A special time at a special school

Next week, we will welcome to our campuses our newly admitted students, including some 160 rising sixth graders from 40 different elementary schools. The new students from all grades are coming to RE from seven states, Kuala Lumpur, Bucharest, London, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Singapore. Despite their different backgrounds, these children will grow and learn together, gradually forming the powerful bonds that brought our seniors out to La Brisa this past weekend. The youngest will be invited to our middle school “houses” and dabble in arts, sports and languages. As ninth graders they will learn to sail and head to the Everglades for the annual ninth-grade trip. Now filled with nervousness and trepidation, our newly admitted students will soon begin to understand the magic of the Ransom Everglades community. They will meet current students who will amaze them with their poise and passion for their school. As they make their own journeys through RE, these new Raiders will discover lifelong friends and, in some cases, even future spouses.

Fewer than two weeks later, alumni from across decades – and oceans – will return to Ransom Everglades for Alumni Weekend 2023, some celebrating special reunions and others making what has been an annual return to RE. The festivities will commence on Friday, April 21, with a lunch at Joe’s Stone Crab for a 50-year reunion with the Class of 1973 as well as those from earlier classes. It will include a reception and dinner that evening for all returning alumni, leading to a jam-packed Saturday. There will be a Service of Remembrance, sailing, soccer and water polo. An “escape room” with STEM Department teacher Bob DuBard. A roundtable with me, Mr. Clark and John A. King Jr., Associate Head of School. There will also be a Black alumni reception, mangrove clean-up, activities for children and a film discussion in honor of the late Jose Rodriguez with our own Phil Lord ’93, Hollywood producer extraordinaire. (Alumni who haven’t yet registered can do so here.)

Our faculty love to welcome their former students back to campus and, for most of our alumni, there is much new to see, whether the Fernandez STEM Center that opened in 2020, or La Brisa, which opened last fall. No matter how much the campus evolves, returning always feels like coming home for those who grew up on our campuses. Students’ memories are as indelible as the bricks with their names on the Miller Quad, and their friendships may be even longer lasting.

As I think about these upcoming events, I am reminded to savor this remarkable community. As much as this school is about a “place” – a school on the bay that is central to the history of Miami and Coconut Grove, we know the power of RE extends far beyond our school’s gates and city’s borders. Our ethic of service, dating back to Paul Ransom and Marie Swenson, ensures that our community is never exclusive or small-minded. And when we send off our seniors to colleges and universities around the nation and world, we know they will carry with them that notion of service and all that they have learned here, effectively taking the RE community with them. We also trust they will stay connected to their school, ensuring a pipeline of friendship, support and welcome for our future graduates.

I’ll wrap this up with a scene from the end of our upper school assembly last week. A national-champion college gymnastics coach, Valorie Kondos Field, took the stage as a featured speaker for our Holzman Center of Applied Ethics. (Student Natasha Rodriguez ’23 proposed “Miss Val” as a speaker, and helped facilitate her appearance.) During the assembly, Miss Val alternately admonished and challenged our students. She told students not to cheat, and advised them to “do hard better,” as she put it. Our students, who responded with respectful silence as she shared a story about her fight with cancer, offered frequent applause, asked a host of questions and gave a standing ovation when Miss Val concluded.

“I have never,” Miss Val said, “seen a high school more impressive than this one.”

Neither have I. That is the Ransom Everglades community.