FALL 2025 Ransom Everglades LOG 19 By Sofia Andrade ’19 Erik Medina ’21 often joked with his high school friends that, one day, they would all “come back and take over Ransom Everglades.” They imagined that, in a few decades and with varied career successes already under their belt, they would return to old RE as triumphant alumni to teach and lead at their alma mater, as they had seen generations before them do. What Medina hadn’t imagined back then, though, was that his role in the grand homecoming scheme would begin a lot earlier: just a few months after his college graduation, to be exact. And he could never have conceived of the circumstances of his return: He arrived at RE this past summer as the most recent valedictorian of Princeton University, where he amazed peers and professors alike with his groundbreaking research on upcycling plastics that landed him his first published paper. One of Ransom Everglades’ newest faculty members, and the youngest, Medina is teaching chemistry alongside former mentors including Paul Natland ’02. He joined a team of faculty including Marlen Nuñez de Varela, Yuria Sharp, Jay Salon and Keiffer Scott in teaching RE sophomores the last of their pre-assigned science classes before they’re able to take advanced AP classes or specialized offerings like Introduction to Forensic Science. “This is really exciting for me,” he said in an interview inside the Constance & Miguel Fernandez STEM Center. While he is teaching general chemistry rather than the organic chemistry he focused on in college, Medina has enjoyed the opportunity to go back to basics and welcome young people into his love for the science. “Because it’s the only chemistry class students are required to take, I get to not only lay the foundation, but also close it out in a way. And I’m very excited to do that, to learn how to make it fun and engaging, or at least try to make people see chemistry as exciting as I see it. It’s a really cool opportunity.” Walking across the upper school campus with Medina one balmy summer morning, on a day when much of the faculty happened to be on campus for trainings and other business, his enduring popularity among his former teachers and soon-to-be colleagues was evident. At every stop on our walk – the Miller Quad, the dining hall, the Ansin Breezeway, La Brisa – a faculty member or three would approach Medina with lit-up faces, congratulating him on his new post or offering a friendly word of advice. All of them greeted him with a big bear hug, and he shared his gratitude for the opportunity to join such an esteemed faculty at RE. Meet RE’s Youngest Teacher Research phenom and Princeton valedictorian, Erik Medina’21, returns to RE
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