Senior of the Week: Montana Dickerson
By ETHAN DING AND JOONYOUNG HEO
If someone entered the Academy Building on a brisk Tuesday evening, a faint murmur might be heard in the foyer. If they walked toward the large glass windows and began to climb the marble stairs, the murmur would melt into words, then into clear sentences at the landing. And if they turned the corner and entered the Assembly Hall, they would see a figure on stage — blonde, medium-height, confident in posture — giving a speech before a crowd of debaters staring up at her from the audience. This is senior Monty Dickerson, and this is where she feels at home.
Dickerson was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, but she has always wanted to experience a life elsewhere. “I never really felt like I fit in there,” she said. “I’ve been wanting to leave my home state of Georgia for a long time, but I’d never seriously considered boarding school. No one around me had, either. In fact, when I told people back home I was going to Exeter, they asked what I’d done because they assumed I was being sent to some kind of military school.”
“But I decided to try it,” Dickerson continued. “So when I was in the ninth grade, I asked my parents if I could apply to boarding school and they said, check back in with us in a year, and if you want to go to boarding school, we can talk about it. They thought I’d forget. Then one year later I came back and said I wanted to go. They let me apply, and I ended up here.”
Having entered the Academy as a new lower, Dickerson quickly fell into the rhythm of life at Exeter. In the classroom, she has developed an interest in both the humanities and sciences.
“My favorite class I’ve taken was on human population and resource consumption,” she said. “It was a fusion of a bunch of different things — anthropology, philosophy, environmental science, and history. Those are all things I’m interested in. I’m pretty terrible at STEM, but I still enjoy it, and it doesn’t stop me from trying my best. I definitely prefer history and English, though. Capitalism and Its Critics was especially interesting because there were so many opinions represented in that class, and it made for very fruitful Harkness discussions.”
Yet it wasn’t until Dickerson’s senior year that she felt as though she belonged. “I spent a lot of my first two years at Exeter not really fitting in here, either,” she said. “It was only by the end of my upper year that I really joined the community, and I think that’s mainly thanks to the clubs I’m in and the people I’m around.”
Debate is one of the most important of these clubs. For the past year, Dickerson has been a captain of the Daniel Webster Debate Society (DWDS) on campus. She credited her passion for debate and public speaking to her extensive background in theater.
“At my old school, I was very nvolved in the theater department,” Dickerson said. “I was doing multiple shows a semester, and I was scouted out by my school’s debate coach to join their debate club. She basically said, ‘Montana, we’ve noticed that you’re very active in theater. We’re wondering if you wanted to join the debate team?’ I said no for a number of reasons specific to the debate team there, but when I came to Exeter, DWDS seemed like the perfect fusion of my passion for speaking in front of a crowd and my developing passion for politics.”
Dickerson is also a co-head of both Democratic Club and Republican Club. Her interest in the political sphere can similarly be traced back to her childhood in Atlanta.
“The city of Atlanta itself is very liberal, very progressive,” Dickerson said. “Then you have the suburbs and the countryside surrounding Atlanta that’s very rural and very conservative. I think I was used to interacting with people who held a range of different opinions, which really helped me in shaping my own.”
“She’s extremely bright and funny and just radiates this energy that makes you want to be around her all the time.”
“In some ways, coming to Exeter was a culture shock,” she continued. “I found myself in a place where people seem to share more or less the same opinions. I wanted to maintain that practice of engaging with people I disagree with, which led me to the Republican Club. I ended up really liking it and the people who were in it. So I stuck with it, and it’s largely helped me develop my interest in politics.”
Dickerson, as a co-head of two outwardly opposed clubs, has received a mixed reaction to her unique position of leadership.
“What’s surprised me the most is both people’s hostility to and their acceptance of it,” she said. “The people who have been the most hostile to my position on both leadership boards have tended to be adults, which is really ironic because typically the younger people are framed as more steadfast in what they believe. But I’ve found that some of the people who believe in something the strongest are often the ones who are the most open to the idea of gaining exposure to new perspectives.”
Aside from her clubs, Dickerson highly values the close bond she has with her friends. Three years at Exeter have fostered many a supportive relationship that she finds comfort in.
“When I first came here, I was trying to project an image of what I thought I should be,” Dickerson said. “I fell in with a lot of people who didn’t have my best interests at heart. I think gaining some self-respect and starting to hang out with people who appreciate me for who I am has been a challenge that I’ve overcome.”
Above all, Dickerson finds meaning in the small moments. “Last year, I went to a waterfall with some of the graduating seniors in my dorm, in the class of ‘22. We hung out and ate lunch by the waterfall. It was a beautiful moment, and I miss them all very much.”
That certainly wasn’t her last excursion into nature. “A couple of weeks ago, I went on a camping trip with the Outing Club. It was super fun,” Dickerson said. “We hiked all day through an area of the White Mountains I’d never been to before. I had some great conversations with the others and we had a great time being outside, enjoying the wonderful nature that surrounds Exeter, and talking to people whom I’d never really interacted with before.”
Dickerson’s sincerity in her friendships is greatly appreciated by all those around her.
“I met Monty when I came in as a new lower last year,” upper Ghena Kubba said. “She was probably one of the first people I met, and we really bonded. I developed this routine of going to her room every night during spring term to get coffee. Monty was always there to talk over drinks. She would come into my room as well, and we would talk about silly things.”
Senior Ale Murat agreed on Dickerson’s exuberant personality. “She’s extremely bright and funny and just radiates this energy that makes you want to be around her all the time. She’s that type of person that you go to when you need help,” senior Ale Murat said. “We went to the gym one time and I was really scared of lifting. By the end, she had me lift a crazy amount of weight in my first session. She really believed in me.”
“She’s just a really easy person to talk to and a fun presence,” senior Phe Bentley said. “She’s always able to make a discussion more insightful, and I appreciate the way she’s outspoken about what she believes in. She’s definitely helped me to think about different issues in a new light, which I’ve loved.”
Others have found their interactions with Dickerson similarly rewarding. “She brings such good vibes to Exeter,” senior Gbemiga Salu said. “I think everyone should try to have a conversation with Monty once in their life. She’s so smart, but also really funny and engaging.”
“Monty and I love discussing deep topics — human existence, why we are the way we are, and so on,” senior Erin Sackey said. “She’s a really nice person, but in a very intellectual way. Some people are silly-funny, but Monty’s clever-funny. Often we walk around at night, along Swasey or a street in town, and just talk. I used to have a black-and-white style of thinking, but she’s introduced me to a lot of nuance about life in general, which is very Monty-esque. She’s always thinking about different possibilities, different ideas.”
Senior Nat Kpodonu agreed. “I consider her truthfulness and bluntness to be two very positive traits,” she said. “She’s never going to screw you up, and I think she’s very honest with everyone. She talks very genuinely, very charismatically, and really knows what to say and when to say it. She’s just an all-around great person.”
Dickerson’s positive influence extends even beyond her closest relationships, particularly in the clubs that she leads. “Monty has made debate practice so much fun — that was something I looked forward to in the entirety of my upper year,” Bentley said. “We were always on opposite teams, and it got pretty competitive in an entertaining way. Now the DWDS board ends up making each other laugh so much that we don’t always have the most productive meetings. We had a lot of fun making the co-head introductions to post on Instagram, for example.”
“I hope, if nothing else, that I’ve helped kids here feel [like they’re] heard and that their perspectives matter.”
“But at the end of the day, I know debate is what it is today because of her,” Bentley continued. “The club reaches such a wide range of people, and she’s mentored so many lowerclassmen and made those meetings fun and engaging.”
Dickerson’s advisor, Rev. Bonnie Casey, fully agreed on the scope of her influence. “Monty has brought a wide variety of gifts and talents to Exeter,” she said. “She’s committed and diligent, of course, but chief amongst them is a passion for justice and fairness. She really wants the Academy to be a fair place that strives to accommodate every student, and she’s been willing to stand up for what she thinks it could do better.
Dickerson hopes specifically that her involvement in both the Democratic and Republican Clubs has inspired members. “I hope that I’ve encouraged other people to engage with others who disagree with them,” she said. “And I do think, now, the membership in both clubs is more intellectually diverse than it was before my time here. It’s nice to know that I’ve made at least some impact on the student body.”
As for her development over three years at Exeter, Dickerson has learned several important lessons about her perception of herself.
“When I came to Exeter, everyone told me this is a very serious and amazing opportunity for very serious and amazing children,” Dickerson said. “And I thought I needed to mold myself into this idea of a serious student in order to achieve any success here.”
“But then I gave up quickly because maintaining that facade took a lot of energy,” she continued. “And I realized I got a lot more out of my classes when I took a deep breath and expressed myself more openly and honestly, as opposed to trying to appear more serious to my classmates. Over time, I’ve been able to develop a more internal definition of success that’s not reliant on external validation. So that’s probably the best advice I could give — don’t take yourself too seriously.”
Dickerson’s growth over the past few years, in both becoming more confident in who she is and in other areas of Academy life, has certainly not gone unnoticed by her friends.
“I’d like to say that Monty has always been true to herself,” Salu said. “I’ve only known her for two years because I was a new upper, but I’ve seen her change. She’s more outgoing, especially now that she’s in her senior year. She’s trying new things, branching out more, talking to more people.”
Kubba saw Dickerson grow as a result of her activities in clubs. “Monty has grown a lot as a person in the time that I’ve known her. Being a part of both Dem Club and Pub [aka Republican] Club has added to her character and developed her political compass.”
Murat commented on the expansion of Dickerson’s social circles. “Monty has grown to be a very well-known person on campus,” she said. “That’s partly due to the fact that she surrounds herself with lots of different people, and that she’s always open to making new friends. She’s not hibernating in the dorm or closing herself off. It’s nice to see that she has certain groups of friends, then also other groups of friends. She’s able to connect them really well, and I’ve gotten very close with many of her friends.”
Dickerson’s sociability was similarly emphasized by others. “The friend group we’re in right now feels so genuine,” Kpodonu said. “She’s a genuine person, so I guess that makes sense. Everyone really brings their all in maintaining the friendship, especially Monty. She’s always reaching out to people. She cares about everything she does. She’s someone people can really respect. You can be a leader and not a respectable person, and I think she checks both boxes.”
“Monty fits in so well with a lot of people,” Sackey said. “She’s an integral part of Exeter — very vital to the community. I mean, she’s senior of the week, so clearly she’s had an impact on many people, including myself. I don’t know who I’d be without her.”
“The kids respect her,” Casey said. “She’s the only senior in my advising group, and they all look up to her. I hope she feels the admiration I can clearly see. And as her advisor, I can say she’s not just a great kid — she’s a wonderful human being. It has been one of my greatest pleasures to have worked with Monty.”
And, in more ways than one, Dickerson herself has felt the difference she’s made. “One of the sweetest moments I had was earlier this year,” she said. “I was sitting in the dorm room of some underclassmen and they said to me, ‘Monty, I never thought student listeners did anything until I met you.’ That was really touching. I hope, if nothing else, that I’ve helped kids here feel [like they’re] heard and that their perspectives matter and there are people who care about them and want them to succeed.”
