Exeter Summer program hones tomorrow's leaders

“We're starting from a really personal space for them: What are their values? What do they believe in? What are the causes that move them?” says Ben Cromwell, who teaches The Art and Science of Change, as well as a Practical Leadership seminar in the UPPER SCHOOL. “From there, we try and expand outward as we go.”

In addition to their coursework and their trip to the Browne Center, students in both Hamm Leadership Programs visited the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate in Boston, where they participated in a mock debate over voting rights legislation. While they were in the city, the students also toured a series of giant murals created by artists in association with the organization Sea Walls to bring awareness to issues of environmentalism, especially protecting the ocean.

Each ACCESS student teams with their older counterparts for a capstone project, through which they aim to make a meaningful impact on the Exeter Summer community in some way. Lu and his capstone group created a peer-to-peer tutoring program for fellow Exeter Summer students, while Garima Biyani, a rising ninth grader from Bellevue, Washington, worked with her group to plant seeds in Exeter’s community garden.

Learning to listen

Irene Hamm, who earned her master’s degree in special education from Columbia University, spent 32 years teaching students from preschool through high school ages. After watching the Hamm Leadership Program’s success in the UPPER SCHOOL, she’s excited to see it extended to the younger group.

“I think [the program is] about teaching the students how to work with other people instead of just going their own way,” Irene notes. “Having taught seventh and eighth graders, I think they have to learn to listen to other people and yet still have their opinions, and when they approach others, approach them with thoughtfulness — and with facts.”

For Charles Hamm, whose namesake UPPER SCHOOL program recently celebrated its 14^th year, his initial inspiration to create it still holds true. “The combination of good leadership and good followership has always, and increasingly, struck me as being critical to life on earth,” Charles says. “If we can jumpstart a sense of thinking, considering and approaching an understanding of what leadership might be — even if you don’t become a leader — it will enhance your ability to be a responsible follower.”

As the five-week program draws to a close, Jack Lu has taken the message to heart. “Through this experience, I've fully come to realize that leaders may be the ones who get most of the fame and most of the attention,” Lu says. “But without the followers, they really can't achieve anything. The followers are equally — if not more — important than the leaders.”

Tools for the future

Cromwell says his ACCESS EXETER students come to the Hamm Leadership Program with a variety of motivations, from future leadership plans to simply connecting with the idea of the cluster. Many bring a passion for social justice to their work, and are inspired by Harkness discussions and other activities focused on gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, racial equality, climate change and other key issues. By the end of their capstone projects, the students were “running community meetings, engaging their peers, generating ideas,” Cromwell recalls. “They really stepped up and talked in depth about the things they had done personally to advance these causes.”

 “I’ve always kind of been more like head up in the clouds, but this [experience] has brought me down to earth to a degree,” Biyani says. “I know a lot about social justice, but I haven't really done much. When I get back, I think putting my ideas into action — volunteering, maybe getting involved in some organizations, or starting groups at my school — is definitely something that I intend to do.”