Senior of the Week: Clara Peng

By ELLEN JIN, AMY LIN, ROXANE PARK, LILY RAMPE

As a beloved proctor in Amen Hall and a co-head of four clubs, senior Clara Peng holds a special place in multiple communities across campus. With her natural kindness and deep passion for everything from activism to history and anthropology, Peng has touched the lives of countless Exonians and leaves a legacy of thoughtfulness and leadership at Exeter.

The youngest of three sisters, Peng grew up in Seattle, WA, and loved to play lacrosse. As a child, she read books about boarding school but never saw attending one herself as an option until her mother, who knew students from Phillips Academy Andover in her own school days, suggested that she visit a few. “No one in my family thought I would really get in because it seemed really far- fetched,” Peng recalled. “I was just so excited that my parents were happy to let me go.”

The new home that Peng was introduced to at Exeter was Amen Hall. She has experienced the warm atmosphere of Amen Hall throughout the three years she has spent in the dorm and cited a surprise party some friends threw for her as one of her favorite memories. “We were just sitting around playing card games together. It was really sweet because I just felt that it was so nice to have all my friends there,” Peng shared.

As a proctor, Peng now loves to organize dorm events and create a community where every student will feel that same sense of home, which she has done through small but thoughtful gestures. “She has a way of quietly and surely getting to know everyone in the dorm through her genuine interest in and care for who they are,” Peng’s German instructor and Amen dorm head Marianne Zwicker said.

“When she asks get-to- know-you questions, she remembers what people say so she doesn’t have to ask twice,” Zwicker continued. “She’s sensitive to people’s likes and dislikes and makes everyone feel welcome by honoring their priorities, seeing and hearing them, and remembering what’s important to them. She provides fun, low- key spaces where everyone feels welcome, like an informal Amen breakfast table in Elm. And she makes sure to remember birthdays in our class and to know if someone has a concert, a performance, or anything where they might benefit from some support or a friendly word.”

Chair of the Art Department and Peng’s advisor Carla Collins agreed. “She is the type of student who always says hello on the path and never takes the adults in her life for granted. I appreciate her calm, mature, humble, and open demeanor.”

Peng’s caring for her community is also seen by student members of her dorm community. “She’s really caring to everyone. She just became proctor and is already having talks with a lot of preps about being homesick,” upper and Amen resident Emily Chai-Onn said.

Upper and Amen resident Freddie Chang recounted a specific memory from her lower year in the dorm. “It was Easter and I went into my room [and] there were jelly beans everywhere.” Chai-Onn recalled the same day, adding that Peng “put a bunch of candy around our rooms and in little Easter eggs.”

Even as a teacher, Collins recounted a similar memory. “Clara and I bonded over our love of apples and apple picking during Academy Life Day last year. She recalled once about how I gave her apples on her birthday. After that, on her first day back from Christmas break, she brought me her favorite type of apple from Washington (cosmic crisp) and left it outside my door on my birthday without realizing it was my birthday until I told her. It made my day. She is so caring, and anyone who is her friend knows how deeply she cares for humanity.”

“I think her ability to bring people together is something very special. She facilitates spaces in a way that really promotes friendship, so it’s easy for her to bring people together and build connections with one another,” senior Ayaan Akhtar shared.

In the larger Exeter community, Peng’s peers spoke similarly of her presence. “I think she’s always there for you when you need her,” senior Aden Lee said. “She’s very sensitive and she knows when someone needs support. I think a lot of people can agree with how compassionate she is.”

Upper Ava Helbig agreed. “She’s always so kind and very sure of who she is and what she wants to say. She’s just so sure of what the right thing is, how to get there, and what to do.”

Another upper, Kayla Villanueva, described her as “committed and driven,” while senior Luke Davis said that she “makes everyone around her better and lights up a room.”

Akhtar also mentioned how it was “really easy to lose track of time when talking with Clara.”

In addition to within the dorm and among her friends, Peng is deeply involved in fostering communities for the things she cares about, including the four clubs that she leads on campus: the Multicultural Exonian Society (MCES), Gender and Sexual Alliance, Biology Club, and Exonians Against Sexual Assault.

“She’s definitely a leader,” Helbig asserted. “She definitely cares a lot about the community, about the people in her respective communities, and I just really respect that about her. She’s very involved.”

Describing their personal relationship, Helbig explained that she met Peng through the MCES: “She was [a] co-head last year. The more meetings I went to, the more I got to know her and we eventually ended up getting dinner.”

Other friends shared that meals with Peng were always good memories. “I started talking to her by going to breakfast with her,” Chai-Onn said. “I think I was just in her room one day and talking to her — then we ate breakfast [together.]”

Peng’s engaging and inviting personality translates not only into her personal friendships but also into the classroom, where her teachers have agreed that she plays an outstanding role. As Peng’s German teacher, Zwicker shared that Peng’s “sense of humor and her genuine interest in her classmates made our Harkness discussions so much fun, and she’s a keen observer of people and what motivates them, not only in real life, but also in literature!”

One of Peng’s favorite classes at the Academy has been U.S. History, as she enjoys history and anthropology. “Right now, I’m working on a senior project with Dr. Samuels where we are revitalizing the anthropology museum,” Peng explained. “We started doing it in the spring, but my official class is now and we are doing a lot of research and cataloging everything. It’s been really exciting.”

Lee expressed admiration for the work that Peng is doing with the museum. “Her senior project is looking at the Exeter archive and finding artifacts that belong to indigenous people, returning those artifacts to indigenous people. I think that that really speaks to what kind of person she is.”

Collins said, “She is a model example of an Exonian, using her knowledge for goodness and for social change. For example, she is actively working to help the anthropology department return various artifacts they’ve collected over the years to their rightful tribes. Clara has a strong moral compass and is not afraid to use her voice.”

History Instructor and Peng’s senior project advisor Troy Samuels shared, “We’re two people who care about this space and want to create it into something that’s useful for the school.” Samuels expressed his appreciation for the co- learning experience he had with Clara.

Witnessing Clara’s dedication towards the anthropology museum project, Samuels continued, “In a school full of go-getters, students who drive their own learning, Clara is one of the go-getterest students I’ve ever worked with. She has a vision, something she’s interested in, and her own drive that affected so much change around that space. It has been really fun to see her go about finding something she’s passionate about and just getting to direct her as best I can.”

“It’s really cool to see the stuff she produces,” Samuels continued. “She has brought in multiple specialists to campus just on the strength of her cold emailing. This [project] is a passion that’s tempered by a sense of responsibility. The way she has taken that [passion] and partnered rigorous research, learning, and understanding the space she’s trying to redesign is what our school’s two virtues of knowledge and goodness are. She’s really expressing that here.”

Reflecting upon the legacy Clara will leave, Samuels said, “ I think the work she’s doing with the Anthropology Museum has already changed how that space looks. As part of her senior project, she’s redesigning parts of the space and has taken down parts of the displays to put things up in their place that are going to be better suited to our school and the values of our community. She’s changing the way we as a community view that resource, and I think it’s really cool how that’s going to last well beyond her time here.”

In terms of her legacy on Amen, Zwicker shared, “Clara will leave behind a dorm community who has been able to see and experience her unique and effective style of leadership, and I’m sure a number of younger students will want to follow in her footsteps.”

There is no doubt that Peng has left a mark on the students, teachers, and culture at the Academy. “There are people out there who are meant for you and care about you,” Peng reflected, addressing younger and future Exonians.

“I think a lot of people have a lot of worries about the way that things are going to go with friends, or classes, or teachers, or dorm life. The amazing thing is that even though there’s only a thousand or so kids here, there’s so much variety and there’s always going to be somebody who is going to be your friend or who wants to help you, really values you, and cares about you,” Peng concluded.

Senior Clara Peng posing for a photo outside of Grill. Hillary Yoon / The Exonian