RE Log - Spring 2020

34 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2020 On Campus Ransom Everglades launched a new leadership and citizenship program known as High Resolves last fall as the program’s celebrated founder Mehrdad Baghai visited campus. Recently honored by The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship as Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Baghai also won the 2018 McNulty Prize, which recognizes individuals taking on the foremost social and other issues of our time. Baghai visited in October 2019 to get further ac- quainted with Ransom Everglades, the only High Resolves school in Florida. As he met with RE Head of School Penny Townsend, class and campus deans and other school leaders, RE students began their High Resolves immersion. High Resolves begins with “Peak Experiences” that are designed to spark a desire to act in society’s collective interest. RE’s ninth graders gathered for their Peak Experience in mid- October, tackling the issue of a Just Society. Tenth graders met a week later for their Peak Experience, which dealt with Social Progress. Juniors delved into Better Self, and RE’s eighth graders undertook Identity and Purpose. The stu- dents continued to discuss those topics and others during various advisory periods. High Resolves New leadership and citizenship program arrives to RE Baghai, who co-founded High Resolves in 2005 with his wife, was joined at RE by Josh Denson, Chief Executive Officer of High Resolves North America, and Danitra Wansley, a High Resolves Program Manager. Baghai shared with members of RE’s administra- tion a one-minute video on social exclusion assembled by high school students who had gone through the High Resolves curriculum. Students conclude their High Resolves immersion by devising and producing short videos on topics ranging from domestic violence to cyber-bullying to anxiety. Though he had seen the video dozens of times, he teared up — as did some in his audience. The videos vividly illustrate the power of the non-profit, which de- scribes itself as a “non-partisan, non-religious education initiative which designs and delivers award-winning citizenship and leadership learning experiences,” and which is active at schools in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China and New Zealand. At the conclusion of the year, RE students will work in groups to as- semble their own videos. Josh Denson, Lindsay Danielson, Mehrdad Baghai, Tom Dughi, Penny Townsend, Mandira Bose-Nyberg, Greg Cooper, John King, Danitra Wansley