Student, Alumni and Campus Updates

Econ Club Tallies Wins

They had won at Northwestern. Then they nearly aced Harvard. Exeter Economics Association’s A team — Lake Zhou ’27, Drona Gaddam ’27, Eli Orbach ’27 and David Liu ’27 — took first place at the Harvard Pre-Collegiate Economics Challenge, averaging 59 correct answers to 60 questions in the individual macro- and microeconomics exam and going undefeated in a series of team quiz-bowl elimination rounds. Orbach recorded a perfect score. The team now sets its sights on the National Economics Challenge and World Economics Cup.

Go Big Bed!

A new initiative, created by Oluj Okeremi ’27 and supported by Katherine Luo ’27 and the Student Council, rewards students for hitting the pillow rather than the books. Using Okeremi’s Go Big Bed! app, students can track their sleep and get points for every hour they log. When they reach point milestones, they earn credits, which can be exchanged for rewards at school. You snooze, you win!

Architecture

Ari Lee ’27 and Kevin Chen ’28 were recognized this spring by the American Institute of Architects for their work in the New Hampshire High School Design Challenge. This year’s challenge asked students to develop a communitydriven music center. The students created a design solution, a 3-D model and a graphic plan of their project with the guidance of mentor, architect and Academy Campus Planner Heather Taylor. “This is really exciting for us as it’s the first time for entering,” Taylor says. “I am so proud of them!”

International Math Olympiad

Each year, the sharpest young mathematicians from around the world descend on a single city for two days of problem-solving. This July, Oron Wang ’27 was one of only six Americans competing at the Shanghai event. First held in Romania in 1959, the International Math Olympiad now hosts competitors from more than 100 countries. Wang is the first Exonian since 2022 to make the U.S. team.

Pulitzer Prize Winner

Dake Kang ’11 has earned one of journalism’s highest honors. Kang, who writes about Chinese politics, technology and society from Beijing for The Associated Press, was part of a team awarded the Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting in May. The judges lauded the team’s work as “an astonishing global investigation into state-of-the-art tools of mass surveillance, created in Silicon Valley, advanced in China and spreading worldwide before returning to America for secret new uses by the U.S. Border Patrol.”

230: Big Red Digit

Height in feet of the crane used during the Academy Building construction project. At the time, it was the third-tallest man-made structure in New Hampshire after two buildings in Manchester; it also featured its own weather station

Overheard

“Exeter has a great tradition of innovation and early adoption in its history. I suspect Exeter will stay at the forefront of the pack when it comes to how [AI] is integrated. … We are in a very privileged position, because Harkness, in particular, is very resilient. We can push learning in a very humancentric way.”

— Trustee Christine Robson Weaver ’99, speaking with an informal gathering of students on campus this spring