RE Log - Fall 2023

28 Ransom Everglades LOG FALL 2023 On Celebration and reflection at RE’s 120th Commencement T he 120th Commencement at Ransom Everglades offered a time for celebration and reflection. The May 19 event at the Lewis Family Auditorium recognized the graduating Class of 2023: “154 of the most talented and amazing young people anywhere on the planet,” in the words of board chair Jonathan Fitzpatrick P’20 ’23. It also honored professor and author Christina Proenza- Coles ’88 , the winner of the 2023 Founders’ Alumni Award for Distinguished Service to the Community. The ceremony included words of wisdom from commencement speaker and physician/journalist Tara Narula ’93 and valedictorian Nicolas Maynulet ’23 . And, in a powerful moment, it paused to pay tribute to Austen Prescott ’23 , who could not be in attendance after missing most of his senior year because of a rare and incurable brain cancer. Prescott passed away on Aug. 3 (see In Loving Memory, page 75). Wearing gray ribbons signifying brain cancer awareness, members of the Class of 2023 rose from their seats and applauded as several seniors accepted Prescott’s diploma on his behalf. Seniors also signed a T-shirt that was placed on a chair left empty for him. Then-Interim Head of School Rachel Rodriguez commended the Prescott family for its courage, and Austen for his inspiring spirit, and she read remarks from Catherine Prescott, Austen’s mother. The classmates who accepted the diploma delivered it to the Prescott home after the ceremony. They also laid a brick with his name in the Miller Quad after the annual Baccalaureate/Senior Send-off. Said Rodriguez: “Kindness, as Austen’s friends have demonstrated in the last month, is not a fad, and will never go out of style.” Proenza-Coles told the Class of 2023 that she learned much from her years in Coconut Grove and her mother Kitty Proenza, an RE faculty emeritus. Now a professor at the University of Virginia and author of American Founders , Proenza-Coles said she grew interested in exploring the disparities in opportunity among different U.S. ethnic communities during her childhood years. She noted that “community is the investment that will bring you the greatest return.” “Each of us is connected,” she said. “Every single one of us is responsible for shaping our community. And, regardless of who we are, or what we do or where, we all have the ability to cultivate the best of our ideals, both in the smallest and grandest ways.” Narula, a cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan who has served as Senior Medical Correspondent at CBS News and Medical Correspondent at CNN, was introduced by former classmate and board vice-chair Elana Oberstein-Harris ’93. Narula urged seniors to see themselves as the authors of their life stories, taking control of the plotlines and recognizing the important chapters in a life well-lived. Ransom Everglades “has pushed you out of your comfort zones, opened your eyes to your passions and instilled in you a sense of community, responsibility and values,” Narula said. “It has given you friendships and relationships you will carry in your hearts for a lifetime.” COO and Interim Head of the Upper School David Clark ’86 and Rodriguez presented the school’s annual commencement Campus Tara Narula ’93