Principal Elliott kicks off new school year — Exeter’s 246th — with her first Opening Assembly.

Energy and excitement infused Love Gymnasium on Friday as Principal Jenny Elliott officially began her first school year as Exeter’s 17th leader by welcoming students, faculty, staff and emeriti to Opening Assembly.

In keeping with Academy tradition, faculty began the ceremony by proceeding through the crowd to take their seats, as Music Instructor Jung Min Lee played Gaudeamus Igitur on piano and students rose to their feet to applaud. Students then filed in bearing flags from many of the 39 countries and several Native American nations represented in Exeter’s student body.

Read Principal Elliott’s full remarks

Assistant Principal Eimer Page, Dean of Faculty Meg Foley and Dean of Students Ashley Taylor joined the principal onstage. Foley introduced this year’s new faculty members and the five longest-serving faculty members. Page honored a group of distinguished emeriti faculty members that included former principals Bill Rawson (2018-2026), Tom Hassan (2009-2015) and Kendra O’Donnell (1987-1997), and collectively represented more than 1,000 years of service to the Academy.

Elliott began her remarks by welcoming new students to campus. “One of the most important legacies of our former Principal Rawson that I will work hard to maintain is the clear and consistent message that each and every one of you belongs here,” she said. She added that the three phrases that Rawson invoked in every Opening Assembly — “You can do the work. You will make lifelong friends. Absolutely, you belong here.” — are now enshrined in the Mary H. Rawson Reading Room in Davis Hall, a fitting tribute to the legacy of her predecessor.

In a long-held tradition for Opening Assembly, Elliott spoke of the mission and values of the school as set forward by John and Elizabeth Phillips in 1781 in the school’s founding document, the Deed of Gift, and carried on in the Academy’s modern mission statement: Unite goodness and knowledge and inspire youth from every quarter to lead purposeful lives.

“As your principal, I will work with you, day in and day out, like industrious bees in our shared hive, to carry out our mission,” Elliott said.

The importance of well-being

Elliott’s remarks touched on the importance of managing the stress involved with the pursuit of achievement in the classroom, on the playing field and beyond. “Here at Exeter, we dream big, we aim high, and we work hard,” she said. Accepting that excellence does not mean perfection, she said, allows us to focus instead on progress and betterment, while maintaining our well-being.

“To pursue progress every day, we must build habits that support balance and sustain our efforts,” Elliott said. “Help-seeking, healthy sleep, intentional technology use, relationship-building, time outside, small daily acts of kindness, play and joy.”

Elliott read several excerpts from a thoughtful letter sent by an alumnus of the class of 1968 and said she shared his belief in the “durable qualities of an Exeter experience.” She also expressed an optimistic view of the ability of the Harkness philosophy to withstand challenges posed by modern technology, including cell phones and generative AI.

“At a time when the rapid expansion of machine learning rattles our conception of being, doing and contributing, we get to uplift our most essential human strengths and build our human intelligence,” Elliott said.

An invitation to connect

Elliott struck a personal note in her remarks, giving the audience insight into her personality, character and mindset as she begins her tenure as principal. “I cannot wait to begin this work with you,” she said. “My first responsibility is to be a student of this place and its people. Please come and sit with me in the dining hall, walk the paths with me, invite me to a practice, rehearsal, or club meeting, cheer with me on the sidelines, and visit me in J. Smith and in my living room in Saltonstall House.”

A graduate of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, Elliott is a lifelong educator who spent more than a decade at her alma mater as a U.S. history teacher, dean of students and assistant head of school for residential life. Before coming to Exeter, she served as head of student and academic life at Choate Rosemary Hall, overseeing nearly all aspects of the student experience.

“I delight in young people,” Elliott said near the end of her remarks, before dismissing students (beginning with the senior class) to head to their first classes of the Academy’s 246th school year. “You are the source of my optimism and the very best part of my work. You are the very best part of this community.”

Jennifer Karlen Elliott

Opening Address to Exeter Community

246^th year

September 4, 2026

Good morning, Exeter! Thank you, Assistant Principal Page and Dean Foley. What a privilege and honor it is to stand before you this morning. Welcome faculty emerita and your families to Opening Assembly. A special welcome to Principals Emeriti O’Donnell, Hassan, and Rawson.

Students, staff and faculty colleagues, it is a joy and delight to be gathered with you this morning. To families and alumni who are able join us remotely today, good morning and welcome. Thank you to the flag bearers—your spirited procession was an apt celebration of our “youth from every quarter.” Exeter is richer, stronger and more vibrant because of the range of voices, perspectives, and identities we have deliberately brought together.

To the newest members of our Exeter community, we are so happy you are here. One of the most important legacies of our former Principal Rawson that I will work hard to maintain is the clear and consistent message that each and every one of you belongs here. The returning members of the community are eager to welcome and support you. We will continue to communicate Principal’s Rawson’s messages that have now become part of the physical setting in the Mary H. Rawson Reading Room and the very fabric of this place:

You can do the work.

You will make lifelong friends.

Absolutely, you belong here.

Collectively, we will strive to create a context that is warm, inclusive and caring. Cultivating a culture of belonging is one my most essential responsibilities to you.

To the seniors, members of the great class of 2027, welcome to your final Opening Assembly — an exciting bookend to your graduation! I loved being with you all last evening, and I am proud of the ways that you have already stepped up to greet and mentor your younger peers. In the months ahead, we cannot wait to support your leadership, celebrate your hard work, and learn from you.

As is our tradition, at Opening Assembly we honor our history, embrace our responsibilities as community members with gratitude and integrity and look to the future with optimism.

In the spring of 1781, as the American fight for independence neared its end, John and Elizabeth Phillips signed the Deed of Gift establishing Phillips Exeter Academy. This founding document outlined our enduring core values and mission, a lasting testament to the forward-thinking wisdom and generosity of the Phillips family. Honoring the fierce potential of young minds, our founders underscored that “the time of youth is the important period.” They sought to create a learning institution for “youth from every quarter” that centered academic excellence and paired deliberately “knowledge and goodness.” In outlining the responsibilities of our adult community members, the Deed of Gift states:

…[A]bove all, it is expected that the attention of instructors to the disposition of the minds and morals of the youth under their charge will exceed every other care…

It continues:

…[G]oodness without knowledge is weak and feeble, yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous, and […] both united form the noblest character, and lay the surest foundation of usefulness to mankind.

This call to seek goodness and knowledge was later inscribed above the doors of the Academy Building to remind all learners of our shared commitment.

In 1784, Paul Revere created the Phillips Exeter Academy seal to mark indelibly our core values. The rising sun over the sea of knowledge illuminates “non sibi,” “not for oneself.” Non sibi captures the grand purpose behind our pursuit of knowledge and goodness: that we will extend our learning beyond ourselves and our time here. Connection to a larger purpose, greater than each of our own, provides the foundation for lives of meaning and value.

As your Principal, I will work with you, day in and day out, like industrious bees in our shared hive, to carry out our mission. It distills the essential elements of the original deed of gift into one memorable statement: “Unite goodness and knowledge and inspire youth from every quarter to lead purposeful lives.”

We believe that our intertwining of goodness and knowledge enables our pursuit of academic excellence. Here at Exeter, we dream big, we aim high and we work hard. One of the most essential competencies that we must constantly develop is how to manage the stress these personal and collective ambitions create. When chasing audacious dreams, we may feel that excellence and well-being are in tension. In my experience, this tension is borne out of a problematic perception that excellence implies perfection. I wholeheartedly disagree. Too often, perfectionism invites pernicious behaviors that impede our progress. Striving for excellence is the dogged, persistent pursuit of progress and betterment. It invites intellectual humility, resilience and growth; it can also promote wellness. To pursue progress every day, we must build habits that support balance and sustain our efforts: help-seeking, healthy sleep, intentional technology use, relationship-building, time outside, small daily acts of kindness, play and JOY. In learning to toggle between the seriousness and light-heartedness of our endeavors, we develop cognitive agility, stamina, and perspective. We lean into performance-enhancing eustress, and we take breaks and seek support when we begin to experience distress. Prioritizing wellbeing deepens our academic engagement, ties us to the greater good, and forms lifelong habits that enable us to thrive and ultimately pursue lives of purpose.

With a foundation of belonging and wellbeing, we are poised to engage across difference and persevere as learners committed to honing our craft.

Inspired by our founding documents and strong traditions, we believe that a deliberate community of learners from every quarter fosters collaboration, empathy, open-mindedness, and understanding. Our DEI Vision Statement pledges that:

Our commitment is to teach the skills, model the behaviors, provide the resources, and cultivate the environment of inclusion that is required to unlock the richness of that diversity. Only through inclusion can diversity act as a catalyst to dispel ignorance and fear and create space to achieve equity and excellence. Only when we put these values into action, by both our words and our deeds, can we construct authentic bridges across differences and empower all individuals to become their best and fullest selves, both at Exeter and throughout their lives.

In this era of increased division and polarization, we must prove — to each other and the world — that we can examine our assumptions, consider a wide range of perspectives and engage constructively with each other. We can see, value and honor the full humanity of every person in our community. We are capable of replacing vicious cycles with virtuous ones; and we are equipped to examine wicked problems, craft better questions and design bold and ethical solutions.

As we approach 100 years of Harkness, we get to honor our methodological and philosophical commitment, while imagining its next century. At our Harkness tables, we model the power of human connection, the devotion to serious discussion and the democratic exchange of ideas. We practice the art of listening, we sharpen our critical thinking and we create space for sustained focus and growth. In our age of digital distraction, these skills have never been more important. We will continue to use Harkness spaces to discuss and explore if, where, and how Generative and agentic AI can enhance — not replace — our learning, our creativity and our connections. Together, we will define responsible and discerning use and grapple with the ethical, artistic, environmental, socio-cultural, and pedagogical challenges these technologies pose. We will rely on our values to guide our efforts. At a time when the rapid expansion of machine learning rattles our conception of being, doing, and contributing, we get to uplift our most essential human strengths and build our human intelligence. Exonians, when you graduate from this place, equipped with savvy skills and sophisticated understandings of productive tools, you will leave here knowing the uniquely human qualities, values, and strengths that will prepare you to positively engage in and constructively impact your next community.

An alumnus from the class of 1968 recently wrote to me reflecting on his time here and highlighting the durable qualities of an Exeter experience. He offered:

In the current public swirls of (dis)information and debates, and the promise and risk and hope and fear of AI, one other Deed of Gift phrase that isn’t directly in the current mission statement may become increasingly apt.  That is the Phillips’s direction to instructors not only to ground the students in all academic disciplines but also “to learn them the great end and real business of living”.  To me, the real business of living in that text denotes the ways in which we create and constantly re-create a society where all those other essentials mentioned in the Deed of Gift are stirred in. It’s restless, always expecting and demanding new learning, sparking imagination and nurturing HI, human intelligence…it’s both daunting and exhilarating.

This same author described to me that over the decades through:

…moments of challenge for the Academy, some generated on campus and some in reaction to the larger world, the core values of dialogue and presence for one another have remained the steadying force. It seems almost trite to say that, but now amid other sorts of challenges, the Exeter verities are more important than ever — and alas, rarer. PEA is a sturdy vessel, seas are always choppy in some way or other, and the voyage of learning is happily endless.

I cannot wait to begin this work with you. My first responsibility is to be a student of this place and its people. Please come and sit with me in the dining hall, walk the paths with me, invite me to a practice, rehearsal, or club meeting, cheer with me on the sidelines, and visit me in J. Smith and in my living room in Saltonstall House.

To give you a head start on forging our relationship and work together, let me share a bit about myself: I am a learner and teacher who has always loved school. Every September, I celebrate the possibility and promise that a new school year brings. I am a daughter, mother, sibling, and partner; my family and friends mean the world to me; I love them fiercely. I am the 3^rd of 4 children to two parents whom I adore, the mother of four awesome sons, the aunt to 13 amazing nieces and nephews, and the partner to the kindest person I know. I am a loyal and devoted friend. Many of my dearest, most treasured friends are from my days in boarding school, including my roommate with whom I just spent last weekend, so I am living proof that you too will make lifelong friends during your time at Exeter. I am a team player, and I am drawn to thorny challenges. I love to play, read, puzzle, compete, belly laugh, run around outside and dance. I am an enthusiastic and loud singer without much talent. If I had an extra hour in my day, I would spend it in the garden, working on NYT puzzles, or on a trail with my husband and our dogs.

I feel an enormous obligation to keep this community safe and well. I have little patience for behaviors that harm, dehumanize, or disrespect. I will emphasize policies and practices that promote safety, respect, empathy, care and well-being.

I am drawn to and admire deeply communities that prioritize excellence and learning. AND, in these contexts, I believe that gratitude, love and joy are too often under-appreciated and de-emphasized as unserious distractions or unnoticed extras. I think that is a mistake. Gratitude, love, and joy are expansive, infectious, and deeply motivating. They serve our pursuit of excellence and learning.

I delight in young people — YOU are the source of my optimism and the very best part of my work. YOU are the very best part of this community.

To start the year and maintain a special tradition, we have T-shirts waiting for you! I hope you enjoy them; please do share your gratitude with the adults who made this gift possible.

Exeter, together — all the folks assembled in this space and connected through this place — we will build from our strong foundation and pursue progress with courage, integrity and goodness. Here’s to an outstanding year ahead! Thank you.

Senior class.

Members of the Class of 2026, it is now my privilege to deliver your farewell address.

First, parents, grandparents, and other family members who are gathered here today, thank you for giving this senior class the opportunity to attend Phillips Exeter Academy, and thank you for supporting them during their time here. You have given your children a great gift. You are right to be proud of all that they have accomplished during their time here, and all they have contributed to the life of the school. Thank you.

And now, seniors, congratulations! You did it! You succeeded at Exeter. I take great joy in celebrating with you today.

I often say I want you to aim high, have fun, and find joy in all that you do here. You have done so. It has not always been easy – Exeter is not supposed to be easy, and you have been quick to take on many challenges – but you met every challenge that you faced, and you always emerged stronger. You discovered new passions, developed new talents, and grew in confidence. You supported each other, celebrated each other, and contributed to each other’s learning and growth. Along the way, you made lifelong friends, and you made Exeter your home. You have every reason to celebrate and be joyful this morning.

As you reflect on your time here, it is important to remember why this school exists, and why you have been here. We are a private school with a public purpose: to unite goodness and knowledge and inspire youth from every quarter to lead purposeful lives.

John and Elizabeth Phillips founded Exeter almost 250 years ago because they believed youth was the important period in a person’s development. They believed that if youth from every quarter were imbued with knowledge and goodness at this school, then they would lead useful lives and make positive contributions in their communities.

We hold to that belief today. We believe that all of you can and will find ways to make a positive difference in the world, on whatever scale you choose, just as you have made a positive difference during your time at Exeter.

The words non sibi (not for oneself) are inscribed on our school seal because they represent the very spirit and purpose of our school.

Attending Exeter is an extraordinary privilege. With privilege comes opportunity, and with opportunity comes responsibility. In our core value of non sibi, we boldly state that we seek to graduate students who are motivated by their concern for others and the world around them, and who understand that an Exeter education should be used for the benefit of others as well as for oneself. We hope you will be inspired by this philosophy throughout your lives and strive always to make the world a better place not just for some, but for all.

Non sibi is not something that you do after you have been successful in life. Non sibi is how you are successful in life.

In time, you will find yourselves in leadership roles where you are expected to make decisions that affect other peoples’ lives. I hope you will always think of your decision-making authority not as power but as responsibility that you hold in trust for the benefit of others.

If you understand your authority as responsibility rather than power, then you will be more inclined to approach your responsibilities with humility and empathy. You will want to listen carefully and always understand how others will be impacted by the decisions that you make. You will want to make decisions that account for the needs and interests of all who will be affected by your decisions, not just those whom you might favor for one reason or another, and not leave anyone behind.

If you think of authority in this way, as responsibility held in trust for the benefit of others, then you likely will be asked to take on larger leadership roles with greater responsibility, and you thereby will have even greater opportunity to make a positive difference in the lives of those around you.

This is a non sibi approach to authority and leadership — the opposite of much of what we see in the world today.

I also hope you will always understand and take to heart the dignity of all work and the equal worth of every human life.

I trace my roots to the small town of Harrisville, Rhode Island, where my grandmother had to go back to work in the textile mill when her husband died young. The town was poor. Nobody had much money. None of my aunts and uncles went to college, but they and my grandmother taught me about hard work, integrity and respect. It was during visits to Harrisville that I learned to respect the dignity of all work and equal worth of every human life – values that were reinforced when I came to Exeter. Harrisville is where I developed my approach to life, which can be summed up as work hard and treat people well.

There is a large body of evidence which shows that people tend to have less empathy for persons whom they perceive as different from themselves. In a school, this is bad because it can interfere with learning together collaboratively. In the world at large, it is dangerous, because having less empathy for persons who appear different – valuing their lives less than you value your own — can be one step removed from being indifferent to their suffering, which can be another step removed from contributing to their suffering, which can be one more step removed from going to war. We have seen this throughout history, and we see it in the world today.

At Exeter, our diversity is a defining strength of our school that propels our learning and growth as individuals and as a community. Living with fellow students from around the world and from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, you have experienced and understand in a deep way our common humanity. I hope you will be motivated by this understanding throughout your lives.

The lives that appear on the back pages of a newspaper are not worth less than the lives that appear on the front page.

It all comes back to knowledge and goodness. Our deed of gift states that goodness without knowledge is weak and feeble, yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous. United they form the surest foundation for usefulness to humanity.

As a society, we have many ways to measure knowledge. We have grades, diplomas, advanced degrees, prizes and awards, publications, and other ways that we recognize people for the knowledge they have acquired or created. People are often paid large sums of money for the knowledge they possess, which creates a powerful incentive to focus on knowledge acquisition and creation.

Yet, at the end of the day, when you look back on your lives, your sense of purpose and fulfillment will not be determined by the wealth you have accumulated or the accolades you have received. Your sense of purpose and fulfillment will be determined by how you have impacted the lives of others, how you have made a difference in the communities in which you live, and how you have made others feel along the way.

I have often said we are not special merely because we are here, but because we are here, we have the opportunity to do special things. Wherever you find yourselves next year, because you are Exonians, people will expect you to be capable and intelligent – they will be watching to see if you are kind and have humility. They will expect you to come with knowledge; they will be watching for your goodness.

I will conclude my remarks this morning with two final thoughts.

First, I hope you leave Exeter today with deep gratitude for the education that you have received, the transformative experiences that you have enjoyed, and the friendships that you have gained. In addition to your families and all adults on campus who have supported you during your time here, I hope your gratitude extends to prior generations of Exonians who have helped create and shape the Exeter of today, and who have thereby made your experiences here possible. In time, many of you will do the same for future generations of Exeter students.

Second, I hope you understand that you will always be Exonians. Your time as Exeter students is ending, but you will always belong to each other, and you will always belong here. I encourage you to return often to share your stories with your teachers and the school. By your examples, you will inspire future Exeter students to imagine their own possibilities.

Finally, on a personal note, I want to say I will always have great affection for the Class of 2026. Your class has great ability, great character, and great potential to do good work. I will be watching with keen interest to see what paths you choose and how you make a positive difference in the world.

To the Class of 2026, I wish you success and fulfillment in all your future endeavors. Congratulations.

With great joy, I present our newest alumni, the Class of 2026. Congratulations!

“This school has a huge endowment; why can’t we have nicer showers?” a teammate joked after swim practice last winter when we huddled up waiting for the water to turn warm. This is a common question among students on campus, including me.

The pursuit of this answer led me to apply for the Student Alumni Representatives (STARs) Council in the spring of lower year. As a member of STARs, I work closely with the Office of Institutional Advancement and serve as a student touchpoint for fundraising and alumni network events. I’ve helped mail thank-you cards to alumni donors; stood behind tables in the dining halls, encouraging students to contribute to The Exeter Fund; and led alumni on campus tours during their reunions.

During one of our bimonthly meetings in late September, I also had the privilege of learning the intricacies of the school’s finances from the Academy’s CFO, Marijka Beauchesne. While explaining the Academy’s annual revenue and expenses, she put into perspective that every small thing we use has a cost. From big-ticket items like building maintenance and faculty compensation to the chairs, the carpet and even the Otto’s pizza we had been served — everything must be factored into the Academy’s budget.

Importantly, she touched on the annual endowment draw — the amount the Academy is permitted to use each year. Of the approximately $1.65 billion total endowment, the annual draw is limited to $75 million, a spending rate of about 4.5%. She explained that when alumni contribute to the endowment, they often designate the money to specific departments such as science or athletics, and the funds must be contained within those sectors. This suddenly resolved the glaring question. Endowment funds are not open for use at all times and are rather intricately structured.

Having the chance to hear these numbers and breakdown directly from the CFO was a special opportunity. Much of this information was new to me, and I believe that this knowledge and transparency should be more widespread in our community. As students at the Academy, it’s empowering to be aware of how Exeter’s money is handled and know the ways it affects us. But more than just developing my financial literacy, STARs has opened me up to the endless possibilities of our Exeter network. I’ve been connected with young alumni currently pursuing careers in my fields of interest and have heard from older alumni about the way their Exeter journeys have impacted the rest of their lives. It’s given me a platform to learn and better appreciate the gift of an Exeter experience.