RE LOG - Spring 2017

8 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2017 Summerbridge his unbridled support, an office on campus, and classroom and activity space. But there was one catch: Flickinger would have to raise all of the money to pay for the program. Flickinger immediately called Weiser, then a non-practicing attorney who was working as a filmmaker and real-estate developer in Los Angeles and Colorado, but increasingly spending more time in Miami. After Hurricane Andrew devastated the region in August 1992, Weiser moved back to Florida full-time to re-develop the Sheraton Royal Biscayne Hotel, which became The Ritz-Carlton on Key Biscayne. He agreed to help, hoping that he and Flickinger could successfully establish the Summerbridge program in the Ransom Everglades community. “I never dreamed that the program would evolve into what it is today,” Weiser said, “but John did. He brought the vision and the magic.” The pair reached out to local schools, companies and RE families, scouring the community for students who would benefit from the program, and people willing to help. Terron Ferguson ’04 , now an attorney with the Equal Justice Initiative in Birmingham, Ala., recalled the day Flickinger showed up to his fifth-grade classroom at Olinda Elementary School in Liberty City. When he heard about the educational program offered in the summer and on Saturdays, he thought, “No way am I doing that.” His teacher, however, was so enamored of Flickinger and his message that she forced her entire class to apply, and Ferguson found himself with an offer of admission. “It was a decision made for me … and it turned out to be a game-changer. It changed my life.” Summerbridge students at the RE Middle School in the early days. Breakthrough Miami teachers in 2017. Paul Natland ’02 Breakthrough student and teacher BS in Physics at George Washington University Ransom Everglades Class of 2002 Notable Job History Physics teacher, Ransom Everglades School Physics teacher, Gulliver Preparatory School “It’s hard for me to overstate how much the program has meant to my life. It’s probably one of the single biggest things that influenced the trajectory of my life… I had really enthusiastic, motivating teachers who made learning more fun than it had been in the past. I realized how much I enjoyed math, and the logical thinking that came with it. I went from feeling so-so about my math skills, to almost majoring in math in college. I was empowered in math because of Breakthrough. It wasn’t outside of Breakthrough that I got this empowerment.”