RE LOG - Spring 2017

Two dozen Ransom Everglades juniors and seniors and their Booker T. Washington partners so enjoyed their week-long exchange that many promised not to let the experience end after the concluding program on social justice Feb. 3 at Florida International University Biscayne Bay Campus. “Anybody who has been remotely involved with the program has benefited from the energy that just happens when you put it all together,” Dean of Students Joshua Stone said at the wrap-up dinner at the Upper School to the visiting students. “You enrich us. You make us better at Ransom Everglades.” Half of the group spent that week at Ransom Everglades, attending classes with their campus hosts. The other half did the same at Booker T. Washington Senior High in Overtown. The week is designed to break through cultural, socioeconomic and other barriers; it seems also to create lifelong friendships. Both schools are historically significant in Miami: Ransom Everglades was founded in 1903; Booker T. Washington in 1926. More than 50 Middle School dance students brought music from as far as Asia and Africa to the Everglades Campus Dec. 15 in the debut per- formance of first-year dance teacher Julie Pappas Smith. Erika Siblesz ’23 , Rachel Weissman ’23 , Manu Murra ’21 and Ana Martin ’22 were featured as students showed off a range of dance styles. In the “Holiday Celebrations from Around the World” recital, the sixth grade danced to “Tarentella” from southern Italy, the seventh grade performed a traditional Chinese Christmas fan dance; the eighth grade offered an interpreta- tion of “Bolingo” by the African Children’s Choir; and all three classes took the stage for the finale: “Go Tell it on the Mountain.” Students benefit from Booker T. Washington exchange Dancers bring world to Swenson Hall under new director Pappas Smith arrived to the Middle School last summer from the Miami City Ballet and Miami Performing Arts Studio. During her wide-ranging career in theater and dance, she served on the faculty of the Miami City Ballet; taught tap, ballet and musical theater at the University of Miami; and assisted as summer faculty at the Boston Conservatory of Music, where she earned her BFA. Sophia Elliott ’18 said the entire RE student body appreciated the presence of the exchange students, several of whom attended the Winter Formal in the quad at the end of the week. “I immediately felt loved,” said Booker T. Washington student Jada Williams. “I felt the welcome from the teachers, staff and students. When you feel love, it’s easier to give love. I felt at home here. I’m sad it’s coming to an end.” SPRING 2017 Ransom Everglades LOG 41