Alumni Return, Reminisce During Reunion Weekend

The Academy welcomed hundreds of alumni and their families this weekend to kick off its annual reunion season. A total of 329 alumni returned—63 from the class of 1985, 116 from the class of 1990, 85 from the class of 1995 and 65 from the class of 2000.

In the coming weeks, many more graduates from a variety of classes will descend upon the Exeter campus with spouses, children and even grandchildren. This weekend, the classes of 1955, 1960, 1970 and 1980 will visit; on the weekend of May 14, the classes of 1965, 1975, 2005 and 2010 will visit; on the weekend of May 19, the classes of 1945 and 1950 will visit, concluding this year’s reunion season.

Although reunions occur each year, an enjoyable and well-run reunion requires extensive planning and organizing. In fact, the planning process usually begins a year prior to each reunion, and even two years for the more significant reunions such as the 25th or 50th benchmarks. During the span of one year, the alumni office works with the class leaders and volunteers to make schedules and arrangements for the weekend during which the class will visit.

“I think our reunion programming continues to be more robust. Each year, we continue to find more ways to have the alumni experience what life is like here at Exeter and that’s one of our goals.”

“Throughout the entire reunion season, we generally welcome back about 1,400 alumni and guests over the three weekends. It depends on the conjunction of the classes which reunions are going to be busier,” Assistant Director of Alumni and Parent Relations Michelle Curtin said. “For instance, this past weekend had four classes who had a lot of children and guests. This coming weekend, we’ll have spouses but not as many children due to the ages of the classes.”

After the planning is set in stone, the alumni office opens up the registration to alumni in December, Curtin said. The office opens up registration that early to gauge approximately how many people will visit the campus later in the year.

Oftentimes, with classes made up of middle-aged alumni, there are many more guests than alumni because of spouses and children. Curtin explained how all these factors are taken into account as the office decides which classes will share the weekend and which will not.

Although this process occurs every year, Curtin noted that each year, the planning and execution of reunions continue to improve. For instance, one of the main goals of this past reunion was to show to the alumni what life at Exeter is like in 2015. In order to make this experience more engaging and interesting, the alumni office has continuously informed alumni of opportunities to partake in Harkness discussions or attend assemblies.

“I think our reunion programming continues to be more robust. Each year, we continue to find more ways to have the alumni experience what life is like here at Exeter and that’s one of our goals,” Curtin said.

Exeter also prides itself on hosting reunions while school is in session. “Because we have our reunions while school is in session, which is different from a lot of our peer schools, we want take advantage of that, which is why we advertise the ability to attend Harkness classes,” Curtin said. “We hold an assembly on Saturday morning dedicated to [showing] the alumni what life at Exeter is like today.”

Many alumni who attended these events felt that the opportunities helped to acclimate them immediately back to the campus at which they once studied. Kate Villa ‘90 extolled the Academy’s reunion this year.

“I don’t think the school could’ve done anything better. I think the school makes [the reunion] very welcoming and lovely,” Villa said. “This one seems like it has more, and I don’t know if it’s just because I’m more open to it, but it seems like it has more cool stuff to do that’s engaging — classes to go to and there’s an alumni row, opposed to [the last one], which I feel like just had dinners and brunches.”

Likewise, alumni explained how as soon as they set foot at Exeter, they felt right back home again.

“I think everyone gets a little nervous just as they get back on campus, but then you see people and then it’s pretty much instantly easy,” Nadia Saliba ‘95 said. “It’s such a great group of people to see... you don’t always see all of them, but you share so much with them.”

The Harkness discussions and assemblies were just two small reasons why alumni felt comfortable to be back; the main reason, as most alumni noted, was the Exeter community that they had so dearly missed.

“[I] swapped stories with friends, cringed and cried and laughed a little bit,” Eric Dimitrov ‘90 said. “It’s wonderful to see familiar faces, familiar buildings.”

Like Dimitrov, Heather Lamberton ‘95 believed that returning to campus and reminiscing with old friends as adults has been a special experience.

“Coming back and seeing all these familiar faces, it’s so easy and it feels like it was yesterday. The neat thing about Exeter now versus when you were at school is that you’re all adults and you have kids and whatnot and everyone’s kind of friends,” she said. “Everyone’s friendly, it’s really nice.”

In addition to sharing memories with old friends, many alumni, such as Lamberton, expressed their appreciation for what Exeter was and still is for them: a home.

“Principal Hassan was saying that ‘we don’t want to welcome you back, we want to welcome you home,’ and I didn’t have a consistent home… this just feels like home to me,” Lamberton said.

David Jung ‘90 shared a similar sentiment. Through this reunion and through his memories from Exeter, he realized how big a part of him Exeter was.

“You’re going to realize how much the school becomes a part of you. Some of those challenging parts of you, the most complicated parts of you, they smooth over with time, you overcome the pain of your failures and your disappointments. As you get older and move through them, you realize that this school also holds the best part of you as well,” Jung said. “And that’s the part that I think lasts the longest.”