RE Log Spring 2023

10 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2023 appreciate the time and effort put into the planning of these events. “House competitions are really creative,” Ruben Garcia-Hanna ’28 said with a smile. “I like how they allow us to mix with friends from different grades to have some fun.”  During the 2022-23 school year, the house system was taken to the next level. The upper school adopted its own version of the house system, helping increase school spirit and camaraderie. Under the leadership and support of new Head of the Middle School Eric Boberg, middle school house chants were introduced as well as an app that gives teachers the ability to assign merits to students based on exemplary behavior, sportsmanship and teamwork. There is even a digital house merits dashboard in the main office, which shows the current house ranking. It is not uncommon to see a group of students by the dashboard, analyzing the scores and planning how to help their house move closer to first place.  “As we continue to integrate the house system into the wonderful work that we already do in advisory, through student government and during events like Spirit Week,” Boberg noted, “we are also open to ways the house system can transform the work we do.”  With so much creativity and excitement, who knows what the future holds. The house system information table was one of the most popular for prospective students during the annual middle school open houses. Expectations are high. In the end, it is indubitable that school spirit, morale and unity have all been positively affected by the introduction of the house system. And this house system is just a new version of what the campuses saw in the past, building on the values of those who came before to create a new generation of Ransom Everglades Raiders.  Kahan, one of the founding members of the Everglades School for Girls, predicted that the house system “might be quite the way of the future in terms of individual development, security and fun!”   “We found it important that the house names meant something. We wanted our students to appreciate the building blocks that helped construct the amazing school we attend today. You cannot appreciate the present without recognizing the past.” — Maria Elena Soto, RE house system founding faculty member on Campus