Phillips Exeter Academy

Three straight championships for Exeter cycling

The Exeter cycling captured the New England Road Cycling League title, amassing the most overall points throughout the five-race session. This marks the third straight league title for the cycling program.

Leta Griffith ’25 paved the way for Big Red all season long, picking up multiple first-place finishes and totaling a league-best 444 points on the season for the girls side. Ale Murat ’23 and Elle Perry ’25 placed fifth and sixth, respectively, in the season-long A standings. The girls A squad placed first in each of the races this season.

On the boys side, it was Williams Lu ’24 who paced Big Red through the A series. Lu finished in second place twice this season and added two other top-five finishes to finish with a cumulative total of 408 points, good enough for second in the league. Avery Baker ’24 finished fifth in the league with a total of 276 points; Duke Garschina ’23 placed eighth overall.

'Educate the Educators' visits PEA

Four student panelists, including two students from the Academy and two from local high schools, spoke from the Assembly Hall stage on Wednesday night about their own activism and how educators in New Hampshire can help foster diversity, equity, inclusion and justice (DEIJ) inside and outside the classroom.

The event was the third iteration of “Educate the Educators” series hosted by the Black Lives Matter Seacoast Youth Division in collaboration with the Portsmouth High School Equity Council, and the first held in person at the Academy. Moderator Kevin Pajaro-Mariñez, the Academy’s assistant director for equity and inclusion, is also co-director for the Racial Equity Educator team at BLM Seacoast and interim director of the organization’s youth division.

“Oftentimes…the perception is that what happens at Phillips Exeter is reflective of what happens down the street,” Pajaro-Mariñez said in his introductory remarks. “From my knowledge and my experience in the community, that tends to not be the case, and part of bridging that gap is to bring people together in conversation over important topics.”

The discussion kicked off with reflections on what youth activism meant to all four of the student panelists. Janaya Springer, a senior at Portsmouth High School, and Saniyah Bolton, a junior at Exeter High School and co-director of the BLM Seacoast Youth Division, spoke of their experiences living in predominantly white communities in seacoast New Hampshire, and how each of them were inspired to join (and start) organizations dedicated to racial justice efforts.

“What youth activism means to me is having conversations and listening fully to everyone’s opinions on issues that are considered or were considered taboo,” said Springer, who co-founded Portsmouth school district’s Equity Council in 2021. “These are real issues and if you just push it under the rug…it becomes even more of a problem for the marginalized communities who have to deal with the sweeping under the rug.”

The panel moved on to discuss the issues related to diversity, equity, inclusion and justice they believed needed to be addressed in the classroom, especially in light of legislation like New Hampshire’s “divisive concepts” law, which effectively limits discussions of race and racism in public school classrooms.

“[Representation] is one of the foundational blocks to make ensuring that everyone in any community is feeling seen and that everyone…has the resources they need to create empathy,” said Rowan Flanagan ’24, who works closely with the Office of Multicultural Affairs through clubs and affinity spaces and as a proctor.

“While lack of representation and DEIJ in schools and our institutions clearly harms people of color and other people with marginalized identities…it also harms those with privileged identities,” said Yasmin Salerno ’23, who is also a co-director of the BLM Seacoast Youth Division. “Because those with privilege growing up in a society that continuously stereotypes them as superior in some way creates a distorted sense of self that becomes a breeding ground for microaggressions…harms the potential for social relationships with marginalized peoples and feeds into a lack of empathy.”  

Bolton suggested that teachers worried about the “divisive concepts” law let their students take the lead in activities and conversations around more controversial subjects. “Creating a more inclusive environment…would open up communication in general between students and teachers,” she said. “Those connections will guide that ability…to have that personal standpoint of not only acknowledging ‘hey, maybe I’m not too educated on this, let’s talk about it,’ but also, ‘I’ve experienced this, let’s talk about it as well.’”

Click here to watch the “Educate the Educators” event. 

Before answering questions from the audience, which included a number of teachers from local public schools, the panelists spoke about how they cared for themselves while doing the difficult work of activism.

“When I first started out…I had this ideology that I was indeed going to save the world and become president of the United States at the same time,” Springer said with a laugh. “Having that mentality is very draining because you put so much pressure on yourself to solve every single issue, every single problem that we as a society face. But I think taking a step back and looking at the little progress you’re making in communities and hosting panels like this — that’s what’s going to change the world, slowly but surely.”

A lifetime of service

In his 49-year career at Exeter, Richard S. Aaronian ’76, ’78, ’97 (Hon.); P’94, P’97 embodied the ideal of a boarding school educator, inspiring and nurturing generations of students in and out of the classroom. Aaronian taught in the Science Department and served as department chair, headed three dorms, led the Community Conduct Committee and other key groups, coached junior varsity boys hockey and helped coach junior varsity baseball. In May the Academy honored his exemplary service by presenting him with the 2023 Founders’ Day Award.

“Your boundless appetite for life and the natural world, your innate decency, and your devoted care for your students made you one of the school’s most beloved instructors, coaches and dorm parents,” Trustee and General Alumni Association President Betsy Fleming ’86 said while delivering the award citation.

“Family shaped my life,” Aaronian said as he accepted the award before a standing-room-only crowd of students, alumni, current and emeriti faculty and trustees in Assembly Hall. He spoke of his childhood in Somerville and Medford, Massachusetts, with his parents, both of whom emigrated from Armenia; three older sisters and a clan of relatives. The first in his family to attend college, he discovered a passion for ornithology at the University of New Hampshire. Later, while pursuing his master’s at UNH, he saw an index card on the departmental office door advertising a job as a part-time science instructor at the Academy.

Soon after joining Exeter full time in 1971, Aaronian proposed adding courses in marine biology and ornithology to an expanding science curriculum. He taught both classes for decades, shepherding students to the New Hampshire seacoast to collect marine organisms and to Plum Island in Massachusetts to track migratory birds, among other destinations. Colleagues credit him with building the place-based field trip program that is now integral to Exeter’s Science Department. Named the Harlan Page Amen Professor of Science in 1999, Aaronian received major awards including the Rupert Radford Faculty Fellowship Award, the Brown Family Faculty Award and the George S. Heyer Jr. ’48 Teaching Award.

Aaronian spoke of working alongside his wife, Peg, as dorm parents in Amen Hall and Bancroft Hall at the outset of coeducation at Exeter. “It doesn’t surprise me that we have a special relationship with members of those early classes in the 1970s,” he said. “In fact, I’ve always felt that we grew up together.”

Aaronian’s dedication to students extended to the rink, where he became a fixture as coach of the junior varsity boys hockey team for 26 years. He later helped coach junior varsity baseball for a decade. Over his long career, Aaronian built lasting connections with hundreds of Exonians, many of whom enjoyed his legendary bird walks and credit their love of birding to him. In honor of his retirement in 2020, the class of 1978 (one of three alumni classes to claim him as an honorary member) established the Richard S. Aaronian Summer Field Studies Internship Fund, which supports an internship each year for an Exeter student at the Shoals Marine Lab on Appledore Island in Maine.

In closing, Aaronian spoke collectively to students past and present as he recounted some of his fondest Exeter memories: “Listening to you at the table help a classmate understand a difficult concept in introductory biology. Watching your face when you understand that concept. … Having a student ask for a pair of binoculars for a graduation gift. Sharing your pride when you identify a bird on your own — maybe even from its song.”

Conceived by Principal Stephen G. Kurtz and established by the Trustees in 1976, the Founders’ Day Award is given annually by the General Alumni Association in recognition of devoted service to the Academy.

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the summer 2023 issue of The Exeter Bulletin.

The Richard S. Aaronian Summer Field Studies Internship Fund was established in 2021 to honor Richard Aaronian’s service to the Academy. The purpose of the fund is to support one student internship during the summer for research and field studies. To make a gift to this fund, please go to www.exeter.edu/giving and in the “Additional comments” box indicate that you designate your gift to the Richard S. Aaronian Summer Field Studies Internship Fund.

Trailblazing journalist shares 'hope' with Exeter

Journalism trailblazer and civil rights champion Charlayne Hunter-Gault told an Assembly Hall audience on Tuesday morning that she had come to Exeter armed with “hope” that our country will learn from its history rather than repeat it.

Hunter-Gault, a Peabody- and Emmy-winning TV and radio reporter, is this year’s Strickler Fund speaker, a series that has welcomed journalists such as Nicholas Kristof, Jill Abrahamson and Charles Blow to the Assembly Hall stage. The fund was given to The Exonian by Richard Strickler ’66, a former editor of Exeter’s newspaper.

Hunter-Gault made light of the length of her career, telling the students, “I like to consider my 81-year-old self, dare I say, ‘woke.’ So, let me hasten to quote from LL Cool J, who says ‘Don’t call it a comeback. I’ve been here for years.’”

“I’ve been here for 81 years, so I come here today aware of all of our challenges, but I want to share with you, albeit poetically, this: I cope with the news that is not always good, because I believe in hope”

Hunter-Gault told Exeter’s students that a college professor told her that “history tells us we do not learn from history,” but she emphasized that it was “important to look back to assess how far we’ve come … and to keep from going back.”

Watch Hunter-Gault’s assembly address in its entirety.

Weeding and reading

Around 8:15 on a morning in late April, one of Exeter’s distinctive “Red Dragon” minibuses pulls up to Saltonstall Farm in Stratham, New Hampshire, owned and operated by Sophie Saltonstall ’07 and her husband, Kyle. Instructor in English Jason BreMiller hops out of the driver’s seat and 11 seniors, all members of BreMiller’s spring term English class Literature and the Land, file out of the passenger’s side door.

The students assemble in a Harkness-style circle in front of the large white barn. Kyle, clad in a black hoodie and a baseball cap printed with strawberries, asks them what they know about weeds. They’re quiet at first — it’s still early, after all — but the conversation soon picks up.

“[Weeds are] parasitic, in the sense that they steal resources from whatever’s already there,” offers Kate Nixon ’23.

Kyle nods. “Everybody thinks farmers grow plants, [but] we actually kill way more plants than we grow,” he says.

In addition to reading assignments, including Camille Dungy’s poetry and Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Kimmerer, the students taking Literature and the Land spend much of their class time outside, observing and interacting with nature. Today’s Saltonstall Farm visit is one of a series of weekly class field trips; earlier in the term, they left campus at 4 a.m. for a sunrise hike in Pawtuckaway State Park in nearby Nottingham. Lit and the Land students have also explored Hampton Beach in the early morning hours, visited local apple orchards and beekeeping operations and paddled along the Exeter and Squamscott Rivers.

Now, the students file across the road to the strawberry fields, led by Hazel, the farm dog. Because strawberry plants send out long stems, with new plants growing from the ends, it makes mechanical weeding at this stage very difficult, Kyle explains. He kneels in the dirt to point out the main weeds plaguing the crop, including quackgrass (“my nemesis”) and the rosette-shaped yellow rocket.

Sophie hands out trowels and hand shovels as the couple’s nine-month-old son, Willie Nelson, peers out from a carrier on her chest. Kyle proposes a competition: Whoever pulls the most weeds will win a jar of farm-made strawberry jam.

Thus inspired, the students and BreMiller break into teams of two and get down to the work of weeding. As they work, some of the students stay close to Kyle, asking him questions — “How long does it take strawberries to grow?” “Do you guys use fertilizer?” — and chatting. Sheala Iacobucci ’23 mentions she’s taking a biology course in regenerative agriculture. “I think we’re coming here in a week or two on one of our field trips, so I’ll be back,” she says.

“I feel like I’m getting more dirt than plants,” Vibha Udayakumar ’23 says.

Kyle is reassuring. “Sometimes [the weed] doesn’t come out, and if it doesn’t come totally out, we’ll still get it in a death by a thousand cuts because we’re stealing a lot of its resources during its prime growing season,” he says. “So, there might be little bits that will come back, but it won’t be as bad.”

The sun has come out, lending warmth to the air. “You guys are doing great,” Sophie says. “Just another 100 hours or so and you’ll get to the end of the row and we’ll be done!”

A few ambitious students venture farther down the rows, separating themselves from the group. “Mr. Bre!” Jonathan Jeun ’23 cries. He holds up a large clump of weeds, their hair-like roots dangling, for his teacher to admire.

A few minutes later, the students begin wrapping up their work. They lug their buckets over for inspection, before heading back to the barn to wash up and board the Red Dragon back to campus. Kyle smiles as he assesses their haul. “I did not know a competition would work this well.”

Robotics team racks up wins at Worlds

Exeter’s Robotics Club took the Worlds by storm, compiling a list of accolades during the competition in Houston in late April.

Team VERTEX, the club’s top team, allied with teams from Longmont, Colorado, and Beijing China, to capture the FIRST Tech Challenge’s Jemison Division crown.

VERTEX was also recognized by the judges for:

  • Second place, Promote Award, given to the team that is most successful in creating a compelling video message for the public designed to celebrate science, technology, engineering and math.
  • Third place, Inspire Award, given to the team that best embodies the “challenge” of the FIRST Tech Challenge program. The team is a strong ambassador for FIRST programs and a role model FIRST Team.
  • Deborah Ang ’24, Dean’s List winner, awarded to 10 10th or 11th-graders who have led their teams and communities to increased awareness for FIRST and its mission while achieving personal technical expertise and accomplishment.

Inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST — For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology — in 1992 and hosted the inaugural robotics competition in a Manchester high school gymnasium. Today, Exeter is among more than 3,700 high school teams and 46,000 students participating in STEM-related competitions sponsored by FIRST.

PEA joined FIRST in 2018 and promptly found success, qualifying for worlds in the team’s first season. This year, the club featured three teams — VERTEX, Surface and Edge — in the state championships, where VERTEX took prizes for best robot and the Innovate Award for “the ingenuity, creativity, and inventiveness to make their designs come to life.”

FIRST Tech Challenge students learn to think like engineers. Teams design, build and code robots to compete in an alliance format against other teams. Robots are built from a reusable platform, powered by Android technology, and can be coded using a variety of levels of Java-based programming.

Exeter was one of 192 teams worldwide to qualify for the FIRST Tech Challenge finals in Houston. The team was assigned to the Jemison Division, where they competed against 47 other teams in a series of head-to-head matches. Matches are made up of several periods totaling two minutes and 30 seconds.

VERTEX compiled a 9-2 record in its Houston qualifying matches allied with various teams from the division. They were then chosen along with Beijing’s SUPERNOVA, by Up-A-Creek Robotics, the team from Longmont, to compete in the semifinals and finals. The three-team alliance swept all four playoff matches to win the division.

The triumphant Worlds appearance capped a busy season for the Robotics Club that included the addition of the Surface and Edge teams and the creation of a club podcast, “The Sum of Our Parts.”

“I’d estimate 6,000 total manhours across all team members,” said team captain Isabella Vesely ’23, and that only accounted for the time on the robot itself. “A significant additional number of hours go into community outreach, ranging from local to international levels, which both supports our goal of being non sibi, helps train our own members in technical areas and is an aspect considered at competition.”

Vesely, who is spending the spring term in Washington, D.C., as part of Exeter’s internship program on Capitol Hill, was only able to attend the competition in Houston for the last day and a half. But she said the environment was one of “adrenaline, excitement, and passion.”

“Houston’s one of the few places you can strike up conversation with almost anyone next to you about niche robotics details. Nowhere else can you find such a concentrated group of curious, talented, and fascinatingly engineering-addicted kids. The robotics community is consistently welcoming and nowhere else will you find hundreds of kids holding their breath watching robots zoom across fields, sometimes dramatically tipping or colliding, while scoring the critical points as the seconds tick down.”

Team VERTEX’s roster:

Isabella Vesely,’23;
Deborah Ang, ’24;
Tanish Tyagi, ’23;
Charles Potjer, ’24;
Celine Tan, ’23;
Avaninder Bhaghayath, ’26;
Teddy Duncker, ’25;
Chaney Hollis, ’23;
Byran Huang, ’25;
Eric Li, ’25;
Eli Pratt, ’25;
Alinne Romero-Torres, ’24;
Brenda Romero-Torres, ’24;
Riya Tyagi, ’24;
Annie Vo, ’26.

 

Built to scale

Exonians are reaching new heights thanks to an indoor climbing wall installed this winter in Love Gym. The brainchild of avid mountaineers Reece Chapman ’22 and Nick Rose ’23, the project came to fruition after two years of planning and with the support of Director of Athletics and Physical Education Jason Baseden and generous donors. “Not everybody’s into team sports,” Baseden says. “The climbing wall provides another physical outlet for not only the students, but the rest of the community.”

Rose and Climbing Club co-head Deborah Ang ’24 spent hours fitting the nearly 14-foot-tall synthetic rock face with movable handholds to create climbing routes for beginners and novices alike. “Setting each route is like creating a puzzle,” Rose says. “Climbing is 60% mental and 40% physical. Figuring out your route is super fun.”

Although Exeter’s “mountain” is no K2, Baseden hopes the wall might inspire students to follow in the footsteps of Robert H. Bates ’29 and aim high.

 

This story was originally published in the Spring 2023 issue of The Exeter Bulletin.

 

Exeter Deconstructed: The Davis Library

Everything old is new again, or so they say, which is particularly useful at a school celebrating 243 years. The expression is apt for the venerable Davis Library building, which is getting a renewed purpose in its second century.

Once a library, then a student center, then PEA Dance’s makeshift studio and finally office space for Admissions, the building is poised to become home to the Department of Classical Languages. Plans include four classrooms on the first floor and renovations to second-floor spaces to create a new Latin Study and a versatile hall for a variety of school functions.

Davis Library opened in 1912. It is named for Benjamin P. Davis, a member of the class of 1863 who bequeathed $50,000 to the school to fund a library. For 60 years, the building served as intended before yielding in 1971 to the much larger Class of 1945 Library erected beside it.

The space soon found a second life as the Davis Student Center, home to The Exonian, WPEA and clubs of every order. When the old Thompson Science Building was renovated in 2005 to become what today is the Elizabeth Phillips Academy Center, Davis was again without a tenant.

Admissions’ financial aid operations moved into the first floor, and in 2009, the former reading room on the second floor was converted into a dance studio. The dancers moved out in 2018 with the arrival of The David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Theater and Dance. Admissions found other accommodations. That left 7,000 square feet of brick and marble awaiting their next chapter.

Work on that new chapter is scheduled to commence in August 2024.

This story was originally published in the Spring 2023 issue of The Exeter Bulletin.

Par excellence

ROBOTICS TEAM WINS SPOT IN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Energy ran high among members of Exeter’s Robotics Club on February 18, when they arrived at the New Hampshire Technical Institute to face off against 27 other teams in the FIRST Tech Challenge robotics competition. “There were kids all over the place testing robots, programming robots and helping each other, even across teams,” recalls Isabella Vesely ’23, captain of Exeter’s Team FTC VERTEX. “You could definitely feel the atmosphere of excitement.”

As competition day progressed from presentations to qualifying matches to the main event — the state finals — Team VERTEX emerged as one of the top-ranked teams. Vesely, a veteran of three previous seasons, believes her team came into the event more prepared than ever before. “With the exception of minor mechanical repairs, our robot was ready all day,” she says, “and we didn’t even have to update code last minute, which was a definite first for us.” 

Last year, VERTEX missed qualifying for the world championships by just one spot. This year there was no such disappointment. Outfitted with multidirectional wheels and a complex turntable design on top, VERTEX’s robot was able to score easily and efficiently by placing cones atop poles of different heights on the 12-by-12-foot game fields. In the final matchup, between alliances of three randomly matched teams, VERTEX led its alliance to victory over its top-ranked opponents, led by the Nashua-based team Blue VIII. As leader of the winning alliance, VERTEX was crowned as state champion, earning a chance to compete in the 2023 world championships in Houston in April.  

VERTEX

VERTEX also took home the Innovate Award, which celebrated the team’s “ingenuity, creativity and inventiveness to make their designs come to life.” The weekend continued a stellar season for the team, which had ranked first in the state and scored seven of the 10 highest scores in competition overall.

Vesely says the team has increased its efforts to train less experienced members and give them more hands-on opportunities to work with the robots. These efforts paid off during this year’s competition, when two new Exeter teams, Surface and Edge, competed at the state level for the first time. Team Surface won the third-place Control Award, which recognizes a team that “demonstrates innovative thinking to solve game challenges such as autonomous operation, improving mechanical systems with intelligent control, or using sensors to achieve better results.”

On the individual level, Deborah Ang ’24 was named one of two Dean’s List finalists to represent New Hampshire at the world championships. Ang serves as VERTEX’s mechanical lead. Riya Tyagi ’24 was a semifinalist. Inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST, or For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, and hosted the inaugural competition in a high school gymnasium in Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1992. Exeter is now among more than 3,700 high school teams and 46,000 students participating in STEM-related competitions sponsored by FIRST each year.  

Exeter’s Mock Trial Club

Exeter’s Mock Trial Club has had a long track record of success in the New Hampshire State Mock Trial Championship, but this year’s teams outdid themselves. The Exeter teams swept the top three spots at the tournament, and all the individual awards went to Exonians. Michael Nardone ’24, Selim Kim ’24, Angela Zhang ’23 and Anderson Lynch ’23 won Outstanding Attorney, while Charles Potjer ’24, Matt Grossman ’25, David Goodall ’24 and Michael Hsieh ’23 took home honors for Outstanding Witness. In the finals of the tournament, Lynch, Hsieh, Nardone and Goodall joined forces with Tucker Gibbs ’23, Colin Jung ’24, Angelina Gong ’25 and Ethan Benenson ’26 to defeat another Exonian team by a total of just two points. They will represent New Hampshire at the National High School Mock Trial Championship in Little Rock, Arkansas, in May. 

Prestigious international math contestant

Alan Bu ’24 traveled to southeastern Europe to compete in the 14th Romanian Master of Mathematics, which kicked off in Bucharest in late February. One of the most challenging high school mathematics competitions in the world, the invitation-only event included teams from 15 countries. Over two days, competitors worked through a set of six problems; the three highest individual scores from each country made up the country’s team score. Bu won a silver medal in the event, finishing 13th in a field of 90 contestants, and the U.S. team captured a first-place trophy in the overall competition. 

Singer-songwriter honored

Polly Vaillant ’23 hit a high note this winter when she joined 137 other finalists in Miami for National YoungArts Week, an intensive program under the umbrella of the National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts. Selected in the voice/singer-songwriter category, Vaillant got the chance to learn from working artists and collaborate with talented students across 10 disciplines during a week packed with workshops and performances. She capped off the experience by performing her original song “Better Now” at the New World Center concert hall. Trained in classical vocal performance, Vaillant began writing songs while quarantined at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. She completed her first album, Songs in the Key of E(xeter), as a senior project last fall. “I learned so much and met so many supportive and talented people, including a cohort of other songwriters who’ve become my very good friends,” Vaillant says. “It was an absolutely amazing experience.”

Polly Vaillant ’23

Physics Club finishes second in international tournament

For the first time since 2020, a team from Exeter’s Physics Club competed in person at the U.S. Invitational Young Physicists Tournament, held in February in San Mateo, California. With the support of their fellow club members, Isabella Vesely ’23, Jack Kugler ’23, Anish Mudide ’23, Daniel Jeon ’23, Achyuta Rajaram ’24, Ishaan Vohra ’24, William Lu ’24 and Peter Morand ’25 prepared investigations of four problems, ranging from the speed of sound in air to the electrostatic pendulum. During the tournament, they tested their mettle in a series of “physics fights,” in which opposing teams fire questions at each other. The competition models the type of discussion and debate that goes on at professional science conferences. At competition’s end, the Exonians finished second out of 11 teams that attended the event. 

Debater succeeds on world stage

Though parliamentary debating is typically a team effort, Colin Jung ’24, captain of Exeter’s Daniel Webster Debate Society, competed as an individual at the highest level of world competition. In January, Jung captured the first-place individual title at a tournament at Choate Rosemary Hall, earning himself a spot at the World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championship in Durban, South Africa, where he joined some 200 competitors from countries around the world in four events: persuasive speaking, interpretive reading, impromptu speaking and debating. After tackling a final-round resolution focusing  on the question of reparations for descendants of enslaved people, Jung finished fourth overall (and first among the U.S. delegation) in the debate category, reaching the level of “grand finalist.”

Writers and artists recognized

Out of more than 300,000 submissions, creative works by 10 Exonians were among some 2,000 chosen for national recognition in the 100th annual Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, the nation’s longest-running program honoring the work of teen writers and artists. Andrew Yuan ’24 racked up three medals in the writing category, including a gold medal for his poem “To Paraphrase Immigration.” Among the other winners were Lionel Hearon ’25, whose painting “Layla” (below) won a gold medal in the art category. Amber Zou ’24 also captured gold for her poem “self-portrait as an ampersand,” as did Lianna Yang ’24 for her piece “Dear Color Blind Country.”  

“Layla” by Lionel Hearon ’25

This story was originally published in the Spring 2023 issue of The Exeter Bulletin.

Exonians in review: Spring 2023

Alumni are encouraged to advise the Bulletin editor (bulletin@exeter.edu) of their own publications, recordings, films, etc., in any field, and those of their classmates, for inclusion in future Exonians in Review columns. Please send a review copy of your published work to the editor to be considered for an extended profile in future issues. Works can be sent to: Phillips Exeter Academy, The Exeter Bulletin, 20 Main Street, Exeter, NH 03833.

ALUMNI

1955—Charley Ellis. Figuring It Out: Sixty Years of Answering Investors’ Most Important Questions. (Wiley, 2022)

— Inside Vanguard: Leadership Secrets From the Company That Continues to Rewrite the Rules of the Investing Business. (McGrawHill, 2022)

1958—John Newton. An American in Revolutionary Iran. (Tasora Books, 2022)

1963—Dave Rice. Sequelae: Tanka Prose. (Just Keep Walking Press, 2023)

1964—Russell McGuirk, editor. The Moulids of Egypt: Egyptian Saint’s Day Festivals, by J.W. McPherson. (The University of Chicago Press, 2023)

1966—Peter Thompson. Bughouse Blues. (Running Wild Press, 2023)

1974—David Keppel. Creative Uncertainty: A New Philosophy for a World Out of Balance. (Bowker, 2021)

1975—John Montgomery, with Mark Van Clief. Net Zero Business Models: Winning in the Global Net Zero Economy. (Wiley, 2023)

1975—David Potter. Disruption: Why Things Change. (Oxford University Press, 2021)

1980—Elise Thoron, with Ibe Kyoko. The Way of Washi Tales. (The Legacy Press, 2023)

Felon: An American Washi Tale, director. A solo show written by Reginald Dwayne Betts and performed March 2-4, 2023, at McCarter Theatre Center’s Berlind Theatre in Princeton, N.J.

1985—Lewis Flinn, composer and lyricist. Hood: The Robin Hood Musical Adventure, musical. (Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida, 2022)

1992—Gigi Foster, with Sanjeev Sabhlok. Do lockdowns and border closures serve the “greater good”? A cost-benefit analysis of Australia’s reaction to COVID-19. (Connor Court Publishing Pty Ltd, 2022)

1995—Wil Seabrook, singer-songwriter. Believe, five-song EP. (streaming platforms, 2023)

1997—Susie Suh, singer-songwriter. Invisible Love, album. (Collective Records, 2021)

2001—David Cooper, with Lawrence Mishel. “America’s Vast Pay Inequality Is a Story of Unequal Power,” article. (American Bar Association Human Rights Magazine, Vol. 48, No. 2, January 2023)

2001—Emma Wynn. The World Is Our Anchor. (FutureCycle Press, 2023)

2017—Meghan Chou, writer. Autopsy of a Night at a Bar, play. Premiered at The Tank in New York in March 2023.

FACULTY

Todd Hearon, with Greg Brown ’93. “‘Caliban in After-Life’: Reimagining Shakespeare’s Monster in Music and Words,” article. (Literary Matters, Winter 2023)

 

This story was originally published in the Spring 2023 issue of The Exeter Bulletin.