Living and learning
4,000 square feet of new academic space.
Health and Human Development Department Chair Michelle Soucy gathers with students in one of New Hall's four new classrooms.
To accommodate its expanding academic curriculum, as well as the Academy’s commitment to promoting students’ physical, mental and emotional wellness, Exeter’s Health and Human Development Department has moved into a spacious new home on the lower level of New Hall.
New Hall’s academic space features four Harkness classrooms, a departmental office and a flexible lobby that can be used for group activities such as yoga, meditation and cooking, or just relaxing and connecting when not in class. Bookshelves lining the walls are home to an expanded library of health- and wellness-related books that students can browse and borrow.
While living and learning will be kept securely separate — dorm residents will have to exit the building to access the academic space — every Exeter student will have the opportunity to take classes in New Hall. “It used to be that only ninth graders and new 10th graders took health,” Department Chair Michelle Soucy says. “Right before the pandemic, we changed it, and now students from all four years take at least one class in Health and Human Development.”
