RE Log - Fall 2023

30 Ransom Everglades LOG FALL 2023 On Campus Wonder and Poetry Alumna returns to RE in honor of National Poetry Month Summer at RE Return of Camp by the Bay highlights summer excitement Rosie Prohías Driscoll ’86 , a poet and educator, didn’t become serious about writing poetry until her late 30s. Her first book on poetry, Poised for Flight , was released just last year. As part of RE’s celebration of National Poetry Month, Driscoll returned to the campus she spent her high school years to let students know that if she could write poetry, they could, too. At an upper school assembly on April 11, she urged them to pause, look around, be astonished – and write. “When you pause and pay attention, you will find wonder,” she said. “When you find wonder, you will find poetry.” Added Driscoll: “You need to pay attention to how mundane moments – that we might be tempted to pass by – are actually charged with meaning and resonance.” Driscoll’s Cuban mother, great aunts and grandmother provided the inspiration for her debut book. Her father died when she was four. “I have always felt grounded and rooted by them,” she said. “I feel their presence very much with me all the time.” Driscoll was introduced by Lucia Rose Dahn ’23 and interviewed on the Lewis Family Auditorium stage by Leah Maduro ’23 (students in Ariel Mandel’s English 442: Creative Writing - Poetry & Short Fiction class). On behalf of their class, they also shared a video presentation on National PoetRE Month, encouraging their peers to write poems about experiencing nature in the Miller Quad. Driscoll’s former RE classmates Cristi Mendoza Edmunds ’86 and Lisette Suarez Stancioff ’86 attended. Driscoll earned her bachelor’s in English Language and Literature and Spanish Language and Literature at Georgetown University, then claimed a master’s in English and Comparative Literature at Emory. She is an English teacher at Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria, Va., with two grown daughters. “We live now in a culture of busy-ness, of productivity, the to-do list, how do we get the next thing done?” she said. “That cultivates a sense of anxiety that poetry is a great antidote to. We need to remember our essential selves and poetry helps us to do that by helping us to pause in that moment.” Whether sailing, swimming, dancing, playing sports, running science experiments, exploring the bay or enjoying the endless activities available during Ransom Everglades’ Summer at RE, children of all ages made the most of the school’s campus and classrooms in June and July. The highlight: the return of the legendary Camp by the Bay for children entering kindergarten through fifth grade, which drew nearly 750 registrants during the course of the summer and provided opportunities in art, music, water sports, gym activities and more. RE also welcomed students in Grades 5-8 to its Pine Knot Scholars program, which combines special academic experiences with exploration in the natural world. Children participated in a new Makerspace camp, sports camps and academic classes including a course on college essay writing. At the middle school, Breakthrough Miami Scholars enjoyed a mix of time in the classroom and pure fun under the direction of Breakthrough Teaching Fellows – including many current and former RE students. And a major point of pride for Ransom Everglades was offering wide use of the Broad REACH Pool and access to RE lifeguards and swimming coaches to several community organizations.