RE Log - Fall 2020

FALL 2020 Ransom Everglades LOG 23 quickly, eventually becoming the director of an HMO that his private-equity firm was going to acquire. She was born in the American Midwest; he was a Cuban immigrant. They came from different worlds. But they looked at the world in the same way: as a place where you take nothing for granted. Mike is a natural-born storyteller, and one of the characters he talks about most often is his father, Mario Antonio Fernandez. In August, tragedy struck, as it has for many families this year: his father died of COVID-19 at the age of 92. Constance described how painful it was to watch Mike’s mother, who was also positive but asymptomatic, say goodbye to her husband over FaceTime – and to watch Mike put on a “hazmat suit” to visit his father one last time. “It’s real, and when it hits, it hits hard,” she said. Like so many other events in their lives, however, that tragedy strengthened both their bond and their resolve to build a better future for the next generation. Mike Fernandez will never forget one of the things his father used to say: “‘Immigrants have a tendency to hold on to every cent they make because they lost it all. Don’t be one of them.’ He encouraged me to be generous. He was a great tutor.” Their gift to the STEM center is part of a larger commitment to investing in the young minds that will combat complex problems – including what Constance calls “the next COVID”: climate change. “It made me think about how we’re in this position because we didn’t think about the impact [a pandemic could have],” she said. “Right now, that’s climate change. Everyone can conveniently ignore it, but I see it: our home has water on three sides. I see the tides changing. I see the water level rising.” A desire to understand huge, multilateral problems like COVID-19 and climate change is part of what drove her to start working toward a master’s degree in international business administration at the University of Miami, where she attends classes virtually – like her son Cristofer ’22 at RE through early October. “It’s really exciting to be learning in a virtual manner, because it really allows me to understand what my son is going through,” she said. This year, it can be difficult not to feel pessimistic about the future. Brought to the RE community by the Fernandez family and other generous donors, the STEM center makes a different argument. It’s a monument to the possibility that the future could be bright, if we invest in the kids who will lead it. “The kids deserve it,” she said. “The faculty deserve it. Why? Because they are the ones who made this a first-class, number-one school. They deserve the facility. They deserve the tools.” They are truly one of the great, important philanthropic families in South Florida. When they agreed to this great gift, they did it because they saw this as a gift to the South Florida community and everything RE brings to it. – Jeffrey Miller ’79