'Aim high, have fun, and find joy' - Phillips Exeter Academy

Principal Rawson rings in the school’s 245th year — and his last at the Academy.

A buzz filled Love Gymnasium on Friday as Principal Bill Rawson ’71; ’65, ’70 (Hon.); P’08 welcomed students, faculty, staff and emeriti to the Opening Assembly of Exeter’s 245th school year. Students rose to their feet and applauded as the faculty proceeded into the gymnasium to start the ceremony, followed by a line of students bearing flags from the 40 countries represented in Exeter’s student body.

Assistant Principal Eimer Page, Dean of Faculty Meg Foley and Dean of Students Ashley Taylor joined the principal onstage for the assembly. Foley introduced this year’s new faculty members and the five longest-serving faculty members, while Page honored some of the Academy’s distinguished emeriti faculty, all of whom stood to be recognized by the audience.

Principal Bill Rawson ’71; ’65, ’70 (Hon.); P’08 encouraged the Academy to lead with empathy throughout the school year. Rawson, retiring at year’s end, delivered his final Opening Assembly address as principal.

Rawson began his remarks by welcoming this year’s 336 new students, who hail from 36 states and 26 countries. He offered students his now-familiar advice for both new and returning students, which he said he himself would have appreciated hearing when he arrived at the Academy as a new lower: “You can do the work. You will make lifelong friends. Absolutely, you belong here.”

I hope you embrace what you find hard, expand your reach, and find joy in your personal growth and development.

Principal Rawson

This Opening Assembly marked Rawson’s last as principal, as he announced in February that he would be retiring at the end of the 2025-26 school year. He was appointed Exeter’s 16th principal in January 2019 after six months of leadership as interim principal, following a long career at the international law firm of Latham & Watkins in Washington, D.C. As an Exeter alum, Rawson has served in nearly every alumni volunteer capacity, including serving as a trustee from 2004 to 2016. Before beginning his law career, he also worked as an admissions officer at the Academy, where he lived on campus, advised students and coached lacrosse.

Changes on campus

“Each year at Exeter is a little different,” Rawson said, addressing the fact that the assembly was held in Love Gymnasium due to the ongoing renewal of the Academy Building and Assembly Hall, which began at the conclusion of last school year. Rawson went on to outline some of the other adjustments that have been made to class schedules and locations due to the renovation.

“Your patience will be rewarded with a beautifully restored Academy Building, a new Assembly Hall that will seat more than 1,300, a new design lab — and, importantly, air conditioning,” he said, to a hearty round of applause from the audience.

The new school year also marks the opening of the renovated Davis Hall, built in 1911 and formerly used as a library and a student center. The building, adjacent to the Class of 1945 Library and Elm Street Dining Hall, is the new home of the Classical Languages Department, but it also houses a spacious reading room and smaller meeting room that are open to all students. “You don’t have to study Latin or Greek to go into this building,” Rawson stressed.

Core values and the year ahead

As is customary in Opening Assembly, Rawson reflected on the school’s Deed of Gift, and the core values that can be traced to that founding document: knowledge and goodness, academic excellence, youth from every quarter, non sibi and “youth is the important period.”

Empathy enables us to see ourselves and others as learners. It helps us learn to be comfortable having our thoughts and ideas tested by others whose ideas, perspectives, experiences or identities are different from our own.

Principal Rawson

“I want you to aim high, have fun, and find joy in everything you do,” Rawson urged the students. “I hope you embrace what you find hard, expand your reach, and find joy in your personal growth and development.”

The principal also encouraged students to focus on empathy, which he said was the key to deep learning, effective leadership and meaningful contributions to the lives of others. “Empathy enables us to see ourselves and others as learners,” Rawson said. “It helps us learn to be comfortable having our thoughts and ideas tested by others whose ideas, perspectives, experiences or identities are different from our own.”

“As most of you know, this will be my last year as principal,” Rawson said near the end of his remarks. “Like our seniors, I will be doing a lot of things for the last time this year, including this Opening Assembly. I am sure there will be some wistful moments, but I am very excited about this year and anxious to get started.”

After Rawson issued the traditional closing — “Senior class” — the rest of the audience waited as members of the Class of 2026 rose from their seats and filed out of the gymnasium.

Read the remarks