LOG SPRING 2026 Danny Lafuente ’05 A Spirit for Change RansomEverglades Inside: Allison Freidin ’03 The Art of Writing Guillermo Urbina
Executive Editor Amy Shipley Associate Editor / Photography Director Suzanne Kores Art & Design Kim Foster Contributing Editors Kim Arredondo Luz Stella Perez de Corcho ’11 Susana Norcini Rhonda Smith Vicki Carbonell Williamson ’88 Contributing Writers Sofia Andrade ’19 Matt Margini Jess Merrick Katrina Patchett Luz Stella Perez de Corcho ’11 Linda Robertson Rachel Rodriguez Amy Shipley Illustrator Noa Garcia ’27 Photographers Jenny Abreu Jorge Ascui Boston University Carl Kafka Suzanne Kores RE Archives Front and back cover: Suzanne Kores Contact Us Ransom Everglades School Office of Communications 3575 Main Highway, Coconut Grove, FL 33133 E: REnews@ransomeverglades.org To change your address, remove yourself from our mailing list or send a letter to the editor please send an email to REnews@ransomeverglades.org. Find the RE Log online at www.ransomeverglades.org/alumni/re-log-magazine Submit Class Notes for Fall 2026 at bit.ly/RE-class-notes The Ransom Everglades Log aims to connect, inform and engage readers in the life of Ransom Everglades School. It is published by the Ransom Everglades Office of Communications. 6 12 12 34
DEPARTMENTS FEATURES 6 A Spirit for Change Danny Lafuente ’05 distills RE’s mission into a sustainable spirit 12 A New Take on Graffiti Allison Freidin ’03 puts graffiti on the world stage 18 The Art of Writing RE’s proud history of teaching writing 22 When Students Drive the Curriculum A vision for teaching and learning at RE 2 From the Pagoda 24 Student News 26 On Campus 30 Arts 34 Sports 36 Reconnecting with Faculty Emeritus 38 Why I Give 41 Class Notes 57 In Loving Memory 60 From the Archives Ransom Everglades Log Spring 2026 18 26 30
2 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2026 From The Pagoda Although AI has the potential to change our trajectory, at least for now, when we look at AI, creativity will need to be prominent in our lives. This issue pays homage to cREativity at Ransom Everglades. Creativity sees beyond the ordinary and imagines something extraordinary. It pushes limits and challenges conventions. Even as we adapt to the growing influence of artificial intelligence on the educational landscape, we stake our hope in our students’ capacity for creative thinking. For more than a century, creativity has driven educational innovation and advancement at Ransom Everglades, and that continues today. The alumni featured in this magazine illustrate the profound impact of cREative thinking. In our cover story, you will learn how Danny Lafuente ’05 doggedly pursued his quest for ethical entrepreneurship, brainstorming about business plans that would address food insecurity until landing on the idea of sustainably made spirits. One of the cofounders of LAB Miami in Wynwood, Danny founded Simple Spirits after making frequent visits to Miami Rescue Mission to drop off food donations. Read more in the story by award-winning journalist Linda Robertson that starts on page 6. Our feature on Allison Freidin ’03 highlights another creative spirit. Inspired by the graffiti in Wynwood while working at the state attorney’s office in Miami, Allison sought to tell the story of this important and often misunderstood urban art form. Teaming up with a renowned historian on graffiti, Allison helped found one of the world’s most unique museums: the Museum of Graffiti. Learn more in the colorful story by Sofia Andrade ’19 on page 12. A thoughtful, reflective piece by English Department Coordinator Matt Margini – The Art of Writing on page 18 – explores the art of the written word at Ransom Everglades, and how it continues to bolster and distinguish our humanities curriculum. The story features engaging interviews with some of our most creative alumni, and gorgeous illustrations by current student and burgeoning graphic artist Noa Garcia ’27. That story provides a seamless segue into the column on page 22 by Jess Merrick, RE’s new Director of Teaching & Learning. Jess provides insight into RE’s strategic approach to crafting an impactful curriculum that helps our students develop the skills and creative approaches that will help them flourish in the world. We have striven to incorporate Creative Thinking at Ransom Everglades Creativity sees beyond the ordinary and imagines something extraordinary.” “
SPRING 2026 Ransom Everglades LOG 3 student feedback as we devise courses and co-curricular opportunities for students to engage with topics of special interest and, of course, AI. This summer marks the first opportunity for select rising seniors to participate in our just-announced AI Innovation Fellowships program, which will serve as a STEM-based partner to the Dan Leslie Bowden Fellowships in the Humanities. When RE students engage with AI, we ensure they use the tools ethically, innovatively and creatively. I urge you to peruse the piece on our new Explorer Externship Program by program director Jenny Gragg Carson ’03, who explains how RE is using real-world immersion and professional encounters to help our students identify careers of interest and areas of passion. Her column is informative and also serves as a call to action for RE alumni and parents to share their talents and externship opportunities to benefit our students. Learn more on page 26. One of the RE Log departments you may be familiar with is Why I Give, which invites alumni to explain their rationale for supporting Ransom Everglades. We have not previously featured alumni as young as Marissa Schwartz Gimelstein ’06, Nicole Roederer ’16 and Sophia Reyes ’16, and we are proud to provide a platform for these three amazing women to tell their stories. See the insightful interview on page 38 by RE Assistant Director of Alumni Engagement Luz Stella Perez de Corcho ’11, where you will learn what motivates this youthful trio to give to the school’s financial aid program. I hope you enjoy catching up with faculty emeritus Guillermo Urbina and reading up on some of the great events this past fall, including our first Under the Stars: A Night of Music and Art concert and art exhibition at La Brisa. And don’t miss the various news stories and alumni class notes, which provide ample evidence that this institution is truly an incubator of creative thinking – and deserving of its ranking as a top 10 private school in North America by the Spear’s School Index. We all know the true mark of Ransom Everglades graduates: leaving the world better than they find it. Sometimes that’s hard to do. Sometimes solutions aren’t easy to find. The creative thinking at the heart of a Ransom Everglades education allows our graduates to take on every challenge and make a difference. Rachel Rodriguez Head of School The alumni featured in this magazine illustrate the profound impact of creative thinking.” “
RE collegiate alumni returned to campus during their winter breaks in January to REconnect with friends and former teachers. We invite all alumni to pay Ransom Everglades a visit during Alumni Weekend 2026 April 24-26. 4 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2026
SPRING 2026 Ransom Everglades LOG 5 Photo by Suzanne Kores
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A Spirit for Change Danny Lafuente ’05 is distilling RE’s mission into a revolutionary business model to feed millions – proof that giving back can be remarkably simple. By Linda Robertson The Simple Spirits company is one of the numerous brainchildren of Danny Lafuente ’05. Lafuente calls himself a serial entrepreneur, which is another way of saying he is a procreator of ideas. He’s got so many ideas that one of his most successful ventures, LAB Miami, is a nerve center for generating ideas. Simple Spirits sprang from his mind as a combination of two ideas: Sell vodka and fight hunger. Enjoy a cocktail while simultaneously giving food to someone in need. Convert vice into virtue. Today, Lafuente’s company donates the equivalent of one meal per drink to Feeding America and other hunger relief charities. Simple. No middleman, no administrative costs, no strings attached. Simple. Plus, the Russet potatoes that are the primary ingredient of Simple Vodka are grown in Idaho by farmers committed to environmentally sustainable practices. The distilling process utilizes wind power and fresh water from the Snake River aquifer, with no added sugars, artificial flavors or preservatives. Wastewater is recycled and byproducts are upcycled into animal feed. Simple. SPRING 2026 Ransom Everglades LOG 7 “We’re proud to be the first social impact brand in the industry,” Lafuente said. “Vodka accounts for about a third of all spirits sold in this country. We targeted vodka to give purpose to an everyday transaction.” Simple Spirits has donated more than one million meals since its founding. Lafuente expects to donate another million meals in 2026, based on sales projections. He could reap a higher profit margin if his simple pledge to aid the hungry weren’t engraved on every single Simple bottle. But that would contradict the values he learned during seven years as a Ransom Everglades School student. Lafuente is a believer in founder Paul Ransom’s philosophy that he and fellow graduates “are in the world not so much for what they can get out of it as for what they can put into it.” “Being educated at Ransom Everglades was a transformative experience for me,” he said. “The school played a big role in the direction of my life and it still does. Ransom Everglades is part of my DNA.” Lafuente, 38, counts Ransom Everglades alums as best friends, business partners and mentors. “I remember how we both arrived at this unique, storied institution, workingclass kids on financial aid who wanted to fit in, surrounded by talented, smart, ambitious classmates,” said Wifredo Fernandez ’05, Lafuente’s soccer teammate, University of Pennsylvania roommate and LAB Miami co-founder. caption Photos by Suzanne Kores Wifredo Fernandez ’05 and Danny Lafuente ’05 receive the 2013 Head of School’s Award for Distinguished Service to the School from then-Head of School Ellen Moceri
8 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2026 Lafuente was accepted and received financial aid. “Stepping on campus, standing on the bluff, in the Dell, you feel the ghosts of all those brilliant people. I fell in love with Ransom Everglades,” Lafuente said. Math teacher Alina Mendoza, now faculty emerita, was his favorite, and her son Antonio “Toto” Collazo ’07 became one of Lafuente’s best friends. She and drama teacher Kate Denson encouraged him to act in school plays. “Danny was a performer, a go-getter,” said Mendoza. She sewed costumes for the plays while Lafuente’s mother did hair and makeup. Mendoza sometimes took Lafuente home after school so he didn’t have to wait there for his mother to get off work and pick him up. “He used to watch the cheerleaders practice and he learned all the cheers. During Spirit Week for the lip-sync event, I taught them oldies and he did an amazing impression of Boy George singing ‘Karma Chameleon.’ “He was also so smart that I’d teach the lesson, he’d get it right away and then play around and disrupt the entire class. I’d tell him, ‘You may step out, or you may help your classmates.’ He was very good at tutoring.” Lafuente continued to excel in high school, playing soccer, competing in track and field, serving as class president in ninth and 12th grades, acting in such plays as The Man Who Came To Dinner and Much Ado About Nothing. “My grandad came to every play and afterward he’d say, ‘You were great, but acting is not a career,’” Lafuente said. “He wanted me to be a lawyer.” Lafuente said he always felt comfortable with his wealthier classmates even if some of his friends did not. “Danny was such a salesman he won first prize of $250 for selling the most wrapping paper,” said Lafuente’s mother, Maria. “His brother, Pablo, is more easy-going, more studious, more careful. Danny is like me. He can’t sit still. He’s a comedian. An amazing dancer. He had many girlfriends. He was a Boy Scout. He taught kids at our church. And he bakes his own bread.” Lafuente applied to Ransom Everglades Middle School on the recommendation of his brother, who by then was a student at Penn, working part-time in the admissions office. Ransom Everglades had a spectacular track record of sending graduates to the nation’s top schools. They now live within a mile of each other in Coral Gables. “It was where we discovered the world was full of possibilities.” Lafuente grew up in Allapattah near the Miami River with his older brother, Pablo. They were raised by their mother, Maria Lafuente, who worked as a cosmetologist and hair stylist in Coconut Grove. She was separated and later divorced from Danny’s father, who was mostly absent during Danny’s youth. But Lafuente got plenty of attention, affection and guidance, thanks to his maternal grandparents. Grandfather Pablo Alvarez immigrated from Cuba to Miami in 1956 and helped dozens of relatives move to South Florida. “In Cuba, my grandad sold chickens as the primary breadwinner in his family so he had to drop out of school in the fifth grade,” Lafuente said. “When he came here, he spoke no English and could barely write. That’s why education was his No. 1 priority for us.” Lafuente inherited his entrepreneurial spirit from his grandfather, who owned various businesses – auto repair, construction, demolition, a flower shop and the River Canal Marina, where Lafuente spent summers working as a cashier and selling mangoes he collected from his aunt’s yard. “I always knew I wanted to start my own business,” Lafuente said. “I wrote my first business plan when I was 8: A horror-themed ice cream shop with spooky flavors – Eye Scream. And in the back was a room where kids could have tutoring sessions.” Lafuente attended Coconut Grove Elementary across the street from his mother’s hair salon. He’d come over after school and get his cheeks squeezed by her clients. Then he’d sell them fundraising-drive products like chocolate or Christmas wrapping paper. Pablo Lafuente, Pablo Alvarez, Danny Lafuente ’05 Maria Lafuente, Danny Lafuente ’05 and Alina Mendoza at commencement 2005 Danny Lafuente ’05 in The Man Who Came to Dinner, 2004 “I asked myself, ‘Why can’t social impact and profit be tied together? There has to be a way to do good and make money.’” – Danny Lafuente ’05
Back at Penn, Lafuente and Fernandez held late-night brainstorming sessions. Among their ideas – a textbook marketplace, a store stocked with donated items where everything was free, advertising on movie theater seats. “We were thinking about novel business models that had a social impact,” Fernandez said, citing companies like TOMS shoes and Bombas socks, which combine commerce and charity with a one pair purchased-one pair donated model. After studying abroad in Prague and completing his degree, Lafuente returned SPRING 2026 Ransom Everglades LOG 9 “I had fun every day,” he said. “It was a magical place.” His mother said he never obsessed over materialistic comparisons. “I dropped him off to visit at some grand houses,” she said. “I asked him how he felt. He said, ‘Our house is smaller and that makes us closer.’” Lafuente was not every teacher’s pet. “I spent a lot of time in detention for goofing off in class or for not shaving. I cracked jokes, fooled around, acted like a smartass,” he said. “On senior prank day I hired a mariachi band to follow the head of school around the entire day.” Lafuente was admitted to Penn via early decision, received significant financial aid and majored in international relations. He and Fernandez joined the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and started a campus chapter of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), the prodemocracy, anti-Castro organization founded in Miami in 1981 by Jorge Mas Canosa and other Cuban exiles. Lafuente took the second semester of his sophomore year off to come home and start a business he invented called Miami Waiter. It was a precursor to Door Dash or Uber Eats but he was ahead of his time and it didn’t last. “I sold the brand and broke even, learned a lot about a good concept versus a well-executed plan,” he said. “Other than our families, nothing gave us more of a rocket launch into life than Ransom Everglades.” – Larry Waks ’72 to Miami and was hired as CANF’s director of media and government relations. He worked with U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Sen. Marco Rubio on such issues as family travel and funding for human rights activists in Cuba. Along the way he grew disillusioned with the nonprofit model. Danny Lafuente ’05 at LAB Miami
10 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2026 “I asked myself, ‘Why can’t social impact and profit be tied together?” he said. “There has to be a way to do good and make money.’” So he and Fernandez, fresh off two years teaching under-resourced students through Teach For America, put their heads together again and started LAB Miami. They partnered with RE graduates Collazo and Elisa Rodriguez-Vila ’05. On a shoestring budget, and using their own credit cards to buy supplies, they created a 700-square-foot co-working space in Wynwood. Collazo built desks and benches out of shipping pallets. LAB represents the three common letters in Laboratory and Collaboration, and originally stood for Love, Art, Business – and later Learn, Act, Build. The goal was to nurture a hive for Miami’s talented thinkers and tinkerers, put Miami on the startup map and stop the brain drain from their hometown. “We knew a lot of our Ransom Everglades classmates had left for other cities where there were more opportunities in innovative business and tech,” Fernandez said. “A co-working space was a brand new real estate concept in Miami. We had to convince developers and landlords to experiment. We had to raise capital. We had to put together website design workshops, coding classes, investment seminars, hackathons, networking events.” It was 2011. Wood Tavern, Panther Coffee and Lester’s were about the only places to get a drink. But Wynwood, an industrial area transitioning into Miami’s funkiest neighborhood, was buzzing with energy. The LAB even hosted art shows to align with the Second Saturday Art Walks. “At that time, Wynwood was the best expression of Miami’s creativity,” said Fernandez, now director of global government affairs at X AI. “It was all over its walls, and we were right in the middle of it.” Lafuente was thrilled to be on the cutting edge, leading a new wave of entrepreneurship. The LAB later expanded to a 10,000 square foot warehouse on NW 26th Street. And then one night at the Wood Tavern, while sipping a Moscow Mule, Lafuente had what he refers to as an “Aha moment.” As he did on many nights, he had dropped off leftover trays of food from the LAB at the Miami Rescue Mission. Rather than throw away the hors d’oeuvres, sandwiches and snacks ordered for events, Lafuente and Fernandez took the food to homeless shelters and churches. “In the process, I saw how food insecurity is a massive and widespread problem that affects single parents, workers laid off from their jobs, people who have no grocery stores in their neighborhoods,” Lafuente said. “I learned that one in eight Americans – 44 million people – do not know where their next meal is coming from. I also learned how 92 billion pounds of perfectly good food is wasted each year, thrown into landfills or incinerators. “Hunger relief organizations like Feeding America are saving food that is donated and diverting it to people in need, but they face hard costs to complete the social good loop, such as sorting, refrigerating and transporting.” Thus, Simple Vodka was born. About 17 meals are donated per 1-liter bottle (the size used by bars and restaurants) and 13 per 750-ml bottle (the size sold in liquor stores for $21-23). Lafuente first thought about selling table salt “but I wanted to target a ubiquitous product in an industry where we could stand out.” Simple Vodka won a platinum medal at the 2023 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, where it was praised for its smooth finish. Lafuente was named Innovator of the Year by the Tasting Alliance. “Ransom Everglades is part of my DNA.” – Danny Lafuente ’05
SPRING 2026 Ransom Everglades LOG 11 The company has added two spirits to its lineup – Hawthorn’s Gin and Xoma, a small batch Pulcatta made from agave. “What’s unusual about Danny’s brand is that he is donating proceeds directly to the charity whereas most CEOs donate personally to a charity,” said Larry Waks ’72, an attorney who specializes in the food and beverage industry and Simple’s counsel. “Paul Newman set the standard with his products where every penny went directly to charity.” Waks mentioned how one of his clients – Jon Bon Jovi, who started the Hampton Water rose wine brand in 2016 – is known for his charitable giving but from his personal funds, not as a percentage of sales. “Vodka is a tough category in a competitive industry,” Waks said. “Vodka is vodka – it doesn’t have the variations of wine or rum – and the spirits industry is down because young people don’t drink as much.” Lafuente considers Waks to be one of the most important mentors in his life. Again, there’s a Ransom Everglades connection. Waks, half Cuban, son of a shoe salesman, raised in Miami’s Westchester neighborhood, said he attended the Ransom School but departed before graduating to support his siblings after both parents passed away. “Danny is the son I never had,” said Waks, who met Lafuente serendipitously six years ago when Lafuente was on a marketing trip to Texas and ran into Waks in Marfa, where he owns a ranch. “He said he went to Ransom Everglades and bingo! We hit it off. “Other than our families, nothing gave us more of a rocket launch into life than Ransom Everglades,” Waks said. “Before I went to Ransom, my goal was to live in a house with air conditioning and drive in a car that didn’t have holes in the floorboard. “I get to Ransom and holy cow! I joined the sailing team. There were kids from Gables Estates talking about Harvard and Yale. I thought, if I work hard maybe life can be like this. If I can make it here I can make it anywhere.” Although Waks recalls struggling to fit in and experiencing social hardships, he remains loyal. “I love, love, love Ransom Everglades with all my heart,” he said. Waks and Lafuente have become close friends. They are already discussing Lafuente’s next endeavor. “I struggle with vodka as the tool for good,” Lafuente said. “I’d love to move off of spirits and focus on hunger relief.” In addition to running Simple, Lafuente has returned to LAB Miami, in partnership with another Ransom Everglades alumnus, Scott Srebnick’83. They want to extend its reach and create a venture fund and startup residency to support local talent. He’s devoting more time to his family – wife Sabrina, whom he met at LAB, and their sons Nico, 5, and Marco, 1. Lafuente can’t sit still. His brain is brimming with ideas. There are problems to solve, communities to build, models to test, risks to weigh. The “Aha moments” can strike anytime – in the middle of the night, or at cocktail hour. “Maybe I could launch a non-alcoholic beverage. And at some point in my career I’d like to run a museum, bring back a sense of awe to culture. But my superpower is really bringing people together,” he said. “There’s lots to learn. That’s the beauty of it: The love of learning.” Linda Robertson is a journalist at the Miami Herald, formerly a sports columnist, now an investigative reporter. Twice she has been part of the Herald‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning news coverage, and her stories were selected for The Best American Sports Writing multiple times. She was president of the Association for Women in Sports Media and a University of Michigan Knight-Wallace fellow. She grew up in Miami and loved attending Dan Leslie Bowden’s annual reading of Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory” at Ransom Everglades before his passing. Larry Waks ’72 and Danny Lafuente ’05 Sabrina Scandar, Marco Lafuente, Nico Lafuente, Danny Lafuente ’05 and Khaleesi
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SPRING 2026 Ransom Everglades LOG 13 By Sofia Andrade ’19 Photos by Suzanne Kores Well before Wynwood became the mega-commercial, tourist-heavy district it is today, known for the vibrant murals that helped catapult Miami atop the international contemporary art scene, attorney Allison Freidin ’03 was already taking note of the area’s rich diversity of artists making the district their canvas. By 2010, Freidin had begun to make periodic art-collecting pilgrimages to Wynwood at the same time the area’s street art scene first truly exploded. The walls of her office at the Florida State Attorney’s Office were soon covered with local art, indulging a lifelong passion nurtured through art and photography classes at Ransom Everglades. Even as a small child, Freidin displayed art collector aspirations, gathering her friends’ artistic creations. In December of 2009, late real estate developer Tony Goldman had premiered the Wynwood Walls, an outdoor gallery space showcasing work from an internationally recognized cadre of street artists. Launched during Allison Freidin ’03 helps celebrate graffiti on the world stage Allison Freidin ’03 yearbook photo
14 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2026 that year’s Art Basel Miami Beach, the Walls jumpstarted a legacy of formally recognizing the district’s artists. It’s a legacy that Freidin would soon take up. In 2019, after six years working as a lawyer in the Florida State Attorney’s Office and later as Vice President of GlobalPro Recovery, a company that helped insurance policy holders recover from losses, Freidin decided to create the world’s first and only institution dedicated to the preservation, exhibition and celebration of graffiti. The Museum of Graffiti, in Freidin’s words, “specifically highlights graffiti artists and defines [graffiti] as an art form based on the formation of letters.” Different from, though not unrelated to, street art, which is more pictorial and figurative, the museum understands graffiti is defined by “how much style you have in your letters, and really how eccentric you can make letters, how you put them, how you form them together.” In doing so, the museum carves out an important space for an art form that, too often wrongly associated with crime or vandalism, is often delegitimized or undervalued. Miami’s Museum of Graffiti, founded by Freidin and graffiti historian Alan Ket, today stands as a paean to a Wynwood some now worry is becoming unrecognizable. “What Wynwood was in 2005 is different from what it was in 2015, and very different from what it is in 2025,” Freidin said while in an Uber on the way to her office in December. In 2005, Wynwood was still shaking off its history as a relatively sleepy industrial neighborhood as artists were beginning to decorate the “perfect canvases” of the warehouses’ flat, windowless walls. By 2015, the neighborhood had become home, too, to trendy bars and coffee shops and Italian restaurants looking to capitalize on its artistic cachet. “The neighborhood became so cool at that time that developers and hedge funds came and bought a lot of land here,” Freidin said. “And so, with that, it’s a mixed bag of emotions because the artists built this community and can’t necessarily afford to stay. But now there’s also a global art consumer, a global tourist that we get to meet.” It’s true, Wynwood is rapidly changing. In late 2020, Wynwood Walls began charging for timed-entry tickets and gated its once-public murals. Between 2009 and 2018, retail rents in Wynwood tripled, forcing many small businesses and community gathering places to shutter their doors or move elsewhere. Intense gentrification has also raised average residential Wynwood rents by more than 27 percent in the three years between 2022 and 2025 alone. It’s in this context of rapid growth and development, not always or only for the better, that Freidin’s Museum of Graffiti becomes especially important. Dedicated to celebrating and promoting both international and Miami talent – which Freidin says is “just as good if not better than what you see around the world” – the Museum of Graffiti has grown in its six years to meet the city where it’s at, whether it be with publicly accessible murals in the street or weekly courses in graffiti art and spray paint for children and adults alike. It’s also grown to accommodate two other art exhibition spaces: the Private Gallery, an open-to-the-public space dedicated to showcasing graffiti artists who moved their practice to the studio, alongside Museum of Graffiti Co-founders Alan Ket and Allison Freidin ’03
SPRING 2026 Ransom Everglades LOG 15 other ultra-contemporary artists, and the Art of Hip Hop, a separate museum that tells the story of the photographers, videographers, graffiti artists and visual creators behind hip hop’s iconic aesthetics. The goal for all of these spaces is to be community-driven and communityresponsive. For example, Freidin said, “We believe in the democratization of graffiti and street art, and so we do many murals on the outside of buildings by world-renowned artists that are really intended to be public.” Freidin’s dedication to protecting and democratizing the art she loves is not accidental, nor did it begin with the legendary 2019 Art Basel launch party where she and Ket introduced the Museum of Graffiti to the world. Years before the museum was even an idea, Freidin had already begun getting involved more deeply in the Wynwood art community by using her legal skills to represent artists on a pro bono basis. She did so out of a sense of justice for local artists who, because they made their art in the street, were being scorned or unrecognized in their capacity as artists. It was through this work that Freidin first gained the trust of the Miami artist community (and met her co-founder, Ket). The more Freidin became embedded in the art world, the more she found herself looking for a space beyond the courtroom through which to celebrate and support the street artists whose work she so admired. She soon realized that what Wynwood was sorely lacking was a hub dedicated to educating people about street art and graffiti. Ket, a graffiti expert temporarily in Miami for Art Basel in 2017, agreed. It was their shared vision of street art education, exhibition and preservation that culminated in the Museum of Graffiti. Even today, Freidin dedicates her time to pro bono work defending graffiti artists whose work is used in advertisements without permission, for example, or who face vandalism charges and arrests for making urban art in the very neighborhoods that then capitalize on their creations, like Wynwood. Recently, she won a case for an artist Freidin argued was unjustly arrested for using a stencil on a Wynwood sidewalk. “If you look outside at the walls, they’re all art-covered, and with fewer walls in Wynwood, artists have taken to sidewalks. It’s one of the most expensive neighborhoods [in Miami], and that’s based on the graffiti artists,” she explained to me. “You can’t have it both ways.” “What Wynwood was in 2005 is different from what it was in 2015, and very different from what it is in 2025.” – Allison Freidin ’03 Museum of Graffiti restroom Preparing for the opening of the Museum of Graffiti
16 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2026 Indeed, much of Freidin’s work, both as a pro bono lawyer and as Museum of Graffiti extraordinaire, is dedicated to promoting a more equal and equitable view of graffiti as an art form. “It’s not right,” she said, “that some artists are getting keys to the city, while others are getting locked in a cage with the keys thrown away.” Freidin, there’s no doubt, does it all. When not defending artists’ right to make art, she manages all three museumrelated businesses’ strategic partnerships, community art programming, largescale fine art sales, licensing and legal work. This means that, on any given day, she could be working with artists to design and license their art for museum merchandise, or working with partner Monster Energy to organize the free “Monster Monthly” program, which has in the past included book signings, artist talks, print releases and more. She could also be hard at work supporting the Private Gallery’s latest exhibition, like the current “Inner Child” show featuring Miami native and Cuban American contemporary artist Gabriela Noelle alongside a half dozen international graffiti artists. Locally aware curatorial work like that of the Private Gallery, Freidin said, is “something I really help with by being third-generation Miami.” Freidin grew up right next to La Brisa, enjoying a Coconut Grove childhood that had her at the footsteps of Ransom Everglades. That’s why her parents decided to enroll her in Ransom Everglades in the first Allison Freidin ’03 in her museum
SPRING 2026 Ransom Everglades LOG 17 place: “It was the right academic school and the neighborhood school,” Freidin said. While attending the upper school, she remembers daily walks to class and learning Photoshop in a computer lab next to the photography darkroom back in 2001 when the technology was, in her words, “pretty cutting edge.” Throughout her time at RE, Freidin gravitated towards teachers whose own creativity and rich knowledge of art inspired her, like art teacher Ellen Grant, photography teacher Sheila de Lemos and others. While the many hats Freidin now wears at the Museum of Graffiti, the Art of Hip Hop, and the Private Gallery mean that her days are often packed to the brim with pressing to-dos, she described being lucky to count on the connections she made at Ransom Everglades for help and guidance along the way. “This business would not be open without my Ransom Everglades network,” Freidin said of the Museum. She cited classmates like Jessica Katz ’03, whose own career as a regional director at Christie’s auction house inspired Freidin to carry out her transition from law to the arts. Miami attorney Christian Fong ’02 proved another invaluable resource to Freidin, who said his expertise in intellectual property law allowed her “to get the [Museum’s] doors open.” “She wasn’t afraid to pick up the phone and ask for my help,” Fong said in an email. “She knew what she wanted and what she needed, and together we got it done. That initiative says everything about her, and our RE connection certainly helped make it happen.” Since opening the museum, Freidin has also given back to the Ransom Everglades community by offering up the space for her 20-year reunion in 2023. She described it as her way of giving thanks to all the fellow Raiders who have helped her navigate her career and its many twists and turns. “It takes a village,” she said. “And I was able to look up to a lot of people.” Miami’s fortunate that Freidin’s guiding vision is that of a village that is large and welcoming. Over the years, the Museum of Graffiti, Private Gallery and Art of Hip Hop have welcomed thousands of guests from the Magic City and beyond, inaugurating many into the fascinating history of urban art and its creators. In her classmate Christian Fong’s words: “Watching the Museum of Graffiti grow from its earliest stages into what it is today has been incredibly special. Because of Allison’s vision, courage and tenacity, she transformed an idea into a global destination with worldwide appeal – right in the heart of Wynwood.” “This business would not be open without my Ransom Everglades network.” – Allison Freidin ’03 Allison Freidin ’03 (far right) with friends at commencement
By Matt Margini Upper School English Department Coordinator When Jeff Freundlich Lindsay ’70 transferred to the Ransom School after a couple of years at Ponce De Leon Junior High, he immediately wanted to do one thing: get into Dan Leslie Bowden’s English class. At the time, Bowden required prospective students to write an essay explaining why they wanted to take the course. Lindsay concocted something suitably lofty: “It is my ambition,” he wrote, “to emulate the verbiage of the great writers.” On the first day of class, Bowden returned the essay with the sentence circled in red and a note in the margin. “One mustn’t.” Indeed, one didn’t. Among many other plays, novels and stories, Lindsay would go on to write the Dexter series, one of the most distinctive and inventive crime sagas of the last half century, RE’s proud history of teaching writing continues even in the age of AI Illustration by Noa Garcia ’27 Dan Leslie Bowden 18 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2026
SPRING 2026 Ransom Everglades LOG 19 which Showtime turned into an iconic eight-season TV show and three full spinoffs. The Dexter novels center on a serial killer who kills other serial killers, channeling his insatiable bloodlust toward ends that one could reasonably view as beneficial to society. Lindsay put it simply: “He’s a bad guy. He kills people. He’s a naughty man.” But the novels have a strange, darkly funny way of getting you to root for him, subverting the basic tenets of crime fiction and challenging our moral intuitions. They’re novels by a writer who learned, at some point, how to use writing as a means to think differently, expansively and provocatively. For Lindsay, that happened in Mr. Bowden’s class. “He never really said, ‘Do this, or you’ll be sorry,’” Lindsay reflected. “But he really insisted on it if you were capable of it. I learned the rules, and I learned when to break them. And I was exposed to a ton of good writing, which helped.” Lindsay is not alone. Playwrights, screenwriters, novelists, journalists: the RE alumni network is replete with writers of all stripes, and if you speak to any of them, chances are, they’ll tell a story about an RE teacher who inspired them. The network is also full of professionals from every other walk of life – scientists, attorneys, physicians, financiers – who say the exceptional writing skills and habits they honed at RE helped set them apart from their peers in college and beyond. Now, with artificial intelligence threatening to transform (or perhaps deteriorate) the written word itself on a massive scale, the RE Humanities Department is focused more than ever on preserving and building on that tradition of cultivating exceptional writers – and original writing – through teaching, mentorship and high standards. Gabriela Ulloa ’14, a journalist who has written for dozens of high-profile outlets and launched her own Substack and YouTube channel, Irregardless, traces her career back to the influence of former RE faculty member Josh Stone. Ulloa found her voice in Stone’s Voices from the Inside a senior elective course focused on writing produced by and about incarcerated individuals. “It was probably the first time a teacher sat with my writing and was like, ‘You’re a very good writer. You should think about doing this,’” Ulloa said. “I guess it was the first time I really locked into the idea that my voice was a thing.” For Ryann Werner ’11, a television writer who now works on the hit Netflix rom-com Nobody Wants This, her journey as a storyteller actually started in another medium: it was former drama teacher Sean Paul Bryan who first identified a capacity to express herself through acting that she would later bring to the University of Southern California and Hollywood. “He was really supportive in saying, ‘You’re good at this. You should do more of this. You have a large capacity to embody something, or to portray something,’” Werner said. For Tara Narula Cangello ’93, a physician-journalist who wears many hats – cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, Good Morning America’s chief medical correspondent, and now the author of The Healing Power of Resilience – it was English teacher Kitty Proenza who planted a seed that would sprout later. In medical school, Narula realized that her calling wasn’t just medicine but storytelling, and she had a unique flair for the delicate art of communicating scientific information to a mass audience. “[Proenza] made me believe that I could write something that was meaningful, and that mattered, and that would resonate with people,” Narula recalled. It seems true that any writer who commits to this strange, maddening pursuit can probably trace their passion back to a Bowden-esque figure who inspired them to look at the world through a different lens. And yet, stories of Dead Poets Society heroics also tend to belie other important factors. Writers also “I learned the rules, and I learned when to break them. And I was exposed to a ton of good writing.” – Jeff Freundlich Lindsay ’70 Kitty Proenza Sean Paul Bryan Jeff Freundlich Lindsay ’70
become writers for unexpected reasons – because the world around them elicits feelings that only writing can turn into sense. Ulloa remembered “breaking down” when she met a young woman who had just gotten out of prison and came to speak to Stone’s class. “In high school, you couldn’t pay me to cry in public,” Ulloa said. “I remember just being so taken aback by her story and her strength. She was so young. She was like 24, and the system had just done her wrong. It was another peek into the fact that, as simple as it sounds, every single person that you meet on the street has equally complex things going on in their life. It unlocked a new layer of empathy.” For Narula, a pivotal moment came when she witnessed a heart transplant, which she processed in a personal essay that she wrote as an RE senior. Unbeknownst to her, her mother submitted it to a contest in Private Practice Magazine – and it won. “I think between realizing, ‘Gosh, I won this prize, and I got good feedback from my teachers, and I could use it as this way to express myself when things were challenging,’ I went to college really believing in the power of writing,” Narula said. What will it take to create the conditions for the next generation of RE writers to find their voice? As English Department Coordinator, I must admit that this question keeps me up at night. On the one hand, I have no doubt that this amazing department I call my professional home contains a whole slate of latter-day Bowdens and Proenzas who inspire our students every single day. Connor Alfonso ’26 said the influence of current RE English faculty member Julia Clarke was indispensable as he worked to publish a sci-fi novel, Turn to Wander, last year. “Dr. Clarke took the time out of her busy schedule to review every chapter of my novel with me, helped me write query letters to literary agents, reviewed numerous short stories with me, and her mentorship inspired me to pursue my novel’s publication,” Alfonso said. On the other hand, existential threats to the written word itself seem to be looming on the horizon, if they aren’t here already. Last November, The Baffler published “Brain Rot Without Borders,” a series of essays from writers all over the world bemoaning “postliteracy”: a decline in deep, reflective reading practices precipitated by TikTok-addled attention spans, the abandonment of speech protections by illiberal governments and, of course, AI. When Vanessa Mobley ’88, Senior Editor of Guest Essays for The New York Times, looked back on the RE education that laid the foundation for her own literary career, she remembered reading first and foremost – reading copiously, deeply and expansively for a 30-page capstone essay on playwright Sam Shepard in Jane Dolkart’s sophomore English class. “I learned to read first, and then I learned to write. And I often think of writing as a way to convey what I have read,” Mobley said. “If you were a nerdy kid or you desired to learn about the “Kitty Proenza made me believe that I could write something that was meaningful, and that mattered, and that would resonate with people.” – Tara Narula Cangello ’93 Jane Dolkart 20 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2026
SPRING 2026 Ransom Everglades LOG 21 world through books, Ransom Everglades provided so many opportunities to do that.” Critics of AI tools tend to focus, for very legitimate reasons, on the way they automate writing. From the perspective of Chief of Innovation and Strategic Programming John A. King Jr., the more insidious problem that has emerged three years into the AI revolution is their ability to automate reading – to short-circuit the long, exploratory process of knowledge-gathering that good writing ultimately depends on. “What I worry about with AI is the increasing lack of respect for knowledge,” King said. “Good writers are curious people who don’t think they know everything. And that’s why they do tons of research, even if it’s just to inform a tiny scene.” I share Dr. King’s concern, and what it underscores for me is the necessity of teaching intellectual humility as a habit of mind in the humanities classroom: a deference to the hard work of research, the slow work of reading and the irreducible beauty of a human voice on the page. “You’ve got to read a ton of stuff, as much as you can possibly cram in,” said Lindsay. “It’s like someone saying, ‘I’m going to be a football star, but I’ve never seen the game played.’ No, you’ve got to see as many games as you can.” But I also can’t help but feel excited about students discovering new forms of knowledge – and yes, even writing – that would’ve been inaccessible without AI. In the next academic year, the English Department will introduce a digital humanities course, Research Seminar: Literature and AI, that asks a basic question: What can we use this technology to do, in the humanities, that we couldn’t have done before? Some students will use it to find new patterns of thought and literary expression across vast bodies of text. Others might use it to make their research come to life in novel, interactive ways. No one will use it to write their paper – or, for that matter, to do the reading. The aim of the course is to give them a whole new universe of things to write about. “What does AI introduce, what does it bring to the party, that can elevate the design of what we’re doing and still preserve critical thinking skills? I think one of the exciting things is that what we’re writing about will be perhaps different because AI will give us some opportunities, some insights, some ways to analyze text in a way that you couldn’t do before,” explained Humanities Department Chair Jen Nero. I also take comfort in the idea that some things never change. If you crack open the 1970 edition of The Lamp and the Book, the Ransom School’s literary magazine, you will find numerous poems by Jeff Lindsay, then known as Jeff Freundlich. Among them are modern riffs on character portraits from The Canterbury Tales, written for Bowden’s class. We still do that exercise every year. And if it helped one great writer find his voice, I have no reason to doubt that, even in 2026, it could help many more. “Good writers are curious people who don’t think they know everything.” – John A. King Jr. “I learned to read first, and then I learned to write. And I often think of writing as a way to convey what I have read.” – Vanessa Mobley ’88
22 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2026 By Jess Merrick, Director of Teaching & Learning Last fall, we did something that seems obvious but is surprisingly rare in schools: we surveyed students to gauge interest in what topics they wanted to learn. Not what we thought they should learn, but what genuinely excited them. What questions kept them up at night? What skills do they need to help search for answers? Seven hundred students across the middle and upper school responded. Under the direction of Head of School Rachel Rodriguez, faculty and administrators listened and learned. Our students’ responses have helped Ransom Everglades reimagine, expand and deepen the curriculum and classroom experience. Students wanted courses that connected directly to the world they are entering. They wanted to understand how modern systems work. And they wanted opportunities to go deep. The result is nine new courses launching next fall at the upper school – including Quantitative Finance and AI, and Research Seminar: Literature and AI – and an eighth-grade signature program called The Third Class Capstone, which will allow our students to explore their passions and carry out independent projects through new elective opportunities. Mrs. Rodriguez recently announced new AI Innovation Fellowships for upperclass students that will be awarded this spring and serve as STEM-based partners to the Dan Leslie Bowden Fellowships in the Humanities. On top of that, faculty member Jenny Gragg Carson ’03 is leading a new externships program (see page 26). It’s been an exciting few months at Ransom Everglades. These developments reflect RE’s dedication to its core values and academic vision: “Guided by The RE Way, we support students through an innovative curriculum that emphasizes skills-based mastery and authentic engagement. Students thrive in a school community grounded in both support and challenge, preparing them for current and future success.” That vision isn’t abstract. It means treating students as partners in their education. It means building a curriculum that responds to real intellectual curiosity. And it means preparing students not just for college, but for the world they will inhabit. Six months into my role as Director of Teaching & Learning, my work centers on three priorities: strengthening academic alignment across the school, using data to guide innovation based on what students actually need, and building curriculum coherence so learning develops meaningfully from grade to grade. Enhancing our curriculum Business courses, such as Quantitative Finance and AI, emerged as one of the highest-demand classes in the survey. In addition to learning about investing, students want to understand how machine learning is transforming financial markets, how algorithms influence trillion-dollar decisions, and how predictive models are built and evaluated. The course delivers on that ambition. Students build and test machine learning models using real market data. They study portfolio theory and investment strategies, then apply neural networks and decision trees to analyze market behavior. They examine how AI is reshaping trading, risk management and financial decision-making. We’re not just teaching students to use tools. We’re teaching them to understand the mathematics underneath, to recognize when a model’s assumptions break down, and to question what these systems can and can’t tell us. They’re learning to challenge the algorithm, not just trust it. Exercise Science and Anatomy gives students the biological framework to understand human performance. Scuba Certification opens underwater ecosystems for direct study. History and Evolution of the Spanish Language allows students to trace how language changes across time and culture. Others reflect emerging interests. Graphic Novels explores the complex interplay between text and image. Modern U.S. History connects past decisions to present realities. Mangrove and Forest Ecology grounds science learning in South Florida’s unique environment. Forensic Science applies chemistry and biology to real investigative problems. And two courses explore the intersection of traditional disciplines and artificial intelligence because students told us they want to understand the systems reshaping nearly every field they may enter. Understanding the systems that shape our world Guest speakers and university partnerships connect classroom theory to current industry practice. Students leave prepared for advanced study in finance, economics, statistics or data science. More importantly, they leave with the ability to make thoughtful, ethical decisions in rapidly evolving fields. The Explorer Externship Program offers another meaningful way to link RE’s classroom experience to real-world exploration. From visits by outside speakers during informative “Lunch and Learn” events to meaningful summer work experiences crafted by RE alumni, our students are benefiting from new partnerships and powerful alumni connections. When Students Drive the Curriculum: A Vision for Teaching and Learning at RE “Our students’ responses have helped Ransom Everglades reimagine, expand and deepen the curriculum and classroom experience.”
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