RE Log Fall 2019

34 Ransom Everglades LOG FALL 2019 Student News Sweet Pi Day Sixth grader bites off a huge slice of pi Making History Seventh grader tops field in National History Bee Kiera Rampersad ’25 thrilled her middle school peers by correctly reciting from memory 215 digits of the mathematical constant pi during an assembly on Pi Day – March 14 (3.14) – surpassing her closest competition by 75 digits to become Ransom Everglades’ 2019 Pi Recitation Champion. Rampersad’s performance tied for 459th best in the world, and 190th best ever in the United States, according to the Pi World Ranking List. Mateo Heitner ’25 offered a formidable challenge by reciting 140 digits, and Coren O’Brien ’23 finished third by reciting 126. The Pi Day participants trained under math teacher Ginny Onorati. The 2018 champion, Ari Bennett ’24 , achieved 93 digits. The students competed during a fun-filled Pi Day celebration at the middle school. Anyone who wishes to attempt to match Rampersad’s total may do so by memorizing the following: 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375 1058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679 8214808651328230664709384460955058223172535940812848111745 028410270193852110555964462294895493038196442881097566593 Daniel Figueroa ’24 finished first in the seventh-grade track of the National History Bee in Chicago in June 2019, topping more than 200 students nationwide and giving Ransom Everglades its first national champion in the eight-year history of the bee. Figueroa is also a member of RE’s junior varsity geography team, which went undefeated and won the 2019 Southern Florida History Bowl in January 2019 even though Figueroa and his middle school teammates, Leo Fein ’23 and Lucas Blanco ’24 , faced teams of ninth and 10th graders. “To win the national championship is an incredibly difficult thing to do,” RE faculty member and history team coach Joe Mauro said. “Daniel is extremely studious and has an insatiable curiosity about history. He always wants to learn more.” In Chicago, Chase Dubovy ’25 finished in the top 10 in the sixth-grade division and Fein claimed a top-20 finish in the eighth-grade division. In the history bowl team competition, Ransom Everglades placed in 13th out of 64 teams with a 4-2 record.