Once their son, Erik ’22, made the decision to go to Exeter, Ana Luisa and Jens Nystedt wasted no time in getting involved with the school themselves. They started by attending parent events near their home in Greenwich, Connecticut. “We’ve always been involved in our kids’ schools since they were young,” Ana Luisa says. “Because we had no background in boarding schools, it was helpful to touch base with other parents who were a little bit more experienced.”

The Nystedts also took advantage of the fact that they were within driving distance of Exeter’s campus. In addition to Family Weekend, where Ana Luisa remembers getting her first taste of Harkness discussion in a history classroom, they attended Exeter Leadership Weekend, the fall event open to parent and alumni volunteers, in both 2018 and 2019.

“You do feel part of the community when you see familiar faces coming back,” Ana Luisa says. “You also get to know more about how to support the school — how things work, and where the needs are.” 

After Andrea ’24 joined her brother at the Academy, the Nystedts saw her flourishing just as he had. “I think both of them really appreciate the diverse student body, the ability of teachers to be almost always available, and being in an environment where they are surrounded by their friends at any moment,” Jens observes.

Dazzling sunshine bathed campus Sunday as Exeter celebrated its commencement ceremony on the front lawn of the Academy Building for the first time since 2019. The 312 members of the class of 2022 joined in a procession that began on the south side of campus, crossing Front Street to take their seats in front of a proud and excited audience of their teachers, family and friends.

After welcoming and expressing gratitude to faculty, staff and family members, President of the Senior Class Bona Yoo kicked off the ceremony by inviting her classmates to remember their younger selves, and to reflect on how far they had come.  

>> Watch the full graduation ceremony

“We took this crazy bet on ourselves, picked up our bags, left everything we knew and congregated from all corners of the world to live together in Exeter, New Hampshire,” Yoo said. “We had to start from scratch and build with what we had, and what we had was each other.”

The final day of the spring sports calendar is always a thrill, and this year held to form. Exeter crew was busy striking gold at the New England Interscholastic Rowing Association Championship Regatta, while the rest of Big Red traveled down to our Blue counterparts for Exeter/Andover weekend.

Incredible performances on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Massachusetts, put a bow on a highly successful season for boys and girls crew. The boys first boat claimed second place overall, while the boys second and third boats each earned a gold medal in their grand final races. The girls first boat capped an undefeated season and claimed gold in their grand final race, beating out the second-place finisher by seven seconds. The girls second boat claimed first in their alternate final race, while the third boat finished sixth in New England.

The girls varsity lacrosse team opened the weekend in thrilling fashion Friday night. Trailing by two goals with a minute left, Big Red came roaring back to force overtime. Eden Welch ’23 trimmed the deficit with 54 seconds left before Victoria Quinn ’22 scored off a feed from Adora Perry ’24 as the buzzer sounded to even the score at 10-10. Exeter maintained possession off the opening draw of the extra period, and Quinn set up a cutting Welch, who potted the game-winner just 63 seconds into overtime. Welch finished with a game-high six goals, while Allie Bell ’25 was outstanding in net, making several key stops down the stretch.

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Boys varsity lacrosse kept the winning vibe going on Saturday. Exeter took a 4-2 lead into halftime and never looked back, taking an 8-3 victory over the Blue. Aidan Olazabal ’24 was the star for Big Red, making 18 saves in between the pipes; Baron Fisher ’22 and Declan Murphy ’22 each scored three times to power the offense. Boys JV lacrosse earned a thrilling 11-10 victory over Andover.

Varsity baseball broke a scoreless tie in fourth inning when Kodi Dotterer ’22 laced a triple to deep right field to knock in a pair of runs and stake a 2-0 lead. The lead would remain intact before Andover pushed six across the plate in the bottom of the sixth inning to claim a 6-2 victory.

Big Red softball wasted little time getting on the board as Taylor Nelson ’22 blasted a two-run home run in the top of the first inning. The Andover bats would chip away and jump ahead 3-2 in the fifth before plating a trio of runs in the sixth. Alex Singh ’22 singled in the sixth to knock in Nelson and cut the deficit to three, but Andover would hold on for a 6-3 win.

Big Red and Big Blue capped the day on the track. Exeter boys, anchored by an impressive performance and win in the 4×100 relay, earned an 81-54 victory over the Blue, while the hosts topped the Big Red girls by a score of 80-56.

Exeter’s Global Initiatives program has long set the Academy apart in giving students opportunity to explore our world and put their critical thinking and cultural competencies to use. This summer, Exeter is wasting no time getting back on the road, with the first of six experiential learning trips starting June 4.

PEA faculty will lead dozens of our students on trips as near as Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom and as far as an archaeological dig in central Italy.

Here are brief descriptions of the planned trips:

Conserving Pollinators

More than three-quarters of the world’s crops depend on pollinators. These animals provide essential ecosystem services and play a crucial role in the production of many fruits and vegetables. But a changing climate, pesticide use and habitat loss or degradation threaten pollinator communities. Through the observation, collection and identification of local pollinators in Costa Rica, students will help gather data critical to understanding the impacts of these threats to this fragile but vital ecosystem.

Environmental Stewardship

Vermont is a place of deep connection to the rhythms of the natural world, a place of close communities living close to the land. Using Quimby Country Cottages in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom as HQ, students will explore and live the idea of stewardship through the contexts of recreation and adventure, community and food, and the arts and sciences. Participants emerge with a deep sense of place and a template for engaging their own homes in ways that offer mutual flourishing to human and nonhuman communities.

Introductory Biology

Students gain first-hand experience with the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem as it relates to their spring term Introductory Biology curriculum. The week will be spent making day trips into Yellowstone National Park and working with instructors from Yellowstone Forever Institute on topics that include wolf reintroduction, grizzly bear conservation, and the Bison/Brucellosis dynamic.

 

 

 

 

 

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ESSO Service

Students take part in a hands-on service project while learning about New Orleans culture and the lasting effects of Hurricane Katrina on its infrastructure. This trip focuses on helping to rebuild homes, replant gardens, resurrect community parks and contribute to neighborhood revitalization projects. Students will also meet homeowners and community members who were negatively impacted by the devastating 2005 hurricane.

 

 

 

 

 

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Classical Archaeology

June 17-July 11

To really engage with the ancient past, students need to get their hands dirty. Archaeology can answer important questions that literature cannot, especially about the habits and beliefs of non-elite Greeks and Romans as seen by the artifacts and buildings they left behind. PEA students will join The Gabii Project, a dig in what was a renowned city during Roman times and where, legend holds, Rome’s mythical founder, Romulus, and his brother, Remus, were educated. 

Social Entrepreneurship

After 70 years of dramatic change, Berlin offers an incredible range of activities for all interests. Students will converse with Berlin business owners and customers in various fields while exploring downtown neighborhoods. They will live and take classes at CIEE Berlin Global Institute. Using startup-friendly Berlin as their classroom, students will learn to leverage their business skills to create sustainable solutions to community challenges in this social entrepreneurship course. During the first half of the program, students learn how to develop and pitch a business. During the second half of the program, students will use the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals as a framework for discussing various challenges facing Berlin.

 

 

 

 

 

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The Exeter cycling team has been crowned as champions once again as they claimed the New England Road Cycling League Championship yesterday on the road course at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. This marks the second straight league title for Big Red.

Owen Loustau ’22 paved the way as he has all season, claiming first place overall as he covered the 15 mile race in 35:52.20 in the Boys A section. Duke Garschina ’23 finished fourth overall in the Boys A group with a time of 38:15.30.

Ale Murat ’23 powered Exeter in the Girls A section, crossing at 37:38.60 to claim third place overall. Leta Griffith ’25 followed to finish in fourth.

“Led by Owen and Ale, our team came together as a family,” said Big Red head coach Don Mills. “They stepped up and performed well all season, especially today as several key riders were out.”

Hisham Alireza ’23 and EJ Barthelemy ’23 finished first and third, respectively, in the 11.5 miles Boys C race. It was a tight finish as Alireza came in at 33:50.90, edging out the second place finisher by 1.5 seconds while Barthelemy followed at 33:54.70.

Sophie Fernandez ‘22 and Rianna Skaggs ’23 earned third and fourth place in the Girls C 9.2 miles race with respective times of 28:28.60 and 28:47.70.

Students, faculty and other members of the Exeter community gathered in Rockefeller Hall in the Class of 1945 Library on Tuesday evening to hear Kim Coleman Foote, the 2021-22 George Bennett Fellow, read from her work.

A writer of fiction, creative nonfiction and experimental prose, Foote said at the outset of her reading that her time at Exeter had been “bookended” by two milestones in her writing career. Soon after arriving on campus, she sent off her manuscript, Coleman Hill, a short-story collection inspired by her family’s experience of the Great Migration, to agents. She received an offer of representation within two weeks, achieving a goal she had been pursuing since 2005.

“Then just yesterday, I sold two books,” Foote announced, to a round of applause. “My books will finally get published, and this is a dream that I’ve had since I was a little girl growing up in New Jersey.”

At the Library, Foote read from “Her Story,” a story in the collection set around 1989 in Vauxhall, New Jersey, and written from the perspective of her great-aunt. “I actually wrote it while I was here at Exeter, and it was inspired by the long and dreary and lonely and depressing and gray and cold winter that we had here,” she said. 

The spring term reading followed a well-received Assembly Foote gave in the fall, in which she read another story from the collection, a darkly comic tale she said was “inspired by true events, about when my mother and her siblings and her cousins plotted to kill their grandmother.”

During her time at Exeter, Foote has also been working on a Black female-centered novel about the transatlantic slave trade, based partially on research conducted while on a Fulbright Scholarship to Ghana. The experience also inspired her to write a third manuscript, a memoir about the black diaspora experience in Ghana.

Foote grew up hearing the family stories that inspired her story collection, and began writing her own stories around the age of 7. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Chicago State University, and her recent publication credits include Best American Short Stories, Iron Horse Literary Review, Ecotone, The Rumpus, Green Mountains Review, and Prairie Schooner. In addition to the Bennett Fellowship, Foote has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, the Center for Fiction and MacDowell. In 2022-23, she will be a fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

The George Bennett Fellowship (Writer-in-Residence) at the Academy was established by Elias B.M. Kulukundis ’55 in honor of his former English teacher at the Academy, George E. Bennett. An Exeter native and member of the Class of 1923, Bennett began teaching at his alma mater in 1929 and spent 37 years in the English Department.

Now coordinated by Instructor in English Todd Hearon, the Bennett Fellowship program is one of the country’s most sought-after postgraduate writing fellowships. Awarded to a promising author who has not yet published a book, it includes a stipend for one academic year, as well as housing, meals and benefits for the author and their family. In addition to working on their own writing, the fellow is asked to make themselves available “in an informal and unofficial way” to students interested in writing, including members of English classes and student literary organizations.

Before taking questions from the audience, Foote offered her thanks for the opportunity to spend the year at Exeter. “After my MFA, I worked for about 15 years in higher ed administration … 9-5, all year round,” she said, adding that she managed to write and revise three manuscripts during that time. “I’m sincerely grateful for this opportunity to quit my job — which is tremendously scary — and for the first time in my life call myself a writer full-time.”

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Long Hair

As spring unfolds on Exeter’s campus, nearly 300 students are confronting one of the most daunting academic challenges presented them during their time at the Academy: the “333.” The notorious U.S. history term paper, with a required length of 12 to 15 pages — or approximately 4,000 words — is meant to train students in the type of independent research, critical thinking, analytical writing and time management skills they will need in their college careers.

Uppers, along with some seniors and a few ambitious lowers, take on the assignment as the capstone of the final course in the History Department’s three-term American history sequence. Since 2016, this course has been called History 430: U.S. History 1941–Present, but before that it was known for three decades as History 333. While the numbering change was intended to reflect the academic rigor of the course, the 333 term paper was by then considered an integral rite of passage at the school — and the name stuck.

The famous Louis Khan-designed Class of 1945 Library serves as the students’ hulking home base during the four weeks they spend working on their 333s. Roughly 15 class sessions of History 430 are devoted to the project, with students spending most of that class time working independently or conferencing one-on-one with their teachers.

In early May, the U.S. Supreme Court landed squarely in the national spotlight with the unprecedented leak of a draft opinion that would revoke the abortion rights guaranteed in 1973’s Roe v. Wade. Barely a week later, Exeter’s Department of History hosted a visit by the award-winning historian Orville Vernon Burton, co-author of a new book on the Court’s three-century-long history on race.

A native of South Carolina who has held named professorships at Clemson University and the University of Illinois, Burton has written numerous books on American history and has served as an expert witness for minority plaintiffs in voting rights and discrimination cases across the United States.

During his visit to the Academy, Burton gave a lunchtime seminar on “Taking History to Court” in the Latin Study and an evening talk at the Class of 1945 Library, during which he discussed Justice Deferred: Race and the Supreme Court, which he wrote with the civil rights lawyer Armand Derfner. He visited two sections of History 553: Law and American Society, taught by History Instructor Kent McConnell, a longtime mentee and friend.

Finally, Burton sat down for a conversation with Lauren Jebraili ’23, an upper in the Law and American Society class. Jebraili, who grew up in the Washington, D.C. area, plans to major in history. She spoke with Burton about the cases that inspired him to write Justice Deferred, along with issues of freedom of speech and religion, balancing the power of federal and state government, and today’s Supreme Court, among other topics. 

Here are some edited excerpts from their conversation:

The [Court’s] defining of race itself I find very fascinating. The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited naturalization to free white persons. In 1870, you have a change because of the 14^th Amendment, which says that African Americans can be naturalized. In 1922, a Mr. Ozawa believed that they had changed the law enough that it no longer applied to people…like himself, who had been born in Japan [but came to the United States as a child]. The Supreme Court hemmed and hawed and finally they said that what [the law] actually meant was that you had to be Caucasian. The next year, a Mr. Thind, whose ancestry actually went back to the Caucasian Mountains — a real Caucasian — applied for citizenship. The Court tried to provide some rationale for its decision [to deny him] and finally decided that “Caucasian” really meant “white.”

The case that really speaks to me because this is what I grew up with [is 1967’s Loving v. Virginia], which said Black and white and people of other races could marry…The Supreme Court has dealt with all these issues, and really, so do we in this book. That’s not the most important case, but I think it catches the confusion of — what is race? There is no such thing. The Court has struggled time and time again to define race.

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