RE Log Spring 2022

24 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2022 Changing Lives for 30Years An RE senior reflects on her time at Breakthrough Miami By Lauren Zanarini ’22 B reakthrough Miami is a big presence in the lives of many Ransom Everglades students. As a host-school student, I have had the opportunity during the course of my middle and high school careers to engage in various Breakthrough volunteer activities and community dialogues. Not surprisingly, what many of us volunteers find to be the most rewarding aspect of the program is the opportunity to positively affect the lives of exceptional scholars from across Miami. However, no matter how much of a positive impact we may have on the Breakthrough Scholars, their impact on us has always been and continues to be considerably greater. That’s the magic of this special program, which was founded by two Ransom Everglades alumni ( John Flickinger ’74 and Doug Weiser ’74 ) and is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. I started my journey with Breakthrough as a volunteer, offering my services during Saturday programming during the school year. I originally involved myself through the RE speech and debate team, a program I have been a part of for all of high school and whose service opportunities include leading the Speech and Debate elective on Breakthrough Saturdays. After this initial introduction, I became increasingly involved with Breakthrough. I continued to volunteer, trying my hand at different electives, leading advisories and even helping with academic enrichment sessions. It was this experience that encouraged me to apply for a Teaching Fellow position during the summer of 2021. I have loved all my time spent with Breakthrough Miami, but my most meaningful and impactful experience was my summer as a Teaching Fellow. The “Teaching Fellow Experience” is one that cannot be replicated outside of Breakthrough. Not only is the program’s learning model entirely unique, but it also manages to use students-teaching- students as a way of improving access to education while simultaneously helping Teaching Fellows develop skills that are non-quantifiable. This summer taught me more about problem solving, communication, leadership, teamwork and independence than any other experience I have had in my high school career. Before the start of the summer program, we were all given a crash course on how to be a Teaching Fellow. We learned about classroom management, lesson planning, presentational speaking and everything This summer taught me more about problem solving, communication, leadership, teamwork and independence than any other experience I have had in my high school career.” – Lauren Zanarini ’22 “ Lauren Zanarini ’22 with a Breakthrough Scholar