Exonians Participate in Programs Over Two-Week Thanksgiving Break

In New York, upper Ally Grounds toured and converses with her inspiration and favorite artist, the renowned Richard Phillips, in his personal studio. As Grounds best described, it was an opportunity “no other high school would be able to offer.”This past Thanksgiving break, 50 Exonians like Grounds embarked on Academy-sponsored trips, with destinations including New York, Alabama, Arizona and even the Bahamas. The nature of the trips also varied, ranging from the arts to marine science.Due to the shorter break, Exeter did not offer Thanksgiving trips last year. Exonians responded with great enthusiasm to this year’s new offerings. “Plenty of students were interested in all of the trips, and they were competitive. Financial aid was available, so they were open to all students,” Director of Global Initiatives Eimer Page said.A group of fourteen students were selected to visit New York City with a focus on art. The trip included a collaboration with the Stanford in New York Program as well as visits to numerous artist and fashion designer studios, including Theory, William Wegman, Richard Phillips, Zac Posen and Tommy Hilfiger.

“I am really thankful for all of the new connections I made with people on the trip. It makes me want to connect with people past what I am used to or what I am comfortable with.”

For chaperone and Art Department Head Tara Misenheimer, the trip was the thrilling manifestation of weeks of planning. “I designed the trip from scratch, sitting in my living room on my laptop, imagining the most exciting, purposeful, inspiring behind-the-scenes experiences that would be unique for invested art students at Exeter,” she said. Misenheimer emphasized that such insights into the art world are extremely difficult to come by: “Seeing the daily lives of working artists is an experience that this trip provided—super rare, very exclusive.”Besides the goal of showing students real world art, Misenheimer also aimed to enlighten them to the career possibilities in the industry. She hoped that the trip “would enlighten students to the possibilities of being a successful, financially healthy visual artist—passionate about his or her work and very happy with their lives, endeavors and creative work.”Fittingly, this “enlightenment” appeared to be what most students garnered from their visit. Upper Gracie Willis praised the trip’s “realistic” nature, highlighting that it took art students out of the “Exeter bubble," so to speak. “The trip was a great opportunity to continue to learn about art and meet very influential people in the current industry,” she said.While students were exploring art in New York, another group of sixteen Exonians traveled to the Equal Justice Institute in Montgomery, Alabama.Among their activities, one was visiting previous MLK speaker Bryan Stevenson’s law firm. Upper Kaitlyn Kang cited the visit as her favorite part of the trip. “It was awesome to be able to see the team of 40 or so people and the work they do to see how devoted and motivated each and every one of them were,” she said.In particular, Kang recalled speaking with a man who was on death row for thirty years and wrongly convicted.“[It] was just... simply shocking. It made the whole thing feel more real and tangible to me,” she said.The trip allowed students to explore issues of race, particularly pertaining to the South. “[The South] couldn’t really admit that slavery was a huge part of its society and it didn’t really want to face that fact. And, for example, the Confederacy White House site was built in a way that almost honors the Confederacy,” Kang said.Kang concluded, “It was really interesting to see something so different from what we see here in Exeter and even in the North.”On a hiking trip in Arizona, eight students left with similar impressions to Kang. The group visited sites including the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly.Lower Jordan Hillyard, a day student from Durham, highlighted how Arizona enhanced her perception of differences throughout the country. “I think my takeaway was—I always saw America as all the same, geographically and culturally, but really there are different cultures and beliefs throughout our country,” she said. “Arizona was just so different from New Hampshire.”Among her favorite experiences, Hillyard mentioned yoga at the plateau point of the Grand Canyon at 5:30 in the morning as well as speaking with Navajo peoples living on a reservation.In a trip based on marine science, a group of twelve students paddled their way through the Bahamas on a National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) trip. Some sights included snorkeling in mangroves, seeing colorful marine life, battling swarms of no-see-ums and counting shooting stars. Students, however, observed and learned about more than just science.Senior Bridget Higgins, one of only two seniors on the trip, said that her favorite parts of the program included bonding with fellow Exonians she had not known prior. It was her interactions with peers that contributed to what she ultimately learned from the experience: leadership.“I learned how important being a good listener is to being a good leader. Our comfort and safety day-to-day was dependent upon us being able to communicate effectively with each other,” she said. “Whether it was packing the kayaks correctly, picking a good place to set up camp or keeping a tight pod (the formation in which we traveled) listening to each other was really important.”Chaperone and English instructor Molly Simmons agreed. “I think the students gained a new community, a better sense of self and a better understanding of their physical comforts and capabilities,” she said. “As with most NOLS trips, the wilderness challenges each of us in our own, particular way, but the group is there to help you process the experience.”Simmons hoped that the NOLS trips would “continue to give students opportunities to live outside, to pay attention to the natural world, to push their comfort zones both physically and mentally and to self-reflect within a supportive, engaged community.”Concluding, Higgins said, “I am really thankful for all of the new connections I made with people on the trip. It makes me want to connect with people past what I am used to or what I am comfortable with.”Page explained, however, that Thanksgiving trips next year will depend upon whether or not the Academy calendar will allow enough time. After the calendar is finalized, Page said, it can then be explored whether Thanksgiving break will be long enough to offer a range of trips. If time should allow, Page hopes to offer four or so.If the opportunity is presented, Exonians should apply for Thanksgiving trips. Whether it be experiencing the waters of the Bahamas or solidifying an understanding of justice, all students could benefit from the experiences offered. And as Grounds said, “My trip blew away all my expectations. The visits were truly once in a lifetime.”