First Writes

The Exonian, proudly bearing “The Oldest Preparatory School Newspaper in America” as its motto, has been chronicling life at Exeter for 136 years. Within its pages lie the school’s defining moments, the secrets of the its culture, the triumphs of its sports teams, the persuasion of future policymakers and the wit of its students. Fifty years ago, The Exonian documented new smoking regulations at the Academy—any student over sixteen who wanted to smoke on campus was now required to have parental permission. Coca Cola advertised in our pages, and The Exonian’s business staff was on strike, demanding pay. Still, some things never change—in ‘64, Exeter crushed Andover in every element, from baseball to debate.The 136th board will continue to document the stories of our school, preserving them for generations to come. Yet as we begin our tenure, the age we live in is redefining the nature of journalism. Modern technology is revolutionizing the publication industry, and The Exonian is expanding its reach, branching out to the Web at theexonian.com and social media. As our audience grows, on the web and in print, we hope to maintain the integrity and quality of The Exonian set by those who established our tradition 136 years ago.The time for the 136th Board has come.Editor-in-Chief Katie Liptak and Managing Editors Amanda Hu and Jay Lee lead the new board, which strives to not only uphold, but also to advance The Exonian’s legacy. The Exonian, as a student paper, will sometimes fall short of its goals. But we will work every week to harness the benefits of being a high school paper—the chance to inspire new journalists, to mold young writers, to incite passion in our staff—while minimizing our faults. We are thrilled to drive our talented and passionate board of editors and writers for the next 30 issues.The Exonian News section has kept a pulse on breaking stories and difficult issues affecting Exonians from the very beginning. We were the first news section on the Eastern seaboard to cover JFK’s assassination in 1963, and we have covered student movements from resistance to the Vietnam War on campus in the ‘60s to marijuana legalization in 2011. This year, we, Alice McCrum, Sam Yoo and Catherine Zhu, hope to continue this legacy by shedding light on topics important to you with integrity, quality and passion.As editors of the Life section, we, Monica Acosta, Michael Baldyga and Millie Dunstan, promise to make the lives of all you Exonians a little bit more interesting, a little bit more informed and a little bit more...lifey. We will strive to turn this section into something much more than a Trendwatch report and another dance review. Read us to check out interesting features and reviews that not only pertain to Exeter Life but LIFE IN GENERAL.While other sections report on events around campus, the opinions page reports on events in people's heads. We, the Opinions Editors, Sol Chase, Zoha Qamar and Danna Shen, have a mission to make the Op-Ed page the most popular in The Exonian. Whether it's controversial, comedic or deeply emotional, you can be sure that there will be something to keep you reading.A perilous task lies before the editors of the sports page: to improve upon the best section The Exonian has to offer. From covering the world champion Boston Red Sox, to the best sports teams in our league, the Sports Editors, Tommy Miller, Janice Chung and Andrew Poggione, are determined to continue the legacy of last board’s editors. The phoenix is rising out of the ashes. #rebornSome dead guy once said something about those that are born great, those that achieve greatness and those have greatness thrust upon them by Alice Ju. After laboring over moderately comedic articles for a whole ten weeks, the next generation is ready to keep the Humor Page at the same level of mediocrity that our predecessors established. In all seriousness (who are we kidding), Katie Casado and Ben Hogoboom are ready to be the jesters of the paper and judge your funny. Perhaps one day the 136th board can achieve the kind of success and under-eye circles that Alice Ju had.Copy plans to edit out every Oxford comma and double space. Peace.Whether in print or on the web, we have one goal: to make The Exonian the newspaper that Exeter needs and that Exeter deserves.