Alumni
Alumni Awards
2023 Founders' Alumni Award for Distinguished Service to the Community
Since her childhood years in Coconut Grove, Christina Proenza-Coles ’88 has been fascinated by how people of different backgrounds and cultures shape the history that they share. That passion led her to pursue a joint doctorate in Historical Studies and Sociology and to author the book American Founders: How People of African Descent Established Freedom in the New World.
It also led her to one of Ransom Everglades’ highest honors: the 2023 Founders' Alumni Award for Distinguished Service to the Community, an award that recognizes alumni who have made a service impact at a national level. Proenza-Coles received the award from Interim Head of School Rachel Rodriguez at Ransom Everglades’ 120th commencement at the Lewis Family Auditorium on May 19, 2023.
“Christina, as a classmate of hers shared, weaves a fine tapestry of connection everywhere she goes, making her the consummate community member,” Rodriguez said. “It’s no surprise that she became an educator and mentor with a desire to change lives.”
A professor at the University of Virginia in the American Studies Department, Proenza-Coles served as an assistant professor of the African Diaspora and the Atlantic World at Virginia State University from 2004 to 2011, and she also taught at Fordham University and The Cooper Union. She is working on a second book, Imagining Communities in Black and White.
“I love bringing these stories together of how we are connected,” she said shortly before commencement. “For me, it’s not a divisive history … It’s a form of patriotism. It’s a form of national pride to recognize the best of our history, which is the people who resisted the worst of it.”
She noted during the ceremony that “community is the investment that will bring you the greatest return.”
“Each of us is connected,” she told RE seniors. “Every single one of us is responsible for shaping our community. And, regardless of who we are, or what we do or where, we all have the ability to cultivate the best of our ideals, both in the smallest and grandest ways.”
Proenza said she learned much from her years in Coconut Grove and her mother Kitty Proenza, an RE faculty emeritus. She recalls spending afternoons on the upper school campus even before she was old enough to attend, watching sports, plays and other activities.
“This place means so much to me,” she said. “It is the foundation of everything I do.”
Middle School
2045 South Bayshore Drive, Coconut Grove, FL 33133Phone: 305 250 6850
Upper School
3575 Main Highway, Coconut Grove, FL 33133Phone: 305 460 8800
Founded in 1903, Ransom Everglades School is a coeducational, college preparatory day school for grades 6 - 12 located on two campuses in Coconut Grove, Florida. Ransom Everglades School produces graduates who "believe that they are in the world not so much for what they can get out of it as for what they can put into it." The school provides rigorous college preparation that promotes the student's sense of identity, community, personal integrity and values for a productive and satisfying life, and prepares the student to lead and to contribute to society.