Fernando Ramirez ’77 was proud and delighted to return to his alma mater to meet with Upper School students and share his documentary film in the Berry Performing Arts Center on April 24. Mr. Ramirez had visited LA in December to deliver an enlightening presentation to students enrolled in the Global Scholars Program.
During the winter, he completed the documentary – Beyond The Statistics: A Short Documentary Film Highlighting the Human Impact of the Forcibly Displaced People of Ukraine. His message, also the tagline in his email signature stamp credited to the author Edward Everett Hale, remains consistent in his work: I am only one; but I am still one. I cannot do everything; but I can still do something.
Mr. Ramirez began his afternoon visit with lunch in the AP Room with Global Scholars Oliver Laskow ’25, Aarya Patel ’25, Adam Eisdorfer ’25 and Tapleen Kaur ’25. They engaged in meaningful discussions about his journey, work and mission.
“Talking to Mr. Ramirez about his work and his journey was such an enlightening experience,” Aarya said. “He’s had an incredible journey that has inspired me to follow in his footsteps. Watching his documentary was very moving and motivating at the same time. I hope the school continues to hold events like this in the future!”
Mr. Ramirez is extremely proud of his Colombian heritage as an immigrant who moved to the United States “for a better life” with his family in 1968. He continued to emphasize his own immigrant journey as a major part of his calling to do this work. He’s the founder of Bridges 2030, a nonprofit aimed at helping to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG). Many of these goals are ambitious, especially considering the target year of 2030.
After lunch, Mr. Ramirez shared a presentation with students in the Film Study Class taught my Mr. Cristian Fernandez. During his talk, Mr. Ramirez conveyed his role as a “storyteller” and emphasized the importance of making films with a purpose to deliver social impact messaging. He provided details about the process of cutting 5-6 hours of footage down to 28 minutes, the length of his new documentary. He fielded questions from the students, some of whom simply asked why.
“I really felt compelled to do this,” Mr. Ramirez said. “I wanted to share this with your generation. It’s important to share stories, educate and give visibility.”
Mr. Ramirez also noted how he continues to be impressed by the courage of the Ukrainian people, many of whom shared their difficult experiences in his film.
All Upper School students attended the screening of the documentary in the PAC at the end of the school day. During a brief intro, Mr. Ramirez encouraged the students to get involved and called them “the compassion generation.” There was a brief Q&A after the screening that clearly made an impact on the students.
“It was wonderful having an alumnus visit to show us what may lie in wait for us after our experience in high school,” Oliver said. “While the entire trip was great, the documentary stood out in particular to me. Seeing not only the victims of the Ukrainian war but also those helping them in neighboring countries was humanizing and hopeful, giving me a much wider view of the conflict itself. Overall, Mr. Ramirez’s trip back to LA was enlightening and fun!”