Diversity, Equity and Inclusion News

To celebrate Native American Heritage Month, RE students experienced the music, culture and history of the Seminole Tribe of Florida during a presentation in the Lewis Family Auditorium on November 19. Van V. Samuels, an outreach specialist at the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum of the Big Cypress Reservation, played traditional music on a Native American flute, greeted students in two Seminole languages and shared the history of the tribe. Introduced by Director of Inclusion and Community Engagement Wendell Graham '74, Samuels ended his presentation by inviting several students to the stage to model traditional Seminole clothing.

A Japanese taiko drumming ensemble performed several electrifying pieces at the conclusion of an educational assembly on Japanese Matsuri (festivals) that was organized by the student-run Japanese Culture Club. Club officers Hudson Kaplan '25, Anu Tewari '25 and Simone Carrasco '27 opened the December 3 assembly in the Lewis Family Auditorium by sharing the history of several of Japan's most important festivals, and Kaplan shared details of his heritage and ancestral town. The performers hailed from Fushu Daiko, an ensemble based in Davie, Fla., dedicated to the teaching, performance and preservation of the art of taiko, an art form that arrived in the United States in the late 1960s.

Ransom Everglades celebrated Diwali with informative assemblies, colorful festivities and delicious traditional fare. Upper school students learned Bollywood-style dance on the stage of the Lewis Family Auditorium on Nov. 5 and middle school students participated in a fashion show in the gymnasium on Nov. 8. Students on both campuses presented slideshows detailing the history and traditions of the holiday and enjoyed a special lunch. The Asian Students Association organized many events at the upper school, and RE parents assisted faculty members at the middle school. The events took place under RE's Office of Inclusion and Community Engagement. Photo Gallery

Ransom Everglades celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival with a student presentation, Chinese arts and crafts, performers from Beijing Normal University, and traditional fare prepared by SAGE Dining. The festival, which took place during the mid-day break on Sept. 17, allowed students to immerse themselves in the rhythms, colors, cuisine and traditions that surround the Chinese harvest moon festival.

Holocaust survivor Jack Waksal, who turns 100 in September, lived through the horrors of the Holocaust as a teenager in Poland, and has made it his life's work to share his story, particularly with students and young adults. He visited the upper school on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, taking the Lewis Family Auditorium stage with students in RE's Jewish Student Association and answering questions from Hagit Fefferman from 3G Miami, a Holocaust awareness organization.

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.