Senior of the Year: Ayaan Akhtar

By JILLIAN CHENG ‘27

The lights are dimmed at Powell Hall in the Bowld. The crowd waits with bated breath as a band from the Exeter Association of Rock takes the stage. Shadowed figures adjust amps, pluck at electric guitar strings, until the colorful lights flicker on and leave Ayaan Akhtar centerstage. He stands straight with his shoulders rolled back, an excited smile on his face and eager eyes scanning the crowd. With a microphone in one hand and guitar in the other, he commands the room. But once drumsticks clack together once, twice, three times, he joins the energy of the band, the music, and the crowd together until the it sweeps through the entire building and rattles through the seats 

Outside of his natural home on the stage, Akhtar is a proud proctor of Abbot Hall. He takes part in Jazz Band, Jazz Combo, and Modern Musicmaking. Additionally, he holds significance in the student body as he coheads the Exeter Association of Rock. Outside of music, Akhtar also is a managing editor in Pendulum. Akhtar stays connected to his culture through his cohead position in Muslim Student Association and his creation of Muslim affinity space Basha. Finally, he is involved in student council as the senior class president. 

Off campus, away from heaps of club commitments and papers, Akhtar lives in Chicago, Illinois. “I love Chicago. I mean, I’ve lived there my whole life. I love the city and exploring it as much as I can,” he shared. 

However, his love for Chicago didn’t stop him from applying to Phillips Exeter. “The boarding school world never seemed too far away,” Akhtar said, as his older sister had also gone to boarding school. He applied to Exeter and many other boarding schools through a scholarship program for low income students called the Daniel Murphy Scholarship, which eased the application process. What drew Ayaan specifically to Exeter was the vertical housing system. “It’s just like the experience of living with seniors having lived that both as a prep and now a senior. There’s so much to learn from within community what older students can tell you and what younger students will tell you and what you learn from helping younger students even beyond just being helped by older students. I think that’s one of the things that makes this place so special.”

Akhtar joined Exeter in 2020, and the pandemic helped ease the transition. “I was very worried about the rigor of Exeter, and I think the COVID year pillowed that a little bit.” His class spent half of their prep year online and the other half in person. “I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into.” However, once Akhtar arrived on campus halfway through the year, the Abbot proctors were quick to make him feel at home. 

After settling into Exeter, Akhtar was quick in joining the music scene. “I started taking Modern Music Making in my prep fall. And I’ve taken it pretty much every term since.” Modern Musicmaking is an evening music ensemble that helps students of all abilities create music. “It’s really nice to have that range of experience because even amidst like ability, differences of what you can and can’t do on a dock or digital audio workstation, there’s just a such a nice feeling of creativity and passion that comes through in that class. I think that class I attribute so much of my like, musical growth and creative expression, particularly to that and the environment that surrounds that class. It’s just a block in your day where you do nothing but create.”

That spring, Akhtar joined the Exeter Association of Rock with bass, and the following year, he began playing guitar for Jazz Band. “Once I started Exter, I guess I didn’t like orchestral music as much as I do jazz and rock. To me, I think like music written on a page can feel limiting.” 

He had started playing both guitar and bass around seventh grade, and he took advantage of the pandemic to expand his talents. “I found the bass I liked on YouTube and started watching all those videos, so my first couple years of playing guitar and bass was solely just teaching myself off YouTube,” he said. “In a way it was nice to have the pandemic ‘cause I didn’t have much else to do.”

At Exeter, Akhtar’s love for music steepened as he began playing in ensembles and bands. “Really the best thing you can do is play with other people. I think that’ll just skyrocket your playing so much. Learning to listen to other people as you’re playing. Playing as a unit, as a band rather than just as a soloist. You learn a lot about like musical context, like what your role is as a guitarist in an ensemble.” Playing in a band also emphasizes the values of Harkness. “You get to learn like learn from other people you know, as we do at this school with Harkness and whatnot playing in bands like you will learn about how other people approach music and playing in an ensemble.

Outside of his ensembles, he coheads the Exeter Association of Rock in a more casual setting. His leadership position allows him to organize and set up many concerts for members of EAR to show off their talents. “I get to play with my friends, but I also can create pathways for people to have that same feeling. Like, I think that feeling of having a good concert, playing with good people, like playing with people and having fun on stage is so priceless that like I want to do as much as I can to make sure everyone has that opportunity. Anyone who wants it is able to do that. So part of that work has been like organizing jam sessions for people to come together and play and meet other musicians or doing like, smaller concerts, less formal concerts for people to kind of get out there and get on stage.”

Akhtar learned from many teachers along the way that taught him the importance of music, including his jazz band director Marcus Rabb. “Mr. Rabb just brings like such a great energy every morning. Even like Tuesdays at 9:00 AM like when no one wants to be there.”

Under Rabb’s guidance, Akhtar has grown as a musician. “As a student Ayaan listens and follows my suggestions about playing tastefully,” Rabb said. “He is also very creative and does not put himself first. Great qualities.” 

Another teacher that inspired Akhtar is music teacher Eric Schultz. “He saw something in me and wanted to do whatever he could to make sure students like me had the opportunities to create. I attribute so much of my passion for music to his teaching and the way he approaches creativity and art. It’s just been so inspiring to work with and learn from.”

While Schultz had never taught Akhtar in private lessons, the two crossed paths in the past, as Schultz is the teacher of Modern Musicmaking and the adviser for EAR. As a student, Akhtar’s work ethic has always stood out to Schultz. “He’s always working. And that’s not rare at this school, but there’s something about Ayaan in so far as his willingness to do the work that nobody else really is willing to do that makes him stand out.” Specifically in EAR concerts, Akhtar works hard behind the scenes to allow the members of whichever band is playing to shine. “He is willing to do the jobs of coordination, of setup, of getting into the technical details of drumming up an audience that other people won’t make the time to do,” Schultz said. “He wants every concert that he’s involved with to be special and to be a really great platform for everybody to make music.”

“His ability to create community is unmatched,” senior Clara Peng commented. “Everything that he does to cultivate that experience for everybody at an assembly or at a show is so important.”

“Ayaan brings leadership and seriousness to the music. He studies how to be a better guitarist and puts in the work,” Rabb said. 

His work ethic in combination with his confidence has allowed his talent to flourish. “I haven’t seen a student since I’ve been at PEA improve more over their time here than Ayaan,” Schultz remarked. “His capacity for relentless self-improvement on his instrument and on the other musical pursuits that he chases down is super, super impressive. And that’s a cocktail of his work ethic, his natural talent, his ability and interest in listening, his passion for music, his willingness to sort of get his hands dirty and do the less fun work that it takes to sort of get better.” 

Teachers at Exeter have always been a major influence in Akhtar’s life, even outside of music. His English classes and electives unlocked his love for writing, which further enhanced his songwriting abilities. “I didn’t particularly like writing coming in, but my lower fall I had a project with Miss Carbonell where we just essentially wrote a poetry collection. I just had such a good time writing it. I think that class particularly like lifted those boundaries off of the page where like sometimes you think of writing as so explicit and blocked in. But that class for me showed me that it’s so much more than that. You have so much freedom to express yourself and that can root from like how you physically format the words on the page, the things you say, whether they make sense or not. It’s definitely crept into like my songwriting as well and like my musical expression.” His love for writing also influenced him to join Pendulum, and later on become one of the magazine’s managing editors. 

English is only one of many classes that Akhtar enjoys at Exeter, as he seems to appreciate almost every class in the day. “I love math too. At times, the math curriculum can be very frustrating to deal with, but just like the process of discovering things rather than having them told to you. I love history. I also like physics.”

However, according to Akhtar’s friend Finn Tronnes, “he sucks at physics.” He added, “I just think it’s so funny because he’s like, ‘but it might be interesting.’ I told him, ‘no, you’re bad at it,’ but regardless, he decided that he was gonna enjoy it.”

“Some people get put into these boxes of being only a humanities person, or only a STEM person, but what I find impressive about Ayaan is that he’s interested and successful in so many things,” senior Nat Welling said. “He clearly just enjoys the act of learning, and of intellectual discovery—and this is such a lovely thing. 

In addition to finding value in classes, Harkness also influenced Akhtar to appreciate the diverse talent of Exeter’s student body. “I try to go to every like theater show, every dance show, every art showcase, every concert, just because I think we’re at such a special place where people bring so many things.”

“He’s really adamant about like making the most of everything,” Tronnes said. “He wants to take every opportunity he’s given, no matter if like it’s his favorite thing or not, but he’s gonna enjoy it.”

As Akhtar’s friend Hope Gantt described him, “Ayaan’s an all-in kind of guy. If he does something or cares about someone, he does so one hundred percent.” With academics, Akhtar will use every class to its fullest potential. With music, he will set up a concert when no one else can. But especially with his community, Akhtar will be there to observe and support the members of the Exeter, whether they are friends, strangers, or family.

“He’s a really good brother,” prep Amal Akhtar, Ay. Akhtar’s younger sister, said. “Just like coming here, he was just always really open to being there for me. Like to hang out or like, if I needed anything, like give me advice and stuff. He was really big on me being my own person and not trying to follow his footsteps or anything.”

“Watching her, I guess, experience Exeter from someone who’s been there before has been really refreshing in a sense. Like it kind of gives you a different perspective on, on growing up. Definitely being a senior now and watching someone who comes from the same background as you,” Ay. Akhtar said. 

Akhtar’s family has roots in Bangladesh, and in small town Exeter, it can be hard to find people of similar culture. However, leading Muslim Students Association allows him to gather with other members of the community. “When I first got here, it was hard to find people from backgrounds similar to me. MSA was a platform to connect. It has grown a lot since prep year, we usually get well over twenty people per meeting so watching that growth and watching people find a home within our space as a cohead has just felt so rewarding.”

In addition to coheading MSA, Akhtar started an affinity space for Bangladeshi students called Basha with friend Eamin Ahmed. 

“I think we first met in the middle of the woods,” Ahmed said, thinking to the start of their friendship. They both ran cross country their prep year. “We were kind of like the bottom runt group in cross country. He was the first Bangladeshi I had met on campus. We struck up a close friendship based on our cultural ties because of just how few Bangladeshi there were on campus or just in general.”

 Both Akhtar and Ahmed noticed that in Asian affinity spaces, it was difficult to fit in as Bangladeshis. Akhtar said, “It’s a small community but very often we get grouped and categorized into traditions we don’t belong to. The Bangladeshi-American student experience is often fundamentally different from the Indian-American student experience and we wanted to create a space for us to be ourselves and feel even more at home.”

“It’s really fun to just connect to other Bangla students on campus, really share our culture and just enjoy those references that other people like don’t get or speak in Bangla,” Ahmed said. 

English teacher Dr. Ullah advises Basha, and she has also helped make Bangladeshi students feel included in the community. “She’s a Bangladeshi teacher. So similar to my experience with having a friend like Eamin, she’s helped me feel like I’m at home.”

Watching Akhtar grow over the years, Ullah said, “Ayaan has continuously surprised me by the depth of his curiosity for music and the arts, the generosity of his care for others, the strength of his quiet and composed leadership, and the manner of his ability to welcome those who are new or unsure about their place of belonging.”

So far, Basha has been a success. Akhtar explained, “Basha means house in Bangla. We’ve had cooking nights, game nights, dinners where we just get to be with each other. And it feels like the most authentic home away from home.”

Akhtar wants to make students feel both comfortable and included, and his goals aren’t limited to only cultural spaces. This year, he is a proctor in Abbot Hall. “I love being a proctor,” he said. “I think it’s so much fun ‘cause I get to like I’m really grateful that our preps in Abbott are really close with one another.”

Jonny Chen is a longtime friend of Akhtar’s in Abbot. “I remember the proctors when we were preps were like, ‘this kid’s gonna be a proctor,’” he said. “Like he’s just like a phenomenal leader in the dorm. You can just see the way that he interacts with freshmen in the dorm or just anyone else. He’s just like a guy who builds very strong relationships with people and is able to be there for whoever it is.”

“I think it’s just been a really tight community, you know,” Akhtar said. “We definitely had our hiccups and I’ve learned to deal with those as a proctor and also as a student listener. It’s nice to have that impact on people that they had on you as younger students. I think I learned so much from just the kindness the proctors brought me my prep year. And just like their desire to help has totally shaped my Exeter experience, and I think that’s something I want to try and keep doing as I finish out being a proctor.”

“He’s connected so many people and he’s able to share his himself with the whole world.” Peng said. “He’s somebody who makes you feel like at home. You can tell him how you’re doing and he knows exactly what to say. There’s so many times where just like, I feel like I have nothing to say and I don’t know how to explain to him how I’m feeling, and he just gets it. He can desperately gets people.”

“He cares so much about like, building a community and asking people about their lives. And he’s so humble too,” Welling said. “I feel like he does all of these amazing things, and he’s never trying to show off or like he just wants to know how other people are doing and about their lives.”

“I think Ayaan can be really open with the people around him or the people that he’s close with,” Ahmed added. “I think the way in which he sees the world has really given me an appreciation for just like the little things in life, how I go about Exeter and just like the experience I’ve had here.”

“Ayaan has a unique combination of both intellectual and emotional intelligence,” Daniel Garvey, Akhtar’s advisor, said. “He sees things the way they are and the best that they can become. He then tries to move toward the latter in a way that is humanizing and uplifting.” 

“I would say a big thing [I learned at Exeter] is just the value that you can find in other people.” Akhtar said. “And learning from other people, which Harkness really instills in you.  Like these kids are so talented that coming around and having that opportunity to learn from one each other is so special. So I just love going out and seeing what other people are doing.” He has stayed true to his word, going to every meditation since upper year. In all aspects at Exeter, he has pushed himself just the extra mile to improve his own skills and support others.

However, Akhtar also agrees that there is a limit to pushing oneself. “Beyond that, I would say like there’s always a expectation to perform. You are expected to be at a hundred percent all the time and this place is can be so exhausting to be at and so draining. So there’s definitely a value in doing everything you can, but also like doing nothing sometimes, you know, just taking some days to yourself, even if that means slacking a little. You need those days to reset.” 

Since Akhtar arrived four years ago, he has gone through a myriad of changes. Schultz believes “the biggest change in him has been his confidence.” 

He went on, “With Ayaan, he was always alert. He was always sort of like listening deeply and trying to get better. But for the first while that I knew him, he was very kind of keeping it close. He was very protective of his music. Now he’ll stand up and take a solo. He’ll play and sing at assembly. He’s gotten a lot more confident with his singing voice.”

“Though Ayaan is, in a lot of ways, similar to how he was when we first met, I think it’s clear that he’s grown into a more mature, self-assured version of himself,” Welling said. “He’s really leaned into his positions as a leader on campus and has taken a lot of initiative in order to support others and bring about positive change.”

Tronnes agreed: “[At first] I wasn’t like, ‘oh, this kid’s gonna be like Mr. Exeter.’ And I think he’s just really like grown into a lot of roles just because he enjoys it so much and he cares so much about the people like here and everyone he meets.” 

Am. Akhtar said, “Before Exeter, I guess like he’s just had less an idea of who he was as a person. After being here, I feel like he’s become like a lot more confident in the things that he does and smarter obviously. And I feel like he’s wiser, like he’s experienced a lot of things and then like he can teach me from it.”

So, what’s in store for Akhtar after PEA? As Akhtar is enrolled Brown University, he plans on majoring in psychology. “I think the field of psychology seems really interesting to me in that it’s something that kind of unites amidst like art and expression and just humans like behavioral studies and stuff.”

In the long run, he still emphasizes finding value in other people. “I think back a lot on the people who have inspired me and I think something that would bring my life the most meaning is continuing that for other younger people. I think I do still wanna be a teacher at some point, come back and do what I can to have the impact on some students that teach or reciprocate the impact that students have had on me to other younger students. Some people just have so much to offer and it’s really just a matter of helping them find that footing.”

“I believe Ayaan has the ability to bring to the world outside of Exeter honesty and wisdom, social and emotional intelligence, and a little more justice and inclusion,” Ullah said. “I am excited for him, I am excited for the world that gets to meet Ayaan.” 

Akhtar has the motivation to seek value in every aspects of his life. He has room in his heart for something new every day, whether it be a class, a moment, a song, or a person. His constant drive for improvement does not overshadow his desire to uplift others. Exeter is not a competition for Akhtar. It is a place of circulating love, talent, and knowledge. 

The bleachers are now empty. Yet Akhtar still stands centerstage. Even after he has spread joy through Powell, brought the crowd to their feet with a shred of his guitar, he still has time to unplug the amp, clean up the streamers, and turn out the lights when no one else will.