Calvin Henaku
“When you get the chance to do things you love, you just have to take it.”
As senior Calvin Henaku settles into a stiff-backed chair in the Latin Study, a huge grin splashes across his face. It’s often said that there’s something for everyone at Exeter. For Calvin, it’s more like there’s everything for someone. The 18-year-old seizes upon every opportunity offered — and then some. “When you get the chance to do things you love, you just have to take it. … That’s what I've done here and that’s why I’m so happy.”
Growing up in Sunnyside, an ethnically-diverse neighborhood just south of downtown Chicago, Calvin’s opportunities to explore were limited. “I always lived so sheltered back in Chicago,” says Calvin, a first-generation American. His parents immigrated to Illinois from Ghana and his father currently works as a valet. “The fact that I even had the chance to come to Exeter, it was like starting a new life.”
Early on in middle school, Calvin says, he was a slacker. “I used to fall asleep in class and get Cs and Ds on my report card.” Then his older brother gave him a Kindle. “I remember I tried finding games on it, but I couldn’t,” Calvin says. “I could only read books and check the vocabulary entries of words, and soon I became a prolific reader.” His grades improved, and a teacher recommended he apply for a grant from the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Foundation, a local institution that provides tuition and travel expenses for academically-promising Chicago youth from low-income families to attend high-performing high schools.
With the foundation’s help, Calvin made it to Exeter, excited but reserved. “When I started here, I thought that my potential was limited because of the background that I came from,” he says. “Now I think people are not necessarily smarter than me. I can have as much of an effect on this world as they can.”
Learning to learn
Calvin got his first look at the wider world as a prep, when he traveled to the Gallo-Roman site of Bibracte in France with fellow Exeter classics students. (Fun fact: The only reason Calvin initially registered for Latin was because he thought he wouldn’t have to speak the language in class. “I was like, oh, this will be the easiest class for me! Classics is the love that I never expected I’d have coming into Exeter.”) Between digging in ancient ruins, soaking up lectures on the divisions of paleo-metallurgy, and devouring crepes, Calvin forged lifelong friendships and gained confidence.