Where there’s a Will, there’s a Way

At the age of 18, four-year senior Will Haering has already worked with graduate students at an MIT engineering lab, started a non-profit organization, flown 3,000 miles from Boston to San Francisco to live by himself, worked for a tech startup, learned seven programming and markup languages and received a job offer from Facebook. All of these opportunities, which have expanded his horizons far beyond Exeter, have sprung from his passion: computer programming.

Haering’s beginnings as a programmer were humble; in middle school, he loved computers and was interested in how code worked, but he had not yet learned much about programming. In his prep fall, Haering took CSC211: Algorithms and the Dynamic Web, one of two baseline computer science courses at the Academy and hasn’t looked back since. Over the next two years, he taught himself how to code a large number of languages effectively and went on to build multiple websites and programs to practice. He would code for up to four hours a day during the school year and for entire days during breaks.

After developing a new website for The Exonian during Haering’s lower spring, Brandon Wang ‘15 approached him with the idea of turning it into a platform any school could use. The two, alongside Mark Oet ‘15 and Amanda Zhou ‘15, created a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization called the Project for Better Journalism (PBJ).

PBJ provides high schools with a customizable-template based off The Exonian’s website, with the ultimate goal of reviving journalism programs across the nation. Haering, with his title of “Technical Resources,” deals with setting up individualized sites for schools and provides technical support. This takes up to 10 hours of commitment a week.

“Will has been a huge part of the team; as a director, he has contributed to the overall direction, organization and technical progress that makes our work so special to thousands of students,” Wang, the founder of PBJ, said.

For Haering, PBJ was a turning point for his career as a programmer; he said that after helping run PBJ for a while, he had the desire to use coding in innovative ways. “In PBJ, it’s nice to see how students and teachers react when they see their website for the first time,” Haering said. “That aspect of the program really made me want to seek ways to write code to help more people.”

During the summer between his lower and upper year, Haering was determined to find a coding job near his hometown, Boston. He reached out to a number of graduate student-led engineering labs in MIT and ultimately chose the Precision Engineering Research Group (PERG). There, Haering worked full-time on an audio analysis software that uses fast Fourier transform algorithms to match fingerprinted audio to real-time sound input.

In the early fall of Haering’s upper year, an even greater opportunity presented itself: a Facebook recruiter reached out to Haering, thinking he was a college student. Haering went through an application process and in the end, received a job offer. But, the matter came crashing down when the company realized that he was only 17 years old and could not hire him for policy reasons. Nonetheless, Facebook gave Haering a conditional job offer for when he turned 18. Disappointed but motivated, Haering turned to San Francisco Bay Area for opportunities at tech startups.

Haering filled out a whopping 207 job applications. He sat through 95 interviews over the course of fall term and received 21 job offers. In the end, he chose a small, 80-person startup called Symphony Commerce, which provides full-stack commerce solutions ranging from warehouse inventory management to website creation. The company paid for him to fly out to San Francisco for the summer between his upper and senior year.

At Symphony Commerce, Haering worked on the client engineering team as a front-end website developer and was given the responsibility of creating a site for the clothing startup Hillflint. Soon, the co-founders of Hillflint offered Haering a job independent from Symphony Commerce, which he took up for the remainder of the summer.

In retrospect, Haering described his experience at Symphony Commerce as “incredible”—in fact, he loved it so much that he turned down Facebook’s offer for a job when he turned 18 early this October. Instead, he’s going back to the small, 80-person startup for a second summer when he graduates.

“I love programming, and it’s what I want to do for the rest of my life,” Haering said. “It was tough to come back to Exeter, being a 17-year-old kid who got to live and work on his own in San Francisco. But now I know what I want to do for the rest of my life—I’ve found something I’m so passionate about, and I could never not love doing.”

At the Academy, Haering has continued his role as a programmer for the Admissions Office, dealing mainly with the technological aspects of the admissions process as well as coordinating tour guides. He maintains and continues to develop exeteradmissions.com, a website built by Erick Friis ‘15 that keeps track of when student tour guides are available. Along with that responsibility, Haering is also a head tour guide and gives tours about twice a week.

“During my prep year, I figured touring was a good way to share my appreciation of our campus—I was a pretty enthusiastic prep,” Haering said, moving on to why he still enjoys giving tours three years later. “These kids come on campus, and they want this very real feeling for Exeter. It gives me the chance to be candid and raw about my experience to these people, who are in awe of what Exeter can provide. My tours stem from my love of Exeter.”

Haering has continued to spread his love of Exeter in Abbot Hall, where he has been a proctor since his upper year. He said that because Abbot is one of the smallest dorms on campus, the bonds formed between dormmates are closer than most.

“The relationships I have with people in Abbot are some of the closest I have here. It’s an incredibly supportive environment and there are no groups or cliques,” he said. “You can talk to anyone and have a long, meaningful conversation with them. It’s been a wonderful place with no social pressure and everyone just wants to help each other out.”

Wang ‘15, who was also a former proctor in Abbot, described Haering as a hardworking, humorous and sociable person. The two used to stay up late to do work and because their rooms were right across the hallway from each other, they had a lot of time to bond and cram for tests together.

Lower Charles Smith said that although Haering isn’t a student listener, he is still an “awesome source of advice” and has a heart of “pure gold.” Smith added that Haering’s sense of humor is impeccable, having the capability to dramatically “fluctuate between heavy boasting and savage self-deprecation.”

Senior Kyle Xia said that Haering creates an atmosphere in the dorm that “makes it feel like home.” It is clear that Haering makes a conscious effort to interact to the new kids, and he is always open to talk with anyone.

“Will is an extremely friendly person that can pretty much get along with everyone he meets; with all the time he spends in his room programming, you’d think he’d be quite introverted, but he is really good at connecting with people,” Xia added. “Will is an incredibly smart and genuine guy, and I doubt I could’ve made it through Exeter without his help.”