Recognizing excellence

Team VERTEX returns to world championships

The Robotics Club’s top-ranked team, VERTEX, had another thrilling ride at the New Hampshire FIRST Tech Challenge in February, earning a return trip to the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship in April.

The achievement capped an undefeated season, in which the VERTEX robot won first place in every qualifying tournament the team entered. It also marked an exciting turnaround: At the state competition, VERTEX lost two out of three qualifying and elimination round matches by the smallest of margins. But when it came time to hand out awards, the judges nonetheless honored VERTEX with the Inspire Award, given to “the team that best embodies the ‘challenge’ of the FIRST Tech Challenge program.” The top award guaranteed VERTEX a berth in the world championship for the second straight year.

Team VERTEX also took home the Promote Award for creating a compelling video message for the public that celebrates robotics and STEM. In all, 36 Exonians competed at the state championships in Concord; Exeter’s Team Edge finished in third place, while Avaninder Bhaghayath ’26, a member of Team VERTEX, was named an NH-FTC Dean’s List Award Finalist.

Math students shine on national and global stages

In February, a team from Exeter’s Math Club captured third place in the Sweepstakes round of HMMT, the prestigious biannual math tournament organized by students at Harvard, MIT and other nearby schools. The Sweepstakes represented the top 10 overall finishers at the event, which drew close to 1,000 top-performing high school students from around the world. In the individual rounds, Exonians came up with impressive results, including Oron Wang ’27, who placed 15th in the overall individual category, 10th in the Geometry round and fifth in the Algebra and Number Theory round. Andrew Carratu ’25 placed 17th in the overall individual category and 25th in the Algebra and Number Theory and Combinatories rounds. In March, Carratu competed in the Romanian Master of Mathematics, finishing 10th in an international field of 80 competitors and capturing a silver medal.

Debater competes in global championship

Though Emma Sordi ’25 embraces the team spirit of Parliamentary debating, she’s learning fast what it’s like to stand out at the individual level as well. In November, Sordi and three other members of the Daniel Webster Debate Society’s advanced team — Joonyoung Heo ’25, Adrian Mittal ’25 and Josh Grewal ’25 — captured first place at a tournament held at St. Paul’s School. A month later, Sordi qualified for the World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championships with her highscoring performance in both team and individual events at a tournament held at Buckingham Browne & Nichols. As a result, Sordi headed to Canberra, Australia in April to compete in the categories of debating, persuasive speaking, interpretive reading and impromptu speaking.

This is the first time Exeter has sent debaters to the global stage in consecutive years: Colin Jung ’24 emerged as a grand finalist at the 2023 event, finishing fourth overall in the debating category. “Having Colin has been an amazing help,” Sordi says, adding that the advanced team has been stepping up its training, with three practices weekly and regular Zoom meetings during the summer and vacations. “It’s been a good year for the Daniel Webster Debate Society, and I hope to continue that.”

Mock trial team dominates state finals

Exeter’s always outstanding Mock Trial Club sent three teams to the state Mock Trial Championship at the University of New Hampshire Law School in Concord. All three teams placed in the top four at the tournament. In the finals, Exeter’s A Team faced off against a team from Bishop Guertin High School and won all five ballots, finishing more than 65 points ahead of their competitors.

This was the first time in 10 years that any team had won all ballots in the final round of state competition. At the individual level, Colin Jung ’24 and Sophie Wagner ’25 both won “Outstanding Attorney.” The A Team — Wagner, Selim Kim ’24, Ethan Benenson ’26, Kai Gowda ’27, Tamar Moskovich ’26, Charles Potjer ’24, Chad Smith ’25, Michael Nardone ’24 and Matt Grossman ’25 — will be traveling to Delaware in May to represent New Hampshire at the National High School Mock Trial Championship.

Students rack up leadership and entrepreneurship honors

A group of enterprising Exonians traveled to Manchester in mid-February to complete in the New Hampshire State Career Development Conference of the Distributive Education Clubs of America, a non-profit organization dedicated to preparing students for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management. Aubrey Silvestri ’25 placed first in the Principles of Hospitality Category after acing the case study portion of the competition, in which she had to assess a specific business challenge and come up with a solution on the

spot. “I was able to get exposure to a realistic situation that piqued my interest of potentially going into business in the future,” Silvestri says. “I really enjoyed working with my Exeter peers and appreciated the guidance they gave me.” Steven Chen ’25, Dhruv Nagarajan ’25, Lucy Jung ’25 and Elle Perry ’25 triumphed in the team Quizbowl competition, while Chen and Nagarajan placed first in the Start-Up Business Plan Category and Erin Chen ’25 placed first in the Hotel and Lodging Category.

Short story recognized in the Caribbean

In December, Meira Wohl ’25 headed to Georgetown, Guyana, to receive an award for a short story she wrote as part of school leaving examinations in her home country of Jamaica, known as the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate. The trip included meeting with all CSEC award winners, a tour of the city and audiences with Guyana’s president and minister of education. “It was my first time going to a Caribbean country other than Jamaica, and it was such an honor to be amongst my fellow awardees,” Wohl says.

Exeter team wins Econ Bowl

In April, Northwestern University’s Economics Department and undergraduate students hosted the seventh annual Econ Bowl for high school students around the country interested in economics and its applications. This year’s Econ Bowl saw a particularly competitive field, with 20 teams competing in person and 32 joining virtually. Gradually the competitors dwindled to four semifinalists, before Exeter’s A Team defeated Exeter’s B Team in the grand finale. “The experience was great,” Jack Gordon ’24 says. “It’s exciting to get to pursue our passion for economics on a national scale.”

This article first appeared in the spring 2024 issue of The Exeter Bulletin.