Diversity, Equity and Inclusion News

Four Everglades School for Girls alumnae visited RE to mark the school's celebration of International Women's Day, joining an upper school assembly with members of the student club Women Empowerment on March 5. Betty Wiseheart Joyce '70, Beth Kaiser '76 and Karen (Flannery) Jones '72 took seats in the front row of the Lewis Family Auditorium as club president Maggie Seabrook '24 interviewed Roxi Badia Morgenstern '75, and various club members presented history, trivia and traditions of the Everglades School for Girls.

Members of RE's Brazilian Culture Club highlighted the challenges and opportunities faced by Brazil during a multi-faceted upper school assembly on Feb. 27. The centerpiece of the event was an interview with a leader of a Brazilian organization whose focus is combating poverty in the nation's most vulnerable populations. Students also shared an informative video made by Portuguese 4 students, and the RE Combo performed Bossa Nova to conclude the assembly.

Ransom Everglades kicked off The Year of the Dragon with a rollicking Lunar New Year festival on a brilliantly bedecked Touzet patio. Tradition, celebration and fun converged at the upper school on Feb. 13 as RE students, parents, faculty, staff and friends gathered to enjoy Chinese delicacies and music, dance and acrobatics performances. The Chinese Parent Committee, the school’s Chinese Culture Club and the many students in the Chinese classes of faculty member Xiaohong Teng organized the events and helped decorate La Brisa with red-and-gold lanterns and silk dragons. Photo Gallery

Ransom Everglades students on both campuses heard powerful and moving stories from the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Rachel Greer Narvaez '99 and Caryn Pardo addressed students at the middle school on Jan. 25, and Hagit Fefferman spoke to upper school students on Jan. 29.

Ransom Everglades kicked off Black History Month with a lively festival during the mid-day break after an inspiring morning talk from the Rev. Dr. Walter T. Richardson, the senior chaplain for the Miami-Dade Police Department and an adjunct professor of religion at St. Thomas University. Upper school students and faculty in the Lewis Family Auditorium gave Richardson a standing ovation, then enjoyed food, music and art rooted in African and Caribbean traditions.

The Ransom Everglades students who attended the 2023 National Association of Independent Schools’ Student Diversity Leadership Conference in St. Louis, Mo., shared the experience with their peers during a roundtable discussion at the Lewis Family Auditorium on Jan. 16. The students – Jamora Arroyo-Jefferson '24, Kaige Brown '25, Isabel Chong '24, Ron "R.J." Donaldson '25, Tyira Jackson '24 and Anuradha "Anu" Tewari '25 – explained how the event worked and what they gained from it, and they took questions from Diversity Council advisor Carla Hill.