spent a year there in 2006-2007 and still returns to Honduras with her family annually. In the 10 years of visiting, Stevens formed close ties with children of the orphanage, “We are a second family to several of the boys that we met there during our year of service, and we see them as part of our extended family,” Stevens said.

Though her interests are very widespread, from environmental activism to working at a Honduran orphanage, she participates in each with unparalleled passion. “The energy and love that she pours into these efforts is inspirational, as is her affection for her students,” fellow science instructor Townley Chisholm said.

ABROAD PROGRAMS

By MELISSA LU and AHMAD RAHMAN Staff Writers

Exeter offers students a variety of term abroad and school year abroad options including France, England, Vermont, the Bahamas, Italy, Ecuador, Germany, Ireland and Taiwan. This year, students travelled around the world to follow their passions and brought home to Exeter new insights and fresh perspectives. In France, Ecuador, Germany, Italy and Taiwan, students had the opportunity to immerse themselves in different foreign language and the respective country’s culture. Meanwhile, abroad programs also offered experiences in science and environment at the Island School in the Bahamas and the Mountain School in Vermont, in service learning at Ballytobin, Ireland, as well as in theatre and the arts in England.

As the programs were still part of Exeter, classes played a large role in the abroad trips. Senior Michael Baldyga, who spent the winter in Taiwan, described his class schedule. “We took classes in Chinese language, Chinese history, Chinese literature, sculptures and painting. My primary teacher was Dr. Sandy Wang, a true pioneer in exploring unconventional methods of education.”

But most of the immersion occurred outside of the classroom. An essential aspect of the study abroad program is the experience students gain from living with host families. Spending time with host families, students get a chance, untainted by tourists, to experience daily life in the country of their visit through homemade dishes, family routines and customs, and the hosts’ typical schedules. Abroad programs such as France and Germany “focus on language immersion and place students within a host family so they are communicating in their studied language as much as possible,” Director of Global Initiatives Eimer Page said.

To senior Hannah Fuller, getting to know her host family was her favorite part of the trip. “I had a really great family that welcomed me and made me feel like I was just another sister,” Fuller said.

Baldyga described living with his host family as “an eye opening and rewarding experience.” From playing Chinese chess and mahjong to helping make dumplings for dinner to watching Chinese dramas with his host family on the couch, Baldyga felt himself melding into their daily rituals and becoming a true and cherished member of his host family. Baldyga specifically recalled his visit to a lantern festival with his host family. Despite already having seen most of the world, Baldyga was utterly stunned by the sight he saw and still now, is nostalgic for that moment he shared with his host family.

Besides school and home life, students participated in a variety of other activities. Mainly, students explored parts of their respective countries. For example, senior Aliabdullah Saroya, who spent the winter term abroad in Taiwan, recalled all the different places the group visited and the wonderful cultural immersion he experienced from those trips. “The group traveled to Taipei to see landmarks like Taipei 101 and the National Palace Museum, to the capital Beijing to see classics such as Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City.”

Moreover, the groups not only went on cultural immersion trips, but also spent some time taking a break and having some pure and refreshing fun.

For example, students on the Taiwan trip took a break from school work and other activities to spend a day at the Sun Moon Lake where they rode cable cars to observe the landscape, hiked around the lake, and even went on a few roller coasters at the small nearby amusement park.

On the Germany trip, through the host school’s PE program, students went on an eight week ski excursion in the Austrian Alps. Fuller described the experience as “the most amazing thing [she has] ever done.”

“It was incredible, I don't know how else to describe it,” Fuller added.

Many of the other abroad programs went on similar excursions. The fun trips, combined with school and cultural learning, provided a great trip to the attendees. Baldyga summed up the students’ general feeling towards this mixture, describing the “quintessential microcosm for how the trip was in general” as “fun experiences juxtaposed and intertwined with cultural immersion.”

Faculty members who accompanied students in these trips also enjoyed themselves. “My favorite part of the trip is our week in Paris, with museum visits, walking tours, and some delightful restaurant outings.” modern languages instructor Katherine Fair said. “This year, I was also very pleased with our weekend excursion to Aix-en-Provence, which provided a great bonding experience for the group.”

Faculty were thoroughly impressed by the success of the cultural immersion this year. Each year, students learn and develop greatly in the short span of ten weeks. “The immersion experience has real transformative power.

Grenoble students gain poise, confidence, fluency and first-hand understanding of the culture. And they have a lot of fun in the process,” Fair said.

As with any experience, there were drawbacks to the term abroad trips.

For some students such as Baldyga, it was simply about personal regret and not seizing all the opportunities offered to them.

“I believe that the biggest drawback was self-inflicted. I wish that I had made more of an effort to communicate with the Taiwanese. I found myself exploring Italian restaurants and a bagel store more often that I should have,” Baldyga said. “Learning a foreign language is tough and it is necessary to step outside of your comfort zone. Instead of worrying about saying something incorrectly, I should have just gone with it and learned from my mistakes. I wasted some valuable moments by just smiling and nodding.”

For others, being away from Exeter was a downside to the experience.

“My only drawbacks would be that I missed some of my friends who remained on campus a lot,” Fuller said.

Still, Fair encouraged students to spend a term abroad, emphasizing that sometimes taking a risk and challenging oneself can be a good experience and be more than worth some of the drawbacks. Fair said, “If you have two or more years of French under your belt, by all means take the plunge! You may never have another opportunity to achieve real fluency.”

She also refuted possible drawbacks such as difficulties with college applications, explaining that the college process is “completely manageable” from France, with the ever growing help of technology to keep students in contact with the CCO as well as three opportunities for standardized testing.

Fair concluded, “The benefits of living overseas for a term far outweigh the drawbacks of being away from campus senior fall, in my opinion.”

The Academy program will continue to serve students, providing cultural and language immersions, as well as all the other educational and recreational benefits that come hand in hand with the trips. In fact, next year, the Academy will be adding Russia, revising the Rome trip into an annual trip, and reviving the Washington DC Program. With the knowledge of such wonderful experiences waiting for them ahead in their respective countries of visit, students planning to attend abroad programs in the coming year are equally excited.

Lower Hannah Mackay, who will be attending the new Russia program in the fall, said, “I’m actually looking forward to being immersed right into the teen culture of Russia. Also, I'm going to be taking dance classes, and Russia is fantastic for the arts, so I'm super pumped.”

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Sunday, June 7, 2015

ExonianPhoto Last Dance, Last Chance

Photographers: Julia Jackson, Steven Kim, Luz Lim, Rachel Luo