Dear alumni, parents and friends,

The strength of the Exeter community and its resolve to overcome the challenges before us have been a steady source of inspiration for me in recent weeks. I am deeply grateful to every member of our community for their commitment to one another and to the founding values of our school. I write to you now to share how our virtual term is unfolding.

Our faculty, in particular, deserve our thanks. As the spread of the COVID-19 virus and its impact intensified, so too did our teachers’ efforts to rapidly build a distance-learning structure for spring term. Our approach prioritizes the health and well-being of our students and provides a great deal of flexibility to ensure an equitable experience for everyone. Three weeks into the term, we are still refining our methods and developing new tools. We cannot precisely replicate the Harkness experience online; nevertheless, our faculty are demonstrating innovation in true Exeter fashion.

Science Instructor Brad Robinson is teaching a physics course on robotics this term. To provide his students with the materials they need, he mailed each of them a kit to construct robotic devices. The class is now building and coding together, sharing their screens when they can to problem-solve as they would in class. Science Instructors Rich Aaronian and Chris Matlack have incorporated the Cornell Lab’s FeederWatch live cam and Merlin Bird ID app into their Ornithology classes to watch birds remotely with their students. Lamont Art Gallery Director Lauren O’Neal and her staff are shifting their new exhibition, “Being & Feeling (Alone, Together),” to web and social media platforms. We expect to resume the weekly meditations program online before the month is out, so that we may once again hear members of the senior class share their personal reflections. Similar examples of Exeter faculty ingenuity can be cited across every discipline, and we will continue to share them with you as the term progresses.  

In the face of their own personal hardships, Exonians have also risen to the challenge of this term with grit, creativity and compassion. One upper, who was selected to attend MIT’s Research Science Institute this summer, collaborated with a small group of her program peers to develop a website that enables users to search for COVID-19 testing locations in the U.S. She continues to volunteer her time to help update the site as new locations emerge, even as she tackles spring term coursework.  

Other examples abound of community-building and of non sibi within our student body. All are incredibly uplifting during this time of general public anxiety. Members of ESSO’s Diversity Club, for instance, are video-recording themselves reading books aloud, to later share with the local elementary school classrooms they can no longer visit in person. Student organizers of Relay for Life are working to host a virtual relay later this month to raise money for the American Cancer Society. And students who were helping to organize the school’s annual Climate Action Day are meeting to discuss how they might collaborate online with faculty, staff and other students to communicate why climate change matters, through written works and visual and performing arts. These are but a fraction of the student endeavors under way to maintain our sense of Exeter community and kinship, and I thank everyone for their efforts during these difficult times.

It is still the case, of course, that our students rightfully mourn the loss of their time on campus, and we miss their presence here more then we can express. I recently shared with our seniors and their parents the hard news that while we will celebrate their graduation on June 7, we must do so remotely. We will recognize the great class of 2020 in special ways online, and we hope to host a graduation celebration on campus later in the summer, if it is deemed safe to do so.

While we recognize and celebrate the resilience and ingenuity of all of our students, we acknowledge that many of them and their families are facing significant and ever-changing challenges due to the pandemic and resulting economic crisis. We are all affected by the pandemic, but the personal impact and hardships are much greater for some than others. Our support of all of our students in their schooling will be unwavering and ever-vigilant. Our deans and faculty are tireless in this effort, as are the many other community members who serve in supportive roles throughout campus.

The Rev. Heidi Heath, PEA’s interim director of religious and spiritual life, is offering “check-ins with the chaplain” for students seeking an additional point of connection and support. In her note to students, Rev. Heidi said, “While you are physically distant from us, you are at the forefront of all of our hearts.” Her words reflect how many of us on campus feel, now and always.

Some of you have asked how we are providing for our employees during this difficult time. The Academy, with the full support of the Trustees, determined that regularly scheduled full- and part-time employees will be compensated in full through June 30 for normally scheduled hours, even if work cannot be performed due to the school’s conversion to distance learning. We also believe it is our civic responsibility to provide whatever aid we can to the town of Exeter. Our principal focus has been supporting Exeter Hospital and its health care workers. We have donated surgical masks and more than 700 N95 masks to the hospital, which represented a surplus beyond our own needs. We have also entered into an agreement with the hospital to turn the Lamont Health and Wellness Center into an auxiliary facility, should the need arise.  

Wherever we are at this moment, we are all connected by our concerns about the impact COVID-19 is having on our families, our communities and the world. We are indebted to those of you whose daily work on the frontlines of this disease is saving lives and benefiting us all. I thank all of you for the concern you have expressed for our students, our employees and the town in which we live and work. Even as we meet the challenges of this difficult time, we will continue to live our values of non sibi in pursuit of academic excellence, and we will continue to strive for equity and inclusivity in all that we do. Exeter will emerge stronger than ever, more cohesive than ever, and we will have grown together in new and unexpected ways.

Please be well. My best wishes to you and your families. We will continue to communicate with you regularly, and we welcome your questions, concerns and ideas.

We write to you today to announce a number of preliminary initiatives that we are undertaking to act on the commitments that we made to you in our letter dated June 5, and to move us forward in our determination to be more intentional and proactive in our efforts to oppose racism in all of its forms in order to become an anti-racist school.

Like many of you, we are looking into our own hearts, as well we all should, and coming to a long overdue realization that our well-intended efforts to free ourselves from the grip of systemic racism have not been enough. Until we actually meet our sincere goals of true understanding, acknowledgment and counteraction of the very privileges that have allowed only some of us to thrive, we will only reinforce the legacy of racism in our institutions and in our country, and we will continue to let racism win. 

Racism is formidable. It is as persistent as it is poisonous. It thrives on divisiveness and wants us to believe that it is too deeply entrenched and too pervasive to be reckoned with. Now, more than ever, we need action and must see change.

We have historically prided ourselves on Exeter’s considerable efforts to achieve true diversity, equity and inclusion in our students and our faculty and staff, reimagine and expand our founding credo of educating youth from every quarter, and prepare our students to be leaders and champions of non sibi. But we are not yet where we want to be, and there is still much work to be done to ensure that the Exeter of the future is one that all of us can take great pride in.

Let us be clear: Black lives matter, and Black voices matter, and we are committed to institutionalize the practice of anti-racism at Exeter in support of these key principles. This process of self-examination and action will take time and will require further steps that we are now beginning to formulate, but we are starting by taking the following actions:

1. We commit to make it an institutional priority to increase the number of faculty of color by at least 50% over the next five years.
    
2. We will appoint a new Assistant Dean of Faculty whose responsibilities will include oversight of this hiring and retention initiative, with the budget to support the necessary efforts that will lead to stronger and more diverse candidate pools.
    
3. We will appoint a new Assistant Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to focus on engagement with the local community, support faculty retention strategies, and provide additional support for students.
    
4. We will increase the representation of faculty and staff of color in leadership positions in administration, committee structures, residential life and in other aspects of our community and campus culture.
    
5. In addition to the recently announced creation of the Trustee Task Force on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, we will create a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Response Team on campus to address issues of race in national events, our campus culture and our alumni/ae community.
    
6. We will develop and declare reporting, accountability and educational protocols for incidents where adults and students feel they have been harmed based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion or other personal identity characteristics.
    
7. We will continue the work started this past winter to examine Exeter’s historical ties to slavery and any other legacy of oppression in our school history, and to develop programming that will acknowledge and educate our community about that history.
    
8. We will create a new cross-department faculty working group to focus on incorporating themes of race, equity and justice into the curriculum of each department.
    
9. We will improve and expand the Office of Multicultural Affairs office and meeting space to facilitate more robust affinity programming for students.
    
10. We will reimagine/redesign how we use the Assembly Hall and other campus gathering places to reflect and celebrate our diverse and inclusive community, while recognizing past generations of Exonians and the important service of past leaders of our community.
     
11. We will fund and implement a data collection and analytics project that will gather feedback from current and past community members to give us greater visibility into the areas where we need improvement, particularly with respect to our ability to hire and retain diverse teaching faculty, as well as enabling us to systematize our best practices. We will share the findings of our assessment with the broader Exeter community so it can inform our future conversations and actions.
     
12. Many students and student organizations have asked the trustees to use the Academy’s endowment to support a number of nonprofit organizations involved in the fight for Black racial justice. The trustees believe our mission – and our obligation – compels us to direct the human, financial and physical resources of the Academy to the education and well-being of our community members. We are establishing a new Principal’s discretionary fund to support the Academy’s anti-racism and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives. All trustees have committed to support this fund and we hope others in our community will join us in doing so.

We all have a role in doing this work, and must continue to hold ourselves and each other accountable for progress on these and other initiatives. At least one faculty meeting and one department meeting will be dedicated to anti-racist work every month during the coming academic year. The newly formed Trustee Task Force on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has already begun to work with the Principal and our Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to identify these and further specific action items designed to improve the work and life of adults and students of color at Exeter. The Task Force will coordinate with the various trustee committees to ensure that all aspects of trustee work are infused with a focus on addressing issues of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.  

Two years ago, the trustees published a vision statement that declared our commitment to the principles of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The recent tragic events in our country have moved us to reaffirm that commitment with a new sense of urgency and purpose. We will not allow the enormity of this challenge to shake our determination. We will stand and work together to combat the evils of racism with the goodness of empathy and the power of knowledge.

We encourage everyone in the community to come forward to provide us with your best thinking about how we, as a community, can address these important issues of race at Exeter. We have set up a DEI@exeter.edu email account to receive your suggestions. We must have the strength of our convictions to act courageously and move our community forward. It is only if we work together in this way that we can become the school that we aspire to be. We want to ensure that everyone feels a sense of belonging and is allowed to thrive.  

We welcome everyone’s voice in this journey. Our current and future students deserve a better world, and we owe it to them to model, and prepare them to work for, the future we want them to have.

Sincerely,

William K. Rawson ’71; P’08
Principal

John A. Downer ’75; P’06, ’06, ’07
Outgoing President of the Trustees

Morgan C.W. Sze ’83; P’19, ’22
President-Elect of the Trustees

Wole Coaxum ’88; P’23
Trustee, Outgoing Vice President of the Trustees

Deidre G. O’Byrne ’84; P’18, ’20, ’23
Vice President-Elect of the Trustees

Jacqueline J. Hayes ’85 
Chair, Trustee Task Force on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Ciatta Z. Baysah ’97
Trustee, Outgoing President, GAA

Suzi Kwon Cohen ’88
Trustee

Walter C. Donovan ’81
Trustee

Mark A. Edwards ’78; P’12, ’14
Trustee

Claudine Gay ’88
Trustee

Peter Georgescu ’57
Trustee

Jennifer P. Holleran ’86; P’11
Trustee

Cia Buckley Marakovits ’83
Trustee

Sally Jutabha Michaels ’82; P’12, ’14, ’17, ’19
Trustee

Daniel C. Oakley ’80
Trustee, Outgoing Vice President, GAA

Peter M. Scocimara ’82; P’16, ’18
Trustee

Serena Wille Sides ’89
Trustee

Kristyn A. McLeod Van Ostern ’96
Trustee

E. Janney Wilson ’83
Trustee, President-Elect, GAA

Hello, Exeter. 

Hello to our students, to faculty and staff, to parents and alumni who are watching, and to all friends of Exeter who are watching. Welcome to the first entirely virtual assembly in the history of our school.

I would like to start by saying to our students how much I miss being able to look out and see all of your faces from this stage. The deliberate act of joining together as a community every week is fundamental to our Exeter experience. I always look forward to being in the same room with you and having that shared time together. It feels very strange to deliver these remarks without you here in the Assembly Hall.

Technology provides us with the ability to remain connected during this global pandemic, but I am eager for us to be together again on campus, when it is safe to do so. I will say more about that later in my remarks. But since this all began, our understanding of the word “community” has evolved to encompass this shifting reality, and reaffirms for all of us that “Exeter” is not bounded by its geography. “Exeter” lives within each of us and forms around us, no matter the distance between us. 

When this pandemic first erupted, it was common to refer to it as unprecedented. But as many of you know, it is not unprecedented. The 1918 global influenza pandemic caused an estimated fifty million deaths worldwide; more than 675,000 in the United States alone. Neither the Town of Exeter nor the Academy was spared. You can read about it in the digital archives of The Exonian.

On October 2, 1918, The Exonian reported:

Public schools were closed, as was the Ioka Theater, and many public gatherings were postponed, but the Academy could not send its students home for fear of contributing to the virus’s spread. The Exonian accordingly advised its readers to: 

The peak of the outbreak apparently passed through the Academy fairly rapidly, as the next issue of The Exonian, on October 9, reported further: 

That was 1918. Pre-Harkness. Before TV was invented. No 3-D image of the virus. The field of medicine was very different. The country was at war and the popular press often downplayed the public health threat until it was too obvious to be ignored — both factors contributed to the staggering death toll. Two Exeter students, and possibly a third, fell victim to the pandemic.

Given what we know about the COVID-19 virus, and what we still do not know, our decision to close our campus this spring and hold classes remotely was the best and safest course of action to protect our school community, our families and friends, and our neighbors in the surrounding towns. That does not change how much we miss having all of you here. I walk through campus and I feel your absence daily. But I am hopeful that you and your families are staying safe, are healthy, and are coping with this period of time as best as you can. 

I would like to recognize the challenges all students have faced adapting to a distance learning experience. Our Harkness pedagogy is built around being physically together and learning from each other. That is hard to do when you are spread around the globe, many classes are being conducted asynchronously, and you face competing and varying responsibilities at home. It is hard to do when you miss your friends and cannot enjoy the ready assurance and support that comes from daily contact with teachers, coaches, advisers and counselors. It also is hard to do when you are working many hours a week to earn money. I commend all of you for rising to the occasion as you have. We will do our best to support you and help you finish the term as strongly as circumstances permit. 

I also would like to express how grateful we are for the active role your families have played in supporting your education during this difficult time. Without their support, and without their belief in you and their willingness to make sacrifices on your behalf, we could not build our virtual school community and get through this together. I hope you will thank them for me. 

I will say, Exonians, the speed and energy with which many of you set out to create a virtual community was nothing short of astonishing. The Exonian started publishing online while we were still on spring break. YouTube videos challenging us to stay connected started appearing, as if by magic. As digital natives, you are skilled at creating online communities — this is second nature to you — but we nonetheless are grateful for your leadership, insights and innovation in that realm. From quarantine cooking, arts and musical pop-up Instagram accounts, to student podcasts and YouTube performances, you are working hard not only to create a sense of togetherness but also to build upon the bonds that already exist at Exeter. 

In the past few weeks, a weekly e-newsletter for preps has also launched; athletic teams have been holding virtual team workouts (I particularly enjoyed the girls lacrosse stickhandling video — very impressive); and dorms are holding “common room” Zooms. Fight Club is holding weekly meetings. DRAMAT is holding online performances — even I have been cast to perform in a play called Bad Auditions. Seniors, thank you for your inspiring meditations. All these points of connection are vital — and revitalizing — and I thank all of you for your efforts to keep our Exeter community engaged and strong.

We held back on student clubs for a couple of weeks to get the academic program up and running, but the alacrity with which clubs mobilized various non sibi efforts is another source of inspiration for us all. Student climate leaders developed a virtual Climate Action Day through a website dedicated to activism, education and dialogue as we marked the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Relay for Life student organizers moved online to remember and honor loved ones who have battled cancer; thank you for inviting me to participate, and congratulations on raising thousands of dollars. ESSO has launched a new website and educational videos. I am barely scratching the surface. Thank you to everyone who has participated in these and other non sibi initiatives and in the many other club activities underway. 

If we were all gathered together in this Assembly Hall right now, I would ask you to take a moment to recognize our faculty with resounding applause, as you do at Opening Assembly. Consider for a moment what they have undertaken this term, as they have simultaneously negotiated the needs of their families at home and almost overnight restructured our Harkness pedagogy into a remote learning experience. They did so with the express goal of providing an equitable, inclusive learning experience for every student, and with a desire to maintain as much academic content as circumstances would permit. And they too have found countless ways to create virtual community and stay connected with all of you. They are working tirelessly on your behalf, and miss you as much as you miss being here. 

Dozens of other adults on campus also continue to keep our school running in critical ways, and they too have worked tirelessly to support our transition to distance learning. It is harder for you to see their efforts, but they, like your instructors, put the student experience at the fore of everything they do. You are supported by a dedicated group of professionals whose commitment to Exeter and our surrounding community reflects not only our non sibi values, but also the Academy’s founding principles of goodness and knowledge united. 

We are all impacted by this pandemic, and we feel the urgency to act if we are able. Many of you have had the opportunity to join in the fight against the pandemic’s spread, and to support people in greatest need. You have used a social fundraising platform to feed first-responders. You have developed a website that tracks COVID-19 testing sites. You have donated face masks and other PPE to local hospitals, and even shipped some face masks for donation in the Town of Exeter. You are making a difference. You are changing lives. I know it has been hard at times, but you are being your best selves during a difficult time. As we continue to work to flatten the curve, please remember to take care of yourselves, as you take care of others.

What about the next school year? The short answer is that we do not yet know. We are in the same position as every other similar school, and most colleges and universities, in that our ability to be on campus will depend in part on external factors that are yet to be determined: the state of the pandemic generally and locally, the availability of testing, and the status of state executive orders.

Our decision-making will be driven by the same two priorities that have guided us thus far: the safety and well-being of our school community, and not contributing to the spread of COVID-19.

Our hope is that we will open on campus on time in September. We are hard at work on that right now. We anticipate making a decision in June, possibly late June, when we expect to have more information and direction from state and federal agencies to act upon. 

When we do return to campus, as long as the health threat persists to some degree, we will need to adjust our habits so that we can be together safely. We are evaluating daily schedules and examining every aspect of our daily routines to map out a strategy that will include social distancing guidelines, cleaning and disinfecting protocols, the health monitoring of our students and employees, and a rapid response plan to identify, test, treat and isolate any potential cases. We are committed to keeping you safe and to ensuring our community remains vibrant and strong. 

We also are engaging in contingency planning for the possibility that we will need to start the school year online, or resume distance learning at some point during the academic year. With much more time to prepare, and the benefit of this spring term serving as our “pilot,” we anticipate that any distance learning 2.0 will be very different and considerably richer. With the opportunity to group students by time zones, at least in those courses that have many sections, we would hope to be able to provide more opportunities for synchronous learning. We also are learning a great deal this spring, as already described, about how to maintain community while apart and support student activities outside the classroom — those experiences also should be very different. Importantly, our commitment to providing an equitable and inclusive learning experience for all students will continue to guide us in all that we do. 

Whether we are on campus for the entire year, or off campus for part of the year, the mission of our school will remain the same. Our mission is to unite goodness and knowledge and inspire youth from every quarter to live purposeful lives. Our values as a school do not change with venue. Students, you have amply demonstrated this spring that our commitment to non sibi goes wherever you go. 

My relationship with Phillips Exeter Academy spans many years. There has never been a time when I did not think Exeter was getting better. The school remains true to its mission and values by constantly evolving. Sure, older alums such as myself sometimes like to idealize the past, but then we need only to remember the words of the legendary Hammy Bissell ’29, who once famously said, “Exeter isn’t what it used to be, and thank God it never was.”

As Exeter continues to evolve, how students experience the Academy also changes with the times. In my first opening assembly address, last academic year, I spoke to you about what it was like to be a student at Exeter in 1968 — a very tumultuous year in the history of the United States. Now you are experiencing Exeter through the lens of a global pandemic the likes of which our world has not seen in more than 100 years. The pandemic has laid bare inequities within our society and demonstrated cruel outcomes for many people, especially those who are more vulnerable, lack economic stability, or lack ready access to affordable health care. The spread and subsequent impact of the COVID-19 virus have served as stringent reminders of just how connected we all are in the world, and how dependent we are upon each other. We see how the actions of some people can lead to the suffering of others, and how the kindnesses of some can ease the burdens and lift the spirits of others.

We experience this sense of connectedness acutely ourselves, as we shelter at home and wear masks to protect those around us. Others work on the front lines caring for the sick and dying or perform essential services for our benefit at considerable personal risk. 

The world has shifted, and you must ask yourselves, how will you respond? When we return to “normal,” it will be a new and different normal, and your understanding of the world will have changed. How will these events shape your time at Exeter, the choices you make and the paths you choose to pursue? How will the events of today influence how you live a life of purpose tomorrow? 

There are no easy or immediate answers to these questions. They will require reflection, time, and a deeper awareness of how our present reality might influence your future actions. Our pedagogy and school community are designed to help you ponder these questions, individually and together. Your conversations with your classmates are likely to continue for decades to come, and you will find answers that will change the world in which you live.

I would like to close by reading an excerpt from a poem that I hope you will find inspirational, as I have found it to be for me. 

The poem was written in 1838, 182 years ago, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and is called Psalm of Life. The language is a bit dated, but the poem retains its power and relevance nonetheless. You might think of the poem as Longfellow’s challenge to the reader to live a purposeful life. Here are the last three stanzas:  
 

Lives of great men all remind us
   We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
   Footprints on the sands of time;
 

Footprints, that perhaps another, 
   Sailing o’er life’s solemn main, 
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, 
   Seeing, shall take heart again. 
 

Let us, then, be up and doing, 
   With a heart for any fate; 
Still achieving, still pursuing, 
   Learn to labor and to wait.
 

In time, we will emerge from the current pandemic. Let us do so with renewed commitment to the mission of our school, with an even stronger feeling of community and commitment to each other, and with even greater determination to lead lives of purpose and meaning.

Let us all, in the words of Longfellow, “be up and doing, with a heart for any fate.” Let us all “learn to labor and to wait.”

Senior class.

— William K. Rawson ’71; P’08

Recently, an alumnus asked me to share what is most meaningful about serving as Exeter’s principal. For me, it starts with the students. Spending time with them, supporting their experience here, means everything to me.

That is especially true now, as we have all worked together this fall to meet the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Students on campus are committed to being here and working hard to follow our health and safety protocols. It is wonderful to have them back. I also enjoy connecting with the Exonians who continue with distance learning at home. We have built the schedule this term to provide them with greater opportunities to connect synchronously with their peers and faculty and truly feel part of campus life.

All of this is possible in large part due to Exeter’s faculty and staff, who continue to work extremely hard — many have been required largely to reinvent their jobs — to ensure the Exeter experience continues to be rigorous, supportive and safe. I am thankful for their dedication to the Academy, to one another, and to our students.

This sense of shared responsibility draws from Exeter’s founding principle: that “the time of youth is the important period, on the improvement or neglect of which depend the most weighty consequences, to individuals themselves and the community.” It is the singular reason our school exists today, and guides all that we do together.

Last year, I joined a small group of trustees and faculty in the sizable task of creating a succinct, modern expression of the Academy’s mission. We spent an entire year producing a single sentence, and it was well worth the effort. Our revised mission — each word derived from Exeter’s Deed of Gift — is to unite goodness and knowledge and inspire youth from every quarter to lead purposeful lives. Its power lies in its brevity: We now have a phrase that can live easily at the forefront of our minds as we go about our daily business of teaching and learning.

The new mission is supported by five statements that reflect our core values and draw more heavily from the language in the Deed of Gift.

I write this column as the national election draws near. This is a challenging time, and we will support our students in every way possible as they navigate the divisive political discourse here in the United States. Across the globe, we are facing social, economic and environmental challenges that require us to act with compassion, courage and conviction. Our mission and our values matter more now than ever as we prepare our students to become global citizens and meet the issues before them with determination and innovative thinking.

We strive to create a community where we can seek out perspectives different from our own, be challenged in our beliefs, and learn from each other. This requires that we act and engage with empathy. Empathy does not require agreement, but it does require that we try to understand the feelings, thoughts and experiences of others, and be willing to learn from others. We will continue to reinforce the type of Harkness pedagogy and civil discourse that provides the opportunity to learn and grow as individuals and as a community.

As we navigate the challenges before us, we also must make time to celebrate a milestone in our school’s history that was as transformative in nature as the decision to adopt Harkness as our method of instruction. Fifty years ago, the Exeter Trustees approved coeducation, and 39 brave female day students enrolled that September. The journey since then has been one of profound discovery and growth for the school.

Our theme for this special anniversary year is “Her Voice at the Table: 50 Years of Coeducation at Exeter.” We promise a robust celebration of “her voice” in all aspects of Academy life; we will acknowledge that it was not always easy, and for some, it was painful. We will recognize that part of our story as we celebrate the extraordinary accomplishments of our alumnae, as students here at Exeter and in the world beyond. I hope that you will join the conversation.

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the fall 2020 issue of The Exeter Bulletin.

As we prepare to welcome our students back to campus this month, we do so with a deep sense of purpose and gratitude. Our students bring an incredible thirst for knowledge, a desire to excel in every aspect of their Exeter experience, and a great sense of joy in being part of the Exeter community. Their commitment reinforces our own sense of purpose, and their presence reminds us of how fortunate we all are to live and learn alongside each other.

I began dorm duty in Wentworth Hall last fall, and am eager to return to my duties this term. The individual conversations I have had with students have been quite meaningful and insightful. Listening to dormmates from around the world engage in passionate debate, and watching them play games or simply hang out, also has been a wonderful privilege. So too are the opportunities to connect with students in other ways — from meetings with ESSO leadership, Student Council and Student Listeners, to attending rehearsals, athletic practices, club meetings and other student gatherings. In every instance, I have been deeply impressed by our students’ resilience, their determination to make the most of their opportunities this year, and their gratitude for all that their teachers, coaches and every other adult in the community have done to support them.

All that we do at Exeter is grounded in our mission to unite goodness and knowledge and inspire youth from every quarter to lead purposeful lives. As those words guide us today, they also compel us to look forward and dare to imagine the Exeter of tomorrow — just as our predecessors did 50 years ago. The adoption of coeducation was a monumental shift for our school, requiring an ability to imagine an Exeter that did not yet exist and the willingness to change. As we continue to honor the anniversary of coeducation, we do so with a deep appreciation for the girls and women who pushed Exeter forward and redefined how we interpret “youth from every quarter.” I encourage you to read some of their stories in this magazine and on exeter.edu/coeducation.

We bring the same determination and resolve to our work to become a fully inclusive, equitable and anti-racist community. This work is fundamental to our mission and requires active, sustained participation from every member in our community. I am grateful for the foundation laid by those who came before us, and for the adults and students who today are greatly expanding upon those efforts, both inside and outside the classroom. The conversations we are having, and the commitments we have made, are essential to what we want Exeter to be, now and in the future. I invite you to visit exeter.edu/diversityvision and exeter.edu/antiracism to learn more about our vision for diversity, equity and inclusion, and to see some of the work being done this year.

The Academy was founded on the philosophy of non sibi — a belief that the “wisdom gained here should be used for others as well as for oneself,” as expressed in our value statement. “Teaching and living the principles of a just and sustainable society,” it continues, “are fundamental to this philosophy today.” The education gained here is an avenue for transformative individual growth informed by a deep sense of public purpose.

As you read this issue of the Bulletin, I hope you will see that we are busy building on our strengths, living our values, and imagining the Exeter of tomorrow. We see exciting opportunities in the years ahead for our school, and we look forward to working with every member of our community to turn those opportunities into realities for our students.

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the winter 2021 issue of The Exeter Bulletin.

Quite a few years ago, returning to the Exeter Inn from an alumni volunteer dinner with the senior class in Love Gym, I found myself walking alone a few paces ahead of an older couple. I stopped to introduce myself, and to my utter astonishment, Mickey O’Connell ’46 said, “I remember you. You played lacrosse!”

Mickey had watched me play in the Exeter-Andover game my senior year, his 25th reunion year, more than a quarter century before this chance encounter. But Mickey was an All-American at Williams College and had a deep passion for the game, so he remembered. Thus began a wonderful friendship that continued until Mickey died a few years ago. He and I sought out each other every year at that dinner and stayed in touch when Mickey was no longer well enough to make the trip from his home in Ohio.

I tell seniors every year at graduation that they have only just begun the process of forming lifelong connections with fellow Exonians, not only in their class but across generations. They are surprised when I tell them of the close friendships I have forged over the years with classmates whom I did not know while I was a student. I tell them also of how deeply enriched I have felt by the friendships I have developed with Exonians both many years older and many years younger than me. I tell them my experiences are not unique, and that they can look forward to similar experiences in their professional and personal lives.

At a recent outdoor assembly, we gave all students a T-shirt that has their class year on the front and the Lion Rampant on the back superimposed on an image of the world. The image is accompanied by the following words: “Exeter lives within each of us and forms around us, no matter the distance between us.”

That expression is particularly apt during this difficult pandemic year, when students have spent portions of the school year learning remotely, and have only recently been able to resume such activities as interscholastic athletics and theatrical and musical performances before live audiences, with various COVID protocols and restrictions in place. The expression will remain true after the pandemic is over.

Exonians are bound together by our school’s mission to unite goodness and knowledge and inspire youth from every quarter to lead purposeful lives. We are bound together by our commitment to non sibi, inscribed on the school seal. We are bound together by our experiences at Exeter, experiences that in some ways might be quite similar and in other ways very different. Experiences that challenged us, were uplifting, were sometimes very difficult, and in all cases were transformative.

As you read through these pages [of the spring 2021 Exeter Bulletin], I hope you will feel inspired by the many dimensions of the Exeter community, of which you all are an important part. I hope you will feel inspired to visit campus when pandemic conditions permit, to renew old friendships with classmates, and to forge entirely new connections with fellow Exonians across generations.

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the spring 2021 issue of The Exeter Bulletin.