[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 115 (Thursday, September 4, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1655-E1656]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                  TRIBUTE TO RANSOM EVERGLADES SCHOOL

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 4, 1997

  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to recognize one of the 
five oldest institutions in Dade County and in my congressional 
district, Ransom Everglades School, as it dedicates its new Middle 
School Science Center today, September 4. The Middle School Science 
Center has been built in true Ransom Everglades form, with all 
volunteer and donated funds.
  Ransom Everglades School traces its founding to 1893 when a young 
Harvard-educated lawyer, Paul Ransom, came to pioneer Miami from 
Buffalo, NY. Mr. Ransom built a small tutoring camp he called Pine Knot 
Camp in Coconut Grove. He also contributed property in New York's 
Adirondack Mountains, and started a northern campus, making it the 
first migratory college-preparatory boarding school for young men, with 
winter months spent at the Coconut Grove campus and the remainder of 
the year spent at the Adirondack campus. Duty to one's country and 
society, along with academic excellence, was always emphasized by Mr. 
Ransom. In 1974, Ransom School merged with another independent school 
in Coconut Grove, Everglades Schools For Girls, and was later renamed 
as Ransom Everglades School.
  Today, the school continues as a nonprofit, tax-exempt, independent, 
and co-educational college-preparatory day school for grades 6 through 
12, with 870 students on both campuses. Although it has only a small 
endowment, a significant number of its students are on scholarship 
based on financial need and merit admission. Ransom Everglades is also 
a founding member of Summerbridge, a national program to educate 
students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds at the Nation's best 
college-preparatory, independent schools. Despite its very limited 
financial resources, Ransom Everglades has achieved national stature, 
sending its well-prepared students to the finest colleges in the 
country.

[[Page E1656]]

  I comment Mr. Eric Buermann, chairman of the board of trustees, Mr. 
John Cotton, headmaster of Ransom Everglades, and his hard-working team 
for their efforts and all those individuals from within and outside the 
Ransom Everglades community for making the new Middle School Science 
Center a reality that present and future students will be able to enjoy 
and learn from.

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