Adrian Venzon is a Teaching Fellow in English, a House Counselor in Bishop Hall, an Assistant Coach for Junior Varsity 1 Girls Basketball, and works with the Office of Community and Multicultural Development (CaMD). After attending Phillips Exeter Academy (Exeter), Venzon graduated summa cum laude from Yale University last May with a degree in English and a Certificate in Education Studies, Intensive. In his free time, Venzon also enjoys singing and dancing.
What drew you to Andover?
I had known about Andover since I was a freshman at Exeter. It was always on my radar. I just had a really transformative experience in boarding school, even though it was at the rival school. That inspired me to then take up education and English, which was my favorite subject and was also the subject that my favorite teacher taught in high school. I was drawn back to boarding schools because my boarding school experience really, truly changed my life for the better… More importantly, I grew a lot as a person in my understanding of myself and how I fit into my broader communities as a result of going to boarding school. Because I believe so much in the magic that these places have, I wanted to come back to one.
How did your time at boarding school affect you?
Dancing was something that I discovered I had a passion for while I was a student at Exeter. Dance serves as a really helpful symbol of my time there because I was challenged to try really new things that I wasn’t used to and maybe things that I wouldn’t have otherwise tried if I hadn’t gone to boarding school. That encapsulates how I treated my Exeter experience, which was just really to try everything I could. I literally tried and also failed at many things, [like] Mock Trial… Through that process, I found a love for dance, a love for singing, and a love for being involved in communities I care about.
How did you discover your love for singing?
I found my love for singing at Exeter. I was in an a cappella group called the Exeteras… That was my start, my Upper year. I approached college with the same attitude of wanting to try new things, so then I auditioned for a cappella at Yale and [that] ended up taking over my life. When I sing, I much prefer singing in a group of people. I can enjoy karaoke and singing solo, but really my preference is to sing in the background and be a part of a bigger thing.
What is the main difference you’ve noticed between Andover and Exeter?
Andover students seem to have more of a balance with their lives, between social life and academics and extracurriculars. The one thing that both students have in common, there’s many things that you have in common, like being academically driven and really bright students. Also, your lack of sleep, oh my gosh, it’s the same thing. We were all quite sleep-deprived as students.
Who is your favorite artist?
My top artist was Ariana Grande this last year. In fact, my top five songs were all from her new album “Eternal Sunshine.” I’m a big Ariana Grande fan… I sang bass in my group, so obviously I’m not hitting whistle notes like Ariana, but I do really like singing songs by Frank Sinatra, or popularized by Nat King Cole.
You majored in English at Yale. Could you expand on your experience?
Yale’s English department is quite well-known around the country. We had some really accomplished authors as our professors and I can think of one class specifically where [for] every single book that I read in that class, my teacher had a personal relationship with the author of the book and could tell us things that only someone who knows them would know… It really [opened] my eyes to the privilege of being able to attend an institution like Yale… The English department and being an English major has also changed quite a bit in the last couple of years [to expand] what is deemed respectable literature or literature we’re studying, beyond just the Western canon. I read a book by a Singaporean author called “State of Emergency” in that class. It really opened my eyes to the possibilities of English, beyond what people traditionally think [of].
As a multilingual person who also speaks Capampangan, what role has language played in your life?
Capampangan is the first language I learned to speak. It’s the language I speak at home and it’s an indigenous language in the Philippines. It’s not the primary spoken language. I mostly speak it with my family and members. But because of that, it really does hold a very special place in my heart and it’s something that I really want to pass on… My Filipino identity is something that became really important to me when I started studying at Exeter because for the first time, I was in an intentionally diverse community. That opened my eyes to the really special parts of my heritage that I really wanted to celebrate and part of that is the language.
Something cool recently about that language is, because there’s not a ton of people that speak that language in the U.S., when I joined the Whiffenpoofs, [Yale’s a capella group], and traveled to the Philippines with them, local media in my hometown where I was born in Angeles City, Pampanga, found out that there was a Capampangan speaker in the group. I had people emailing me to interview and they interviewed me in my home language, which was really challenging for me. But it was really cool to have the sense that people back home are really proud of the things that I had accomplished, and that we had this innate connection because of our shared language.
How do you work with CaMD? Why did you want to get involved?
Through CaMD, I advise two clubs: Lavender, which is an affinity group, and I also advise Andover Kasama, which is the Filipino group. Both of these clubs have to do with identities that I hold myself, and I think it’s really important for students to feel that there’s an adult in this community that can understand their experiences in that way. I’m not trying to say that I understand all Filipino experiences or all queer experiences, but I think that it’s a really helpful first step to have someone who looks like you or has experiences like you have had. I also spend a lot of time in the office interacting with all sorts of students who come by. That’s been my favorite part of the role.
Who inspired you to pursue this career?
The greatest and the most direct inspiration for this career was definitely an English teacher of mine, who I actually first met as my House Counselor. He was one of the first openly queer adult men that I’d ever interacted with, which played a really important part of me coming to terms with my identity and who I am. To know that there was an adult that cared so much about me made me really want to be able to be that adult for future generations of students.
Any advice to share with the student body?
Treat the Andover experience as something that is unique and valuable and beautiful in itself and not just as a before step of the opportunities and doors that it’ll open after. Think of Andover itself as a really, really beautiful wide open door that’s already been opened for you. Approach your Andover experience with that love and excitement that you might be attributing to what’s going to come after.
