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From the Pagoda: A Portrait of a Ransom Everglades Graduate
At the turn of the 20th century, Paul Ransom defined a central task for graduates when they departed Ransom Everglades: To leave the world better than they found it. More than 120 years later, with that mission still at the heart of an RE education, our academic leadership has sought to articulate something even deeper: what traits and habits characterize a Ransom Everglades graduate? What do RE alumni look like in action? What qualities do they carry into the world?
Interviews and input from alumni, students and faculty, and internal reflection helped Ransom Everglades create the Portrait of a Ransom Everglades graduate that you will find here. The portrait highlights attributes familiar to many of you: An RE graduate thinks deeply and creatively, and embraces change with confidence. An RE graduate leads with integrity, courage and purpose. An RE graduate serves others with compassion and builds inclusive communities. An RE graduate pursues excellence with humility and balance.
Several alumni elaborated on our portrait with thoughts of their own, and many sought to offer words that best describe an RE alum. You will find their feedback in that article, which serves as a companion to the Portrait of a Ransom Everglades Graduate video we released this fall.
Besides that very special portrait, this magazine features two additional portraits of impressive graduates. You will enjoy learning about Matthew Beatty ’01 and his lifelong quest to make a difference in Miami-Dade County and, in particular, the Black community. His impact, whether in helping to launch Give Miami Day or through novel programs at the Carrie Meek Foundation, has been outsized and was captured brilliantly in the story by English teacher Matt Margini.
You will also appreciate reading about Arlene Sierra ’87, a renowned composer and music professor based in London. Arlene fell in love with the natural world at Ransom Everglades, and she has woven her passion into the extraordinary works that have marked her career in musical composition. Her success in a historically male-dominated field serves as an inspiration for young women in music.
I’m proud to introduce other features in the fall RE Log. We offer a look at the soon-to-come Sundheim Humanities Center, a 30,000-square-foot facility that will serve as an academic partner to the Fernandez STEM Center at the upper school. The visual essay includes insights from RE families who are supporting the project; please take time to learn how you can contribute to a facility that will continue the exciting transformation of the upper school at RE.
You can peruse our annual Report of Giving, which offers proof that the RE community believes in the special power of an RE education. I loved the testimony provided by Alex Kleyner and Diana Ulis P’31 ’32, in the “Why I Give” feature. The couple paid homage to their mothers – both teachers – with their contribution to the Patrick and Kristen McMahon Faculty Endowment Fund, created in 2024 to ensure cost-of-living stipends for our full-time teachers in perpetuity.
Our celebration of the Class of 2026 includes the now traditional photo in college T-shirts on the steps of the Fernandez STEM Center days before graduation. The photo taken by Communications Associate Suzanne Kores captures the joy of members of that class and the remarkable array of colleges and universities they are attending this fall.
Our youngest alumni are officially on the purposeful path taken by many previous generations of Ransom Everglades graduates, living out the fullest expression of an RE education: To leave the world better than they found it.
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
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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. It is rated the top private school in Miami and among the 10 private schools in North America. 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.
Ransom Everglades School®, The RE Way®, RE Pathways® and Bowden Fellowships in the Humanities™ are trademarks of Ransom Everglades School.
Ransom Everglades School®, The RE Way®, RE Pathways® and Bowden Fellowships in the Humanities™ are trademarks of Ransom Everglades School.