Faculty of the Week: Genny Moriarty

By Moksha Akil and Hansi Zhu

Parent, staff member, teacher and adviser—when it comes to PEA, English Instructor Genny Moriarty has done it all. Since her arrival in 2008, Moriarty has experienced campus life from every possible angle, immersing herself in the breadth of the community and fulfilling her calling to the English classroom.

“It's a different kind of joy that you get from being with the kids and learning from them,” she said. “I really learn from my students. I love watching the collaboration of Harkness and seeing ideas grow.” 

As a child, Moriarty’s love for language compelled her to read voraciously and write in journals “as a way to capture my experiences and make sense of them.” Growing up in a large family of storytellers, English naturally became her favorite subject in school. 

Though she started her Exeter employment as a part-time teacher in 2013, she later switched to working full time in the Communications Department. But when the opportunity rose last year to join the English department again, Moriarty jumped at the chance, attributing this decision to her love for the classroom. 

Teaching is certainly her territory. “She is incredibly patient and thoughtful,” English Instructor Christine Knapp said. “I think she’s really committed to helping her students figure out the best way to express their ideas and to find topics that are really meaningful to them.”

English Instructor and Global Initiatives Director Eimer Page taught a joint course with Moriarty during Moriarty’s initial years at the Academy. “But what we had thought would be helpful to her, really ended up being equally helpful to me,” she said. “This is because she has such great instincts and ideas as a teacher.”

“I think of writing as an ability to create other worlds and to connect with people from other places and times,” Moriarty said. “It's an act of memory. And I think stories are so enriching to our lives.”

 Nearing her seventh year of working at PEA (and in her twelfth year of living on campus), Moriarty has mastered promoting inclusivity and fearlessness. “I always hope that my students will learn to follow their curiosity,” she said. “I hope they gain a sense of the power of language and what it can do for us. But I also hope they leave with a respect for differences in opinions and perspectives and an ability to work through those differences in respectful ways.”

Yet, Moriarty’s attention to character development extends beyond the classroom. In everyday life, the two qualities she tries most to cultivate in herself, she said, are empathy and kindness. While Exeter is a place that most people live away from their parents, Moriarty takes students under her wing to take care of them.

Advisee Danielle Sung, who rarely sees her family due to Exeter’s distance from her home, said that Moriarty acted as her second mother on campus. “I feel better every second I spend with her—it is like a small escape from my daily busy schedule on campus. She cares for me as much as my parents would. All her actions are truly genuine and loving.”

Lower Anna Tran agreed. “At the end of the day, all she cares about is that we leave her classroom with a smile and feeling lighter than ever. Mrs. Moriarty has always been there for me, both as a motherlike figure and a friend.”

Asking the people she has interacted with, it is evident that Moriarty does not simply care for her students; she invests in them. Upper Kilin Tang, whom she taught this past winter term, described her as one of the kindest, most heartfelt people he has ever met. “She's made the time to attend every one of my musical concerts in a show of support and always chatted with me afterward,” he said. “She doesn't just want her students to get better at English—she's excited to be a mentor who helps her students grow as individuals.”

Lower Chieko Imamura agreed. “In a boarding school where everyone is always in a hurry, she always stops on the path to ask about my day.”

“Few are as empathetic or as kind as Ms. Moriarty,” English Instructor Tyler Caldwell added. “When she listens, she seems to listen with her whole body, her entire being.” 

According to Sung, one of Moriarty’s innate abilities is to make the people around her feel safe and cared for. “It’s an amazing feeling,” she said. “It’s not just the students she does this for, it’s the whole campus. That is hard to do, especially in a large and busy campus like Exeter, where people already have a lot to do themselves.”

“She is the reason why I am the person I am today at Exeter,” she added. “I always think about how different my life would have been here if I hadn’t met her.”

In Page’s words, Moriarty understands what it is like to come to PEA unfamiliar with the boarding school world. Having been through that process, she puts her all into helping others do the same. This drive to serve and care for others defines her role at the Academy.

“It is such a part of the very fabric of my existence,” she said. “It's hard to separate: where does work end and where does the rest of my life start?” 

True to her love for the community, Moriarty has built herself a large family of Exonians across the board, providing a sense of belonging and familial guardianship for all.

“I hope that [my students] will take with them an interest in and a love for, ideally, language and stories and writing,” she said. “But I also hope that they come away with a sense of possibility. I want them to be kind to themselves and to one another. It's important to me that my students know I care about them. And so I hope that they leave with a sense that there are people, that there are adults, who care about them.”