Senior of the Week: Jacques Leleux

By SAMUEL ALTMAN, ADRIAN CHAN, LUKE CHON, RICARDO OSEI-ADDAE, SEAN RICARD, AALIYAH SALVA and JANIBEK SUBKHANBERDIN

Deep within the Academy Building on Friday night, senior Jacques Pierre Leleux marches into the Latin Study with a toga and golden wreath atop his hair. He owns the room; eyes turn as he artfully diagrams the Battle of Actium with simplicity yet accuracy. As Leleux performs the secen fo battle with unrivaled vigor, his fellow club members rave with enthrallment. An accomplished two-year senior, Jacques is known across campus for his leadership in theater, classics, history, and—most of all—his conquering smile. 

Throughout his life, Leleux has also conquered many territories. “I’m kind of from all over,” Leleux said. “I was born in London, and since then I’ve lived in New Orleans, Alexandria, Richmond, Utah, North Carolina, and now New Hampshire for Exeter. Moving around a lot has given me a flavor of a lot of different places. I have a lot of friends from many different areas, but my deep, long-term connections lie really with my family.”

Leleux continued, “I was kind of running out of classes that I was interested in at my old school, and Exeter has so much opportunity—I’m taking a history 999 on the Civil War, capitalism and its critics, politics and public policy in the winter, and now Ancient Greek, too. The problem there was that there were so few options, but here it’s not fully understanding how to take advantage of everything.”

“I was actually Jacques’ teacher and advisor at a place called Cannon School down in Charlotte, North Carolina. I’ve known him longer than any student here because I’ve only been here two years. Now, he’s in my advisory again, so it has sort of come full circle, and I’ve even been able to watch him grow as a student and intellectual citizen,” Instructor in English Dr. L.J. Cooper said.

“While we were a Cannon, we had these specialized classes that students could sign up for, and I ran a course on Dungeons and Dragons with a campaign he joined in on. That was the first time I saw him unleash his theatrical skill. He kind of took over the show and drove the campaign forward. His sort of unbridled enthusiasm for these sort of geeky things—it’s very infectious,” Cooper continued. 

“Our coming here together was mostly coincidental,” Cooper said. “I would say I think he was attracted to Exeter because it represented a certain kind of challenge for him that he really wasn’t getting at his old school, as well as the different opportunities in the history and classics departments too. He’s already done that and he’s also made use of hands-on experiential learning the school offers in the form of summer travel opportunities and the Washington Intern Program this spring.”

“When Dr. Cooper told me he was also coming to Exeter, I was completely shocked. And the odds of him then moving into PBD and becoming my advisor feel astronomical. I’m very grateful that he’s still my advisor and to have that constant connection,” Leleux added.

On campus, Leleux has been a member of Peabody Hall since he arrived, where his bright personality is recognized by all. “Peabody has had an incredible impact on my time at Exeter. It’s the perfect dorm for me to have ended up right here, right now. It has a significant theater-oriented community, which got me involved quickly. It’s full of very relaxed people. It has an incredible location. In my room this year, I have a bunch of flags and posters, and my window looks right out onto the quad—not every dorm gets to have that, even if we do not have shower heads and there’s lead in the water,” Leleux joked.

“We hang out in his room often, and he is very kind and open in letting us be in his space. He has a great sense of humor and is completely non judgemental, just overall a uniquely good person,” senior and Peabody proctor Bryan Chen said. 

“He’s a man of the people—he loves to run around and talk to everyone,” lower Holden Sage-Murillo commented. “When everyone is down in the common room, he’s always perched on a couch with a big glowing smile, discussing a random history fact.”

“Jacques is always very lively, very passionate about the things he likes to do. In the dorm, we like to play humor games, and he never really loses at them,” senior Aymeric Dauge-Roth agreed.

“He’s generally optimistic and flamboyant, which brings a lot of good energy into the space,” senior and Peabody proctor Roy Liu said. “And because of that personality, he’s less intimidating to talk to, especially for the younger students.”

Leleux also mentioned some past members of Peabody Hall who were important to him. “Chris Serrao had a large impact on me as he helped me adapt to the dorm. Avery Baker, for one, and the other seniors of years past were all wonderful people.”

One of Leleux’s greatest passions, even before coming to Exeter, was the study of history. In his senior year, he became cohead of History Club on campus. “I’ve been interested in history for a very long time. I think the first time I remember really researching history was in fifth grade when we were going over US history but we skipped the War of 1812. I had no idea what it was but I told myself, ‘I’m going to figure this out.’ So I googled it and went down a rabbit hole. Andrew Jackson at New Orleans and that leads into Napoleon, and from there it’s just been one rabbit hole to the next and I’ve never really escaped Wonderland since fifth grade,” he said.

“My connection with history really deepened in the summer between my freshman and sophomore year. I had leg surgery and was bedridden for the whole summer. And the only thing I had was a copy of Herodotus, and that I read for lack of anything else to do. I really fell in love with the book and the way he painted the ancient world from 2000 years ago really made everything come alive for me,” Leleux continued.

“I think what attracts him to the past are the patterns that emerge over and over again,” Cooper said. “You have these sort of ebbs and flows of things that come and go. The exciting thing about history, as I’m sure he’ll agree, is just being able to inhabit it organically. And being able to look at the past and see the reverberations with the present is appealing to him in theater too.”

“When Jacques first joined History Club, it was pretty small,” upper Cecily Reed said. “But he has a real passion for history, and he channels that into planning all these different games and presentations and somehow manages to make the most shockingly random things fascinating. So he’s really made History Club what it is, where we can just hang out and talk about history. And he’s insanely good at it, too. He’s helped me study for the APs, write a million papers, and know how to analyze history. He’s really good at the competitive side too, in history bowl, but he’s got a humble attitude because he’s really just there because he loves it.”

Reed continued, “We used to kind of just goof around sometimes, but he’s really been pushing us by his own expertise to learn new things about history and develop our ideas. He’s planning historical debates, historical games, and if something is happening, Jacques is behind it and he’s doing it because he’s just really excited. One meeting I liked was around the holidays and so he gave a presentation on the Christmas truce in World War II where they briefly went out from their trenches and played soccer. He was telling us how he was so moved by the beauty of that historical moment and by the humanity there, and it was very touching.” 

Leleux’s love of history would eventually spread into classics after coming to Exeter, culminating in becoming consul of the local classics league and cohead of Kirtland Society. “Well, it all comes back to Herodotus,” he said. “When you think of the classics, you think of the Hellespont, you think of the movie 300—that’s all from Herodotus. Latin was not offered at my old school, but otherwise I would have taken it. Coming to Exeter and realizing that there is a classics community with people who actually speak the language was a remarkable thing. So, I got enmeshed in the larger community—I’ve become involved in the New Hampshire Junior Classical League (NHJCL) and, by extension, the National Junior Classical League (NJCL).”

When Jacques ran for consul of the NHJCL, he continued writing his speech till right before his delivery. “I was very surprised when he walked on stage and delivered one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard. He talked about how although he didn’t have a lot of experience in the classics, he wanted to make the New Hampshire Junior Classical League a special place for everybody else. The energy that he brought was an energy that was different from a lot of the other students because he had a way of emulating great orators, but also making it accessible for schools that were there for the first time,” upper Jinmin Lee reflected. 

Lee continued, “And I think that translates very well to Kirtland as well. He has a way of introducing historical facts and ideas in a very accessible way while keeping everything accurate. He was also naturally likable because he understood people, even new members, very well and always found relatable jokes.”

Upper Olivia Pierre added, “When we met at Kirtland Society during my lower fall, we joked a lot about the fact that we both didn’t actually take a classical language (at the time, we both took French). But, even behind those jokes, it was very obvious just how much he cared about the classics as a whole, and that passion is something you can see in everything with Jacques.”

“I’m going to sound like a broken record,” Leleux joked. “But, it’s about the community. It’s finding people who have a passion for the humanities. I cannot express how new that is to me—it’s intimidating but also incredibly exciting at the same time.”

“Jacques’ leadership in many clubs I’m in, including Kirtland Society and Archaeology Club, has been remarkable. I enjoy working with him very much and I’m excited to see what this year brings!” upper Audrey Dent mentioned.

Leleux has also been involved with various theatrical productions on campus. “Theater really helped me in a lot of ways. It helped me become more personable, introduced me to people outside my circle, and made me a much better public speaker. You end up really bonding closely with people that you have theater with because you’re doing singing and dancing which is so inherently vulnerable. I’ve done it consistently all throughout my school career. Theater is my sport,” Leleux said. 

Jacques continued, “One of the plays that has really brought me into my range in terms of acting was Adams Family. I loved my Hamilton costume. And this term, we’re starting off on the Book of Will, which is about the people who published Skakespeare’s work after he died.” 

“The first time I saw Jacques in theater, he was playing a French man. I was really impressed by his courage on stage and, as a dancer, I admired how much expression and emotion he showed with his movements. I think he’s gonna be a really famous actor someday,” Dauge-Roth said.

“At this point, he’s been in a lot of productions at our old school and here at Exeter,” Cooper mentioned. 

Leleux also runs Geography Club, which took a trip to Washington D.C. last year for the national competition. “The first time I met him was last year during Geography Club, and he was just very bubbly and excited about whatever we were doing, always making funny jokes,” fellow Geography Club cohead and upper Sophia Marya said. 

Marya continued,“We went to the national geography competition in DC last year, and one memorable moment was when we went to different embassies, and he was writing his 333 at the time about Grenada. So, we went to the Grenada embassy and they were just so excited that someone was writing a paper about their country. We also went to others, like that of Botswana and Mali, and he wasn’t afraid to just go up and be like, ‘Hey, can we come in?’ He was very good at just putting himself out there.”

“One of my most memorable experiences with Jacques is when we went to the United States Geography Championships. We were all just hanging out in one of our students’ rooms, watching geography videos and studying, and he wanted to make a TikTok about what we were doing, so he just started filming and taking ridiculous photos. He ended up making a short which was like an overly dramatic reveal of all of our results for the championship rounds, which didn’t go very well,” senior King-Diorr Willsun said.

“We’ve only had two meetings so far, but with him as cohead, they’ve gone amazingly. He’s brought a lot of people in, in part because of his whimsical emails, but also because he just makes everyone feel welcome and creates a great environment,” Marya concluded.

Although having only been here for two years, all around campus, Leleux is known for inspiring others to learn and remain optimistic and passionate, even when Exeter gets difficult.

“The thing that I admire most about Jacques is the passion he puts into everything he does,” Pierre reflected. “Whether it’s theater, classics, or history, his love for the activities he does is quite literally palpable.”

“I would say he’s very open. There have been a number of times when someone we didn’t really know has just sat down at our table, and he got to know them immediately and asked them how their day was going,” Dauge-Roth said.

“He’s just unapologetically himself,” Liu agreed. “With him being a two year senior, I think he just had to go into different spaces, especially theater, knowing so little but putting so much out there. It’s kind of hard to dislike someone who’s being so genuine.”

“If you’re a leader, you can’t constantly be trying to prove you’re better than people and you can’t be fighting with them. You have to work with them and build them up. He is so talented that he’s just moved beyond fighting or competition. I definitely have a naturally very competitive personality and he’s taught me to sort of let that go and embrace the team spirit,” Reed said.

“He always maintains his love for learning. He’s so driven by uncovering things that he thinks are cool or weird or interesting in some way. Even when things get tough, he’s able to remind himself that he’s here for the challenge and to grow as a person, and he’s just so eager to think about difficult concepts with peers who are willing to meet him at that level,” Cooper concluded. “I think it’s just been wonderful to see him chart his own journey forward here.”

As Leleux looked toward the future of his final year at Exeter, and reflected on his time thus far, he offered some insight. “Don’t be afraid to talk to new people. Don’t be afraid to try and get involved and make an impact,” he said. “I would like to think that I’ve succeeded in that goal. I’ve tried to make as much of an impact as I can. I’ve tried to be as involved as I can, really just not letting this experience go to waste, and I’m absolutely not done.”