Janeva Dimen

“Part of being a good person is learning when to accept help and be vulnerable with other people,” senior Janeva Dimen told classmate Calvin Henaku when he denied her offer of an umbrella the summer before their lower year. They were visiting an ancient site during the Academy’s archeology trip to Bibracte, France and it was raining. Henaku had not come prepared for the weather. However, gently chided, he reassessed his response and welcomed Dimen’s aid. “That was the moment that I knew Janeva and I would be really great friends,” said Henaku. “[She] is a very kind person.”

Senior Ela Ferhangil, a fellow resident of Dunbar Hall and water polo teammate, echoed his sentiments. Ferhangil describes Dimen as someone who “is constantly smiling and spreading her positivity with everyone.”

According to many classmates, Dimen’s eagerness to include others extends far beyond fellow team or dorm members and makes her an excellent class president. Senior Elizabeth Yang admires Dimen’s “true care of others,” and Yang appreciates that “when she asks how you’re doing, she genuinely wants to know.”

Indeed, her care for her classmates has allowed Dimen to excel as a member of Student Council. As Recreational Committee head, Dimen planned pep rallies, helped start Exeter’s Food Truck Friday tradition and established the new Beach Ball dance. As senior class president, Dimen plans to organize an event to unite the grade each term. In addition, Dimen has done work for student-alumni relations and even spoke at an Alumni Dinner. In her speech, she noted the physical changes on campus, such as the opening of the new Thompson Field House, the Class of 1959 Music Center, and the Goel Center for Theater and Dance, but also emphasized “how the community has changed socially.” With a new principal and new initiatives, she reflected on how the Academy is progressing toward equity and inclusiveness, with Student Council committee initiatives for mental health and diversity. In the future, she will plan the fifth year reunion for the class of 2019.

Class of 2018 Exeter alum Jolina Dimen noted her sister’s propensity for hard work and skills in meticulous planning, both integral characteristics that make the younger Dimen extremely present in Student Council. The older Dimen recalls being a naturally faster swimmer in their youth before her sister, through practice and determination, began to beat her at every race. “She’s always been the hardest working out of all our siblings,” said the older Dimen.

Dimen also is a co-head of Exeter’s Pinoy Society, a group that originally began as an affinity group for Filipino students but now is open to everyone regardless of ethnicity.

Classics instructor Megan Campbell has watched Dimen “bring people together” in this fashion since Dimen first arrived at Exeter.  In a prep Latin class, Campbell recalls Dimen greeting her classmates daily with a smile as she led the class in singing “Let’s Get Down to Business” from the Disney movie Mulan when it was time to get started. As the leader of Dimen’s formative trip to Bibracte, she recalls how Dimen’s group became tight-knit and caring towards each other. The trip’s positive environment was due, according to Campbell, “in no small part to Janeva’s ability to bring people together.”

Perhaps one of the most defining aspects of her character is Dimen’s dedication to the classics. She traces her love of her Latin and Greek studies back to a fourth grade encounter with a graphic novel about the god Zeus. This led her to become a myth specialist in the classical certamen competitions of Exeter’s Kirtland Society, of which she is a co-head.

Dimen, a member of the Catholic community, found that her study of classical myths helped her think more about her own faith. “The way that Greeks and Romans thought about their gods is so different from the Judeo-Christian god,” she said. “Thinking of a different religion and a different set of gods was very interesting.”

  Dimen jokingly refers to Kirtland Society as a “cult,” but seriously appreciates her fellow classics students as a “family that goes beyond the subject.” She credits the classics department’s archaeology trip to Bibracte, France, the summer before her lower year as “one of the most impactful experience of [her] life.” Along with a cherished term of marine biology with science instructor Richard Aaronian, the trip has inspired Dimen to consider a future in underwater archaeology.

Though her passion lies in studying ancient classical cultures, Dimen lives very much in the present at Exeter.  She radiates positivity and lends kindness toward others. “I honestly just hope Janeva gets to live her best life,” Henaku said. “She’s a wonderful person and I don’t think there’s anyone more who deserves to get good fortune.”