RE LOG Fall 2017

FALL 2017 Ransom Everglades LOG 27 Ginny Onorati fell in love with math when a high school teacher observed her struggles in algebra and took her aside to help. Her teacher’s kindness and the beautiful simplicity of the subject inspired her. When that teacher died in a plane crash, Onorati saw the opportunity to honor her legacy by teaching math. Onorati worked in campus libraries to pay her way through college, which led her to consider becoming a librarian as an alternative career path, but math won out after she landed an interview with Frank Brogan shortly after graduation. The new headmaster at the just-merged Ransom-Everglades School was so impressed he offered Onorati a job on the spot. “Once I had a job and saw the money rolling in – $8,000 was my starting salary – I chose the career of math,” she recalls. The choice was right for her and Ransom Everglades, where she taught all boys in her first class on the Ransom Campus. She soon became known for her fun, interactive lessons and hilariously geeky math shirts. She has taught algebra, geometry, pre-calculus, calculus and computer science; served as Middle School Math Department Coordinator; and was assistant librarian at the Upper School from in the late ’70s to early ’80s. Onorati has been routinely recognized; she won the Arthur Moses Faculty Award in 1999, was named the Coconut Grove Chamber of Commerce Teacher of the Year in 1999, and earned Florida Mathcounts Coach of the Year in 2016-17. Her leadership of the Middle School math team has spanned four decades. Her first teaching job became her last. Virginia Ginny Onorati Mathematics and Computer Science Department Coordinator Born: Flemington, N.J. BS in math education at Trenton State College, 1974 Master’s in math education at Nova Southeastern, 1999 Ms. Onorati was my first math teach at Ransom Everglades and she was exceedingly patient with my youthful enthusiasm and engaged a rambunctious seventh grader in the joys of algebra. I think of her often as I regularly use mathematics in my work and life. I was privileged to have been taught by such a sterling teacher and woman. Thank you for your patience and encouragement many years ago. – Bill Bermont ’93 Ginny was one of the best teachers I have ever had (including at Princeton and medical school). She has the most amazing ability to take complex math topics and present them in a clear, systematic manner – all with patience, caring and good humor. My daughter, Mia ’21 , has been lucky as well to have been taught by Ginny for two years. She is a true teaching treasure!” – Cathy Harrison Balestra ’90 “ “ 1974-75 first year at RE years Photograph by Joshua Prezant.