Mary Provencal-Fogarty

At every E/a pep rally, a stadium full of maroon-clad Exonians cheer as dance groups tumble and waltz across the field. Senior Mary Provencal-Fogarty steps in time with multiple dance groups while balancing her passions for journalism, activism and academics. An avid dancer, Provencal-Fogarty is a co-head of Imani, Lionettes and Precision. She began dancing at a young age, working in both hip hop and jazz, and continued throughout high school. Provencal-Fogarty had little experience with classical dance before Exeter, but now partakes in dance as a sport for all three terms.“As soon as I came to Exeter, I realized it was a totally different world. I wasn’t expecting to join dance clubs and to do it as my sport,” Provencal-Fogarty said, “But four years of Exeter dance has opened my dance world.”At PEA, she was introduced to a variety of types of dances. Provencal-Fogarty joined the Lionettes on a whim and loved it. As a talented hip hop artist, Provencal-Fogarty was immediately drawn to Imani, the campus hip hop group. She dedicates the bulk of her time to this group through choreographing performances and getting to know the girls on the team. “Mary is a fantastic choreographer,” senior and co-head of Imani Ogechi Nwankwoala said. “She is so creative, and everyone always loves the stuff she comes up with.” During Imani practices, Provencal-Fogarty creates a welcoming environment for the members. “Mary is such a fun part of practice,” Nwankwoala said. “She breaks out into dance all the time and makes everyone laugh.”During her lower year, she tried out for the female step team Precision, and now serves as its co-head. Provencal-Fogarty describes this club as “the most empowering thing I’ve done at Exeter. [Allowing me] to find my strength, and to find myself in Precision.”Senior Alayna D’Amico described Provencal-Fogarty as a strong leader for these clubs. “Mary is very passionate. I’ve never met somebody who can be so warm, inviting, kind, and understanding. She is a great leader,” D’Amico said.Outside of dance, Provencal-Fogarty has dedicated herself to working with activism and intersectionality on campus. She is on the MLK Committee and is a staff writer for MVMENT Magazine, a magazine unaffiliated with Exeter that focuses on sexual assault, gender and sexuality. The magazine’s focus has allowed her to combine her activism with a newfound interest in journalism.Provencal-Fogarty is also a secretary for Woke, an intersectional feminist club. She founded the group with her friends because they wished to explore feminism as a topic intertwined with identities such as sexuality and race.Senior Wynter Tracey, a cohead of Woke, describes a typical meeting that includes “really inclusive programming, like reading articles and watching movies on women of color, LGBT women—basically any minorities.” Provencal-Fogarty is also a student listener, serving as a leader and trusted peer to other day students on a daily basis. Student listening allows her to receive training both on campus and through outside organizations like HAVEN, the largest violence prevention and support agency in New Hampshire. D’Amico, a fellow student listener, expresses that “she [Provencal-Fogarty] is so good at getting people involved in things, finding their best fit, and understanding how to make them comfortable.” Senior Gillian Quinto, who has had class with Provencal-Fogarty, said that “even when she is not feeling great, she is always laughing and smiling.” Provencal-Fogarty’s positivity and commitment to her work shine through, both in and out of the classroom. Provencal-Fogarty, a self-declared “humanities person,” has a passion for English, history and Spanish.Specifically, Provencal-Fogarty states how she fell in love with Ceremony, a book by Leslie Marmon Silko that was assigned to her English class during upper spring with Instructor Johnny Griffith. “I’ve definitely gotten into books. I love reading, but it was the first book in my life I would overread the homework by 40 pages because I was so obsessed! [Mr. Griffith] and I would have casual conversations before class where I would rant to him about how incredible this connection was [right] from the beginning of the book.”Of Provencal-Fogarty’s love for reading and dedication to the class, Griffith said, “When some of her peers might have felt that the books were too confusing or overly difficult, she found the challenges and confusion to be exhilarating and fun. She helped the class strike that really difficult balance between serious intellectual work and play.”To combine her love of history and Spanish, Provencal-Fogarty will be heading to Spain for her winter term. On Spanish, she said, “It’s just the most beautiful language [...] and it leads to beautiful conversations about the world.” However, it won’t be Provencal-Fogarty’s first trip abroad with Exeter. Last spring break, she went to South Africa with a group of students. There, she said, “We really had to push ourselves beyond what we know about the United States because the history of South Africa has parallels but is so different [...] you can’t expect to just ease right into the culture.” By being pushed outside of her comfort zone, Provencal-Fogarty believes that she was able to foster a connection with fellow Exonians “that you just don’t really get to meet unless you do stuff like abroad trips [... they] really enhance your life once you know them.”Provencal-Fogarty has left a lasting impact in the community through her choreography, dances and activism. Tracey said, “She’s really selfless, socially aware, and I really value her friendship because she’s a caring person, but she downplays it a lot. She’s super humble about it.”