In pursuit of excellence 

MATH

Exonian earns gold at international competition

Grant Blitz ’27, a co-head of the Exeter Math Club, won the Academy’s first gold medal since 2009 at the Romanian Master of Mathematics in Bucharest in February. Over two days, students from 21 countries worked for 4 and a half hours a day to tackle six problems testing their knowledge of algebra, geometry, number theory and combinatorics. Blitz’s strong individual showing helped the U.S. team place second behind China.

“After you submit your solutions, there’s a coordination round where you can get partial credit even if you didn’t solve a problem,” Blitz says. “I worked with one of the team leaders to get as many points as I could — and it paid off.”

Blitz, who qualified for the competition by attending the Math Olympiad Summer Program and scoring high enough on several selection tests, credits his Math Club cohorts with helping him prepare for his trip.

“There are a few other Exeter students that I’ve been taking these tests with,” he says, “and we’ve been pushing each other to do our best.” 

CIVICS

Senior spearheads campaign to keep free beach access

When Lorax Reed ’26 learned of a proposed initiative that would charge for beach parking in Rye, New Hampshire, his hometown, he rallied community members to oppose the plan. An avid surfer, Reed and a friend founded the Free Rye Parking movement and started an online petition, which has garneredmore than 10,000 signatures.

“Charging for parking would limit nature access and disproportionately impact the youth and underserved, as these are communities without significant financial means,” he says. “Our ultimate goal is to inspire individuals across the Seacoast and beyond to reexamine the importance of nature in their life and reclaim those spaces as public and free to use,” he says.

The town pushed further deliberation on the proposal to next year. Reed says his time at the Harkness table has empowered him to speak up in settings like town meetings or media interviews.

“As a person under 18 … making my voice heard is the only way I will be able to sway public policy. Activism isn’t about making a scene, it’s about fighting for something you believe in.” 

STEM 

Regeneron Science Talent Search recognizes Exonians’ projects

Exeter extended its success in the nation’s oldest and most prestigious STEM competition as Celine Zhang ’26 became one of 40 young scholars to compete in the finals of this year’s Regeneron Science Talent Search in Washington, D.C.

Along with Zhang, Sebastien Sobeih ’26 and Andy Song ’26 were among 400 semifinalists selected from a pool of 2,612 entrants, the most since 1967.

As a finalist, Zhang won $25,000 for her project, “Designing Zero-Knowledge Proofs for Agent Motion Planning.”

“My zero-knowledge proof is both efficient and generalizable to a wide class of games,” Zhang explains. “In today’s digital world, zero-knowledge proofs allow for preservation of privacy in a variety of contexts.

ART AND WRITING

Exonians honored for creativity

Regional jurors for the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards honored Karolina Kozak ’27 with a national gold medal and an American Visions award for her painting “The Writer and the Fractured Light.”

The portrait of Erica Lazure, who was Kozak’s first English instructor at Exeter, includes words from one of Lazure’s short stories as a background.

“Her class was a very important experience to me as a non-native speaker” of English, Kozak says. “I wanted the painting to reflect how I see her work and its significance, something I hope she might recognize as well.”

In March, Kozak’s painting was included in a special exhibition at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire. Maeve Clinger ’28 also won gold and an American Voices award for her short story, “Clementine Ave.”

DEBATE

Senior heads to global Tournament of Champions

Ezra Segal ’26 took first place in the Lincoln-Douglas division at the Harvard National Speech and Debate Tournament in February. That earned him a trip to the J.W. Patterson Tournament of Championsthe leading international high school speech and debate championship hosted annually by the University of Kentucky.

Segal hopes to improve on his finish from the Tournament of Champions last year, when he became the first Exonian to qualify in the Lincoln-Douglas division. A co-president of Exeter’s Daniel Webster Debate Society, he has experience in various styles but prefers the fast-talking, one-on-one Lincoln-Douglas format for its creativity and strategy.

“For me, debate is this blank canvas where you can make any argument you want and you have the freedom to control how the round works,” Segal says. “Everyone can develop … arguments that define who they are as a debater.”

MUSIC

Exeter musicians play Carnegie Hall

Claire Xiao ’27 competed in the American Protégé Music Talent Competition, winning first place in the 15- to 18-year-old piano category for her performance of Brahms’ Intermezzo, Op. 117 No. 2.

Xiao was among 37 performers from 17 countries at the Carnegie Hall concert in December. “It was truly a fantastic experience that I will always remember,” she says.

After winning a regional piano competition in Manchester, New Hampshire, Cashel Drohan ’29 was invited to perform Mendelssohn’s “Rondo Capriccioso” for hundreds at Carnegie Hall in January.

“I’ve been playing piano since I was 6 years old,” he says, “so performing there felt like a huge honor.”

ROBOTICS

Four Exonian teams earn awards at FIRST Tech Challenge

The Exeter Robotics Club made a definitive statement in February at the FIRST Tech Challenge state championship in Concord, with all four teams collecting awards.

Team VERTEX finished as runner-up, winning an Inspire Award and a ticket to the world championships in Houston in April. Team SURFACE earned a Design Award and a place at the New England Premier Championship, while Teams APEX and EDGE were recognized with the Reach and Think awards, respectively, for excellence in engineering and innovation.

MODEL U.N.

Students rack up diplomatic commendations

Exeter’s popular Model United Nations club sent a select group to this year’s Harvard Model United Nations, one of the oldest and most prestigious global conferences at the high school level.

Over a weekend of high-stakes diplomacy, the Exonians tackled weighty topics such as global health care inequality and worked tirelessly to bring allies and opposing blocs in alignment with their views. Artur Ferreira ’27, Drona Gaddam ’27, Hamdan Khan ’27, Logan Liu ’27, Dash Seals ’27 and Marc Viscogliosi ’27 received diplomatic commendations for their work during the competition.

“Everyone who attended contributed something meaningful to the team,” Model U.N. co-head Lucia Rosen ’26 told The Exonian, “whether that meant delivering speeches, negotiating or just being there for each other.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

An honor for tech savvy and social responsibility

Aaditya Bilakanti ’28 received an honorable mention at the International Artificial Intelligence Olympiad, held in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Organized by the International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence, the five-day event challenged competitors from 24 countries in key AI disciplines including computer vision, machine learning and natural language processing. Throughout the competition, participants were encouraged to develop solutions that were inclusive, unbiased and accountable.

“The competition was a great experience,” Bilakanti says, “especially meeting other students who shared an equal interest in AI.” 

This roundup was first published in the Spring 2026 issue of The Exeter Bulletin.