Principal Rawson shares his priorities at assembly
The annual Q+A with with Student Council leaders lays out goals for coming years.
Principal Rawson ’71 shared with Exeter students a long and ambitious list of priorities for the Academy during a question-and-answer assembly Friday with the school’s Student Council officers.
The list includes work already underway or soon to be, including the building of a new dining hall to replace Wetherell and the adoption of a climate action plan that will establish goals for drastically cutting the school’s carbon emissions over the next 10 years.
Student Council President Ale Murat ’23, Vice President Grace Puchalski ’23 and Kevin Treehan ’24 and Nate Puchalski ’23, co-secretaries, joined Principal Rawson on the Assembly Hall stage. Rawson told the students he hopes the senior class can enjoy their final year at Exeter, noting that members of the class were preps when the COVID-19 pandemic forced spring term to be held remotely in 2020 and continued to disrupt campus life over the past two school years.
“Whether you were here or elsewhere, the pandemic has taken a lot out of your education,” Rawson said. “I just want this year, for all of us, to be a great year, and I think we’re off to a good start.”
He told the students he hoped to leverage student-faculty collaboration to confront issues of common concern and vowed to visit their classes more often.
Asked how he spends his days, the principal replied, “my days are long, just like yours, and they’re not all the same, but I’m lucky to be here; it’s an exciting place to be.
“I want to spend as much time as I can with you, understanding your experience and observing your activities and accomplishments and, in some cases, just cheering you on.”
