New Faculty, Staff Welcomed

The Academy welcomes a number of new faces this fall—including 14 instructors, 3 coaches, 8 interns and over 15 administrative and staff members. The group is diverse in experiences and interests, including a Classics instructor who researches Greek and Roman epic poetry, and a Multicultural Affairs intern who fled Somalia as a refugee and hopes to apply his own experience as a former boarding school student to his new job.Three new instructors will join the English department:  Elizabeth Dean, William Perdomo and Molly Simmons.“My thoughts have fluctuated between mild apprehension and unadulterated euphoria,” Perdomo said. “As a visiting poet in 2009, I was well aware of PEA's rich literary tradition and to be able to contribute to that tradition is a real honor.”Perdomo has published many works dealing with the issues of East Harlem, including addiction, poverty, class and racial identity, love and recovery. He taught at Fordham University before coming to Exeter.He is eager to begin teaching using the Harkness method. “I view the Harkness table as the most unique of blank pages,” he said. “Unless departmental classroom assignments called for lecture halls or large classes, my university classes and writing workshops were held in an oval and class participation was at a high premium. Now I get to use the actual physical structure for which the method was constructed, and I get to learn its geometry from instructors who are well versed in its varying functions.”Three instructors will join the science department: Sasha Alcott, Michael McLaughlin and Steffen Poltak.Alcott comes to Exeter after teaching chemistry at Phillips Academy, Stuyvesant and Bangor High School in her Maine hometown. She is interested in physical chemistry and has done research in a lab developing piezoelectric sensors that detect chemicals used to build small explosives.“I love teaching chemistry - introducing students to a new way of looking at their world and challenging them in terms of abstract thinking and helping them to sharpen their problem solving skills. I enjoy helping students to progress in the lab as they become comfortable with techniques and equipment used to solve the types of problems facing scientists working in the field,” she said.Alcott will live in Hoyt Hall and plans to teach an introduction to fitness class in the winter. “I’m trying to plan out my schedule, much like the students, in order to fit in my own interests during a very busy school day and night,” she said.McLaughlin, who previously taught at Exeter for two years, is back after taking a leave to pursue his master’s in education at Stanford, and will serve as Abbot dorm head beginning this fall.McLaughlin hopes to apply the knowledge he gained in his master’s program to dorm life as well as to the classroom. “I entered the program with an eye toward an administrative track and learning about educational policy and leadership,” McLaughlin said.“This year I am hoping that at least a bit of the knowledge will transfer over to my new role as the Abbot dorm head. I feel very fortunate to be in Abbot, with a group of unusually mature, thoughtful boys. I went to a boarding school and then college, and so I really enjoy the company of the students.”Megan Campbell will join the classics department. She has studied abroad in Greece as a fellow of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens as a graduate student, and spent a summer studying ancient coins at the American Numismatic Society in New York City. In addition to teaching, she will be involved in the Kirtland Society and will serve as a McConnell dorm affiliate.The greatest factor in her decision to come to Exeter, Campbell said, was the quality of discussion she observed while visiting campus. “I was profoundly impressed by the students’ enthusiasm for what they were studying, whether they were advanced students discussing Cicero’s rhetorical technique or first-year students just beginning to build their foundation in Latin,” she said. “What impressed me the most were the thoughtful and informed discussions that arose among the students with almost no prompting or interruption by the teacher.”Along with the other new instructors, Campbell, who has taught both lecture-based classes and smaller seminars at the University of Toronto, will spend time learning how to navigate the Harkness learning system. “I think the biggest challenge for me in Harkness teaching will be to find the right balance between letting the students carry the discussion and knowing when to step in and guide them.”Hijoo Son will join the history department; she comes to Exeter after teaching at UCLA, UC Irvine, LACC and Santa Monica College, as well as Sogang University in Seoul. She holds a special interest in Asian history.Like Campbell, Son already has had some experience in teaching discussion-based classes. “I first experienced this method, of sorts, while an undergrad at UChicago.  As a history major, most of my classes, outside of the math and sciences, were pretty much small discussion-based writing courses,” Son said. “Harkness and Exeter's pedagogy is the type of student-led classroom that I have been trying to cultivate throughout my teaching career.”Four instructors, Kris Johnson and Benjamin Vickers, along with adjunct instructors Carl Benevides and John Tanzer, will join the music department.Johnson will serve as the new choral director after teaching at Proctor Academy and the Canterbury School, conducting Concord Chorale in New Hampshire, and teaching at Vanderbilt University and Oberlin Conservatory's summer programs.  “I came to a concert in the spring, and I think the students showed tremendous talent and performed with seriousness and a passion for communicating. The group of singers was unusually capable,” Johnson said.“I'm looking forward to getting to know students in the fall—what kind of music they're driven to perform, what they're interested in. I love modern American choral music—I think there's tremendous energy in the new literature that's come out in the last 15 and 20 years, and in my conversations with Exeter students, it seems that they're interested in this music too,” he said.Multicultural Affairs intern Salah Abdo, one of many interns across five departments, hopes to promote and celebrate diversity by creating a cultural agenda for the Exeter community.“I became interested in multicultural affairs because of the potential impact I can have on our students and community. Being born in a different country, and attending a boarding school myself, I am aware of how difficult and frightful it can be to attend a boarding school for the first time,” he said.Born in Somalia during the civil war, Abdo escaped with his family in the middle of the night and lived in Kenya and Egypt before immigrating to the United States as a young child. Abdo later attended Saint Mark’s School, an experience that influenced his decision to work at a boarding school.“I loved the way the faculty and staff showed genuine interest and care in the students, and for that reason, it drew me to return and work at a boarding school,” he said.