UF student gets life-changing gift from Zoo Miami’s Ron Magill to follow his dreams
Herby Zephir’s love affair with mother nature began when he was just a child.
Zephir, now 23, said he must have been around 5 or 6 when he caught a fever and his mother turned to the Siam weed, an herb, growing in their Homestead backyard. She brewed a pot of tea. He drank it and his fever went away.
“I asked her why we didn’t go to the doctor and she responded because the land gives us everything we need,” said Zephir, whose parents came to South Florida from Haiti more than two decades ago. “At that moment, it’s like I felt a door was unlocked.”
But fulfilling his dreams of pursing his passion for conservation has come with challenges.
Enter Ron Magill, Zoo Miami’s spokesman and environmental champion.
A chance meeting between the two wildlife lovers led Magill to mentor Zephir, who dreams of going to law school and eventually writing policies for environmental protection.
Last week, Magill surprised Zephir with a $10,000 check to complete his studies at the University of Florida and pursue his dreams. Half of the money came from the Ron Magill Conservation Endowment Fund. Zephir was the first undergraduate student to receive this type of scholarship. The Zoo Miami Foundation provided the other $5,000, once it heard Zephir’s story.
“You remind me so much of myself,” said Magill, who is the son of immigrant parents, after giving him the check. “I never thought I’d be able to live the dream that I’ve been able to live. But I have been able to do it because of people giving me opportunities.”
Early on, Zephir said he never understood why his parents planted seeds and carefully cultivated what was growing in their backyard.
“I didn’t feel connected to nature,” he said. “I grew up in the city. Everything I needed was in concrete stores.”
But then he saw the power of a plant.
“I appreciated; I saw the value in what we take for granted every day,” he said.
Zephir graduated from South Dade Senior High in 2014, went to Miami Dade College and is now a junior at the University of Florida studying conservation. He went to beach cleanups, started recycling and even put a compost bin in his backyard. All the while he saw his parents — his mom a housekeeper and his dad a landscaper — struggle to make ends meet.
He said being a college student is expensive, not to mention that he feels a responsibility to help at home. He’s the third oldest among eight children.
At UF, he juggles his academics, a work-study program and his conservation endeavors. He often downloads books or borrows them from a friend to save precious funds.
He plans to use the money to buy books, take extra courses and help support his family.
“Pursuing wildlife and pursuing conservation has always been a dream of mine and sometimes reality doesn’t always support that dream,” he said. “There’s obstacles and there’s hurdles and that becomes overwhelming, so this is really relieving.
“I can’t even describe to you how much stress was lifted off my shoulders right now.”
His mother, Rose Francois, 52, gave him a big hug after Magill delivered the news at their south Dade home.
“For me, it’s a good thing. We’ve always believed in plants at our house, whenever someone felt sick, I always turned to a plant,” said Francois, who is from the rural Haitian city of Pestel in Haiti’s Grand’Anse region, speaking in her native Creole.
Francois said when her son was about 10 years old, he bought a bin so she could put the skins from the plantains and mangoes she would peel into it.
“He said, ‘Don’t throw them away, put them here. It’s good for nature,’” she said. “I said OK.”
Zephir said his dreams of graduating and going to Yale University to study law are now within reach. His main mission, he said, “is to uplift inner city youth and provide them with the liberating experience of the outdoors.“
With the check came a challenge. Magill gave Zephir the Ron Magill Conservation Endowment Fund challenge coin to continue to challenge himself “to do all these things you dream of doing.”
Both men teared up.
“There is nothing that I’ll ever receive this Christmas that is going to be more gratifying than what I got to give you today,” Magill said.
Zephir’s reply: “Challenge accepted.”
