News

Holocaust survivor Allan J. Hall visited Ransom Everglades Middle School on International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, sharing the history of the Holocaust and his heart-wrenching story of survival with eighth-grade students. Introduced by his great niece, Emma Hall '30, he was one of three featured speakers on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp whose aim was to ensure that RE students never forget the atrocities of that period.

Nine Ransom Everglades students – Andrew Gedde '25, Robert Li '26, Daniel Li '28, Solon Sun '25, Gabriel Karsenti '26, Minnie Zhou '26, Joshie Khohayting '28, Alex Tevelow '28 and Aarav Jindal '26 – were among the top-performing students in the nation on a recent set of math exams. The students excelled on the American Mathematics Competitions 10 or 12 (depending on their grade level), qualifying for the American Invitation Mathematics Examination (AIME) – a rare distinction earned by less than 5 percent of test takers.

Admissions deans and directors from Middlebury College, University of Chicago, University of Toronto, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Washington University in St Louis shared insights on the college admissions process with members of the RE Class of 2026 and their parents during the College Admission Symposium on January 11 at the Lewis Family Auditorium. Co-Executive Director of College Counseling Jordan Shapiro welcomed juniors to the launch of the college admissions process and Ann Parks, Director of College Counseling Communications, addressed the importance of “expanding the universe of colleges and universities” when building an initial college list.

The six Ransom Everglades students who attended the 2024 Student Diversity Leadership Conference addressed middle school students during an assembly on Jan. 13, sharing personal highlights and meaningful moments from the national conference in Denver in December. Sofia Rhone-Fernandez '26, Carlos Horcasitas '25, Edwin Carr '26, Pierce Harris '26, Mia Campbell '25 and Jaerla Sajous '25 talked about their experiences engaging with many of the 2,000 conference attendees from independent schools across the nation.

A Ransom Everglades academic team that included a mix of junior varsity and middle school competitors defeated all-varsity squads from across South Florida to win the championship at the 2025 South Florida Regional Hstiory Bowl at American Heritage Schools in Delray Beach on Jan. 11. Upper school academic team president Jacob Aronow '26 led the Raider team that finished undefeated and included Parker Jelke '27, Jaz Puri '28, Noah Veras '29 and Julian Jelke '29.

Ethan Thomas '25 was named one of the top 300 scholars in the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2025, the nation’s oldest science and math competition for high school seniors. Thomas, who submitted a project entitled "ConFormer: A Novel Collection of Deep Learning Models To Assist Cardiologists in the Assessment of Cardiac Function," was recognized in a January 8 announcement for outstanding research, leadership skills, community involvement, commitment to academics, creativity in asking scientific questions and exceptional promise as a STEM leader. The 300 selected students hail from some 200 American and international high schools and homeschools in 33 states, Washington D.C., Hong Kong, Malaysia and Switzerland.

Ransom Everglades started the new year with a discussion of ethical leadership featuring three students – Sophia Linfield '26, Ana Gonzalez '26 and Alexandra Russoniello '26 – who are pursuing Applied Ethical Leadership certificates from Students Shoulder-to-Shoulder, a partner organization to RE and RE's Holzman Center of Applied Ethics. During the January 7 assembly, the students told their upper school peers that the foundation of ethical leadership consisted of trust, empathy and justice. They also shared insights from their respective independent research projects on restorative justice (Linfield), gentrification in west Coconut Grove (Gonzalez), and leadership during the Haitian revolution (Russoniello).

The artwork of two dozen RE middle school students will be published in an art anthology of the top submissions to a national fall 2024 art competition sponsored by Celebrating Art and Blick Art Materials. Students of Elsa Munoz, Ellen Grant and Connie Hyde, the RE winners are: Amelia Gonzales '29, Bella Mustad '29, Jaaz Brooks '29, Natalia Saverin '29, Gillian Carvalho '29, Mayer Levin-Munoz '29, Aislin Moul '29, Charlie Gershman '29, Adriana Coello de Portugal '29, Sophie Wang '29, Samuel Geronemus '29, Isabella Sachar '29, Alejandro Gonzalez '30, Maya Lee-Schonfeld '30, Marlo Sohn '30, Noah Lopes '30, Abby Krawl '31, Maya Mercadal '31, Aria Rivera Flores '31, Ryder Frankel '31, Chika Adele '31, Brady Goldberg '31, Samuel Alexander '31 and Yahvi Raj '31.