Juniors and seniors launch Health Information Project at RE
Wearing identical teal T-shirts, Ransom Everglades juniors and seniors visited classrooms of ninth-grade students on Oct. 24 and assumed the role of teachers, delivering the first of nine units of health education on topics ranging from depression to substance abuse to sexuality. The juniors and seniors, known as Peer Health Educators, received weeks of training under the direction of the Health Information Project, a Miami-based non-profit founded by RE alumna Risa Berrin '99.
The classroom sessions, which will take place once a month throughout the 2024-25 school year, are for students only; no school employees are present. Founded in 2009, HIP has worked with more than 100 schools throughout Florida and beyond, training more than 24,500 juniors and seniors to provide health education to nearly 500,000 ninth graders. The goal is to provide a safe and inclusive space for critical information to be shared.
RE faculty member Karen Key serves as the HIP advisor, overseeing the Peer Health Educators.
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.