RE's national champion academic team wins silver in international olympiad
RE's national champion middle school academic team of Parker Jelke '27, Lucas Gonzalez '27 and Jaz Puri '28 earned the silver medal at the 5th International History Olympiad Championship in Rome in July, finishing second in the world to a team representing Asia.
At the event that included 258 students and teams from 21 countries, 30 U.S. states and four territories, Jelke led RE's team with three gold, three silver and two bronze medals in individual events – including a silver in the individual overall middle school history championship. The Ransom Everglades contingent, which included Noah Veras '29 and Julian Jelke '29 in the elementary school division. excelled in many of the more than a dozen academic competitions held at venues that included the Colosseum and St. Peter's Square. Like Jelke, Veras and Gonzalez earned medals in topic-specific categories: Veras earned one silver and two bronze, and Gonzalez claimed a bronze.
In June, Jelke, Gonzalez, Puri and Zach Corbin Cheah '27 finished first in the National History Bowl in Washington, D.C. At that event, the team posted a 10-0 record and Jelke won second place in the eighth-grade National History Bee. David Madden, founder and co-executive director of the International Academic Competitions and National History Bee and Bowl, visited RE's campus in August to present Ransom Everglades with the national championship trophy.
The students train under longtime academic team coach Joe Mauro.
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.