ESSO Board Turns Over
One central idea drives every program in the Exeter Student Service Organization (ESSO): helping students identify their passions and how these passions can help others in the non sibi virtue. A pillar of the Exeter community, ESSO lends valuable experiences for student participants, as well as the local community they serve. ESSO recently turned over its executive board, selecting a new group of uppers and lowers to carry on the organization’s strong work.
This year, the board includes co-presidents and uppers Grace Gray and Jenny Yang, off-campus coordinator and lower Dawson Byrd, on-campus coordinator and upper Don Assamongkol, children’s coordinators and uppers Cade Napier and Gabby Brown and Directors of Communications and Marketing Matthew Kang and Jaime Romero.
This board organizes activities and raises awareness for the service it offers, while many other students organize elements of each respective program themselves. All have vital roles in making sure ESSO runs as optimally as it can, tending to more than 100 service programs that range from beach cleanup to academic tutoring to UNICEF.
Byrd became involved with ESSO his prep year, when he joined Junior Computer Programming. The positivity and connectivity Byrd saw in old co-heads, and experienced himself as a volunteer, has kept him involved in ESSO since.
“Seeing the enthusiasm the co-heads had for simply spending an hour a week teaching kids to code inspired me,” he said. “ESSO is a great opportunity to break outside the Exeter bubble and interact with different kinds of people.”
Like Byrd, Napier sees ESSO as a two-sided opportunity for both the local community and Exonian volunteers. For him, ESSO is about giving back. “I feel that at Exeter we have many privileges, so it’s our responsibility to share that with the rest of the community,” he said, citing ESSO Skating, which allows participants to use PEA’s facilities and ice rinks.
Gray has participated in ESSO since her prep year, drawn to the organization’s “fantastic opportunities” to “connect with others and help our school and greater community.” Gray hopes her board’s tenure will maintain its legacy of altruism and benevolence.
To do so, they will enact multiple initiatives this year. According to ESSO advisor Elizabeth Reyes, ESSO will continue to advance several initiatives as part of their five year plan, such as integrating service learning into Academy curriculum, implementing a dorm service program and collaborating on service projects with Exeter High School students to launch events assisting lower income families at the Community Assistance Center.
Reyes praised the new board. “I think this board is very energetic,” she said, and wants to keep trying to reach out “to the students and fill community needs.”
Gray says her personal goal is to “focus on increasing ESSO’s on-campus presence and expanding our reach to help lower income families.”
Romero agreed, saying, “I’d like ESSO to change Exeter’s culture from one that participates in ESSO to one that lives ESSO.”
Napier also wants to foster a new culture of service at Exeter. “One of the main plans of ESSO is to have a new vision of community service so that Exonians see community service as a part of their life, not like homework, but simply part of Exeter’s experience,” he said.