Opening Assembly 2025

Good morning, Exeter.

Thank you, Assistant Principal Page, for welcoming our emeriti faculty and their families to Opening Assembly this morning. It is a wonderful tradition to welcome and honor our emeriti faculty at Opening Assembly each year.

Thank you, Dean Foley, for introducing and welcoming our new faculty. Our new faculty bring a wonderful diversity of talents, interests and experiences to our school. We are delighted that they have chosen to teach and work at Phillips Exeter Academy.

I would like to extend a special, warm welcome to all our new students. You are 336 in number and come from 36 states and 26 countries. You too bring a wonderful diversity of talents, interests and experiences to our school. We are excited that you are finally here, ready to begin your Exeter journeys.

Returning students, welcome back. I hope you had restful summers. It has been a great joy these past few days to see you back on campus, ready for another year.

Seniors, it is very special to see you in the front section. You are going to lead the way this year. I believe we are going to have a great year. Your leadership will be one of the reasons why.

Many of you know that I attended Exeter as a student. I have strong memories of attending Opening Assembly as a new Lower many years ago. I was excited, and happy to be here, but I also felt unsure. Everyone around me seemed more confident than I felt. Everyone around me seemed more at ease than I was. I couldn’t help but wonder: Would I measure up? Would I fit in? Did I really belong here?

With those memories still in mind, I will tell you now the three things that I most would have appreciated hearing as a new Lower many years ago. These are the same three things that I say to new and returning students at Opening Assembly every year. Rest assured:

• You can do the work.
• You will make lifelong friends.
• Absolutely, you belong here.

At Opening Assembly every year, I also unveil a new school t-shirt for the year. I do this because it is fun, but also because it is one way to convey that you are all Exonians now. The shirts all have the same image on the back. Here is this year’s shirt. This is an image of our newly renovated Davis Building — I will explain more about Davis Building in a minute. Near the top of the building, the shirt reads, “you will always belong here.” On the front, you will see a class year. Be sure to get a shirt with your class year on it. You can collect your shirts after this assembly in front of the Goel Center.

Each year at Exeter is a little different. One difference this year is that the Academy Building is undergoing a complete renovation. That is why we are in the gym this morning, and this is where we will hold most of our assemblies this year. Many classes that ordinarily would be held in the Academy Building will be held in other buildings, in some cases in meeting rooms that have not been used as classrooms before. We have adjusted our daily schedule to provide more passing time so you will be able to get from the science building to the fourth floor of the library in time. A project of this magnitude is certain to cause some unexpected challenges. We ask for your patience. Your patience will be rewarded with a beautifully restored Academy Building, a new Assembly Hall that will seat more than 1300, a new design lab — and air conditioning!

The Classical Languages Department has moved to the newly renovated Davis Building, adjacent to the library and Elm Street dining hall. This beautiful building, built in 1911, was the library when I was a student. You don’t have to study Latin or Greek to go into this building. Please check out Davis at your first opportunity. In addition to four spacious classrooms on the ground floor, at the top of the marble staircase you will find a wonderful new reading room and lovely smaller meeting room.

At Opening Assembly each year, by tradition, we take a few moments to reflect on our Deed of Gift and our mission as a school.

Our mission has not changed since our school was founded in 1781. Our mission is to unite goodness and knowledge and inspire youth from every quarter to lead purposeful lives.

We adopted this modern expression of our mission only five years ago, but each key word can be traced to our Deed of Gift, written by John and Elizabeth Phillips 244 years ago. Our mission statement expresses our belief that your time here matters; that what you do here, and how you learn and grow, are important because, like past generations of Exonians, you are here to prepare yourselves to lead purposeful lives.

Our mission statement is accompanied by five core values that also can be traced to our Deed of Gift and that have remained constant throughout the rich history of our school.

Our first core value is our commitment to knowledge and goodness.

Our Deed of Gift states:

“Above all, it is expected that the attention of instructors to the disposition of the minds and morals of the youth under their charge will exceed every other care; well considering that though goodness without knowledge is weak and feeble, yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous, and that both united form the noblest character, and lay the surest foundation of usefulness to mankind.”

Knowledge and goodness. Goodness and knowledge. We say it both ways because they are equally important. As you grow in knowledge at Exeter, you also will have opportunities to explore the meaning of goodness, be challenged in your thinking, learn with and from each other, and grow in your own understanding.

Our second core value is our commitment to academic excellence.

We aim high at Exeter. That is why you are here. But we don’t focus on a narrow definition of success. We focus on learning and growth. Through Harkness, we seek to instill in each of you such qualities as intellectual curiosity, creativity, empathy and respect. We seek to inspire you to develop critical thinking skills and seek complex truths. We will not tell you what to think; our goal is to teach you how to think. I hope you will find joy in this way of learning, even though it is challenging and at times hard. In meeting the challenges that you will face, you will grow in confidence and realize your own ability and capacity to learn.

Our third core value is our commitment to youth from every quarter.

Our Deed of Gift states that the Academy“shall ever be equally open to youth of requisite qualifications from every quarter.” Our need-blind admissions policy allows us to admit students without regard for any family’s ability to pay tuition or other costs of an Exeter education. Our diversity, across every dimension of identity, is a defining strength of our school that propels our learning and growth as individuals and as a community.

Our fourth core value is expressed in the Latin words non sibi, which mean “not for oneself.”

These words are inscribed on our school seal and attest to our philosophy that wisdom gained here should be used for the benefit of others and not only for oneself. We boldly state that we seek to graduate young people whose ambitions and actions are inspired by their interest in others and the world around them. Non sibi is the very ethos of our school. It starts right here with how we treat each other, how we contribute to the life of our school, and how we express gratitude for the privileges that we all enjoy by being a part of this community.

Our fifth core value is captured in the expression “youth is the important period.”

In the very first sentence of the Deed of Gift, John and Elizabeth Phillips wrote, “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.” With these words, John and Elizabeth Phillips explained why they dedicated their wealth to the creation of this school. They believed that a school committed to knowledge and goodness, open to youth from every quarter, and grounded in a culture of non sibi, could transform individual student lives and make a difference in their communities – in short, that such an Exeter could inspire and prepare all of you to lead purposeful lives.

With our mission and our five core values firmly in mind, we strive every year to be the best Exeter we can be. Our aim is to support your learning and growth and change your lives, as Exeter has changed the lives of prior generations of students since the founding of our school.

Your goals as students should be to value your time here, make the most of the opportunities presented to you, and have fun.

I want you to aim high, have fun, and find joy in everything you do: your classes, dorm life and activities, clubs, teams, ensembles, performances, competitions – everything you do. I hope you have fun trying new things, making new friends, taking on leadership roles, and finding ways to help others. I hope you embrace what you find hard, expand your reach, and find joy in your personal growth and development.

As you contemplate the year ahead, I would like to encourage you to focus this year on empathy.

Empathy is the capacity to understand and appreciate another person’s feelings and experiences. Empathy is important because it opens our hearts and minds to the kind of learning and growth that we seek to encourage at Exeter. It helps us to be curious about how and why others might see the world differently. Empathy enables us to see ourselves and others as learners. It helps us learn to be comfortable having our thoughts and ideas tested by others whose ideas, perspectives, experiences or identities are different from our own.

Empathy is fundamental to our Harkness pedagogy. It leads to deeper learning, greater personal growth, more effective leadership, and more meaningful contributions to the lives of others.

I hope this year you will lead with empathy in all you do.

As most of you know, this will be my last year as principal. Like our seniors, I will be doing a lot of things for the last time, including this Opening Assembly. I am sure there will be some wistful moments, but I am very excited about this year and anxious to get started.

In my first Opening Assembly seven years ago, I said, “We are not special merely because we are here, but because we are here, we have the opportunity to do special things together.” In making this statement, I was emphasizing qualities of humility, gratitude and self-belief – qualities that I believe can empower all of you to thrive during your time here. I can’t wait to see what special things all of you will do this year. I intend to be there every step of the way, cheering you on, and applauding alongside your teachers, advisors, coaches and other mentors.

Let’s make this a memorable year. Let’s be the best Exeter we can be. Let’s commit ourselves to the mission and values of our school and approach each day with gratitude in the spirit of non sibi. Let’s aim high, have fun, and find joy in all we do.

By tradition, we dismiss the senior class first at Opening Assembly. Preps, Lowers and Uppers, please stay seated while seniors exit.

Thank you.

Senior Class.