RE Log - Spring 2020

2 Ransom Everglades LOG FALL 2019 From the Pagoda I am willing to wager that many of you who are excited to see the Ransom Everglades Log in your mailbox may approach the magazine much in the same way that I approach my alumni magazines: admire the cover, turn immediately to the class notes at the back in search of news about classmates, and then flip through the pages, scanning the photos for familiar faces and places. Once that is done, I read the articles, not always closely, however, and oftentimes not all of them. I cannot say with any degree of certainty that I pay close attention to the opening letter. If you follow that pattern with this Log , you will be doing a great disservice to this edition of our magazine. After several months of listening to our exceptional executive editor and director of communications Amy Shipley pitch her concept to me – I have often felt like Perry White of the Daily Planet at the hands of Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen – and reviewing galleys multiple times before press, I can honestly say that this is the finest Log that I have seen during my tenure at Ransom Everglades. Not only is the writing outstanding – the lead article on Kenny Broad ’84 is a stunning piece of journalism – the articles tell the story of Ransom Everglades in a way that drives understanding of what the school is becoming in this ever-changing world in which we live. They also tell the story of the relationships that are at the heart of everything we do at RE. And it is all great storytelling, a skill that is becoming increasingly important in our personal and professional lives. They are the stories of a “half-hearted” high school student who grew up swimming, water skiing, surfing and free-diving with his Ransom Everglades buddies in our beautiful bay. Kenny Broad turned that passion and experience into a career in academia defined by “dueling with danger” and inspiring his students to find solutions to the wicked problems of the world, many of those deeply connected to issues of social justice. Stories of our evolving curriculum and talented faculty and the excitement generated by our almost-completed STEM Center. The importance of writing in this technology-driven world and the love of the written word as taught to us by teachers like Dan Bowden, whose legacy we carry forward. Our proximity to Biscayne Bay and how that informs our curriculum. The imagination, creativity and drive of our current students. Middle school kindness. The story and heartfelt Storytelling and Discovery The articles [in this magazine] tell the story of Ransom Everglades in a way that drives understanding of what the school is becoming in this ever-changing world in which we live.” “ Learn how RE students, alumni and faculty are taking on ‘wicked problems’