News Detail
Doing the Right Thing
New Holzman Center of Applied Ethics empowers students to act with integrity.
Inspired to create a space for discussion and action relating to ethical decision-making, Ransom Everglades launched the Holzman Center of Applied Ethics in November 2021 and opened with a series of prominent speakers.
The inaugural speaker, City of Miami Mayor Francis X. Suarez, discussed ethics in politics at an upper school assembly on December 7, 2021; he also met with a small group of student government leaders after his talk. Home Depot magnate and philanthropist Ken Langone spoke with upper school students on January 19 about the ethical demands of running a major corporation, and Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge William Thomas visited the Lewis Family Auditorium on March 1, addressing the topic of judicial ethics.
“The center reflects the belief that ethics and morality must be taught and reinforced so that principled decision-making becomes a way of life,” Head of School Penny Townsend said. “That is what Paul Ransom and Marie Swenson intended when they founded, respectively, the Adirondack-Florida School and Everglades School for Girls.”
Housed in the Ransom Cottage and directed by Associate Head of School John A. King, Jr., the center is designed to empower students to make ethical choices and act with honor, excellence and integrity at RE and beyond. It will eventually offer a variety of programming – workshops, symposia, research opportunities and curricular updates – to ensure that Ransom Everglades students enter the world understanding the importance of ethical behavior in all endeavors, and the consequences to individuals and societies when integrity and honor are sacrificed.
The idea and seed funding for the center came from Steve Holzman P’21, a former Parent Chair for The Fund for RE, and attorney John O’Sullivan P’14 ’21 offered additional support. Holzman, a managing partner at a private equity firm, took the idea to Townsend and RE Board Chair Jeff Hicks ’84 in the summer of 2021, expressing his concern that without a foundation in ethics and critical thinking, students of this era are ill-equipped to face growing challenges in evaluating right from wrong, differentiating fact from fiction and making good decisions.
“It’s my privilege and honor to be associated with this,” Holzman said. “I don’t think there is any question that corner cutting and cheating have increased across the spectrum. I do think we can do something about it in a positive way. This is a great pathway for Ransom Everglades. The practice of ethics must become a way of life.”
The activities of the center will eventually include ensuring that the honor code is fully integrated into all aspects of the curriculum, activities and culture of the school; offering week-long summer programs that explore ethics in various realms; creating opportunities and forums for periodic ethical conversations for students and faculty on campus; and incorporating ethical decision making into RE’s health and wellness programming.
When Judge Thomas addressed RE students, he explained how he spent a decade working as a public defender before deciding to run for a circuit court judgeship. Spurring him to that career change was the fact that there were few Black judges in Miami-Dade County. “Justice means nothing if … people do not perceive the system to be fair,” he said. “There’s an aspect of fairness that deals with perception … Judges are important for what they symbolize.”
Mayor Suarez opened the series by participating in a wide-ranging discussion on the auditorium stage with Townsend and King. “Your credibility is everything,” he told RE’s students. “You have to be honest and transparent … Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching.”
Reflecting on his 40 years at the helm of Home Depot, Langone emphasized that people are his company’s most precious resource; that businesses must work to ensure best practices in sustainability, human rights and other areas from their vendors; and that mere legality should not be the standard for actions an individual or company takes.
“Ethics are a higher standard than the law, much higher,” he told students. “When you’re in an ethical dilemma, err on the side of being totally ethical … If you’re going to rationalize bad behavior based on somebody else’s bad behavior, shame on you.”
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.