Members of the Class of 2025 walked a red carpet to enter the Ransom Everglades Middle School for the last time as eighth graders on May 28, arriving in waves by advisory for a most unusual – and very special – Eighth-Grade Send-Up. Students and their parents toured campus in small groups, greeting teachers, collecting special gifts (including Class of 2025 RE backpacks), and concluding in Swenson Hall for a number of video and award presentations – and a ceremonial visit to stage.
The send-up typically takes place in the Lewis Family Auditorium at the upper school, but the pandemic provided the impetus for middle school administrators to create this interactive, festive, partly outdoor event. Students and their parents arrived at allotted times throughout the afternoon, and each student received a specially made T-shirt, produced by a fellow student.
The event offered students the chance to say goodbye to beloved Head of the Middle School Rachel Rodriguez, who is departing after 16 years, and math teacher Ginny Onorati, retiring after 47 years at RE.
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.