Senior of the Week: Kiesse Nanor

By ASHLEY JIANG, LAUREN KIM, and ELLIE ANNA SPERANTSAS

Whether in the Latin study, the Bowld, or her dorm Wheelwright Hall, four-year senior Kiesse Nanor is a shining beacon of joy and curiosity. “Kiesse exemplifies that quality all Exonians have to some degree, which is a passion for what they do, a joy in sharing it with others, and an interest in learning about what her peers find interesting and important,” Chair of the Classics Department Matthew Hartnett said. “Many a time I have seen her engaged in animated, joyful conversation with peers in Wheelwright or the halls of the Academy Building.”

Stepping onto campus as a prep, Nanor began studying Latin with Instructor Nick Unger and soon fell in love with the language. “Mr. Unger was my first Latin teacher at Exeter. He’s the person who made me love Latin as much as I do. I know I can turn to him and it’s just nice to have a support system like that in a subject that I really think is one of my favorite things in the world,” she said.

As a senior, some of Nanor’s favorite classes at the Academy are advanced Latin classes, where students translate various forms of ancient Roman literature. “[One of] my two favorites so far was [LAT521: Virgil-Intensive], which covered the second and some of the fourth book of Virgil’s Aeneid,” Nanor said. “I really like the Aeneid. I just like the way that the story was told and the way things sort of fit together. I thought that it revealed a lot of cultural nuances that lie in language.”

Unger described Nanor’s skill in the classics. “Last year in my Virgil class, Kiesse’s fellow students wrote on the board in bold letters, ‘Kiesse has superpowers!’” Unger said. “She can accurately translate Vergil, recognize the Homeric allusions in the text, and explore the complicated nature of Aeneas’s heroism— all in a single bound!”

Unger continued, “Her classmates admire her because they see her contributions not as grandstanding but as generosity. As a colleague of mine put it, she has the patience to listen to others fully and to speak frankly but with a uniquely congenial tone of respect.”

Nanor came to Exeter ready to explore the benefits of Harkness. “I liked the idea that at Exeter, with Harkness, you could sort of just state your opinion and you didn’t have to wait to be heard. I thought that was something that would really help me in terms of my education,” Nanor said.

Nanor has left her mark on the Exeter community both in the classroom and in Kirtland Society. “She will leave a big shadow. I expect that students in coming years will miss her kindness and humor the most,” Hartnett said. “Kiesse is one of those people who brings out the best in others, and I imagine that she has inspired others to follow her lead and try to fill that role after she graduates.”

While she will be sorely missed after graduation, Unger is excited to see Nanor’s impact in the future of Classics. “Kiesse is constantly using her classical knowledge to illuminate her own life and the lives of others in meaningful ways. When I hear about UVM and other colleges eliminating their Classics programs, I despair, until I think about the ‘superpowers’ of Kiesse,” Unger said. “She has already accomplished so much here at Exeter, and I can only imagine how far she will go to make Classics relevant for the new generation.”

Senior Avery Lavine described Nanor’s admirable scholarliness. “She’s just an absolutely remarkable person. She’s fantastic at everything she does. I’m always in awe of the way that she thinks about problems, about English or about History. She just has such a strong way of processing things that you can tell that she’s always putting effort in,” Lavine said.

Senior and co-chair of Kirtland society Cyrus Braden agreed about Kiesse’s work ethic and command of Classical language. “She has this control over the Kirtland, which I’ve never seen anyone else have where, when she starts talking, everyone else gets quiet. Everyone else listens to what she has to say because people respect her, especially in the classics community at Exeter. People know that she has this strong command of the class. And so she receives the reverence that she deserves from that.”

“We always joke that she’s the crown jewel of the Classics Department. I think without her, many of those communities about disciplines sort of, wouldn’t be the same without her leading them and carrying the torch,” Braden continued. 

Beyond Latin, Nanor is also an avid actor in DRAMAT productions. “I joined DRAMAT my prep year and I’ve been doing the musical and the plays. That’s something sort of newer that I didn’t necessarily think I’d be into, but I found to really enjoy,” Nanor said.

Demonstrating great aptitude in the performance arts, Nanor is a member of the Chamber Orchestra and a skilled pianist. She has performed in Carnegie Hall and at last year’s student soloist exhibition. “I’ve been lucky enough to see her perform twice this year which is really awesome. She’s very good at piano, and she often spends large chunks of time on the weekends, practicing piano, and it’s always such a gift to be able to hear her play,” senior Kira Ferdyn said.

Not only has Nanor’s powerful mind left an impression on her friends, instructors, and acquaintances, but so has her kindness. As a fellow Wheelwright Hall proctor, Ferdyn attributes Nanor to being a “strong figure in the dorm and our friendship circle. Kiesse is a really welcoming presence, and she is also a fantastic listener. She is just so good at including other people into the communities she’s a part of and getting people to try new things.”

Over their four-year friendship, senior and fellow proctor Coco Lipe described Nanor’s quality of witty humor and making her friends laugh. “She’s very good at delivering humor with a lot of intelligence and wit, and she’s very good at coming up with one-liners on the spot,” Lipe said. “She’s just incredible with her words, which is a strength that is very unique to her. I’ve never met anyone else who is so well-versed.”

In her dorm, Wheelwright Hall, Nanor is a strong leader and proctor. Over her years at the Academy Nanor has formed close bonds and made memories with her dormmates. “When I was a prep and a lower, I used to stay up pretty much every weekend and watch ‘Barbie’ movies with my best friends, which was really nice. I feel like we should bring that back. It was a good tradition and we had a lot of inside jokes from that time, which I really enjoyed.”

Lipe also fondly recalled the tradition. “Kiesse, Avery, and I regularly watched our way through the ‘Barbie’ movie series which was kind of an iconic staple of our relationship,” Lipe said. “We bonded over bullying the elephant from ‘Barbie Island Princess,’ which was, I think, very valid of us.”

Twice featured on the @exetershlumped Instagram, a page which posts humorous photos of Exonians asleep, Nanor often finds herself in vivid and bizarre dreamscapes. “In upper year, I was on my Instagram explore page which had Latin memes. I saw the first line of one of Catallus’s most famous poems…right before I fell asleep, because I was exhausted,” Nanor said, prefacing the story.

“In my dream, I pieced together the rest of the poem. It’s not that impressive because it’s only a two line poem, but it’s still like, ‘Whoa, I pieced together a Latin poem in my sleep and then I translated it in my sleep.’ Then when I woke up, I still had full recollection of the poem and of the translation. I was able to write it on the board and be like, ‘Oh my gosh. I’m like the modern day Catullus. I was born to take the classics.’”

Lavine shared a similar occasion in their math class. “One time we were confused over a math question together, and we decided to take a break. The next morning, she texted me and said she had solved the math problem in her dream!”

Nanor has an important piece of advice for current students, which she received during her prep year. “At Exeter, it becomes really easy to be swept up in the whole rhythm of things like classes, clubs, trying to fit in meal times, and doing homework on top of all that,” Nanor said. “I feel like it’s so easy to just push yourself to the side, and it’s not just necessarily your [physical] well-being. It’s also your emotional well-being.”

“I feel like checking in with yourself is something that has been really helpful for me, and I think there’s value in that for everyone. This time in our lives is really just the time to get to know yourself,” Nanor said.